Flak Defender
Summary
A SHMUP/Tower Defence game developed as an excercise in rapid iteration and prototyping in game development.
Key Technologies
- C#
- Unity3d
- Visual Studio
Flak-Defender is a spin on the SHMUP and tower defense genre. Your ship has been damaged, and needs time to
repair. You control its flak turrets, and a small fighter. The flak turrets are powerful, but can also destroy
you in your fighter... How long can you keep the enemies at bay?
I wrote Flak-Defender as an exercise in iteration and prototyping in game programming. I wanted to see how quickly
I could reach what I call "Minimum Viable Fun" while iterating on a simple set of mechanics.
I decided to play on the classic SHMUP genre by adding
some tower defense elements. As in a SHMUP, enemies are constantly appearing on the screen and you have
to zoom around and destroy them. The tower defense twist is that your base has its own defenses that you
can control.
A key takeaway for me in developing Flak-Defender was the high value impact of simple audio and visual polish.
I spent several hours tweaking controls, but adding a Sci-Fi font and some retro sound effects played a bigger
role in creating a satisfying experience.
Summary
A SHMUP/Tower Defence game developed as an excercise in rapid iteration and prototyping in game development.
Key Technologies
- C#
- Unity3d
- Visual Studio
Flak-Defender is a spin on the SHMUP and tower defense genre. Your ship has been damaged, and needs time to repair. You control its flak turrets, and a small fighter. The flak turrets are powerful, but can also destroy you in your fighter... How long can you keep the enemies at bay?
I wrote Flak-Defender as an exercise in iteration and prototyping in game programming. I wanted to see how quickly I could reach what I call "Minimum Viable Fun" while iterating on a simple set of mechanics.
I decided to play on the classic SHMUP genre by adding some tower defense elements. As in a SHMUP, enemies are constantly appearing on the screen and you have to zoom around and destroy them. The tower defense twist is that your base has its own defenses that you can control.
A key takeaway for me in developing Flak-Defender was the high value impact of simple audio and visual polish. I spent several hours tweaking controls, but adding a Sci-Fi font and some retro sound effects played a bigger role in creating a satisfying experience.