Solar Defense

Aim. Ricochet. Defend the system.

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Inspiration

I took the classic, proven tower defense formula and added a simple mechanic, with the question: what happens if you have to use a slingshot to place your towers? Chaos, physics, and fun followed.

Some games that provided inspiration are: Kingdom Rush, Bloons TD, Peggle/Plinko, Shatter, Numby's Number Factory, Angry Birds, Zuma

What it does

Solar Defense is a tower defense game where you use unique ricochet-shooting to place your defenses. Each tower placement is a test of skill to get it in the correct Hex, and a strategic decision. You fire Nodes, physics-based projectiles that bounce across the map, causing chaos for enemies in its path. Where the Node comes to rest, you can spend Credits to convert it into a permanent tower. Every launch is a decision, every tower built an investment, and every shot a test of aim. Strike a balance between long-term defense and short-term destruction. Can you hold your solar system against the alien hordes?

How we built it

I sketched ideas, and built a rough game design document. I then used A.I. tools like Claude to review, provide feedback on, and begin the iteration process. From there, it was an extensive amount of human writing, editing and sweat to finish out the four documents.

Challenges we ran into

This was my first attempts at using A.I. powered image generation in a real production, which I was at first reluctant to learn, although it ended up proving crucial. I ran into several challenges along the way, learning how to deal with the A.I.'s outputs.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

The game design document was the first to be finished, which shaped the rest of the package. I'm proud of the amount of back and forth revisions done while creating the other files. I'm also very proud of the result of my visual package, as it represents my intention for the game very well.

What we learned

Using AI saved a lot of time, and the ability to add human input and decision making was surprisingly good.

What's next for Solar Defense

I wish everyone in the competition (including myself!) good luck! I'd love to expand on the documents in this submission, and am very excited at the prospect of creating the game I've spent so much time designing.

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