Not Another Sci-Fi Setting

Tower defense? Joystick? This game combines the two. Your objective is to successfully place and upgrade your towers to battle against alien zombies, only interacting via joystick.

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Inspiration

TFT meets Bloons—with zombies. We combined the strategic depth of Teamfight Tactics and the addictive progression of Bloons TD with a creepy twist. Our goal was to create a high-stakes defense game controlled by a unique hardware interface.

What it does

Not Another Sci-Fi Setting is a tower defense game where your only input is a physical joystick.

  • Defend: Stop waves of zombies from reaching your base.
  • Strategize: Place, upgrade, and modify towers to handle evolving threats.
  • Tactical Control: Use the joystick to manage your battlefield in real-time.

How we built it

  • Engine: Developed using Godot 4.
  • Hardware: Integrated an MSP430FR2355 microcontroller to host our physical joystick.
  • Communication: Wrote custom C and Python scripts to bridge hardware signals into the Godot environment.
  • Workflow: We built the game logic and UI skeletons first, then merged individual features into a unified playable build.

Challenges we ran into

  • Rapid Learning: Most of the team had zero experience with Godot or game development before this weekend.
  • Hardware Bridge: Connecting a physical microcontroller to a modern game engine in under 24 hours was a steep technical hurdle.
  • Version Control: Navigating GitHub merge conflicts and organization while learning the tool on the fly.
  • Integration: Ensuring modular scripts from different teammates worked together without breaking the core engine.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

  • Zero to Hero: We went from being total strangers with no experience to a cohesive team with a working game in 24 hours.
  • Hardware Success: Successfully getting the MSP430 to communicate with Godot was a major milestone.
  • Eagerness to Build: We stayed invested and maintained high energy despite the steep learning curve.

What we learned

  • Version Control: Mastering the Git/GitHub workflow under pressure.
  • Game Development: Understanding scenes, scripts, and nodes within the Godot ecosystem.
  • Software Principles: Gaining hands-on experience with collaborative engineering and team-based problem solving.

What's next for "Not Another Sci-Fi Setting"

  • New Content: More levels and specialized enemy types with unique abilities.
  • Deep Upgrades: Expanded tower styles and branching upgrade paths.
  • Refinement: Polishing the user experience and improving technical execution for smoother gameplay.
  • Controller Peripherals: Adding sound effects to be played out of the buzzer on board. Adding information to be displayed on the LCD screen on board.

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