Overview
Day 1 was focused on defining the game direction and building the first playable foundation for the project. After brainstorming ideas around the jam theme, Fusion Confusion, the concept was narrowed into a mix of tower defense and deckbuilder mechanics. From there, the project moved quickly into implementation, with a simple test map, a basic enemy, tower attacks, enemy death, wave spawning, and win/lose conditions all established in the first day. This created an early playable prototype and gave the project a solid gameplay base to build on.
Major Accomplishments
- Defined the core concept around the Fusion Confusion theme
- Chose a tower defense + deckbuilder genre combination
- Set up the project and required files
- Built a simple test map with a lane and tower
- Implemented a basic enemy that moves toward the tower
- Added projectile damage and enemy death
- Expanded the tower with automatic targeting and two attack ranges
- Added tower health and enemy damage
- Implemented a basic wave system with random spawn point selection
- Added basic win and lose conditions
Systems Developed or Updated
Core Game Concept
- Defined the project direction based on the jam theme, Fusion Confusion, which required mixing genres into one coherent game
- Settled on combining tower defense structure with deckbuilder-style gameplay
- Current state: Prototype
Test Level Setup
- Created a simple map containing a lane and a tower to support early gameplay testing
- Established a controlled environment for validating enemy movement and tower combat
- Current state: Functional
Enemy System
- Implemented one enemy type that walks toward the tower
- Added enemy death so enemies can be destroyed during combat
- Current state: Functional
Projectile Combat System
- Added bullets that can damage enemies
- Established the first working offensive interaction between tower and enemy
- Current state: Functional
Tower Combat System
- Improved the tower by adding automatic targeting and projectile firing
- Added two attack types: ranged for distant enemies and melee for close enemies
- Used separate collision spheres to detect enemies within each attack range
- Current state: Functional
Tower Health System
- Added health to the tower and allowed enemies to damage it
- This established the defensive failure condition needed for the main gameplay loop
- Current state: Functional
Wave System
- Added a basic wave system with random spawn point selection
- This created the first structured combat flow instead of single isolated enemy tests
- Current state: Prototype
Game State / Victory Conditions
- Added basic win and lose conditions
- This made the prototype behave more like a complete game loop rather than a sandbox test
- Current state: Functional
Problems Encountered and Solutions
No specific technical problems were documented in the Day 1 notes, so this section is intentionally left minimal to stay accurate to the source material. The main Day 1 focus appears to have been rapid concept definition and early prototype implementation rather than debugging or rework.
Current Project State
The project is currently in the early prototype phase. The core concept has been defined, and the first playable foundation is already in place, including a basic combat loop, enemy pressure, tower health, wave spawning, and win/lose conditions. At this stage, the game has moved beyond pure concept work and into functional gameplay testing, but the systems are still early and will need expansion, refinement, and integration with the deckbuilder side of the concept.
Sorry for the lack of Gifs and the poor quality of this one, tried using the built in capture of the snipping tool, will not do that again!
Next Day Plan
- Expand on the current playable combat loop
- Continue improving the wave and spawning flow
- Begin implementing the deckbuilder or card-based decision layer
- Refine combat readability and interaction clarity
- Continue building from prototype systems toward a more complete jam gameplay loop
This plan is a grounded continuation of the systems already started on Day 1, especially since the concept was defined as a tower defense and deckbuilder hybrid but the notes only show the tower defense side as implemented so far.