Post-Jam Update Pt. 1

When designing Treefender for the University of Utah's GameCraft Fall 2021 game jam, there were a number of features and assets that got scrapped due to time constraints - as with all game jams. This post-jam update introduces these unseen features and adds some much needed polish to already existing elements of the game (and if you're curious, the old version of Treefender, Treefender Legacy, will still be available to download on this page).

The Big Changes:

Projectiles:

Treefender Legacy's gameplay loop on launch didn't offer much in terms of giving players the option to play the game in a variety of ways; it mostly boiled down to "when you see an enemy, shoot acorns at them until they die". To remedy this issue, the post-jam update introduces two new projectiles:

Helicopter Seed:

In addition to being a lower-cost and lower-damage projectile than the acorn, the helicopter seed has high air resistance, dampening its descent. But, when the mouse is clicked, all helicopter seeds on screen drop straight down. This allows the projectile to be stockpiled and released for high-precision burst damage.

"Who knew that these dainty fruit - and yes, they are fruit - could be tactical weapons?"

Beehive:

The beehive is a high-damage, but high-cost projectile that on contact spawns a swarm of bees that deal area of effect (AOE) damage to enemies.

"Chuck one of these at your enemies to show they've really kicked the hornets' nest."

Music:

A new soundtrack, Attack of the Lumberjacks, now plays when the tree reaches half health.

Tutorials:

Two visual tutorials have been implemented to demonstrate how to launch projectiles and use projectile abilities (i.e. getting helicopter seeds to fall straight down). The tutorials can be turned off in the main menu.

Controls and Game Refinement:

The minimum drag distance to launch projectiles has been substantially reduced, and the old purple indicator has been replaced with a leafy green arrow.

The energy gain rate has been nerfed. On launch, energy replenished by 3 + WAVE NUMBER + WAVE NUMBER -1 + WAVE NUMBER - 2... every 5 seconds, which provided little challenge in terms of energy management; now energy is replenished by 3 + WAVE NUMBER every 5 seconds.

The Small Changes:

• New health-bar sprite
• Pause menu and exit buttons
  • "What?! People don't want to constantly be playing our game?"
• Launch sound no longer plays when projectiles aren't launched
• Music no longer doubles when returning to the main menu
  • Music also stops when the tree dies
    • The tree fall animation has been modified to have more impact
• UI resizes for different screen resolutions
  • Main menu and game UI have been rearranged
• Credits are listed in the main menu
• Enemy animation fixes (improving attack transitions)
• Enemies don't have a chance of spawning once the game ends
• Enemy blinking animations reduces transparency instead of making the enemy sprite invisible