You can turn off the music or crt-effect in the optionsmenu.

Key Defence is a tower defence game in which you can't place any towers. Instead you control were the path will be. Your task is to create the path in such a way that the towers can kill all of the enemies.

How to play

  • Create a path (for the enemies) from the green key to the gold key.
  • Toggle keys using the keyboard or by clicking on them with the mouse.
  • Reset all keys to disabled with F2.
  • The range of a tower is indicated by the blue squares around it. The enemies are killed by the towers.
  • Earn trophies by using the least amount of keys needed. Get five trophies to unlock the bonus level.

Theme

The theme for the Community Game Jam was "The Game Is A Liar". The lie of this game was that the game is not really a stategy game (normal tower defence), instead it's a puzzle game. Admittedly the connection to the theme isn't as strong as I would have liked. Regardless, I hope you enjoy the game!

Known Issues

  • The start simulation button no longer makes a sound in the webplayer. I've already made a new build to see if that fixes the issue, but with no success. From what I can gather, Unity's web builds sometimes have audio issues.

Total development time: 45 hours [jam] + 10 hours [post-jam]

StatusReleased
PlatformsWindows, macOS, HTML5
AuthorMika la Grand
GenrePuzzle
Made withUnity
Tags2D, crt, Retro, Tower Defense
Average sessionA few minutes
LanguagesEnglish
InputsKeyboard, Mouse
AccessibilityHigh-contrast

Download

Download
Key Defence (64-bits) v1.1.zip [post-jam] 22 MB
Download
Key Defence (64-bits) v1.0.zip [jam] 22 MB
Download
Key Defence (Mac) v1.1.zip [post-jam] 22 MB
Download
Key Defence (Mac) v1.0.zip [jam] 22 MB

Install instructions

Don't forget to leave a comment about your experience.

Development log

Comments

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idk if you will see this but if you spam the pause button and a bunch of enemys are near the tower resets the shoot cooldown which makes the game easier (only works with the single shooter towers)

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amazing game! even though this is just sorta a thing with me because i love them, i think a cool little reward personally for all 11 trophies would be a map editor of sorts. just something i think would be cool, i love map editors

this game sucks why does the gun stop shootoing ramdomly then lets the little dot go bye the the heck

that's normal for tower defense games

how is this supposed to represent the theme 'The Game is a Liar'?

Yeah, the connection to the theme isn't very strong. There is a paragraph above about the connection.

I read it already and I STILL don't get the connection. Help me comprehend by responding and BEING SPECIFIC.

Well done! I take it that you enjoyed the game.

What do the orange keys do? I can't seem to figure that out.

They are linked together in pairs. Only one of them can be active; the other is indicated by the key with the doted lines.

what is level 9. it is impossible to complete the level in the minimum steps? can have a clue?

To complete level 9 try to create a path that almost completely surrounds both towers; kinda like an egg shape. For minimizing the amount of keys, connect the starting keys together using the "caps" key.

I enjoyed the game ! Original with the keboard as the map

(+1)

Hey there! This is a really lovely take on the Tower Defense genre. Is there anyway I can get an email to talk to you about it? Jupiter@ArmorGames.com

(2 edits)

Awesome post jam additions!  I especially enjoy the subtle animations as the map of keys appears and the time warp.  A+ for clarity and brevity as far as instructions, UI/UX, and pace (menu and gameplay).  

There's something extra cool about transforming the keyboard we're physically touching into a manipulatable version of itself on screen - meta key points!

I also appreciate the separation of jam v post jam builds.  We'll follow suit.

Thanks, I'm looking forward to seeing how you guys improved your game!

You were featured in the jam video!!!

(+1)

Yeah, pretty cool! I've just seen the video. Haha he sped up the footage; the fast-forward button was definitely a good addition.

very enjoyable! 9/10

Wow, one of the most enjoying TD i played :D w8 for new levels ;)

A nice little game. The purpose is useful for the competition and for a theme but for general players, I think it's a worthy endeavour. Really good idea!

(+1)

I played your game and had fun. It took me a second to get what was going on though. (Skip to 6:38)

(+1)

Yeah the towers aim a head of enemies to account for the time it takes for the bullet to reach them, but this fails if the enemies are about to change direction. I also don't know what you did to my game, but something clearly broke as all levels were unlocked eventhough you had barely completed any of them. Thanks for the video though ;-).

better than my game!!!

I really like how it looks, the fact that i can click the keys solves issues with my keyboard layout. One bug i've seen is that while the enemies are moving i can still activate/deactivate keys (this doesn't change the path at all), is that intentional? :O

Glad you like the look, I like it as well ;-). The answer your question, it's not intentional that you can toggle keys during the simulation part. I must have messed something up last minute, because that wasn't possible in earlier builds of the game. The path is determined when you press start, so luckly it doesn't break the game. I'll fix it in the post-jam version, thanks for letting me know.

Your game looks great! Good job! Every level brings a new mechanic. But it seems to be a little off topic.. I've got only 4 trophies...silly me)

Yeah, the connection to the theme isn't very strong. The lie was about the genre. The lie was that normal tower defence games are strategy games, but this game is a puzzle game. Perhaps it better fits into genre without mechanic. Glad you liked it!

I felt that your game has a lot of potential, are you going to keep working on the Suspects?

I'll try to rework it, make it bigger and easier to understand and publish on Play Market. I would like to add something like "free play" where you can choose number of suspects, number of facts they telling. Implementing a variety of categries such as "Name", "Car color", "Motive"etc.  would be great.Thanks for asking, and what will you do with your game? 

I will fix all of the known issues in the post-jam version and perhaps add a couple more levels. After that I might try the world from keyboard mechanic with different genres. However, I did find the keyboard format to be quite restricting. A game like Chicken Hike offers the developers and the gamers a lot more possibilities.