Background

Destroy the Earth is a game that was originally made for GMTK (Game Makers ToolKit) 2023, the largest annual Game Jam on itch.io, and second largest in the world. You play as the commander of an Alien fleet whose goal is to build up their income, upgrade their ships, and launch attacks on the Earth and its fleet of orbiting satellites. Following feedback from the GMTK community, the game has received a complete overhaul. The changes made, along with dev comments, are displayed in this post.

Major Changes

• New Feature: Added Online Leaderboard, local Player Account system, and Player Tag system.

Dev Comment: Leaderboard displays the Ten fastest times to beat the game. Scores, Player Accounts and Tags are stored using Broweser Local Storage and synced to Unity Gaming Services.

• New Feature: Homing Missile Ship - Hotkey [4] - Unlock Cost: 10000 - Purchase Cost: 500 - Description: A fast moving but fragile ship which explodes upon impact with an Enemy Satellite or the Earth, dealing massive damage. Best used with other ships that can absorb enemy fire.

• New Feature: Charge Ability - Base Cost: 1000 - Cost Increase per Use: +100% - Description: Increases the Fire Rate and Movement Speed of all Ships in play for 10 seconds. Best used to move ships under enemy fire towards the Earth, move reinforcements in quickly, or deal a burst of damage.

Dev Comment: The original submission lacked a bit of tactical depth and replay-value. These new features seek to address this issue and give the User more options to beat the game.

• New Feature: Fast forward button - Hotkey [F] - Description: Increases game speed by 2.5x. Nice to have when experimenting with new strategies or playing later-game strategies.
• New Feature: Victory and Defeat animations upon Destroying the Earth or Running out of Time.
• New Feature: Death Effects Systems. Includes Explosion animation and SFX for Player Ships, and a Explosion animation, Disintegration particle effect, and another SFX for satellites.
• New Feature: Sun Rays Effect. Lighting intensity now varies across the Screen depending on the position of the Sun.

Dev comment: Adds some variety to the starry background.

• Feature Redesign: Tier 3 Earth Satellite now has a Forcefield. Forcefields will absorb damage before main health, and regenerate if the Satellite goes undamaged for a period of time.
• Complete Redesign of UI: All UI elements in the game have been reviewed and the vast majority have been completely redesigned from the ground up. Additionally, new information has been added to the UI. This includes:
  • Upgrade descriptions
  • Hotkeys for Placing ships.
  • A How to Play Panel

Dev comment: UI in the original submission was very functional, and was flagged as an issue with the game that detracted from the experience.

Balance Changes

• Timer start time reduced 8:00 minutes => 7:30 minutes
• Delay Research
  • Base Cost 1500 => 4000

Dev Comment: Initial cost was way too low, and resulted in Players being able to add additional mintue (on top of the game timer starting with an additional 30 seconds) to the game length very easily.

• Fixed Income Upgrade
  • Reduced Base Cost: 750 => 500
  • Reduced Cost Increase upon purchase: 500 => 250
  • Increased Income per Second provided: 15 => 25
• Interest Rate Upgrade
  • Reduced Base Interest Rate 6% => 3%
  • Increased Interest Rate Base Cost 750 => 1000

Dev Comment: In the initial submission, Fixed Income Upgrades were inconsequential compared to Interest Rate and Money Cap upgrades. The early game was also very slow and took up a large portion of the game. These changes seek to address both issues.

• Ships Unlock Costs Increased for ships 3 and 4 (Ship 4 is Ship 5 in this release of the game) => 2500, 5000 to 5000, 2000 respectively
• Increased Ship costs of Ships 3, 4 (now 5) 150, 500 => 400, 800

Dev Comment: Ships were essentially free in the initial version of the game once you got to the mid game. These changes delay the point where ships become essentially free.

• Ship 2: The All-rounder
  • Increased Base Health 150 => 200
  • Increased Base Movespeed 2.2 => 2.4
• Ship 3: The Fast One
  • Reduced Base Firing Rate 2 => 1.5
  • Reduced Base Health 150 => 125
  • Reduced Base Movespeed 4.5 => 4

• Ship 5 (Previously 4): The Tank
  • Increased Base Health 400 => 500
  • Increased Base Damage 10 => 20
  • Reduced Base Movespeed 2 => 1.5

Dev comment: Ship 2, The All-rounder, did not feel useful in the original game. Ship 3, The Fast One, felt way too powerful and it was easy to beat the game without using any other ships. Ship 5, The Tank, did not have enough health to act as an effective tank, and did very little damage. Changes in base stats have been made to reflect this. Ships 3 and 5 have also had their base movespeed reduced to balance for the introduction of the Temporary Buff ability also introduced in this patch

Play Destroy the Earth Here

Play the original Game Jam submission Here