Meldkin

Meldkin is a tower defense where your towers are alive.

Enemies pour down a winding cavern lane. You plant creatures to stop them, then grow them: every organism has 3 upgrade paths, with 4 upgrade steps per path. Spend on reach, on speed, on a new trick. You can't have it all, so you must choose.

What's in it

• Four organisms to grow. Bloom, Needleback, Mortarcap and Borer. Each has three authored upgrade paths. 
• Enemies are a queue, not a health bar. Every body is a line of smaller things, and each hit strips the one on the front. No numbers to read: you watch the swarm thin out.
• Twelve enemies and three bosses. Plated bodies shrug off the wrong shot, veiled ones slip past anything that can't see them, and bosses wear real hulls that burst into a brood when they break.
• Two hand-shaped cavern maps, three difficulties. Play 40, 50 or 60 waves. Harder settings decrease starting lives, increase cost per organism and introduce a new/stronger boss (at wave 50 and 60).
• Upgrades that persist. Every run pays out. Spend it on a permanent tree that unlocks Mortarcap and Borer and eases the road, without ever adding raw damage.
• Shots that fly straight and can miss. Projectiles hit the first body they cross, so placement matters, and towers can't overlap.
• One layout for every screen. Play on a monitor with mouse or keyboard, with a controller, or on a phone with touch placement.

Controls

• Mouse / touch: pick an organism from the shop column, then place it on the board (on touch, confirm with the tick).
• Select a placed organism to open its upgrade lines. Hold a rung to read what it does.
• Controller: fully playable.

About this build

Version 0.0.1 is an early build. Expect rough edges, and tell us where they are: balance, clarity and feel are all still being tuned from player runs. Found a wave that felt wrong? Post the wave number, map and difficulty.