Infernal Engine Defender

Hey there,

I streamed Infernal Engine Defender! Overall, I think this is a really cool concept and well executed for a game jam game.

Infernal Engine Defender is about a train built to kill demons, what more needs to be said? Well, for starters, I think it’s clear we need more train games. The game plays like a tower defense game, where each round there are waves of enemies that must be killed before destroying a critical objective on the map. Between rounds, you are able to buy “troops” which get attached to your train to help kill more enemies faster - and that is where the twist lies. Unlike your typical Bloons TD, your “placed towers” are part of your carriage and therefore the towers are as mobile as your train is.

Between missions you get a vague “rogue-iness” to it in that whatever towers you can buy are randomly selected. I actually find this mechanic at odds with the design of the game. It’s the only place that randomness really impacts decision making and overall gameplay, and all it does is lead to unnecessary shuffling of the many cards you can select from - which, unlike your typical rogue-lite game with a “pick 1 of 3” system, you get to pick as many as you want from 5 (of course, each card costs money, so you gotta have the dosh to pay for the card) and you can spend a measly 5 gold to reshuffle the cards.. I think overall, this system doesn’t really do the game any favors. If it stuck with a more tried and true upgrade system found in many other tower defense games, I feel like that would work better for the game. If the player were presented with all of the possible upgrades they could pay for and then have to make a decision on what is best for their train, I think it would make for more interesting decision making. Otherwise, I would just remove the reshuffle option (but if you do that, the engine upgrades should be able to be purchased at any time, such as the acceleration, braking, and carriage length)

What I would really like to see is something like this, where the infernal engine travels the 7 circles of hell to bring the fight straight to the demon lord Satan himself. Just wishful thinking, but I definitely think we need more train games that accentuate what trains are for: traveling distances, near and far. I want to feel that feeling of traveling miles and miles away from home (while killing hordes of demons).

Either way, if the dev is considering expanding Infernal Engine into a full game, I’d certainly be interested to see how this game jam concept is expanded upon. Otherwise, it’s a nice little time waster, like the ol’ days of New Grounds and flash games.

If you'd like to watch my experience with your game, I've linked the archive below. You can click the timestamps to jump to when I start playing your game.

It's a good sign if you just play a game through while having fun. Great job!

Really liked the game's art style and mechanics. I also like how challenging it is since you can't really stop the train. Overall, pretty good game!  

Very good game ! The art style is awesome :D
It's hard so know where enemies gonna spawn (even with the triangle warning because the map and the rails are confusing). Maybe adding a HUD map could help.
It's seems like the camera is focus on the head of the train, not on the middle of it.
It could be interesting to display the middle of the speed bar.

Love the art style! I would say a few things missing. It lack impact like when the projectiles hit the enemy it would nice if they would explode. I good screen shake would be nice when the enemies break your tower. It just needs some juice and your set. You can check the live stream I did
https://www.twitch.tv/migcreatesgames

Outstanding artstyle, gameplay is also very well executed!

Congratulations!

This game is sick! The art style is impeccable

My one complaint is that the gold earned per wave could have been a little higher to allow for some experimentation

You did a really good job!!