[Tower Factory] EA launch First Look
0https://store.steampowered.com/app/2707490/Tower_Factory/
post-stream thoughts/mini-review (copypasted from a forum post)
i initially didn't 'get it' with Tower Factory because i was missing a key part of the game-
for context, you have a central facility with 3 inputs, and for the first few runs i basically snowballed (factory game = make stuff that makes more stuff which is exponential growth, you know how it goes) my ass to having full belts of stuff going into all 3, built towers to the initial cap (20/20) and then sat there waiting for enough spark (or spirit, or something) which enemies drop to build little beacons to unveil more of the map
the way the game works is you uncover the map with said beacons to hopefully find shrines (randomly generated/positioned) and use them to essentially 'win the game' by clicking on the enemy castle
this leads to it feeling like both RNG and boredom because after you max out the belt inputs, all the resources piling into your base sit there since you're capped on tower count, while you kill enemies slowly for the last item needed to unveil the map hoping that you luck into finding said shrines before you get overwhelmed
i was about to call it quits when i went and looked at the tech tree again and found an unlockable building you feed resources into to make that same enemy drop material (lol) which suddenly made the entire game click - there suddenly was a reason to expand beyond the initial 3 belts, and everything else from understanding factory game ratios etc suddenly was in play
did a couple more runs after that and came close to winning (found both shrines, was a race trying to unveil the enemy castle while the tower was getting overrun) but i need just a little bit more juice
the game appears to have tiers too and i've not even scratched the surface of that. first tier of towers seems to have the basics - workhorse tower, long range sniping tower, aoe, anti-air, melee-range tower, aoe slow, and i'm assuming T2 starts opening up more esoteric TD staples like a railgun-type tower and chain-lightning, etc
i think the only thing missing to the formula (maybe it's an unlock...?) is the ability to upgrade towers during gameplay as a further resource sink, but maybe it was tested and snowballed too much; idk
would recommend if you like TD/automation games and the price is decent. i think it's a more compelling "TD + automation hybrid" than Mindustry. not that Mindustry is bad, mind you lol