More than 35 new games will be on show at GaMaYo on 21st November with 400 developers attending the event to try them out alongside publishers, investors and platform holders. The event is managed by Game Republic along with their Official Partners Red Kite Games, Barclays Games and Creative and Escape Technology
Today we look at demo number 18 confirmed to be at the event – a game from Theo Clarke and Chloe Page
Description of game
“Powerful plants fight off invading weeds in “PLANTOONS”, a wacky 2D tower-defence game with roguelite elements!”
“Powerful plants fight off invading weeds in “PLANTOONS”, a wacky 2D tower-defence game with roguelite elements!”
How did development start:
“PLANTOONS” originally sprouted out as a simple game jam project created in 48 hours for “Spring 2D Jam 2024” – one of two annual game jams hosted by the game’s developers: Theo Clarke and Chloe Page. After the jam, we then developed the game further over Summer 2024, releasing it as our 2nd indie mobile release in August, and our first ever indie Steam release in September.
The game is inspired by classic simple-but-addictive web browser games and tower defence games such as Plants Vs. Zombies – but with a sprinkling of roguelite elements to make it more fitting for the modern gaming era! While it is simple and easy to pick up on it’s surface, the game’s carefully balanced difficulty curve, roguelite elements and challenges system seek to add a greater level of replayability and strategy than one might expect. We also sought to put a lot of personality and humour into the game with bright artwork, wacky characters and slapstick sound effects.
Every step of the game’s life cycle has been done independently and with 0 budget, from hosting the game jam that spawned it, to developing it in our evenings and weekends, to self-publishing it on mobile and PC. The game was created with the Construct 3 game engine, with most of the art created in Photoshop. If you want to check out the game, it’s available for free (with ads) via the Google Play Store or for just $2 on Steam. And if you want to join our game jamming community of over 700 members, you can find us in the “2D Game Jammers” Discord server, where we host welcoming and beginner-friendly game jams every 6 months (in Spring and around Halloween!)
Tell us about the team
PLANTOONS was developed by Theo Clarke and Chloe Page. Theo has an MA in Games Design from UCLan and 7+ years professional games QA experience. Chloe is an independent artist and online seller specialising in custom embroidery. We are based just outside of Wakefield and we attend local events such as GaMaYo and Leeds Games Toast whenever we can! We are also the creators of the “2D Game Jammers” Discord community where we have been hosting twice-yearly game jams since 2020, with a focus on remaining welcoming and beginner-friendly.
What kind of experience do we hope to bring to players:
With PLANTOONS, we wanted to create an experience that was accessible, unintimidating and instantly-entertaining to new players of various gaming abilities, BUT that also offered a surprising amount of replayability and depth once you had gotten properly into it. We combined the pick-up-and-play factor of the tower defence genre with a sprinkling of roguelite elements and a challenges system. We also sought to inject plenty of humour and charm into the experience.
During development of the game, I personally really enjoyed sinking time into playtesting it while on my morning commute – I found it genuinely entertaining and challenging and a great way to pass the time, so I think the game does its job and hope that others would agree.
“PLANTOONS” originally sprouted out as a simple game jam project created in 48 hours for “Spring 2D Jam 2024” – one of two annual game jams hosted by the game’s developers: Theo Clarke and Chloe Page. After the jam, we then developed the game further over Summer 2024, releasing it as our 2nd indie mobile release in August, and our first ever indie Steam release in September.
The game is inspired by classic simple-but-addictive web browser games and tower defence games such as Plants Vs. Zombies – but with a sprinkling of roguelite elements to make it more fitting for the modern gaming era! While it is simple and easy to pick up on it’s surface, the game’s carefully balanced difficulty curve, roguelite elements and challenges system seek to add a greater level of replayability and strategy than one might expect. We also sought to put a lot of personality and humour into the game with bright artwork, wacky characters and slapstick sound effects.
Every step of the game’s life cycle has been done independently and with 0 budget, from hosting the game jam that spawned it, to developing it in our evenings and weekends, to self-publishing it on mobile and PC. The game was created with the Construct 3 game engine, with most of the art created in Photoshop. If you want to check out the game, it’s available for free (with ads) via the Google Play Store or for just $2 on Steam. And if you want to join our game jamming community of over 700 members, you can find us in the “2D Game Jammers” Discord server, where we host welcoming and beginner-friendly game jams every 6 months (in Spring and around Halloween!)
Tell us about the team
PLANTOONS was developed by Theo Clarke and Chloe Page. Theo has an MA in Games Design from UCLan and 7+ years professional games QA experience. Chloe is an independent artist and online seller specialising in custom embroidery. We are based just outside of Wakefield and we attend local events such as GaMaYo and Leeds Games Toast whenever we can! We are also the creators of the “2D Game Jammers” Discord community where we have been hosting twice-yearly game jams since 2020, with a focus on remaining welcoming and beginner-friendly.
What kind of experience do we hope to bring to players:
With PLANTOONS, we wanted to create an experience that was accessible, unintimidating and instantly-entertaining to new players of various gaming abilities, BUT that also offered a surprising amount of replayability and depth once you had gotten properly into it. We combined the pick-up-and-play factor of the tower defence genre with a sprinkling of roguelite elements and a challenges system. We also sought to inject plenty of humour and charm into the experience.
During development of the game, I personally really enjoyed sinking time into playtesting it while on my morning commute – I found it genuinely entertaining and challenging and a great way to pass the time, so I think the game does its job and hope that others would agree.
10 words or less:
“PLANTOONS” offers a wacky tower-defence experience with roguelite elements!
LINKS:
PLANTOONS on Google Play – https://play.google.com/store/
PLANTOONS on Steam – https://store.steampowered.
Dev diary / press kit – https://theoclarkeart.weebly.
Youtube Trailer – https://youtu.be/oEgP-q5zD_E
Our “2D Game Jammers” Discord server – https://discord.gg/fypdbdM
LINKS:
PLANTOONS on Google Play – https://play.google.com/store/
PLANTOONS on Steam – https://store.steampowered.
Dev diary / press kit – https://theoclarkeart.weebly.
Youtube Trailer – https://youtu.be/oEgP-q5zD_E
Our “2D Game Jammers” Discord server – https://discord.gg/fypdbdM
