Clockwork TD Devlog #2: Gameplay Progression & FSMs

This is the second post in an ongoing series about the development of my thesis project, Clockwork TD.

In the last entry, we covered A* Pathfinding for the enemies to find their way to the grid center (check out my Hex Grid Framework here). A major part of my thesis was a Tower Defense game where the enemy spawn point changed throughout the course of the game, requiring the player to counter that somehow. Using the Hex grid math I learned at redblobgames.com, I came up with a system where the spawner will move around each ring of the game map–similar to a clock–working its way from inside to out, giving the player the longer stretch of enemy path they’ll need as the game goes on and the number of enemies multiplies.

In this early version, the spawner simply lasts for one turn at each location, then the tile it’s standing on changes from a path tile to a buildable tile, giving the player an extra location to place a tower. When the spawn tile moves to a new ring, it spawns at the location closest to the last ring’s opening for the first round, to get the player acquainted to the change in the game.

To keep reading this devlog and see the example code & gifs, visit:

https://onewinter.net/2023/07/10/clockwork-td-devlog-2-gameplay-progression-fsms/