Just gave it a try. Really cool concept and nice execution. A few things were quite confusing though:

  • muck. when is it created, what does it do, how to clean it up? from what I've seen, it doesn't really do anything and while the 100$ pods do clean up the sprites, the number on the right doesn't go down. and for the most part I just ignored it.
  • heaters. I've tried to set them up, the way the description mentioned, but they didn't seem effective. at least not as effective as standard towers
  • does each drain produce money? because each of them displays a yellow +30, but it didn't feel like I got more money by placing more drains
  • what is the purpose of traffic cone and the RimWorld guy?

Overall, the game could really use a decent tutorial. Right now you have to buy things and experiment with them in order to know what they do.
But it's pretty fun, once you get the hang of it.


    Yes! Finally to version 0.83! It took me a long time to think of how to start expanding tower options (after all I can't just do the default arrow, magic, and cannon towers) but after rewatching materials on Waste water treatment plants I sought to recreate what is called the activated sludge tank.
    The process starts with flocculant towers which shoots Aluminum sulfate onto debris. Aluminum sulfate helps debris stick together and sink. Once underwater a natural chemical process can take place which is bacteria already in the water eat up the debris. To gamify the process, I negate that natural process without the debris being heated first (in real life of course the water is heated to a comfortable temperature to hasten the process).
    In the game, once submerged, underwater debris gets heated, they begin taking damage relative to the algae in that tile. Again to gamify, I simulate the loss of oxygen by killing that precious algae each time damage is dealt unless the water there is being oxygenated.
    Therefore, to simulate the process, we first hit the debris with Aluminum sulfate from the Flocculator tower, debris collides and sinks, debris flows over heated areas and gets warmed (if it stays too long it'll get too heated for the process to work) and lastly any algae can go to town eating up the debris. Algae is consumed in the process unless the water is being properly oxygenated.

    Tomcat Politics every once in a while brings a little chaos, and in chaos even the most unlikely hero can rise up to the task of aiding corrupt managers tend to their ailing waste water treatment plants =P

    muck. when is it created, what does it do, how to clean it up?

    LoipesMas Thanks so much for the feedback! First of all, yes, the muck, one of my favorite things. I initially introduced Muck to be a counter to the player simply blocking off debris access to the drain. Debris that can't move for too long generates muck and eventually disintegrates. Muck acts as a shield basically for debris floating over it; it removes enzymes and reduces damage. Also, muck generates algae which can lead to water quality going down and the player losing bonus credits.
    When those pods remove muck the number definitely needs to go down! Thank you for catching that bug!
    I need to reexamine the role of muck because I am satisfied with the newer mechanic to stop the player from just walling off drain access which is the newer Inspection Flag mode that happens every other sewer upgrade.

    As for the heaters, I hope the image I provide in the last post can give a working example.

    does each drain produce money?

    The bonus credits are rewarded for clean water exiting the plant, averaging water quality over all drains in use. I didn't know how to choose which drain should "show" the bonus, so I just made the bonus appear over all drains. I realize this can make it look as though all drains are generating income but they are not- I'm not sure what to do about this.

    what is the purpose of traffic cone?

    The traffic cone is for storing lovely little inner tubes! I have most of the code in place for the little guy (pressing keys 1-4 or 5) to go find an inner-tube, get in the water, then mount it! What a fun place to ride an inner tube! But you have to build stairs to get into the water.

        10 days later


        I am embarrassed to say that this new additional tilemap took me over 20 hours to finish but it adds (what I think) is another interesting twist to the tower defense genre, the idea that you can just pull one of your enemies to land at the expense of that land tile.
        Version 0.83 live at itch.io to play around with.
        Why would the player start off with high tech equipment such as a enzyme sprayer? Here's a pitchfork instead!

          Erich_L I am embarrassed to say that this new additional tilemap took me over 20 hours to finish

          If that is considered to be locked in as 'final' then I don't think that's actually a particularly unreasonable time-frame. Especially in terms of going from conception to final deliverable.

              Megalomaniak Thanks that makes me feel a bit better- it was just 20 hours in photoshop dragging little poops around amongst 300 layers drove me to the BRINK.

              • xyz replied to this.

                  Erich_L This was a really good candidate for ai generation. You were mentioning using image generators before. Not sure why you chose to make this thing manually. Nevertheless, it's looking very good for a 20 hrs job.


                    @xyz I couldn't agree more! This is what the AI gen gave me, and I meticulously placed it accordingly as my tileset required. I would love to be able to just replace my terrain tileset with a few clicks but I don't think AI is quite there yet.
                    On the other hand, some people have been quite hostile toward me the moment I share that I've been using the AI art gens so I'm not sure how much I should publicize my process.

                    still sad about u leaving Normord 🙁

                    DJMaesen I never left, just been on break since we finished that working prototype =P Hurry up and go get funding so I can move over there.

                      11 days later


                      We should not have to rely on the algae blooms for waste digesting algae! We can now build a Seed Dump which pours special seed in powder form which swiftly generates algae in the water used in other biochemical digestive reactions (killing poops).

                      Comes with upgrades to amount of seed poured. Note! A chem dump tower too close can largely negate this tower's usefulness.

                      2 months later


                      Still alive! I have been having a really, really, really hard time trying to draw the line between "realistic simulation" and "goofy fun game" but I am starting to see where I can draw enough from reality and I've been starting to form the actual game which will have towers in response to types and sizes of debris (poop and trash) instead of how waste water treatment plants actually work (by just filtering and treating water, not harpooning big epic dukes of pain and despair).

                      I've decided that a big part of the game will be figuring out clever ways to sort out the organic debris by size and have different mechanisms have damage bonuses to debris of those sizes. Of course one way to do that will be with pumps! I made just a simple water pump this week which drains water (really just the contents of the water) and places those contents where you place the spigot. It already has dynamically changed the game quite a lot.

                      Next week I'll make it so that after being upgraded it can suck up small debris and poop them out.

                      2 months later

                      Another few months go by and I've finally got another version that I'm comfortable sharing (even tho I ruined all the T3 towers).
                      Drain Defense 0.9
                      Playable here. So many changes, so many new towers, and yet the game still feels like it's missing so, so much. My favorite additions:

                      • BIG FAT debris that spawn smaller baby debris on death
                      • Pool floor decor and mountain decor (that took 3 days of course to draw) to constrict your building area.
                      • A concrete screed that can wipe muck off the pool floor AND push floating debris crazy hard!
                      • An acid tower- because, ACID!

                      Oh, and 1-3 and QWERT hotkeys for people with quick reflexes.
                      My favorite change tho- is the pitch fork + trash can combo which, if you're down for doing it the manual way, is kind of hilariously awful.

                      8 months later

                      Just wanted to post to say I am still working on this game even as my job hunt intensifies for normal spring boot/react work.
                      Check out my cute nets for stopping plastic debris! Nothing takes longer than these darn tilesets, but getting it up and running so you can build new dynamic stuff is so satisfying.
                      And nope- the internal debate over building either a simple fun tower defense or a more complicated water treatment simulation has never ceased.

                      • xyz replied to this.

                        I know, I know. @xyz . But I spend hundreds of hours playing factorio and 0.1 hours a year playing simple fun games so it's hard, very hard to avoid going down rabbit holes.

                        • xyz replied to this.

                          Erich_L There's always a compromise; make a complicated fun game 😃

                            a month later

                            A couple of days late, but congrats on this month's feature! 🎉

                            8 days later

                            This last week I have been really getting powered up!


                            A lot of tier 2 and higher towers need power. What's an islander to do when funds are scarce? Throw down a genny and fill it with gas of course!