[timestamp] is a running journal and reflection on the games I play, news I’ve read, and commentary on hot topics and conversations I have come across. These will be free to read online and printed in a limited monthly edition for $15/mo Patreon supporters!

Games played: Tower Dominion (PS5), UFO 50 (Switch)

I am heading out camping with the family for the weekend (not my idea), and with no access to electricity, I crammed in a couple of hours of some wonderful games this morning before we left! To kick things off, I had to get in a few more games of Tower Dominion!

I decided not to just focus on one commander, trying to topple the highest tier of difficulty that I’ve unlocked. Instead, I started getting successful clears with the other unlocked commanders. This encouraged new play styles, and the global unlocks happened with more and more successful clears. This is a really good way for me to make progress in a game that is both theoretically and actually endless (the highest difficulty has endless waves instead of ending at a set wave). Successful runs with these commanders unlock even more commanders, and they are tagged on the selection screen with the highest difficulty level I’ve cleared with them. As I’m unlocking more blueprints and doctrines and things with my multiple runs, it’ll help when I find that commander I really dig, and I can do the hardest run with as much (or everything) unlocked. 

I think for a game like this, this is a good way to drop in content with players learning about it, and as you’re mastering more, you’ve got more at your disposal. I could also see a game like this existing without commanders at all, with your center HQ having just one set of abilities and upgrades. I am happy to have it, though! It’s more to like, more to mix things up, and more to do. 

The tower defense genre has always been a favorite of mine. I don’t know what the first one I ever played was, but I do remember digging Rampart in the arcade as a kid. It isn’t a traditional tower defense game, but it definitely has some DNA there. Plants vs Zombies and Pixel Junk Monsters are both some of my favorites, and they stand apart in how they blend planning and puzzle with trial and error. I enjoy looking at a map, finding the best “value” spaces, understanding the “rock, paper, scissors” balance of units, and trying to maximize resources or currency, especially when a game rewards you for being frugal with multipliers and gives you bigger rewards for doing it right. These games scratch a lot of my itches and fire off key synapses in my brain around the joy and entertainment parts. 

I was also asked to participate in an upcoming podcast a peer is producing centered around UFO 50. I’ll be contributing a brief portion of the episode talking about one of the games, but getting asked to do it made me want to fire it up and play a few games. If you haven’t already heard about the game, it presents 50 games in an anthology of titles from a fictional publisher in a single package. You can play any of the games at any time, and you get in-game details about when the game was published, though it’s not really true. These games were made by a collection of rad modern indie creators, and the attention to detail in presenting such a variety of games across nearly every genre is wild. The publisher splash screen at the start of each game evolves, and you can see the fun eras this fake company went through. There are some really addictive gems here, too. 

One of my favorites is a tower defense game, believe it or not! Feed it through my veins! The game is called Rock On! Island and you’ve got full control of your main character, with the ability to attack by throwing bones. You can start the next wave of enemies at any time, and as you kill them, you collect food, which you can use to place other cavemen around the map that act as towers. You can give them different weapons, give them advanced weapons, place campfires and chickens to cook over multiple rounds for big food payouts, and plan out your path to maximum damage and defend your home. It’s almost like a 2D NES Pixel Junk Monsters. It’s really good. 

I played a few others like Mooncat, an interestingly controlled platformer; Bushido Ball; Hot Foot; Pingolf; Golfaria; and Seaside Drive. Each of these games has a different genre, play style, graphical presentation, level of depth and complexity, and more. There are 50 whole damn games here. It’s honestly a wonderful game, and I never fully sank into it as I was hoping for a PlayStation release eventually. I’m just not a big fan of the Joy-Con controllers and buttons, and I don’t have a Pro controller, but I should just get one just for moments like this. Slightly bigger buttons and a better D-pad can really help me enjoy this game a bit more, and I already love it. 

Time's up, though, and it’s off to the woods of Northern Arizona. I’ll be bringing some video game books and a couple of old magazines to read and relax with. Then, promptly on Sunday evening, I’ll be home to defend any and all towers I can find.