Towers of Mergethorne (Playdate)

The Manafields of Mergethorne are under siege! 
Merge the elements and defend your land.

Every night the creeps attack, blending Bubble Shooter, Merge, and Tower Defense gameplay.

Merge stronger and stronger towers until you eventually merge a powerful Warden. Awaken all five to win and save Mergethorne! Unless the creeps decimate it first...

This was a 7-day solo project for the playful.ai jam in August 2025. I intend to develop it further.

More AI Potential? Imagine starting the game with any 5 elements or materials you can dream up, and having the game's generative AI merge them into more and more advanced towers, with their own art, firing effects, and progression into end-game Wardens.

Multiplayer Potential? Imagine two manafields facing off. In multiplayer, as I merge, I'm not only creating towers but also my own creeps that attack the enemy board. Shots recharge every few seconds and matches last about 25 shots. Generative AI can calculate the behaviors of the 5 elements I bring in, and the 5 my opponent chose... the creeps and towers they generate, how they interact, and who wins in this imaginative, quick PvP battler. 

Social Potential? Mergethorne is the ultimate social "what-if" generator. What if I bring 5 sci-fi elements to merge like blasters, black holes and shield generators, but you bring 5 super hero elements to merge like invisibility cloaks, grappling hooks and boots of speed... who would win? Play and find out, and share the hilarious results!

Why Playdate? Coding for Playdate is a "fat marker sketch" - the graphics and memory requirements encourage focusing on pure design and discourage getting lost in little details in this early prototyping stage. I love the playdate and may release this for it, but I also anticipate moving to mobile web for the final iteration.

What's missing and what's next? (a) I'd like to make this web playable. (b) You can't currently lose - I ran out of time to implement the home base health system, but imagine many tower defense games where you lose hearts as creeps escape the screen. (c) Needs better balance and for the difficulty to ramp up more in higher levels. (d) Art and audio, of course, and performance optimization. (e) The advanced in-game generative AI and multiplayer features I've described above.

This game was coded by me, a first-time coder, entirely using Claude Code.
In-game pixel art is hand-drawn, but cover art on itch.io was made with generative AI.

How to Play on Playdate
1. Download the file below.
2. Sideload to a Playdate console (https://help.play.date/games/sideloading/)

How to Play Simulated on Mac or PC
1. Download and install the Playdate SDK (https://play.date/dev/) 
2. Download the file below, and unzip it (it will be a folder that ends in .pdx)
3. Launch the Playdate Simulator, part of the SDK you installed in (1.) above
4. Choose File -> Open and select the folder you unzipped in (2.) above
5. Play by clicking the onscreen buttons or using your keyboard (by default, "arrows" aim, "[" "]" moves up or down, "s" fires, "a" restarts)