Neptune Inveractive Inc., a new gaming studio coming out of Toronto has kicked off their career by creating The Castle Game, a very simplistic, yet great looking game with a sound genre. After all, everyone likes a good tower defense.
And I would argue that The Castle Game has a decent twist to it, at least from a gameplay standpoint. Instead of going for typical TD design where you look at it from the top down, it adopts much more of a pan view in lieu of an RTS.
Instead of opting for a more involved experience where you are actually in the midst of your towers, think Magika or Sanctum, Neptune have decided to doctor up the typical approach to this beloved genre. As opposed to the typical top down view, where everything is visible at any given time, the altering camera view seems to open room for blind spots, forcing you to move around, making the whole experience look much more engaging.
Additionally, the theme is such a great, classic theme for a new game developer. Instead of doing something radical and avant garde, they have opted for a very cookie cutter theme of the medieval era. Neptune also made a clever trick in using the building layout to support the notion of being in the dark ages. Sure, the towers and buildings fit thematically, but the game itself reinforces the idea of building a castle, making your fortress impregnable.
In essence, in The Castle Game, you get to be king and create your own fortress, fending off invaders at every turn. You’re given a wide selection of defenses that would have been accessible at the time: hot oil, arrows, catapults, knights, etc.
To their credit, for being such a new and small studio, there seems to be a decent amount of production value in The Castle Game. The textures of screenshots look alright, decidedly above a typical indie 8-bit. Judging from the screenshots and trailer that have been released, there seems to be a number of enemy types, with at least a moderate number of mechanics which should make for interesting gameplay and strategy. Not only that, but there seems to be a fair number of buildings to use as well. Some also seem like support structures, an often underused mechanic in TD games.
I, for one, am excited to rule my own little castle when The Castle Game is released in spring.
