Decimation is bringing some interesting changes to the usual idea of tower defense, and it has been announced on Steam recently. This new PC game isn’t actually that new, as it has been developed for more years than many of use would think. There’s proof for an early pitch of the same game, but it is clear that the version from 12 years ago is gone yet immortalized in a video. Hopefully the developers can bring something forward from this version, so we can preserve it and see how far the game got developed. More interesting details will be revealed after the break.
Decimation will be epic
This is an unexpected revival that nobody saw coming, in fact, I didn’t even know about this until I decided to dig up some more. There’s a ton of cool things in this game, mainly the unique take on the tower defense genre. We can build our defenses but we can also pilot a hero unit to try and slay all enemies that breach our defenses. There was nothing like this in the market many years ago, and I genuinely wonder why it didn’t get enough recognition when it needed it the most. Nowadays market is crowded in plenty of takes in the tower defense genre, but perhaps Decimation has an ace up its sleeve.
It is clear that the graphics were redone from scratch, and we can only wonder if the music remained the same. The comparisons and night and day, and the mechanics even look a bit different for this new version of Decimation. If only the developers decided to drop the old one alongside it, it would be a huge win for those gamers who wish to preserve the history of an indie title that couldn’t make it. If you are interested, you should wishlist this new game on Steam.
Hello Infinitestart and Guido! Thank you so much for taking the time to write about Decimation. I was just doing a quick check on the game (including if it has gotten any coverage for the day) before going to sleep (Its past 12 midnight here), when I saw this article. As a struggling indie dev, whenever someone writes about something you’ve been working on for so long, it sort of gives you a jolt of energy.
I’m truly grateful for your interest, and hopefully it lives up to your expectations. Based on how things are proceeding, it will most likely be available for everyone to try in Early Access on Steam just a few weeks from now. I’m currently in the process of preparing a Steam version demo which will feature the game’s first two levels, first hero and first three turrets. It should be available on Steam in the next few days. The Early Access version will contain 4 of the planned 16 levels of the game (or 5 levels if I can sufficiently prepare and test the next level in the coming 2 weeks), and two more turret types to add to the base three.
About the music being preserved, yes! The original Decimation theme is still in the game 🙂 It’s the battle music in the older video from 2012 now serving as boss encounter music. Some things were too good not to keep.
To answer some of the questions in the article straight from the source, the reason why the original version (from over 12 years ago) didn’t get completed was because I over-scoped the game badly. It had a naive developer’s wishlist of the features that I couldn’t possibly complete at the time without a budget which I had also overestimated as well back then when I was pitching the game. So what happened was, the crowdfunding campaign didn’t succeed, and I had to put the game on the shelf for the time being and took on other projects so that I could gain the know-how to make Decimation a reality. Man, time goes by so fast!
Back in May 28th, 2024, I was sitting at my workstation and looking at all the old assets and code that I did for Decimation and decided that I had learned enough about game-making to actually complete the game, but with a more realistic scope that can be done solo. The old version was created in XNA, so I had to rebuild almost everything from scratch in Unity for the game.
The overall battle mechanics are still the same as before: Tower Defense with a hero unit, but for now, the overarching 4x strategy and base building isn’t in Decimation’s upcoming incarnation. That would be too much for just me to complete. My hope is that the game will be solid enough and resonate with players enough so that maybe, in the future, I could make the “older” dream of Decimation from 2012 eventually become a reality.
Thanks again for digging up the history of the game. It means a lot to see someone care about the journey.