Firstly, congratulations to our keen reader, Michael Borrego, for finally coming up with a better title than TowerDefenceMeetsSimCityAndDungeonKeeper. The title that he has chosen is The Great Beyond. Some say he named it whilst he was Googling random phrases to see what game names already existed, and was happening to be listening to REM at the time. Let’s not worry about how he came up with it, so that I can talk about my progress.

A little bit of history (skipping is optional)

The Great Beyond has been in development since April, 2017 AD. It was based on an engine that I developed over the Christmas holidays, originally for a city simulator, and was based on doodles and a Scratch prototype I had made a few years ago.

You can see the original Dungeon Keeper inspirations, but side-scrolling, with the use of Imps and what would be a fantasy theme rather than a sci-fi theme.

However, due to difficulties drawing the graphics, I chose to switch to a much simpler sci-fi theme, and The Great Beyond was born! (…Is still in birth right now!)

What Is The Game About?

You must see how long you can survive endless waves of enemies. Build a base, manage workers, and keep an eye on resources to succeed!

In the beginning, you start with just a single rocket in the middle of a desert. From both sides, enemies will appear, but you do not have to worry about those things yet! The main priority is to hire miners to dig out the surrounding ground area, because the starting location will not be enough!

The Build Bar

Ladder – allows workers to travel up and down vertical tunnels in the base. Reactor – provides power to rooms. Some rooms will reduce in productivity without power, be completely unusable without power, or reduce happiness for those inside. Quarters – a living space for one worker. Click on it to select a new worker type, including: Miner – digs out the terrain, and collects gold and gems. Cleaner – maintains the cleanliness of rooms. Messy rooms reduce happiness. Chef – collects grown produce from the farms, delivers it to the kitchen to cook it, and then takes the cooked food to the canteens to feed the hungry workers. Soldier – runs up to the surface during battles, and shoots bullets by default. Can occupy towers built by the player, which are mostly faster, stronger, and more accurate. Scientist – uses the Weather Machine to create research points. Doctor – works in the Hospital, waiting for patients to arrive for healing. Toilet – allows one person at a time to relief themselves. During testing I have found that I need quite a few of these! Farm – produce is grown here. Kitchen – produce is cooked into meals. Canteen – meals are served to hungry workers who eat in here. Training Room – soldiers increase their health, shooting accuracy, and reload speeds in here. Hospital – wounded workers are healed in here by a doctor. Park – increases the aura of the neighbouring tiles. It is useful to place these near Quarters, so that when workers go to sleep, their happiness will increase! Grinder – for each enemy destroyed, a small amount of money is earned. Only one can be built per base. Weather Machine – scientists generate research points. These can be spent on: Strong Wind – temporarily blows all enemies away. Sun Break – permanently extends the length of the day and night by a small amount with each usage. Lightning – a powerful weather effect used to strike enemies. Tower Foundation – creates a base for adding on specialized towers, which can be occupied by trained soldiers. Radar – doesn’t attack enemies. Instead, it clears the shroud that covers all unexplored areas. The shroud will return to unvisited areas once this is destroyed. Bullet Blaster – shoots low damage bullets at a moderate speed in 6 directions. Shoots 6 medium damage micro-bombs when occupied by a level 6 soldier. Bomber – shoots high damage bombs at a moderate speed. Shoots very high damage missiles when occupied by a level 6 soldier. Shocker – slows down incoming enemies by disrupting their navigation systems with high volts of electricity. Flamethrower – blasts high damage fire in a small area above it. Shoots in a wider radius when occupied by a level 6 soldier. Cannot penetrate enemies with shields over them. The Ray – shoots high damage lasers very fast. Cannot penetrate enemies with shields over them. Shoots dual-lasers when occupied by a level 6 soldier.

The Time Bar

Wave Info – shows the current wave number and the number of enemies that will be approaching. Pause Button Time Speed Current Sun Position – when this reaches the end, night starts. A moon icon replaces the sun, and it moves to the left to show the position of the moon. When the moon reaches the end, it switches back to the sun and the day begins.

The News Announcement Bar

This is where important news, whether good or bad, plus some advice about building the base, will appear.

Examples include, “A worker has quit because they were too hungry, but couldn’t eat!” Or, “Food production is too slow. Hire more chefs and build more farms and kitchens!” Or even, “Advice: You do not have many toilets for your population size!”

That’s Enough for Today!

That should be enough information about the game for now. Please ask questions, and I will answer them in future posts.