Timeframe	February 2024 - Today
Languages Used	C#
Softwares Used	Unity, MagicaVoxel, Aseprite

Monolith is still in development! This site features imagery of mechanics or artwork that may be replaced.

Well met! You have found the Monolith, but now you must defend it! Set forth in a strategic roguelike deckbuilder and tower defense game. Choose a unique class, explore a randomly generated map, construct towers, sling spells at enemies, and defeat the dark dungeon once and for all!

My inspriations for Monolith in no particular order include Dominion, Magic the Gathering, World of Warcraft, Dungeons and Dragons, Dungeon Defenders, Slay the Spire, Hearthstone, Rogue Tower, League of Legends, and Kingdom Rush.

A big shoutout to all my friends who supported me, whether it be playtesting, answering endless artwork questions, providing ideas, searching for class metas, speed running and finding infinite combos, breaking my game in ways I'd never imagine, and pushing me to MDEV.

Key Mechanics +

Random Map Generation

Each time you play Monolith you will have a different map! This is due to my "random map generator" that takes chunks (or what I call "mapblocks") and connect them together to form a path for enemies to walk on.

I did this by having a starting block spawn which would act as your Main Tower that you protect (the Monolith!). Afterward, I simply held onto any open spot that I could place a mapblock, ensure it is a legal block that I can place (makes sure the paths can connect), and then lastly I allow more than 2 directional blocks to spawn after I spawned at least 5 blocks previously.

Exploring the map is a massive feature in Monolith, so I wanted to ensure that players would have an exciting experience every time they open the game.

Old footage of map generation algorithm

Example of exploring the map using a Light Tower. Exploring expands the map

Cards!

Monolith is a deckbuilder game, and so it was crucial that I had playable cards that felt fun to play and gave players a sense of needing to strategize. I wanted each round to almost feel like a puzzle. "What is the best play I can make here?"

And while this isn't too important to state here, I wanted to ensure that cards were easy for me to make/change. If a card is not working correctly or working too well, I wanted to make sure it was simple to fix.

Cards are made up of "effects." An example of an effect can be "draw a card" or "gain gold." If I want to make a card, all I need to do is add a list of effects to the card object. Those effects then go into a stack (card gamers typically call this the "Stack"), the effects are used, then the card is discarded into your graveyard.

Playing a Conjuration card

Towers!

Finally, Monolith is a tower defense game. Obviously I need Towers, and I need them to feel fun to use and highly effective.

There are over 80+ towers in Monolith at the time of writing this. Each tower has a damage type (fire, frost, etc), its own upgrade list, its own strengths and weaknesses, etc. Each class has roughly 12 towers unique to them

There are two different types of Towers; attack towers which will damage enemies, and utility towers that provide Some form of buff/bonus/positive effect.

Showcasing a Tower Panel and upgrading the Tower using gold

Ranger towers, most notably the Elven Tower which shoots several arrows in an arc

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