Early prototype · Android
Diodos Ghost
A cyberpunk tower defence where the path is not fixed. You defend a living city grid by turning its circuit tiles, and every line that carries power to your turrets is also a line the enemy can walk. This is an early prototype, drawn in plain shapes.
The story
A city grid with a ghost in it
Twenty years ago a city merged its power and data networks into one grid that routes itself, and called it Diodos. Its lead architect, Wren, was wired in to oversee the switch-on when a surge tore through the core. Her body did not survive it. Her mind is still there, spread through the routing tables.
She has kept the failing grid running ever since, and nobody knows. The company that owns Diodos logs her as an anomaly and sends purge swarms to delete her. She cannot touch anything outside the grid, so she needs an operator. That is you.
How it plays
Turn the grid, hold the core
The board is a grid of circuit tiles (straights, corners, tees and crossings), with sockets where turrets stand. The swarm enters at a port on the edge and takes the shortest connected route to the core. Turn a tile and the route changes. Tap once to see the new route, and again to commit.
Power travels the same lines. A turret fires only while its socket connects back to the core, so the turn that lengthens the swarm's walk can also leave one of your own turrets dark. No turn may leave the swarm with no route at all.
Salvage from purged enemies builds turrets. The core's power runs them, and whatever they leave unused charges the battery that pays for every turn, so more turrets means fewer turns. You can pause at any time and still turn tiles and build.
Wren
She has the information, you have the hands
Wren talks to you from a corner of the screen in short lines that never stop play. She warns you when a wave is coming and tells you when you have cut one of your own turrets off. Each district you hold gives her back a piece of the night of the surge, which she has lost, and the campaign follows those pieces to what really happened.
We measured the first district before anyone played it. A scripted player who builds turrets but never turns a circuit tile loses it. One who also turns tiles to lengthen the route holds it without the core taking a hit.
Status
Where it stands
Diodos Ghost is an early prototype. Everything on screen is placeholder shapes, and it is not ready for testers yet.
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Done
The grey box
One district playable in plain shapes: turning and sliding tiles, power and the battery, the first turret, the first enemy and a short lesson from Wren.
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Done
Fixes from the first playtest
Turns in either direction, reshaping a tile, and a cheap relay that carries power to sockets the grid could not reach.
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Now
More turrets and enemies
A turret that slows the swarm and one that hits a whole group, and enemies that are faster, tougher, or rewire tiles while you play.
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Next
The campaign
Eight districts, each returning a piece of Wren's memory.
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Next
Art, music and testing
Final art and each district's music, then a call to the testers list.