Set in a world pitched by Simon, as a team we adapted the idea to fit our needs. Originally a prison mining colony on a foreign planet it morphed into a Conglomerate Harvesting Corporation (FUTECH) taking place on earth.

On this earth the harvesting of natural resourcing on a planet degrading level never stopped, this influenced the tech and tone of our world as the excessive use of oil was unending giving us our Dieselpunk Aesthetic

Due to this disregard for the planet, the polar ice caps continued to degrade revealing new arctic cave systems. FUTECH send teams to explore and finds a new Crystalline Metal alongside an oil reservoir, setting up an entire mining facility to begin work, using it to create turrets and war machines 

Little did they know the tremours from their work would assist in releasing a new terror. Bebes a species that digest crystalline metal making them undergo metamorphosis. They attacked the facility in full force, as it was now the largest source of their diet and ran FUTECH out.

Sent in by FUTECH to exterminate the Bebes and recapture the facility, the player is given minimal Ore (Crystalline Metal) to start with and must get more from killing enemies.

The goal of the enemies in Bitter Extinction is the swarm experience. Seeing a large wave that comes to attack and melting them with your defences and weapons 

There are 3 types of aliens in Bitter Extinction and they each provide something different for the player to combat when defending.

The main feature of the aliens is their ability to undergo metamorphosis. This is done by attacking the defences as well as the player. For each attack, the alien over heals and when their health increases over the evolve threshold they become the tier above.

When it came to balancing the cost of turrets in the game we had many playtests. 

Players would either get overpowered too quickly and the game would be boring, or they would not be able to try all of the turrets available to them.

With deadlines closing in we decided that the player being overpowered would be better but we still wanted strategy in the placement of turrets.

That's when we came up with the Fuel System. Each turret would have a fuel cost and for each turret placed the player would have less and less fuel until they can't place anymore regardless of money.

This change was not only in line with the Dieselpunk theme of our game but also Allowed the player to then start saving up for buying guns in the later parts of the level. 

It also allowed us to Further distinguish each of the levels as the Second level had a higher Fuel total for the player allowing them to place more due to it being Closer to the oil reservoir, it is also the more difficult level of the two as its closer to where the Bebes were unearthed.

Max fuel set up

Bitter Extinction uses a grid system for turret placement, this is due to players often feeling overwhelmed when we used free-form placement. Its systematic nature made it easier to use and the grid is large enough to give creative freedom within constraints.

Bought in the shop using ore, defensive options all have different use cases. AOE, High range, ticking damage etc. One of the most significant is the heater.

Displayed as an orange bar next to a turret's health, they're key to surviving the hoards of Bitter Extinction. A buffing turret that increases attack speed for the surrounding turrets by keeping them above-subzero temperatures. 

Another use for these turrets is as cannon fodder, using them to attract enemies allows the powerful turrets to not take damage.

Turrets can be upgraded increasing their damage, range, and attack speed. So the player can funnel gold back into their defences once they have reached the fuel limit.

Traps are a flexible defence, they can be placed anywhere regardless of the grid and have no fuel cost.

Guns functionally are just turrets that the player controls, This gives agency to the player as they can choose to get into combat with enemies using a variety of weapons.