Hey everyone,
It's been a crazy few weeks.
First off, I just want to say a massive thank you. I recently entered PCB Defense into a game jam with 98 entries, and we walked away with 1st place. I genuinely didn't expect it, and seeing people enjoy the chaos means a lot.
Since then, I've been grinding away on the next major update. The main goal? Pushing the visual chaos to the absolute limit.
The core idea of PCB Defense is the "power fantasy." You start with a calm, quiet circuit board. But if you survive long enough, it turns into a warzone. Hundreds of enemies, lasers everywhere, and the screen completely on fire. I wanted the new update to make that transition feel even more overwhelming.
Community Feedback Shapes the Game
One of the best things about this update is that it exists because of you. I got an incredible write-up from a player (you know who you are) with 15+ pages of notes on balance, bugs, and mechanics.
Because of that feedback, I've been able to fix things I completely missed:
- "Hover to collect" is now a thing (no more clicking endlessly for drops).
- Turret level gradients are much easier to read at a glance.
- Rebalanced the corruption cards so they don't instantly end a run.
- Fixed the leaderboard and added better mobile support.
Transparency Note
For anyone curious about the development process: I used AI tools for early-stage coding and visual prototyping. However, all final code and art are hand-tweaked and refined. The music is from existing itch.io assets.
What's Next?
I'm currently polishing the update and getting a proper trailer ready. If you want to see the chaos for yourself, the current build is free to play right in your browser.
Let me know what you think of the new direction. I'm always lurking in the comments.
— Juba