Islets Defense

I played the demo a lot and was really impressed by how much depth there is when chasing high scores! Now playing the full game, just finished the second region and wow, it feels like a whole new game using the same core mechanics. Oh, and before I forget, to the person who designed the hardcore stages: thank you but also, I will hunt you down.

This game is amazing. There are so many different mechanics and everything is really cool and well done. Each region of the game instigates the player to explore and play even more. I absolutely loved the minigames in the desert.

Wish I could give a neutral rating, but giving a positive as support for the devs. I really like the concept of this game, the gameplay is cute, and it's obvious it's a labor of love with many little fun details (quacking cannon towers as a setting?!). It just feels... a bit shallow. Like the potential is there, but was kept too surface level in an effort to keep it cute. There is very little replay-ability, and the main playthru is pretty short. It's disappointing, but only because I want more. Overall 6/10

i played the beta a couple of months ago, this is a pretty interesting tower defense with some unique mechanics ive never seen before, its definely worth trying out.

A game that didnt just manage to put a unique spin on itself in a landscape where "uniqueness" has become a very rare thing, but also a game with a big heart that hasn't forgotten that at the end of the day games are supposed to be fun. Very good work.

I've never played this type of game. I followed the Game Designer because of his contribuitions with Horizon Chase. This is very entertaining. I like Civilization, and in some weird way it reminds me of that one more turn feeling and getting things right, planning. Very enjoyable, the Demo made me purchase.

Amazing game, it's so fun and quirky! Love the main gameplay mechanic with the cards. I played the demo before and I was very excited for the full game. Very happy to see it released.

This game is a really fun and fresh take on tower defense, using a clever turn-based system that makes every move count. It’s not just about placing towers—you also have to manage your resources carefully to stay ahead of the enemy waves. What I love most is that every new level feels like a discovery. You’re constantly finding new mechanics, useful cards, and even little minigames that keep things exciting. The variety is great—each map feels unique, with different environments and smart ways to gather resources, like fishing in water tiles or collecting food from cactus in the desert. On top of that, the game is super polished. The art is beautiful, the effects are satisfying, and everything runs smoothly. I sat down to try it out and suddenly hours had passed—it’s just that addictive. If you like strategy games with lots of surprises and charm, this one’s absolutely worth your time. I can't wait to keep exploring and see what else the game has in store.

This game is awesome! The art, effects and audio is so pretty and smooth. The mechanics are really well done in quality and quantity. I'm having a lot of fun. Extra points for having leaderboards.

Super fun game to play, incredibly well made (art, game play, sound effects) should definitely check out!!!

One of the most interesting tower defense games I’ve ever played. It blends exploration and crafting mechanics to enrich the turn-based dynamics. Not to mention the adorable sounds and charming design (YOU CAN MAKE THE CANNONS QUACK!!!!!)

Game explains everything super well. Really gets you thinking. Loving it so far.

A really neat turn-based tower defense game. It mixes some exploration and exploitation in the form of uncovering the map and creating buildings to extract resources. There's a bit of spatial min/maxing as well in how you arrange your buildings to make best use of their upgrades. The way you choose your action each turn is pretty cool . You have four actions (build, upgrade, explore, and morph) in your 1, 2, 3, and 4 slot. Whenever you use an action, it goes to the 1 spot and pushes all the others to the right, increasing their value by one. Each action has 4 options, but you can only choose the options up to the current level the action is at. For example, if you chose the build action while it's at level 2, you would only be able to build a logging camp or farm. If you waited to choose the building action when it's at level 4, you would have all options open to you, now including a bomb and tower in addition to the previous two options. This mechanic of having to cycle actions and selecting the action at the correct level makes for an interesting timing puzzle. What has really impressed me is that each biome seems to have its own buildings and "rules." Things work slightly different, so you have to come up with new strategies and ways to think. Each level can also be perfected by earning gold ranking, completing challenges, or competing on the leaderboards to beat it in the least amount of turns, adding a bit of replay to each level if you don't master it on the first try. You will also unlock a hard mode for each biome if you get a perfect ranking on each level in the biome. If I had one gripe, it would be that each level is a bit trial and error on your first attempt. Levels are not procedurally generated, so returning to the level on your subsequent attempts, you will know exactly where all the good resources and items are located. I would also like to add the caveat that if what you enjoy about tower defense games is building a lot of towers with a lot of variety, this game might not be for you. So far, it seems you only get one tower type per biome. You can get other tower types by acquiring them from treasure chests that you must explore, but these are sort of one-off uses that can only be built once and go away at the end of the level. The draw to this game is more in building up resources by exploring, creating buildings to extract resources, and then using those resources to build a sufficient enough defense. Overall, Islets Defense seems to be good bang for your buck, and has a great visual style. If you're looking for a turn-based tower defense game that feels a bit puzzly and has some unique mechanics, look no further.

So much fun! I can't wait to see the different mechanics in the next maps. Highly recommend!

idk why I tuned out when I watched the trailer that this would be a tower defense, I was expecting more card-based gameplay, but I'm not disappointed at all. It's a very interesting take on tower defense. Great way of limiting the actions and how you have to deal with them. Managing the resources is fun, the upgrades can be very interesting, but the wildest thing was when I reached a new region and the base of what I did changed and it was just the refreshness I needed and miss from some other tower defense games

Such a nice and unique mix of tower defense and turn-based strategy game, if you dig this kind of genre you should definitely try this one. The rank system keeps me wanting to try levels again to beat my friends' scores and I have fun every time. Nice job!

Great little tower defense game. Accessible but with a challenge and some decent replayability with leaderboard options and hardcore mode. It took me about 10 hours to perfect and beat the main campaign. The game was polished, fairly priced and a lot of fun.

Very fun take on a tower defense game. Can't wait to check the different mechanics in later stages.

Demo was good. Full game adds a ton of features and is 100% worth the price and I am excited to see this concept and game continued. Keep them coming

This game is really fun! It looks very cute and has interesting gameplay mechanics! There's also a bunch of funny easter eggs and cool minigames. Highly recommend it!

TL;DR: Demo was good, and the full release exceeded my already high expectations. Lots of variety in gameplay so far to keep things fresh. Highly recommend giving this one a shot! Worst case scenario, you'll get the idea before the 2hr refund window is over. Played the demo and have been anxiously waiting for the full release. Turn-based tower defense with some really interesting mechanics on how turns work. Resource management feels finely tuned so it's a constant battle to keep income up on top of having to survive the waves. Challenging and takes a good bit of thought into what I do with my turns. For example, if I buy/upgrade a cannon at the wrong time, it could end up making me lose because I no longer have resources to upgrade my resource generators. What surprised me for the full release was that different areas also have different towers with new upgrades. This makes the game change drastically as I play along so it doesn't get stale. Area 1 is pretty straightforward, but then area 2 starts adding in synergies between towers if you choose to upgrade in that way.

The game's innovation, aesthetic appeal, and entertaining nature are notable features.

Played the demo and was happy to see my save carried over! I’m just starting the second region, but the new twists already look super promising. Gonna keep playing, but honestly? For the price, the amount of handcrafted content here is more than worth it. Loving it so far!

It is a extremely well made game, with cool mechanics and it is such a polished experience. Super engaging and I catch myself going back to it every time I have little time or I am waiting for something

So far, I'm loving this game, but I have two major gripes - both with the leaderboard - and one minor gripe. I def recommend buying it & hope my complaints will be addressed. First, the things I love (*keep in mind, I've only played level 1*) - It's cute, reasonably complex, quick to learn, there are interesting decisions, some difficulty, and the price is reasonable for the "10+ hours" of gameplay the devs promise. I also love the opportunity to grind for the highest spot on the leaderboard (min-maxing is always a fun and difficult challenge, and its well done here). Looking forward to trying other levels & the hardcore mode. Also! The 'vegetarian mode' is cute & great. It's funny that food is 'meat' or 'apple' even though you're growing wheat lol (its perfect as-is). Gripes. I beat level 1 in 16 turns after 5 or 6 attempts. I'm very proud of this. 1. But my achievement is not displayed proudly to the world, because the leaderboard is a bunch of bars showing proportions of players who beat it at certain turns .... and even now it looks like the lowest anybody has gotten is a '26'. I want leaderboards to display the names of players with their scores, much like Poly Bridge. 2. Aaaand, I got 16 turns with only one cannon, but there is a challenge to beat the level with 4 cannons. There should either be multiple leaderboards OR my imperfect run should not qualify for the leaderboard. (I prefer multiple leaderboards, probably just 'perfect' and 'all' or 'perfect' and 'imperfect'. BUT it could have 'perfect', 'full-health', 'challenge-completed', and 'none' (for hurt and no challenge)). Another option is that 'lowest turns' is always best on a single leaderboard, but full-health & challenge-completed are used as tie-breakers AND next to each players name it displays turn count, whether they had full health, and whether they completed the challenge. (resources gained, resources per-turn, resources remaining, map-area explored, and total-damage dealt (sometimes a creature has less health than the damage you're doing) could also be used as tie-breaks (more = better)) 3. I want to inspect my map after I win. After it's done i have 'restart' or 'continue'. I'm trying to min-max so I want to see if I had any stone left, what my upgrades were like, and whatnot. If I leave this screen, I would also like a 'Run History' so that I can inspect previous runs (*just the final game state. It would be nice, but I don't really need a replay of the whole run, though it WOULD be cool to have a 'replay run' button that animates the whole thing in real-time*)

Fun twist on tower defence. It strikes a good balance between puzzle games where every single move is vital and tower defence games where you have the freedom to apply a multitude of strategies to succeed.

The game freezes when the last enemy dies to ground spikes. Aside from that the game is great if you like strategy. Every 3 levels you enter a different biome with different building set. It forces you to adapt to the environment. I highly reccomend.

Nicely done! Very cool little tower defense game with a strategic base building layer that will entertain you for an evening.

I'm not a tower defense game person, but I really liked this one. It's a cute game, with mechanics that work very well and it's an excellent mix of card game and tower defense. I recommend this game, especially if you like tower defense :)

Amazing strategy game! At the same time challenging and chill, a tower defense with resource management that pushes it a bit towards an RTS, but keeping the turn-based mechanics that allow you to play at your own pace.

[h1]Islets Defense – Strategy with Heart[/h1] After completing all the current base content in Islets Defense (I'm halfway through the hard mode stages), I’m left impressed by the craftsmanship, surprised by the challenge, and occasionally frustrated in ways that only a good strategy game can manage. This is a game that wears its board game inspirations proudly, wrapping tactile mechanics in a polished, juicy presentation — yet it's also not afraid to throw the occasional curveball at you, even if it means the experience might stumble in accessibility or pacing. If you come into it expecting a traditional tower defense experience, you'll be caught off-guard — in a good way. This is a puzzle game disguised as a tower defense game, where your tools are extremely limited, resource generation has as much weight as offensive synergy and your options are layered. Every new map is a board you must learn to master with timing, planning, and a good dose of experimentation. It delivers gold nuggets at every stage and every biome. It's a masterclass of orthogonal design and I would love to see a few more – if not dozens more – of new levels added! [h3]The Highs[/h3] [list] [*][b]Satisfying Game Feel:[/b] Every action you take in Islets Defense is punchy and deliberate. Every click and squishy animation, feedback is fantastic and actions are sleek. This is one of the most playable strategy games I’ve touched in a while. [*][b]Unique Core Loop:[/b] The rotating action queue system is very engaging. It turns what would otherwise be a rigid build-order puzzle into a dynamic, timing-based challenge. [*][b]Every Level is a Discovery:[/b] With handcrafted levels and distinct biomes, each map feels like its own board game. New enemies, new rules, and new resources force you to rethink your approach regularly. You get the rush of mastering a game over and over, several times and it never gets stale! [*][b]Heart:[/b] The very charming “vegetarian mode" makes it clear this is a game made with love and care by real people. [/list] [h3]The Lows?[/h3] [list] [*][b]Overload and complexity for newcomers:[/b] The first few levels throw a lot at you and the escalation never stops. Experienced players, especially tabletop boardgamers, will find the mechanics intuitive rather quickly, but the action cycling and economy can be overwhelming for new players. But buckle up and enjoy, it's well worth the effort. [*][b]Trial-and-Error Difficulty:[/b] While not punishing, many levels demand foreknowledge, especially if you are going for the hard mode. Your first attempt is often exploratory, your second (or third) the “real” one. It's not a deal breaker to me, but I think it's a low for a lot of less seasoned players who may be drawn from the cute presentation. [*][b]Lack of Feedback Tools:[/b] I often found myself mentally calculating if an enemy line would be cleared by the towers—something that could be solved by some damage preview system. As it stands, you either trust your math or overbuild. A quick "undo" button could go a long ways too when a misclick ruins the end of a run. [/list] [h2]Closing Thoughts[/h2] Islets Defense is a charming, deeply satisfying puzzle-strategy hybrid that rewards patience, curiosity, and clever planning. It's not a game about reacting fast or the traditional DPS tower-synergy madness — it's about looking at a board, understanding your tools, and outsmarting the scenario one turn at a time. There’s real genius here: from its turn-based mechanics and biome diversity to the polish and love poured into its presentation. But like any clever board game, it’s one that demands learning its rules before you can truly have fun. And while it occasionally leans too hard into trial-and-error, the bones of this experience are strong, original, and addictively engaging. If you enjoy thoughtful puzzles, board-game style optimization, and tactical planning, then Islets Defense is well worth your time. I’ll be keeping a close eye on where it evolves next—and in the meantime, I’m going back to perfect a few biomes as I'm about halfway through hard mode!

Got the “5 rounds without food” achievement on the first stage, felt impossible at first, but here we are! I’m not a tower defense pro (don’t usually play games that much tbh), but I got totally hooked. Super easy to pick up, surprisingly addictive, and hard to stop. Highly recommend!

Short, sweet, elegant. Certainly worth your 10$ if you're curious.

Nice chill game, good art and gameplay

Really slick design. The way the game encourages you to diversify actions without requiring it is smart as hell. First loop is a satisfying beatdown, second loop really takes off the kid gloves and forces you to strategize. Love it!

This took me back to the times I liked playing TD, I got a little sick of the genre but the game has a unique new perspective, highly recommend.

I'm an old tower defense fan—ever since the Flash game days on Newgrounds in the 2000s. But after playing so many titles in the genre, it started to feel a bit stale. Well, there's nothing stale about Islets Defense. Here's what I have to say so far, having played up to the 4th world (3 maps per world): Pros: 1) The turn system is meaningful, not just a gimmick. Mastering the order of your cards can let you beat a map 10 turns faster. (Gotta do well in the leaderboard averages… right?!) 2) Graphics, music, animations, and even the quack sounds are all very pleasing. 3) Interesting map designs. I like how you're sometimes forced to explore due to not having good tower starting positions—it adds depth. 4) Variety between worlds is great. It changes how you interact with your turns. For example, World A has a food resource that grows in 1 action, while World B has a different one that takes 2 actions. 5) Hard mode unlocks once you beat each world. Cons: 1) No story—just tower defense. While this is common in the genre, I still missed having at least a light narrative. 2) Limited tower variation. There are unique tower unlocks in certain levels, but they're rare and single-use. I would have liked more variety—even just two tower styles per world would add more strategic depth. I get that the game focuses more on action management than building strategies, but I still missed having more options. 3) Some worlds have a visual "wobble" effect, like you're underwater. It can be a bit dizzying, and I couldn’t find an option to turn it off. 4) No speed-up option. A simple x2 speed toggle would go a long way, especially when you’re replaying levels to optimize your average turn count. Overall: The game is very fun, and I’ll definitely be playing more. The pros clearly outweigh the cons, and it's fairly priced. I'll be keeping an eye on MiniGoof Games in the future.

Nice game, really fun and all, hope to see more of it if possible.

Very fun game, it's been a while since I played a tower defense that was so good and addictive.

This game is everything I wanted and more. Goofy, challenging, surprisingly in depth, and very easy to understand. 9.5/10 I'm having a blast rn

The game is gud, give it a chance, you can quack the duck

Each turn brings a fun new discovery, the characters are adorable, and it’s incredibly creative and addictive! I can't wait to unlock every region and find out the mechanics it brings!

Really fun game. Well designed. Good variety of challenges

Cute and addictive.

Great little game with i believe quite a lot of content :)

I like it

good.