Q: What kind of game is GROSS?
A: GROSS is a hybrid between a traditional tower defense game and a first person shooter. It is not an FPS with tower defense elements, it is a full fledged tower defense game with an FPS part during the combat phases.
Q: Is this an action packed game where I have to make split second decisions, or a more relaxed one that focuses on strategically building my defenses?
A: Both. Before each enemy wave, you are placed in the construction phase. This phase is designed to be very forgiving for mistakes and allows you as much freedom and time as possible. There is no time limit, and objects constructed in this phase can be removed and sold back for a full refund. Objects constructed in a previous construction phase can be sold back for a partial refund.
When you’re ready, you manually start the next combat phase. Combat is a busy affair, where decisions have to be made in split seconds, and you will often have to decide between an immediate reward (e.g. focusing on fighting off attackers that are about to overrun a key point in your defenses) and long term success (e.g. focusing on gathering more / spending less money).
Q: Wait, money?
A: Yes, money. Pretty much all tower defense games feature one or more resources that the player receives for killing enemies, which then fuel the construction of walls and towers. In GROSS, money doesn’t just magically appear in your bank account after blowing up a zombie. You have to go and secure it. Money can be spent on active abilities right away, or saved until the end of the wave to use it for construction.
Be warned though, the player isn’t the only one interested in gathering all that nice juicy cash, and walking around with your pockets full of the stuff might slow you down or even generate unwanted attention.
Q: Are walls, turrets and traps damaged by enemies and have to be repaired or rebuilt?
A: No. Constructed items have no durability, what you build will be there until you choose to destroy (sell) it.
Q: Can I build towers and walls wherever I want and send enemies through a maze?
A: With a few exceptions, yes. Some limitations are necessary to make the levels feel different, but we feel that most of the fun in a tower defense game comes from building a maze for the enemies.
Levels are made up of squares that can or can not be built on. As a rule of thumb, if there’s nothing obstructing a square, you can build there. In most cases, you can build whatever you want, in some cases, you might be restricted to traps or walls (without turrets). These limitations are used very scarcely, though.
The only real limitations are that you can’t build in a certain (small) area around your base, and that the enemies must have a path from all their spawn points to your base.
Q: When will GROSS be released?
A: GROSS was released on Steam January 11th 2023.
Q: How can I try the game before I buy it?
A: You can play the free demo that’s available on Steam. As the game becomes more and more polished, optimized and balanced, the demo will regularly be updated to reflect this. Think of the demo as an early access version of the game, except it’s free, but also only contains a small number of levels.
There is also Steams very generous refund policy. If you don’t like a game you played for only a couple of hours, you can usually get a full refund.
Q: What platforms will be available?
A: We currently only plan to release GROSS on Steam for Microsoft Windows.
Q: What’s in the game?
A: – 10+1 stages (levels)
– 15 player guns
– 12 active player abilities/equipment
> 20 turrets and traps that can be upgraded during play
– customizable loadouts
– story and endless mode with the ability to customize parameters (like movement speed, jump height, etc.)
Q: How long will it take me to finish the game?
A: Playing through all levels in the story mode, provided you’re finishing every level on the first try, takes about 4-7 hours. Afterwards, you can replay all levels in an endless mode. This mode is open ended, allows you to tweak a lot of different parameters (new game plus), and features harder enemies than the story mode.
Q: What incentive do I have to play the endless mode?
– It’s fun.
– There are achievements.
– There’s a global high score list.
– It’s actually really fun.
Q: Will there be multiplayer?
A: No. As much as we’d love to implement a multiplayer mode, it would simply be too much for the current scope of the game. There are plans for other ways of competing with other players around the globe, though.
Q: What languages are supported?
A: GROSS will is currently available in English, German, Italian and Chinese. Support for other languages is not yet certain.
Q: How much does the game cost?
A: The base price of the game is $12.99 / £10.99 / €12.79.