Bloble.io
is a multiplayer Tower Defence Web Game with highly abstract graphics, first released by Sidney de Vries on 16th of November, 2016.
There, the players control static bubble-like bases, which are surrounded by multiple rings where buildings can be placed. The inner ring is reserved for generators to produce all-important power, the outer ring is for the defensive walls, and the space in between can be divided however you wish between the various turrets, barracks that spawn troops, houses that raise your troop cap, and the armory that researches upgrades for them.
Troops can be selected and sent out to fight the other players; doing so will also immediately dispel the otherwise completely impermeable shield that protected your base till that point. Thus, it is impossible for those topping the leaderboards to immediately crush those who just joined the game, while the players are encouraged to build up their base as much as possible before trying offensive moves themselves.
This game was also the one Sidney worked on the least, as it was only actively updated for about a month before he moved on to his other projects, whereas most other game he made received updates for at least a year. He spoke of potentially remaking Bloble so that it would have optimised code, instead of adding features to this one. Nevertheless, even the current version is still a unique experience in the ioGame world, and there are still decent numbers on its servers.
Bloble.io features the following tropes:
- Anti-Armor: The Anti-Tank Gun, which is one of the two possible upgrades for the Sniper Turret (the other being anti-infantry Semi-Automatic Gun.)
- Archaic Weapon for an Advanced Age: The Soldiers can be upgraded with Power Armor, yet they'll still only attack in melee. Even regular tanks need to be explicitly upgraded with cannons, while the Siege Tank will always be melee-only, to the point players often straight up call it "Siege Ram".
- Cores-and-Turrets Boss: In this game, every player is one, with a Headquarters as your squishy circular core, and an outer ring of walls and turrets. Though, some players choose to largely skip the "turrets" part by building a lot of houses instead, so that they can raise their troop cap to the max.
- On the contrary, some players go for the "defensive bases" instead, which have no houses or barracks, and have nothing but turrets between the wall and the ring of generators. They can still attack others with the Commander, who is bought at the Headquarters, though this mainly works as a counter-attack immediately after wiping out someone's attacking horde.
- Fake Ultimate Mook: The Siege Tank is technically the most powerful unit any player can build, and has the extreme 1500 HP, which is 6 times as much as the normal tank. However, it is slow to build, can only attack in melee range, and moves so slowly that it may still not get there when faced up with sufficiently devoted defences, unless it has enough soldiers or even other tanks as meatshields. Once it does get to attack range, it "only" does twice the damage of a regular tank. Many players prefer not to bother with them and just make more normal tanks instead.
- Guide Dang It!: Overlaps with Violation of Common Sense. When you look at the starting building selection, and see that you have "simple" turrets and sniper turrets, it's logical to build a mix of both, right? Then, when you see that simple turrets can either have their range or rapid fire upgraded you would choose the rapid fire, since you already have the sniper turrets to cover long-range defences, right? Do that, and you'll miss out on building the spotter turrets, which leaves you defenceless against any attacks by cloaked tanks.
- Hero Unit: The Commander, who is bought at the Headquarters, and thus can be deployed even if the player built no Barracks whatsoever. He has 3x health of a tank (but half that of a Siege Tank), but moves faster, and starts off with a cannon. He can also receive the Great Leadership upgrade that raises your troop cap.
- Invisibility Cloak: The tanks can be upgraded with Cloaking Devices that make them invisible...unless the other player knows that simple turrets can be turned into spotter turrets, which immediately see through this.
- Mercy Invincibility: The impenetrable red shield, which surrounds your base up until you dare to send your first unit outside of it. Any unit trying to melee that shield will melt immediately.
- Mighty Glacier: The Siege Tank has a whopping 1500 HP - more than twice as much than the 700 HP of the commander, and 6 times as much as the HP of the normal tank. However, it moves extremely slowly, can only attack in melee (when normal tanks can be upgraded with cannons), and "only" does twice the damage of a normal tank once it does get to melee range.
- Powered Armor: An upgrade for the soldiers, to make them a bit less squishy.
- Spikes of Doom: Walls can be potentially upgraded with spikes, so that they'll damage the units trying to break through them in melee. Either that, or you can install mini-generators inside them to produce more power, or simply make them more durable instead.
- Tank Goodness: Tanks have good health, deal damage, and are the only non-Commander unit that can fight at range after the cannons upgrade. You can also upgrade them with boosters to mitigate their slow speed, or give them cloaking, though the latter is countered through upgrading the simple turrets first into ranged ones, and then into the "spotter" turrets.
- Useless Useful Stealth: The tanks can be upgraded with Cloaking Devices. This is extremely useful if the player you are attacking doesn't know that the only building which can spot them is the spotter turret, which is produced by upgrading a simple turret into a ranged turret first, and then upgrading it again. If they did build those turrets, though, then the stealth becomes irrelevant.
- Zerg Rush: Soldiers are extremely weak, and die quickly to even the basic turrets, let alone tanks. Creating whole swarms of them through making every Barracks into Greater Barracks is often the only viable way to wield them. This strategy works better if your opponent's base expected an armored assault and built large numbers of Anti-Tank Guns, which have a slow fire rate and won't kill more than one soldier at once.
