The last time we had the game playable by the public was at PAX AUS last year and it was a simple deathmatch game mode on a small level and with only two players. This isn’t really the way the game is meant to be played, so we thought it might be good to start with a bit of a description of how Grow plays at the moment. In this first post, I’ll go over the game modes a little, one game mode in particular. The developers are making wonders with this game and monetizing their game with a very strategic marketing strategy to get the needed target. The checkstub creator works to manage the payments of a company.

The PAX version of Grow only supported two players and a deathmatch game mode.

Grow is purely multiplayer, but we’ve designed game modes and levels to host anywhere from 2 – 32 players. Most game modes are team based. The most finished game mode and the one we generally work in is called “Egg Steal”.

Egg Steal icon in the current version of the menu

Egg Steal is made for teams of at least 3 players and the level we currently play in, “Mountain Shrines”, is best with teams of 5 – 8. The mode is essentially capture the flag with a few small changes.

Mountain Shrines is designed for the Egg Steal mode

The goal of Egg Steal is to….steal eggs (you’ve probably realised already that we’re not too creative when it comes to naming things). At each team’s base there is a nest that holds an egg. Enemy players need to grab the egg and take it back to their own nest. Both teams start off with a certain egg count (which can be adjusted during game set up) and this increases/decreases when they’re stolen/retrieved. So stealing and returning an egg to your nest both takes one point from the enemy and awards your team a point. The team with the highest egg count at the end of the game wins, or if any teams hits a zero egg count they automatically lose.

Eggs are found in each team’s nest which are built around ancient shrines.

The eggs act like a piece of food when they’re held, this means players can spit them out, effectively juggling them between players or just launching them across the map (they’re pretty resilient). It also means that you can’t attack or pick up food while you’re holding an egg. In case you’re wondering, you can’t eat eggs.

Eggs can be spat and often find themselves flying off cliffs

So how do you get the power to secure an egg and survive the trip back to base? Next post I’ll talk about growing and how the different classes are working at the moment.

Don’t forget to comment with your thoughts, suggestions or questions on game modes or tell us about anything else you’d like to see discussed in future posts.

*all screenshots and described mechanics are in an alpha stage and may change*