Grovehold

Grovehold is an endless top-down action-survival game. Move with WASD (PC) or a virtual joystick (mobile). Attack with a directional sword swing (Left Mouse Button on PC, Attack button on mobile) and dodge-roll through danger (Spacebar on PC, Dodge button on mobile). Survive against waves of enemies spawning from the edges of a ruined grove arena — the threat escalates over time as more enemies spawn. Defeat enemies to increase your score, and collect heart drops to heal. The run ends when your HP reaches zero, and you can restart instantly.

Two distinct enemy types: the fast, aggressive Rootling and the slower, tankier Golem. Heart pickups drop from defeated enemies to help you survive longer. A live score system tracking survival time and kills. Full cross-platform support — the exact same core combat feel on both PC and mobile, with dedicated touch controls. Zero tutorial needed — the game teaches its mechanics through play in the first few seconds.

Grovehold focuses on tight, readable combat rather than overwhelming systems — one sword, one roll, and enemies you can learn to read at a glance. Built with true platform parity in mind: PC and mobile share the exact same underlying combat logic through a unified input model, so the game feels equally native on both devices instead of one being an afterthought port of the other.

Game Designer Mind (Minds by Animoca Brands) for core game design, mechanics, and balance. Verse8 for full implementation, including code, art, and audio

Game Designer Mind was used to develop the full game design foundation before any code was written — translating a one-line concept (“endless top-down survival game inspired by Zelda/Oceans Heart”) into a complete design document covering the core loop, an intent-based control model (Move, Face, Swing, Roll) built for true PC and mobile parity, enemy behavior and telegraphs, a difficulty-scaling formula, scoring rules, and UI/HUD layout. This design doc directly drove every implementation prompt sent to Verse8, from the initial movement and combat system through enemy AI, the difficulty director, and the touch control layout. Design decisions were revisited with Game Designer Mind throughout development as requirements evolved, including the mobile input requirements and the scope-cutting decisions needed to hit the jam deadline (trimming from 3 enemy types and 7 upgrades down to a leaner, shippable feature set).