Perk the Star

Perk the Star is a Godot 4.6 orbital tower defense game about defending the Sun with satellites that rotate on concentric rings. Campaign mode is a 12-wave Prime mission; Endless mode keeps scaling enemy mix, HP, speed, and pressure; Tech XP turns finished runs into permanent tower-path unlocks.

The project now keeps most reusable systems in C++ GDExtension and leaves scripts/game/game.gd as the main Godot gameplay coordinator. That makes the code easier to explain: C++ handles reusable data, math, HUD, audio, and helper systems; GDScript connects the scene, input, drawing, and wave flow.

Run

1. Open this repository root in Godot, not the nested game/ folder.
2. Run project.godot.
3. Click Start Defense, then pick Campaign, Boss Rush, Daily Seed, Draft Defense, Endless, or No-Flare Challenge.

The game targets a 1920x1080 canvas with expand stretching enabled.

Modes

• Campaign is the fixed 12-wave mission with the Prime boss finale.
• Boss Rush is a four-wave compressed Prime Echo mode with extra starting Sol and boss music from launch.
• Daily Seed is a six-wave date-based challenge with the same enemy mix for everyone on that day.
• Draft Defense is a six-wave contract run: pick one of three random perks before Wave 1, then clear five remixed waves and a Prime-style finale.
• Endless generates scaling waves forever: enemy mix, count, HP, speed, and breach damage rise over time, with clash, formation, and Prime Echo waves mixed in.
• No-Flare Challenge reuses the Prime campaign but disables Solar Flare and pays bonus Tech XP.
• Tech XP is earned at run end and spent on permanent tech tree unlocks that affect tower stats, rewards, flare cadence, and Helios Slingshot.
• The Tech Tree top-right Effects toggle can disable or re-enable unlocked upgrade effects without removing unlocks.
• Perfect Orbit bonuses pay extra Sol and score when a wave is cleared without losing luminosity.
• Fast kill combos add bonus score, and slowed Solar Farmers pay bonus Sol when defeated.
• Best records for each mode are saved in user://settings.cfg.

Good next addition: Solar Flare Overcharge.

Export

Use the Windows Desktop preset in Godot. Generated .exe, .pck, video, PDF, and course-submission bundles are intentionally ignored; rebuild them from the project when needed.

Controls

• Left click a tower, then left click an orbital slot to build.
• Click a placed tower to upgrade, sell, or inspect stats.
• Number keys 1 through 6 select towers.
• Mouse wheel zooms.
• Right mouse or middle mouse drag pans.
• W, A, S, and D pan.
• Space or Enter starts the next wave.
• F fires a charged solar flare during an active wave.
• T opens the tech tree overlay.
• Home or 0 recenters the Sun.
• Esc opens the pause menu.
• End screens support Retry, Tech Tree, and Main Menu.

Clean File Map

• project.godot is the Godot project entry.
• scenes/ contains playable scenes and UI scenes.
• scenes/ui/tech_tree_overlay.tscn is the current in-game tech tree overlay.
• scripts/game/game.gd is the only remaining gameplay GDScript controller.
• gdextension/src/ contains native C++ gameplay, UI, audio, math, and helper classes.
• data/waves/ contains editable campaign wave JSON.
• assets/sprites/backgrounds/ contains active background art.
• assets/sprites/clean/enemies/ and assets/sprites/clean/enemies_optimized/ contain active enemy sprites.
• assets/sprites/clean/towers/ contains active tower sprites.
• assets/audio/bgm/final/ contains active menu, wave, and boss music.
• assets/audio/bgm/end.ogg is the ending track.
• assets/audio/sfx/ contains active WAV sound effects.
• assets/fonts/ contains UI fonts.
• assets/ui/ contains UI icons, bars, and cursor art.
• assets/licenses/ contains asset credits and license text.
• docs/ contains current explanation and presentation source docs.
• docs/presentation/ contains presentation notes and the generator script.

Native Extension

The GDExtension source lives in gdextension/src. Godot loads it from game/bin/perk_the_star.gdextension, which points to game/bin/perk_the_star.dll.

To rebuild on Windows:

scons platform=windows target=template_debug arch=x86_64

godot-cpp, .godot/, build intermediates, generated DLLs, exported game bundles, generated media/PDFs, and SCons cache files are ignored because they can be regenerated.

Main Native Classes

• GameCatalogNative stores balance constants, enemy definitions, tower definitions, ring data, and active asset paths.
• GameRuntimeNative stores small runtime helpers such as easing, screen shake, BGM selection, and projectile hit tests.
• GameOrbitMathNative handles ring radius, slot angle, tower position, and nearest-slot math.
• GameTowerLibraryNative calculates tower stats, costs, refunds, and HUD button data.
• GameWaveLibraryNative loads wave JSON and formats Wave Intel text.
• GameHudNative owns the gameplay HUD controls, cards, signals, and layout.
• GameSfxBusNative loads SFX files and provides generated fallback sounds.
• GameEffectStoreNative stores temporary shots, floating text, and visual effects.
• GameStateNative stores global match state and saved settings.
• MusicManagerNative owns menu music playback.

Repo Cleanup

Backup-only media, archived roadmap notes, generated PDFs, exported builds, and built DLLs are not kept in git. If a generated file is needed again, rebuild it from source instead of committing it.