One of the most unoriginal concepts a game developer can do is create contrived animosity between animal species and have them settle their differences with human weapons. That’s Penguins vs Seals. Do penguins and seals really have beef? At worst, penguins are prey to certain seals. At best, they leave each other alone. So, what’s a great way to convey this toxic relationship? As a tower defense game where each animal use human weaponry to defend and attack. How dull.
You control the penguins. Each penguin has a different function. You place them strategically on the grid for maximum defense. Penguins shoot the seals. The seals attack with Maces.
Can you imagine if PopCap created Plants vs Zombies and just gave them guns? Where would be the charm in that? The only reason why Garden Warfare could get away with it is because the whimsy had already been established with two games. PopCap were allowed to satirize their own franchise by that point. Obviously, Penguins vs Seals hasn’t developed the ability to do that. And I suspect it never will.
The gameplay isn’t serviceable, anyway. The tutorial functioned just fine. I had enough time to buy a reasonable number of units before the seals marched down the lanes. After the tutorial, the cash didn’t generate fast enough to adequately protect all my lanes. There’s usually enough time to put one unit in a lane.
The CEO at my old job at an after-school program once told me he could tell the condition of the program by looking at the ping-pong table. I can tell the competence of a developer by the condition of their sound effects. In this demo, there are none. I don’t know what it is with indie developers and their disregard of sound. Not that I want to hear what penguins shooting guns sounds like, anyway.