Fire at Campsite

Great and cute tower defence game.

I played this a lot during the alpha/beta builds from itch.io and then the Discord itself. It felt really solid. But this iteration feels very lacking. Much more focused on adding random new animals, less about actual gameplay/balance. There are no directions or instructions for the game. What I mean is, during the beta/alpha phase, they'd explain that reaching certain goals with certain mods/abilities would unlock certain things. Either that system is gone entirely, or there is just no explanation as to how to obtain them, and they are entirely different from previous ways. Usually you'd max out a particular skill, and you'd unlock a perk. This steam version? Nope. No explanation why either. Maybe I have to hit a certain checkpoint in the game, but I have no idea, nothing was ever said. I really, really liked this game when it was being built, and I really enjoyed it. The dev however seems to have focused all his efforts on adding new enemies vs making the game more "fun" for the average player. So with that being said, sadly I give this a thumbs down.

This game is a hidden gem! There's a lot of content to unlock and tons of different playstyle for you to explore

In this game, you play as a fire in the center of the screen, defending yourself from waves of cute but relentless animals that approach from all directions. The gameplay is simple because all you do is watch your fire automatically hurl fireballs at enemies. While your range is unlimited, your accuracy is inconsistent, so not every shot lands. You can manually select a target by clicking on it, but once an enemy is defeated, your fire automatically switches to the next one. Since the game falls into the “idle” genre, your direct input is required between waves. After each wave, you’re offered a random selection of three perks. These may include boosts like increased accuracy, faster attack rate, higher damage, or other special effects that unlock later. If none appeal to you, you can refresh the selection once per round. Occasionally, regular perks are replaced by stronger versions that offer greater bonuses. Even better-quality perks appear after every fourth wave or when you complete a stage. Each stage consists of four waves and occasionally introduces stronger enemies or a boss fight, but otherwise, progression is steady. When you lose all your health, you return to the campsite. There, you meet a bunch of characters. One maintains a bestiary, where you can view stats for all encountered enemies and claim small money rewards for defeating certain numbers of each type. Another oversees wardrobes, letting you change your appearance and equip perks. The most engaging character, however, manages the skill tree. You begin with five central skills, and unlocking one reveals new skills branching outward. Each unlocked skill may lead to several others, making the tree unpredictable and exciting to explore. Skills include effects like life-stealing, explosive kills, or chain lightning that jumps between enemies. Each can be upgraded up to level three, enhancing their power or adding new effects. For example, the Assassin skill grants armor penetration at level one, then adds a chance to execute enemies at level two. Naturally, upgrades grow more expensive the further you progress from the starting node. Fully upgrading a skill also unlocks a related quest you can complete anytime. However, the system has a major drawback: skills aren’t passive. Unlocking them simply adds them to the pool of potential perk rewards after completing stages. The more skills you purchase, the more options you must draw from, meaning you’ll often be forced to choose perks you don’t want. This creates a strategic dilemma. In my first run, focusing solely on accuracy and attack speed made the first boss manageable. But after buying many new skills, the expanded perk pool diluted my strategy, and I couldn’t even reach that same boss again. While it’s possible to reset purchased skills, doing so undermines the sense of long-term progression. Skills should make each new run easier and more varied, not harder and more frustrating.

命中率到底是谁加进去的玩法。。。。明明demo还没有的，正式版比demo多了很多东西但是手感甚至不如demo，玩的血压高

Fire at Campsite takes the familiar structure of a tower-defense game and playfully reshapes it into something far more character-driven and whimsical. Developed by Salvador Palma and published by ZOO Studios and Captcha Games, the experience places you not in the role of a strategist observing the battlefield from above, but in the unlikely position of the campfire itself. That small twist immediately sets the tone: warm, humorous and approachable, but still built on a foundation of strategy and wave-based survival. The goal is simple—survive the night against waves of increasingly bold animals drawn to your flame—but the way you achieve that goal is rooted in experimentation, build-crafting, and balancing offense with resilience. The game’s core loop revolves around upgrading your flame using a sprawling collection of augments and effects. Instead of placing multiple defensive towers around a map, you are the sole point of defense, and your success depends entirely on how well you enhance your abilities from run to run. Each wave pushes you to refine your build—boost damage output, improve area control, enhance burn effects, or invest in defensive layers that help the flame endure. The variety of augments is one of the game’s standout features. Being able to choose among more than two hundred potential modifiers means that no two runs feel quite the same, and even failed attempts tend to reveal new strategies or synergies you might want to pursue next time. This roguelite-infused upgrade system gives the game a sense of long-term replayability while keeping moment-to-moment gameplay satisfying. Visually, Fire at Campsite embraces a friendly and stylized aesthetic that complements its lighthearted premise. Forest creatures are depicted with charm rather than menace, and the environment has a bright, cartoon softness that makes the game immediately inviting. Despite that, the tension remains constant: each wave grows more aggressive, and the charm of your surroundings only emphasizes the absurdity of a lone campfire defending itself against a forest’s worth of curious wildlife. The animation work is clean, the effects are lively, and the campsite setting provides a coherent backdrop that ties the entire experience together. The art style also helps convey important information during frantic moments, making it easy to understand what’s happening even as the screen fills with approaching animals and burst effects from your augments. Mechanically, the game manages to strike a balance between accessibility and strategic depth. Players who want a casual tower-defense experience can simply enjoy the satisfaction of unlocking new effects and testing simple builds. At the same time, those who dig deeper will find that certain combinations of augments interact in interesting ways, allowing for powerful or unexpected synergies. Yet, because the entire experience is built around a single defensive “tower,” it inevitably has limitations. Some builds feel noticeably stronger than others, and certain augment paths lose effectiveness once you reach later waves. As a result, players seeking finely tuned balance or highly technical mechanics may find the game lighter than the more complex examples of the genre. Still, the straightforward structure helps maintain a brisk pace and keeps each run digestible, making it easy to jump in for short sessions. The game’s charm also lies in its rhythm. A typical run builds from calm early waves to intense late-game pressure, and it’s in those final moments—when you’re desperately hoping your flame holds strong—that the game finds its identity. The combination of playful visuals, escalating danger and the satisfaction of watching your carefully chosen augment combinations spring into action gives the late stages a distinctive energy. Even failed attempts rarely feel punishing; instead, they often push players to reconsider their approach and experiment with new augments they hadn’t tried before. This encourages a sense of discovery that keeps the experience fresh, even as you face the same campsite night after night. Overall, Fire at Campsite succeeds through its originality, charm and emphasis on build variety. It doesn’t attempt to compete with large-scale tower-defense titles or roguelite epics in terms of scope, but it delivers a polished, enjoyable experience that makes excellent use of its central gimmick. Its relaxed visual identity blends nicely with its strategic challenges, and its augment-driven progression loop provides satisfying reasons to revisit the campsite for another run. While players seeking deep tactical layers or extensive meta-progression may find it somewhat modest in scale, those who appreciate inventive design, strong replayability and a warmly humorous tone will discover a delightful and memorable indie gem. Rating: 7/10

養成的餘燼太難獲得，還要玩家重設餘燼去換其他東西 技能樹太混亂，還要先點前置 玩到後期根本沒什麼動力，每場開局都是一樣的怪、一樣的王 希望能有額外的能力點數系統，至少不會都是同一種物資去升級