Gate is a solitaire tower-defense game in which you take on the role of the leader of a small medieval town under siege from a swarm of vile creatures from the local forest. You have to manage the health of your town's gate, the tower, and the local farm. In addition, this attack is causing fear levels to rise. If you cannot keep your gate standing or if the fear of the townspeople gets too high, you lose the game. If, however, you can hold off the swarm of enemies long enough, you will be victorious!
Gate uses deck-building as the driving mechanism in the game. You start with three starting cards, but as the game progresses you can recruit new people from your town to help your cause. Each character has unique abilities, and some even have special powers. The enemies in the game get increasingly more difficult with each new wave, so you have to make good choices as to when to spend resources on fighting off your foes, upgrading your command, and repairing your town.
—description from designer
- Strong integration of deck-building with a compact tower-defense conceit
- Tight mint tin design that nevertheless packs substantial gameplay
- Retro art and visual design enhance the game feel and portability
- Strategic depth in decisions about enemy targeting and fear management
- Hero cards can be unpredictable and may clog the hand
- Limited variety due to mint tin constraints; long-term replayability can feel constrained
- Setup and rule readability suffer from the tiny components and mixed-in rule cards
- Some issues with balance and order of hero cards affecting difficulty
- tower defense flavored by deck-building mechanics
- Medieval/fantasy village under siege; gate as the last defense
- light, tactical rather than narrative-driven
- Gates (expansion)
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
- deck-building — Players build a personal deck from market cards and use its symbols to perform actions each turn.
- fear track / inspiration — Fear rises as monsters threaten townsfolk; reaching milestones triggers effects and can bring in hero cards.
- market and commands — Coins purchase new recruits and defensive actions; command cards convert two coins into one action type per turn.
- resource management and repairs — Coins pay for purchases and repairs; managing repairs helps keep the gate and defenses intact.
- restricted card usage per turn — Each card can be played for only one symbol per term, creating choice and tension in play decisions.
- tower defense element — The gate is the central defense; monsters attack the gate and may cascade damage if not managed.
Video topics + discussion points
Quotes (from this video)
- I'm generally impressed with what Gate is able to do
- the constraints of a mint tin are very very tight and there is a whole lot of game in here
- kudos for a really good design
- hero cards are a major issue
- I think it's a great game
- the mint tin constraint might have been a little too constraining for a game design that maybe needs a little more room to run