A fast‑paced arcade tactics game where every wave reshapes the battlefield. Build your squad of three elite operatives, chain explosive abilities, and survive as long as you can on a grid that shifts beneath your feet.

Created for the Turn-based Tactics Jam 2026.

Background music: MFCC - Pixabay

SFX: https://www.kenney.nl/assets/category:Audio

Player Abilities Overview

Each unit in Neon Tactics brings a unique toolkit to the fight. Here’s a quick rundown of what every ability does so players can understand their squad’s strengths at a glance.

🗡️ STRIKER — Close‑Range Burst & Bleed

Strike

A powerful melee attack that deals solid damage to a single adjacent enemy.

Rage

Empowers the Striker, boosting their attack power for a short duration.

Rend

A slashing attack that deals damage and applies a bleeding effect that continues to harm the target over time.

🛡️ VANGUARD — Control, Knockback & Defense

Bash

A melee hit that damages an enemy and knocks them back, creating space or pushing them into hazards.

Slam

A heavy strike that weakens the enemy’s attack power for a few turns.

Shield Wall

Raises a defensive barrier around the Vanguard, granting temporary protection.

💥 BLASTER — Explosives, Crowd Control & Ranged Pressure

Explosive Grenade

Throws a grenade that deals area‑of‑effect damage to enemies in a small radius.

Rapid Shot

A quick ranged attack that damages a target and slows their movement.

Stun Grenade

Detonates a flashbang that stuns all enemies in a small area, preventing them from acting briefly.

🏃 RUNNER — Mobility, Precision & Disruption

Phase Shift

Teleports to a distant tile, allowing rapid repositioning or escape.

Aimed Shot

A precise ranged attack that marks the target, causing them to take extra damage from the next hit.

Trap

Places a close‑range trap that damages and stuns the first enemy that triggers it.

✨ SUPPORT — AP Boosts, Team Buffs & Shields

Focus

Energizes an ally, granting them extra action potential for their next turn.

Amplify

Unleashes a supportive pulse that increases the attack power of nearby allies.

Barrier

Projects a protective field that grants shields to allies within range.

I created a lightweight game engine using libGDX and made the game's entire codebase open source here.

Known Issues:

• - Font needs to be improved for better clarity.
• - Player needs to manually pass enemy turn sometimes when it should always be automatic.
• - Some upgrades may not work as intended all of the time. More playtesting is needed.
• - High score tracker defaults to 800.

Potential Enhancements:

• - Abilities need a description of what they do.
• - Reset player positions after each wave.
• - Overall visual enhancement (my artistic sense is poor).
• - Concrete icons for abilities and effects.
• - Better balancing for player units, enemies, and upgrades.
• - More playable units, enemies, and upgrades.
• - Game engine should be refactored to be more simple. (Especially the rendering logic. I wrote everything as fast as I could so it's not the cleanest code).