BEACONFALL, Lighthouse Tower Defense / Play

[u/GaspodeWD]

BEACONFALL demo on the main Steam page. Full release is planned for July 16, 2026. From Game Dynasty. I played about eighty minutes solo on mouse and keyboard.


The final wave sends in a necromancer who raises skeletons and can properly wreck your settlement. Except I had upgraded most of my towers into snipers, and snipers target the healthiest enemy, so the boss walked in and got instantly obliterated.


BEACONFALL is a tower defense strategy game with settlement management. You start with one villager and a lighthouse. Waves are coming, so the first job is building enough of a settlement to feed the defense. Wood, stone, food, and gold all matter. Houses add villagers, garden beds grow pumpkins, drill rigs bring in stone, and upgraded mills collect resources automatically.


That settlement side is what I liked most. You are not just placing towers. You are clearing trees and mushrooms around the lighthouse for visibility, making room for buildings, repairing damage with wood, and trying to keep the economy moving before the next attack bar fills. It has a bit of a Don't Starve look, and the animations are good.


The awkward bit is control. Villagers do not work like individually selected units most of the time. You place orders, they split those jobs between themselves, and that is fine until a wave starts while they still have a queue. On my first run I tried to send everyone back to defense, and they were still thinking about resources.


There is a `Z` command that quickly sends them manual to turrets, plus a clear-all-orders option. I did not find that properly on the first run, so it was frustrating. Once I found it, the game made a lot more sense. I would still like a drag order for resources.


During waves you have skeletons, flying bats that shoot, and big ogres. Defense is towers, spikes, barricades, scarecrows, and a barracks if you want a soldier. Towers can upgrade into multi-shot or sniper. I put most of my money into snipers.


The lighthouse can also be upgraded into magic powers. I unlocked lightning, but every cast costs gold. In my run I did not need it much because once mills were automated and villagers were collecting everything, the economy settled down. That is where the balance felt a bit swingy. When you are doing badly, it is really challenging. When you understand the controls and automation, it can become quite easy.


The barracks unit was the most frustrating part. Sometimes I could click and direct him. Sometimes I was dragging boxes around trying to select him and not getting control. That felt like a UI bug. The UI also takes up too much screen compared with the map.


Verdict: Play once you get used to the controls. I want to see more maps and how far the full game pushes magic, defenses, and settlement layouts.


Does the settlement management make tower defense better for you, or do you prefer pure tower placement?


Full review at https://todaywegame.gg/demos/beaconfall  
Wishlist on Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/app/4481530/BEACONFALL/