View Full Version : Good tower defense games?
Agent_0042
2011-09-03, 11:34 AM
For a video game design class, I've decided to code a tower defense game as my first project. I would like recommendations on free (or very cheap) and good TDGs. This is partly for inspiration, and partly because it is required that I compare/contrast my game with at least three same-genre games. I've played (and enjoyed) Plants vs. Zombies and Bloons, but other than that I'm not well-acquainted with the genre. Any suggestions?
I can heartily recommend two.
Defense Grid: The Awakening is one of the best representative of the traditional tower defense game. It costs a hefty $9.99 though, but it does go on discount now and then.
Gratuitous Space Battles on the other hand works like a reverse tower defense game, where you get to design ships and pit them against each other. Why reverse? Because most of the time you will be designing ships to fight the enemy, instead of defending against them.
If you have Warcraft III: TFT or Starcraft II, then I recommend you check out the numerous TD maps the community have churned out over the years. Some have outright innovative ideas. Notable maps in Warcraft III: TFT include Elements TD, the oft played Green TD, Mafia TD and Maul TD, Gem TD, and many more.
Dublock
2011-09-03, 11:52 AM
personally I love the gemcraft series. They have 3 of them, Gemcraft, Ch 0 and Labyrinth.
AmberVael
2011-09-03, 12:15 PM
I am personally pretty fond of playing games on Kongregate, and I do like tower defense on occasion. Here are some of my favorites:
Gemcraft, (http://www.kongregate.com/games/gameinabottle/gemcraft) Chapter 0, (http://www.kongregate.com/games/gameinabottle/gemcraft-chapter-0) Labyrinth (http://www.kongregate.com/games/gameinabottle/gemcraft-labyrinth)
Gemcraft is pretty awesome. It is a tower defense game that gives you a lot of different options and the ability to mix and match with them. It is an incredibly versatile, yet fairly simple system, and with a nice theme to match. It develops a bit more in later games, but I would say that there probably isn't enough difference to warrant playing all of them. Maybe play the original and then Labyrinth to see how it has developed and what was changed.
Ghost Hacker. (http://www.kongregate.com/games/CoreSector/ghost-hacker)
Ghost Hacker takes a very simple set of mechanics and puts a style and theme on it that makes it very fun to play. More interestingly though, it flouts one of the usual big rules of tower defense games, in that you can never permanently lose resources. If you sell a tower, you get back the same amount you spent on it, and so forth- the cost it exacts from you instead is time, as you have to wait for those resources to refresh. I think it demonstrates quite well not only how you can make a very conventional set of mechanics interesting, but also how some of the standard assumptions don't need to be adhered to. It's a good game.
Cursed Treasure (http://www.kongregate.com/games/IriySoft/cursed-treasure-dont-touch-my-gems) (Level Pack) (http://www.kongregate.com/games/IriySoft/cursed-treasure-level-pack)
Fantasy Tower Defense game with some RPG elements to it. I'm honestly not sold on its upgrade mechanics. The incapability to retrain or rechoose upgrades seems like a bad move, given that some people might want to test certain options, or might not immediately grasp the better strategies (thereby making it a lot harder to win the game unless you start over, which is a pain). This said, it is a flavorful and enjoyable game with some good variety in options. I do think it has some room for improvement though.
Desktop Tower Defense Pro (http://www.kongregate.com/games/CasualCollective/desktop-td-pro)
This one is a classic. No player controlled skills, no upgrades that can cross between games, just towers and more towers. It is simple, it is classic, and it is polished- well worth checking out.
Bubble Tanks Tower Defense (http://www.kongregate.com/games/HeroInteractive/bubble-tanks-tower-defense)
This one is fun just because of the ways you can upgrade your towers. It wouldn't be special at all except for that gimmick, but given how integral that is to the game, it makes it very fun. You can play it pretty standard... or you can make a gigantic machine gun that shoots ghostly explosives. Well worth checking out.
Cieyrin
2011-09-03, 12:19 PM
Desktop Tower Defense is another good series to look into. I also recommend Gemcraft, fun set of games.
enderlord99
2011-09-03, 12:41 PM
No-one has mentioned Plants vs. Zombies yet?!?
Plants vs. Zombies.
Eloel
2011-09-03, 01:27 PM
No-one has mentioned Plants vs. Zombies yet?!?
Plants vs. Zombies.
OP did :smallwink:
Though I'll have to admit I popped in to suggest PvZ as well :smallbiggrin:
Another, Less known WCIII TD is burbentnog TD, and some interesting Ideas. Also, Kingdom rush Armour games is pretty good. Linky (http://armorgames.com/play/12141/kingdom-rush)
Godskook
2011-09-03, 01:56 PM
As a piece of advice, the main trick to a fun TD game these days is to have one with unique tower systems. The playstyle gets repetitive really fast in this genre, so the replay value of TD game #578 is going to be incredibly low if you're just like 200 of the previous games. Of those listed, Bloons, Gemcraft, PlantsVZombies, and Cursed Treasure are all ones I'm familiar with and enjoy playing precisely cause they have unique mechanics that I've never seen in a different TD game.
Seonor
2011-09-03, 02:20 PM
Gemcraft and Desktop Tower Defense would be my favorites. Followed closely by Creeper World (http://www.kongregate.com/games/whiteboardwar/creeper-world-training-sim) and The Space Game (http://www.kongregate.com/games/CasualCollective/the-space-game-missions) which vary the formula quite a bit. Creeper World has no single enemys, rather a flood of liquid that must be vaporised. The Space Game has you mining asterioids and defending against space pirates.
AmberVael
2011-09-03, 02:44 PM
Gemcraft and Desktop Tower Defense would be my favorites. Followed closely by Creeper World (http://www.kongregate.com/games/whiteboardwar/creeper-world-training-sim) and The Space Game (http://www.kongregate.com/games/CasualCollective/the-space-game-missions) which vary the formula quite a bit. Creeper World has no single enemys, rather a flood of liquid that must be vaporised. The Space Game has you mining asterioids and defending against space pirates.
Both of these are very fun- I own the full version of Creeper World, and it was worth the small price I had to pay for it.
They are certainly far from traditional tower defense games, though I suppose they do count as such.
Cespenar
2011-09-03, 04:21 PM
I second pretty much everything that is said here. I recently played Kingdom Rush though, and it would easily enter my top three.
ninja_penguin
2011-09-03, 05:41 PM
Everybody has already listed most of the major important bits.
If you're making a tower defense game, I suggest the following three things.
1. Some sort of upgrade/special ability system. It lets you increase the difficulty a bit, and players can customize to their play style.
2. Different styles of enemies that can be dealt with in different ways. Don't Touch my Gems! is a good example of this, with different enemies that all have different special abilities (bloody ninjas).
3. towers should be different enough so that there's an obvious reason to make them. Certain towers in some games, while designed differently, function so poorly that sometimes spamming the basic tower is the superior choice.
Domochevsky
2011-09-03, 08:03 PM
And of course you need to make the basic choice of whether or not you want to have paths or just one big area with your towers blocking the enemy waves.
That is a big dividing line for TD games, Mazing or no Mazing. Also, will it be possible for us to see the project when it's finished? Or possibly Beta test?
Balain
2011-09-04, 02:36 AM
It's not free but one you can compare to is Pixeljunk Monsters (http://pixeljunk.jp/library/Monsters/#)
Lateral
2011-09-04, 10:18 AM
Villainous (http://www.onemorelevel.com/game/villainous) was a fun game. It's sort of like a reverse tower defense game, in that you control the waves and not the towers.
GolemsVoice
2011-09-04, 03:29 PM
I thought PokerTD was fun, for Warcraft III. Basically, you are dealt a poker hand at the beginning of each wave, and you can choose which cards to keep and which cards to exchange for new ones, and the better your hand at the end, the better the tower you get. It has a big random element, but I like that.
Emmerask
2011-09-04, 03:29 PM
Desktop Tower Defense is another good series to look into. I also recommend Gemcraft, fun set of games.
To me desktop tower defense is the best of the lot simply because instead of pregenerated ways the units walk you create the labyrinth (or path or however you want to call it) yourself with the towers, which adds a whole lot of strategy to the game.
I thought PokerTD was fun, for Warcraft III. Basically, you are dealt a poker hand at the beginning of each wave, and you can choose which cards to keep and which cards to exchange for new ones, and the better your hand at the end, the better the tower you get. It has a big random element, but I like that.
Heh heh. Poker TD. That was one heck of a funny map. It is however, not at all balanced, seeing that you can easily bribe the dealer and if you play your cards right... you can get a series of '4 of a Kind' tower right off the bat. Which absolutely murders everything.
To me desktop tower defense is the best of the lot simply because instead of pregenerated ways the units walk you create the labyrinth (or path or however you want to call it) yourself with the towers, which adds a whole lot of strategy to the game.
Lots of TD do that, so it's not as if desktop tower defense has a monopoly on this. Heck Gem TD for Warcraft III practically requires you to maze in order to survive anything beyond Normal difficulty.
Timberwolf
2011-09-04, 06:12 PM
I'd recommend Defense Grfid as well.
Winterwind
2011-09-05, 07:15 AM
One further thing: In a good TD map, the strategy should be more complex then "next round will have enemies that are weak against damage type A, so I should build a tower with damage type A next. The round after that, the enemies will be weak against damage type B, so I will build a tower with damage type B then. Etc.". Placement and tower synergy should play a bigger role than just knowing what armour type the next round of enemies will have.
Domochevsky
2011-09-05, 12:03 PM
One further thing: In a good TD map, the strategy should be more complex then "next round will have enemies that are weak against damage type A, so I should build a tower with damage type A next. The round after that, the enemies will be weak against damage type B, so I will build a tower with damage type B then. Etc.". Placement and tower synergy should play a bigger role than just knowing what armour type the next round of enemies will have.
Ha, actually rebuild towers inbetween rounds to swap out damage types? Normally i just pick one generic type that's good for everything, power them up and never ever replace them with anything else. >_>
(Which makes tower synergy indeed pretty important.)
Winterwind
2011-09-05, 12:14 PM
Ha, actually rebuild towers inbetween rounds to swap out damage types? Normally i just pick one generic type that's good for everything, power them up and never ever replace them with anything else. >_>
(Which makes tower synergy indeed pretty important.)Not even necessarily swap. I've seen TD maps in WC3 that were basically "the next wave will be precisely strong enough for the towers you built so far to not hold unless you add a tower that deals the damage type that wave will be weak against, in which case you will hold easily. Also, the previous wave gave you just enough gold to afford that tower.".
Essentially, the game not testing how good you are at improvising, planning ahead, finding synergy and spotting good locations, but solely how well you can follow the single one correct build-order pre-determined by the game's creator.
Also, if possible, Multilayer TDs should support seeding towers to other players, I find that this allows for the players to ''buy'' towers from other players, and makes for a good experience. Also, Winterwind makes some very good points.
A neat type of mob, provided it's done right, is a attacking wave, where instead of running by the towers, they actually attack. (this can also be a good solution for blocking, if you allow mazing, I've mostly seen this done in WCIII maps, but it's a neat mechanic)
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