Games like Desktop Defender / Desktop Tower Defense?

[gomipile]

I'm looking for a game like Desktop Defender or Desktop Tower defense but not Flash and not ad/microtransaction supported.

I like the simple, abstract graphics style of Desktop Defender, and the more complex 3D graphics I see in a lot of these games put me off. Just for this type of game, mind you. I might be willing to branch out, but only after and if I can scratch the itch of a simplistic game with the same core loop as Desktop Defender first.

I'm willing to pay up to around $20 for a game that's functionally identical to Desktop Defender but with no microtransactions. I feel like it's worth around $5 to $8, so I'd resent paying $20, but still pay it.

For games that almost but don't quite hit that bar but still look playable to me, I'll look into them, but probably can't justify much more than $5 or $10.

I prefer Steam, but I have a GOG account I could dig up if necessary.

So, any recommendations?

[JordanM]

I'm looking for a game like Desktop Defender or Desktop Tower defense but not Flash and not ad/microtransaction supported.

I like the simple, abstract graphics style of Desktop Defender, and the more complex 3D graphics I see in a lot of these games put me off. Just for this type of game, mind you. I might be willing to branch out, but only after and if I can scratch the itch of a simplistic game with the same core loop as Desktop Defender first.

I'm willing to pay up to around $20 for a game that's functionally identical to Desktop Defender but with no microtransactions. I feel like it's worth around $5 to $8, so I'd resent paying $20, but still pay it.

For games that almost but don't quite hit that bar but still look playable to me, I'll look into them, but probably can't justify much more than $5 or $10.

I prefer Steam, but I have a GOG account I could dig up if necessary.

So, any recommendations?

Diplomacy is Not an Option steam, classic TD. Sometimes I play Dungeoun Defenders with my friends, 3d person TD game.

[gomipile]

Diplomacy is Not an Option steam, classic TD. Sometimes I play Dungeoun Defenders with my friends, 3d person TD game.

Neither of those look anything like what I'm asking about.

What I'm looking for has to be a fixed top-down view, no parallax, no attempt at isometric 3D or any of that.

[OracleofWuffing]

A while back, people were going crazy over Loop Hero, which is definitely overhead and 2D... But the RPG/Roguelike mechanics might be a straying a bit off course as far as gameplay goes for you.

Just looking through some suggestions on Steam, Mindustry and Dungeon Warfare come up, though I can't vouch for either. It's also brought Vectorio to my attention, which I might be looking at later.

[Cygnia]

You ever consider something like the Chip's Challenge games? Picked both of them up for less than $3 on Steam

[Man_Over_Game]

Could check out Dungeon Warfare 1 and 2 on Android.

I've sunk many hours into the second one, probably one of the most innovative tower defense games I've ever played. It doesn't have a whole lot of enemy movement manipulation tricks to the same degree as DTT, but it instead does them with fixed dungeon setups where you can plug up possible routes through barricades in case one route is more beneficial than another. This makes a lot more sense when you consider that the game uses a lot of physics to kill enemies, using things like bolo or push traps to knock enemies (and their friends with bolos) down pits to kill things without having to deal damage.

So while one route might be a segment of rooms blocked by doors (basically to make efficient kill zones), another might have the enemies be forced down a path that is adjacent to a river that can be used to drown them, and what routes they take are dependent on how you want to barricade things. Stuff like that.

[gomipile]

So far, none of these seem like what I thought I was asking for.

I was hoping to find something close to as similar to the exemplar games as a Tetris clone is to Tetris. Or as similar as most military FPS games are to each other, etc.

If it doesn't have entrances and exits for the creeps in the same places as Desktop Defender, I won't consider it a good match to my question. Likewise, if it doesn't have a grid smaller than the size of the turrets to allow the same sort of offset maze construction, it doesn't fit the spirit of the question. It doesn't have to be the 1/2 grid of the exemplar games, 1/3 or 1/4 would be workable, too. Likewise for the mechanic of placing then later upgrading turrets.

Before asking this question, I assumed there was a sub-genre of tower defense games that are a lot like Desktop Defender, but I haven't really seen any at all so far.