Do you like Tower Defense Games ? Thread

I recently started the development of a Tower Defense Game, called Sphere Code. And I would like to know your opinions on Tower Defense Games.

• Do you still play them?
• How much do you like this genre?
• What was your favorite Tower Defense Game?
• What were the biggest mistakes you seen so far in TD Games?
• What makes a good TD in your opinion?

Thank you for participation in this discussion!

Do you still play them?

Sometimes

How much do you like this genre?

Not quite, it's fun though

What was your favorite Tower Defense Game?

Plants vs Zombies

What were the biggest mistakes you seen so far in TD Games?

Repetition. For instance, in Slimes vs Mushroom 2, on certain world, far from end of the game, there are no more mushroom types presented causing boredom as player is fighting same mushrooms til end of the game. Plants vs Zombies OTOH present different zombies types til end of the game, even better, new plant types are also presented in last levels, effectively killing any boredom in the game. Dr Zomboss appearance is the climax of the game

The repetition can also appear in available units such as units which are practically the same or only give little effect compared to older units

Overpriced. Some units are too expensive and require too much grinding before they can be purchased

What makes a good TD in your opinion?

Variation and challenge. Plants vs Zombies shows us how (save the gardening stuffs)

Hey DarkBloodbane,

I totally agree with you. I also got tired of many TD because of endless repetitions. The pure rise of enemy numbers don't have to make a TD more interesting. Like you said, the player will get the trick if there is less difference between new and old instances or there are no new units at all. This is boring indeed.

Well, for a game designer it's not always easy to find new interesting content to fill the game with, on top of that he has to watch when to place new content so there will be a good tension curve.

Level-specific boss enemies are great to break the line of repetition, if you suddenly need a new strategy to get this thing down! They are perfect to mark a climax or multiple climaxes in a game!

I'm not sure if it's a good idea to have units/turrets which are no good compared to other options (or at least are only good in few situations), and the player have to find out ... what do you think ? It's like you said, the price is over the actual potential ... do you think every turret (and upgrades) needs to be advantageous in specific situations, or may there be overpriced turrets/instances/upgrades too ?

Thanks in advance for any comments!

do you think every turret (and upgrades) needs to be advantageous in specific situations, or may there be overpriced turrets/instances/upgrades too ?

For advantageous, yes. In Plants vs Zombies, battle in rooftop requires launcher plants and thus peashooters are unusable there or at least less effective. But my point was, what's the point of purchasing new unit who can deal only 110% damage compared to available unit? I rather purchase new unit which can deal 200% even though it costs more to deploy

IMO units must have unique feature so they are worthy of being deployed and purchased from shop

I mentioned overpriced cause I had experience playing TD game in which new and stronger units are too expensive and I ended up not buying them. I got bored since I was stuck with current unit

I think I can agree on this.

What is your opinion on Kingdom Rush by the way?

What do you guys think about randomness in TD Games? Like accuracy or critical hit chance?

What is your opinion on Kingdom Rush by the way?

I've been playing that game recently. Can't give full review but I like what I got so far. I like how game starts from easy to hard and how the developer creates challenging mode for each area

What do you guys think about randomness in TD Games?

In general, randomness is terrible if it can directly affect win or lose condition. But if it has no effect on the latter, than it's okay

Like accuracy or critical hit chance?

Hmm... at first, I thought it's going to be similar to RPGs in which accuracy and critical can be implemented but on second thought, I have to say that accuracy in Tower defense is really bad. Imagine say having a turret shoots an enemy then the bullet misses thanks to RNG. In turn based RPGs and tactics game, players can simply shoot again but not in Tower defense game cause enemy would have moved couple steps closer before the next bullet is fired

Critical hit chance OTOH works with Tower Defense as it doesn't give any flaw. Maybe it's similar to corn plant in Plants vs Zombies which sometimes throw butter instead of corn seed

I like how game starts from easy to hard

True! It has some nice flow. It's interesting how they achieved this challenge span though, because you cannot micro manage turrets and target modes, you cannot build on many places and the level size is very small. Additionally, If you take an in depth look at the enemy variety you will see that there are not many different types actually, and not many basic types of towers. However, there are a lot of upgrades and enemy appearances. I think the game tricks us, but this is good design if it works out.

This "lack" of strategy depth is also compensated by barracks, heroes and special abilities in my opinion.

In general, randomness is terrible if it can directly affect win or lose condition

Play the very first level in Kingdom Rush and place only on archer tower, sometimes you survive the first wave, sometimes one enemy gets through. If you add those random events (all turrets, all levels) on the long run, they decide on the overall game success. In Kingdom Rush randomness matters imo.

I have an interesting thought about this: Why not using this randomness to control a sublevel of balancing? If the player loses many times very close, the random range may be narrowed a little bit, so higher values are produced, so he/she will win the next replay. Maybe KR is doing this as well ... ?

Thanks for the discussion btw!

Additionally, If you take an in depth look at the enemy variety you will see that there are not many different types actually, and not many basic types of towers

Enemy is varied enough if you ask me but they are clever in presenting them one by one so players won't see all of them at once

But I agree with you about towers, we only have 4 towers

In Kingdom Rush randomness matters imo.

Hmmm... maybe that explains why I get good result in a tries but bad results in other tries in same map

Why not using this randomness to control a sublevel of balancing? If the player loses many times very close, the random range may be narrowed a little bit, so higher values are produced, so he/she will win the next replay

I rather have direct help such as extra starting gold if I lose too often

Speaking of starting capital, I really wonder if there were TD game which allows player to set starting capital with the consequences of harder starting enemies. At least, it's allowed in a level/map if that place has been won before. That would be great replayability.