What Makes Tower Defence Games Good?

back when I was 11 or 12 years old my mother signed me up for some summer camps at a local university the camps normally involves some really basic lessons in coding which truthfully was more copying and pasting code in a flash youtube was fresh out and everyone was talking about this Nintendo nerd guy in his hilarious video on an old Ninja Turtles game but to end every day the entire class would plan a huge game of battlefield or occasionally a group would go off to the side and play the popular Warcraft 3 mod Defense of the Ancients however I was interested in another Warcraft 3 mod that no one else was interested in and that was tower defense and since no one else would play with me I started playing random flash tower defense games online eventually the instructors knew me as the quiet kid who would only play tower defense games but what was so addictive about these games that I simply couldn't put them down [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] here's a track at one end enemies spawn at the other your life count place towers to stop the enemies from getting to your lives when you run out the game's over some games have an objective way while others have a play until you run out and go for the highest score system and some have a complete list map and move on to the next map system some games allow you to level up your towers some allow you to send waves early for an extra challenge but in the end it's a game of patience if you feel the need to constantly be doing something this might not be for you however if you'd like this set everything up and sit back and watch your work unfold I'm sure you would easily be able to enjoy a tower defense game there's something so simplistic in its design much like incremental games which I covered in my last video the base concept is so simple and doesn't really have a huge learning curve this of course means there's plenty to build and expand on the game at its core is all about managing resources making sure you don't leave an area unprotected and in some cases even making sacrifices in order to go further in the longer I find with tower defense games that although the concept is pretty easy to grasp you still need to slowly introduce new mechanics to your players sometimes games will have 10 different towers all immediately available to the player with no reasonable explanation of the differences between them jumping from game the game isn't so much about while you played one you've played them all as much as it is a well this seems familiar but something's different one thing to point out that in my opinion there is a difference between a tower defense game and just a defense game like I would not personally classify age of war as a tower defense game and I'm not trying to take away from these games it's just not what I'm talking about right now a lot of these games generally have some sort of theme attached to them the most common themes are military theme which makes sense medieval theme which makes sense futuristic themed which makes sense and monkey themed well sure why not now there's a chance that when I mentioned a set track in a tower defense game some old-school tower defense players might have taken exception and rightfully so some of the more well-known tower defense games actually use an open concept map where the player builds the track that the enemies flow through using their towers this of course leaves room for much more strategy in variation such as games where your towers can be destroyed if there's no way through or other games where the game simply won't let you cut off the path enemy design can vary greatly as well from grey dots to bright colorful bullying news some games will have different types of enemies giving some more health or more speed or perhaps a flying enemy where a specific tower is needed to destroy it sometimes you get more enemies per wave sometimes they just become stronger some games have a feature that if you're feeling confident you can send out waves a little bit earlier and usually get some sort of bonus for doing this the last thing I want to mention is the towers themselves tower a variety is really important in these games because it allows you to try out different strategies and keep the game replayable I also understand the challenge of balancing towers is insanely hard so to the developers who can manage to pull this off thumbs up to you you'll find your standard mix of towers at most games the basic one the one that shoots fast but there's less damage the one that does Splash Damage the tower that just slows things down the tower that stuns enemies and often times there will be an item that you can just deploy on the ground in case some enemies get past all your defenses almost always the towers can be upgraded sometimes with branching multiple pathways sometimes it cost gold to upgrade sometimes the towers need experience room kills based off of what I've already said you can see there's tons of variation in these games sometimes it's a flash game sometimes it's a first-person shooter sometimes you control the character and sometimes you're just a god from above placing towers down just a quick note here before we get into specific games I am NOT a reviewer or a critique err nor do I really consider this an analysis channel I'm just talking about some of these games and what I personally think makes them great this is also not a history lesson so I won't be going through every game in existence I also haven't played every game so I apologize if I miss your favorite even if you think it's a staple of the tower defense genre if there's a game you love that I missed comment down below I'm sure there are other people who would love and talk about it with you I'm also aware that there are tons and tons of mobile tower defense games but I'm not going to be talking about any of them because I haven't personally played them now if you're completely new to the tower defense genre look no further than Roman settings tower defense the generically named flash game is a perfect example of what a tower defense game is at its core one map one type of enemy five different towers but enough variation that you'll want to play it a few times to build a real strategy each tower can be upgraded to a max level and they each have their own benefit fire towers are strong and cheap early on but they do the least amount of damage of all the max down towers water has the most upgrades and by far the most range whereas the nature tower builds incredibly slowly but ends up being the most powerful tower there's also a storm tower which has no upgrades so I don't really recommend it and a flower tower that doesn't end up really being worth the money you have to save up for it this game is simple but it's great it's exactly what you want from a tower defense game and when I have an extra 10 minutes every now and then pick you in a play now if I want to find something a bit more complicated I have to do a little bit of digging it's not so much that it's hard to find a good one as much as it is finding one that stands out in a crowd it's very very easy for these games to get lost in the shuffle well the basic tower defense is great if you just want to spend ten minutes playing a game if you're looking for a long commitment that is guaranteed to lag your computer at some point I would suggest onslaught - onslaught - is that perfect step up for those looking for something with a little more depth it still has your basic tower concepts but also includes modifying towers some higher level elite towers and combos combos are great in unique mechanic that I haven't really seen in any other tower defense game if certain towers are in proximity of each other certain combos will be activated and they help out tremendously there's a list on their site that lists all of the combos and it can be tons of fun just trying them all out in a sandbox mode the biggest killer in this game is patience there's no advantage to sending waves out early but sometimes the game goes by so slowly and you send a little more out than you're prepared for there's no objective wave to hit you just go until you lose all your lives there's different difficulties and quite a few maps to give you a real challenge as I said the game can go by a bit slow but I would say a majority of tower defence games fall under this categorization that being said if you've got an hour to kill and you want a challenge I highly recommend it [Music] to the exact opposite direction of playing one map for hours here we have Jim craft Jim crafts level design involves a finite number of waves tons of different maps and tons of different ways to change the game the main gimmick of the game is the gemstones which you can combine in different combinations and they do different things to do this you need to use mana but mana is also the health system so you have to budget wisely you need to spend to increase your damage output but if you don't leave enough in the tank you can get cleaned out pretty fast the gems go into empty tower slots which you can also buy and place more an underrated aspect of this game is being able to move gems from slot to slot although there is a waiting period most tower defence games are pretty final on where you place your towers but thinks of this you could move things around in the last second if you need to as the game progresses you'll encounter harder Maps and multiple spawn points the game allows you to spend points earn in the game in order to give you some bonuses such as lowering the mana cost for placing towers or creating new gems overall it's a really unique tower defense game there's a lot of depth for anyone looking for a long commitment [Music] based off of me telling you how much I loved tower defense games you may not believe it but I had never played plants vs. zombies until the recording of this video call me a snob if you must but I felt like it was a dumb down game and not true to the tower defense genre after playing it for maybe five minutes I can definitely see why it was so popular at one point it fills every requirement for what I would want in a tower defense game sure it may not have much variety when it comes to the track but it teaches you as you go introduces new towers one by one so you get to learn and understand them has a variety of enemies that present their own challenges and gives you new obstacles as you go to keep things fresh I have a love affair for any tower defense game or you can place a tower that makes you money I also go way too far and end up having way too many money towers that when I forget to place towers to kill things I also love the challenge of having to choose which towers you bring with you when you start each level it allows for people to play their own personal styles there isn't necessarily a right or wrong answer the game occasionally throws different game types at you as well like having to Bowl down zombies with walnuts a whack-a-mole type minigame or where it gives you towers on a conveyor belt and you just have to work with whatever it gives you is it a tower defense game of course it is is it my ideal tower defense game not at all did I enjoy it absolutely if I was trying to sell someone on the idea of a tower defense game and they were iffy on it I would have them play this if they get stressed out maybe tower defense isn't for them if they love it well there's plenty more where that came from [Music] if you were asking me for my pick on a tower defense game to sync endless hours and to look no further than the bloons tower defense series specifically the fifth installment which is the one that I'll be talking about here the game has a very slow start but leads to a very rewarding endgame you only start off with one basic tower but as you play a new certain tower as you unlock upgrades for them you only have to unlock these ones so when you start your next game you'll have all the available towers and upgrades that you unlocked before there's a great selection of towers to choose from and the more you use them the more you'll find your favorites and preferable ones there are also different types of balloons such as balloons that heal over time cameo balloons that need special towers to detect them and lead balloons that can't be popped just arts maps are organized in beginner intermediate advanced expert and extreme there's also an easy medium and hard mode for each map which basically affects how long you need to go to beat the level how many lives you have your starting cash and how expensive your towers are gonna be you can also choose between four different game types the standard take it wave by wave deflation where you get 50,000 dollars for the entire map and can't get any more a pop ellipse which eliminates waves and has continuous gameplay and sandbox where you can use do whatever your heart desires you can also play the map in Reverse where balloons come out of the exit and go to the entrance you can also earn monkey money throughout the game or you can buy it with real money and that can be used to buy upgrades at the beginning of a map such as double cash double range or having the health of the most powerful once a level is done you can enter free play continue to play and total your game legs out or you're finally defeated one feature that this game has that most tower defense games do not is multiplayer whether by matching up with a friend or someone random online you and another player will split the map in half and attempt to beat it together you don't earn as much money but you can send money or request money from your partner as well as just chatting with them while typing while I really love the idea of co-op tower defense it is a bit limiting you both have access to the same towers the only difference being where you can place them when one player starts the next wave it just automatically starts so if your partner is spamming the button you better be up creating as fast as you can it's somebody almost feels like you're competing with your partner especially when there isn't any communication besides hey I need money there's a mentality of save up money yourself my thing is more important and you feel it mix of shame and anger when you lose due to the fact that you both have the same towers and play the same map sometimes it just feels like you could have just played single-player instead overall I like it and it's not something most tower defense games include but it's not my favorite separate to balloons 5 but still on the same vein is bloons tower defense battle it's not technically a part of balloons 5 but it uses the same tower system bloons TD battle places you head-to-head with an opponent with two different options assault or defend defend is your standard tower defense where your main goal is to outlast your opponent assault is the game type that most people play where you can actually send balloons to your opponent and also face the ones that you would normally have to now it costs money to send balloons but you also gain more money per wave depending on what you send causing you to look at and analyze the risks there any matches where you aren't prepared for what your opponent sends such as cameo balloons when your opponent can't detect cameo balloons and it could end things in a hurry you're also limited to how many towers you can bring with you which means there's a ton of strategy involved and you really have to play to the map type now I really like this game type and it's something I'd love to see more of [Music] [Music] [Music] I remember seeing Dungeon Defenders and being so excited for a good multiplayer tower defense game right off the bat the game is obviously great to look at unlike what I would refer to as a traditional tower defense game you actually control a character in this game now this isn't something completely original to Dungeon Defenders but so far it's done at the best in my opinion what's more is that not only does your character place the towers you can attack the enemies directly there are multiple characters and multiple playing styles to choose from so unlike bloons tower defense co-op mode it actually feels like there's more of a reason to have another player with you so that you can get more different tower types every character has a different play style with some even being more focused on combat and having no real towers to place you can also switch between characters during setup but you have to level them up separately enemies dropped tons of equipment some that's character specific and you can upgrade it and you can buy more you can sell it and you can unlock pets to bring along with you and as previously mentioned it's multiplayer there's nothing more fun than having a buddy tag along with you while you strategize the best way to guard your crystal and of course always forget that there are flying enemies and none of your towers are set up to hit them besides your traditional towers some characters place bombs barriers and giant spinning tops of doom as you level up your character you can hold more mana which allows you to place more powerful towers there's a limit of how many towers you can place per level however you can upgrade your existence there are many games in the tower defense genre where you feel completely safe and comfortable on easier levels but defenders never really gives you that luxury you're always unsure if a special enemy is going to come along and destroy everything you know and love or if your tower is going to get destroyed and you won't have enough time to build a new one to replace it as you progress through the levels there will be bosses who come by and rise stress levels to new extremes there are a few different campaigns and a few different special challenges you can play through all of which that can be completed on multiple difficult these there aren't a ton of strategy games I played with friends that really gets my brain working like this one later on you'll have multiple crystals to defend and you can go back and forth for several minutes on who should place what where normally I would say that I could see myself replaying this a few times to try out different characters but since there's a sequel I haven't played yet I'll most likely move on to that once I'm done everything I came here I'm also aware there's a big modding community for this game but personally I haven't touched any of it while I'm not too far into the game I have to say I would absolutely recommend it to anyone who likes tower defense games or just strategy games in general [Music] so why do we play tower defense games Rian Clements formerly of IGN currently of deck 9 games wrote an article back in 2012 based off of the game Orcs Must Die Tunes in his article he spoke about humans and their natural instincts to protect what we care about and I tend to agree with him at its roots the game is see this right here protected how you do so is completely up to you one of the mechanics of the game be oversimplified or overly complicated we're always free to do things how you want to do them choose the tower that doesn't do a ton of damage but shoots really fast or the tower that doesn't shoot very fast but guarantees a kill if it hits attack the enemies at their spawn point or let them come close to your face before wiping them all out slow them down or hit them so hard they won't even know what hit the choice is yours you choose how you want to fight off enemy waves which towers are your favorites and how you want to use them I love strategy games and sometimes when I'm in the mood to play one power defense games are always the first one to come to mind even the most complicated tower defense game is really easy to pick up and learn tower defense games almost transcends onra entirely and there are tons of games that have other elements of tower defense games in them what started as a humble flash game genre has really grown into a great library of games and while maybe the tower defense scene has been pretty quiet for the last while the old games still have their charm [Music] thank you so much for watching to the end if you made it this far my name is ghost boy 259 and if you enjoyed this video feel free to subscribe and get myself from the channel a follow on Twitter links are all down in the description I've got a gaming channel as well called Jaffer dubs so if you want to see more of me there's a link down there as well you'll also find a link to the IGN article I mentioned as well as links to any and all games shown or mentioned as I said earlier I probably left your favorite game out I haven't played them all but feel free to talk about in the comments do you disagree with a point I made maybe I got something wrong in a few weeks I'll be doing an episode of escape reality which is a podcast where we go over some of your comments so feel free to leave something and we can continue the conversation all I ask is that you please make it simple if you insult me I'm not gonna read it that being said guys thank you so much for all of you that have stuck around after finding my idol game video the algorithm really blew it up and it was extremely overwhelming and I can promise that the next video will not be as long as a week until then thank you very much and I'll see you [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] you [Music]

Channel: RealityEscape

Views: 871,426

Keywords: Tower Defence, Onslaught 2, Tower Defense, Dungeon Defenders, Kingdom Rush, Bloons td 5, Bloons td battles, Mini TD, Plants vs Zombies, Reality Escape, Ghostboy259, Vector TD, Flash Games

Id: f6KTtb1r1lg

Length: 21min 30sec (1290 seconds)

Published: Fri Apr 19 2019

Reddit Comments

[u/barret232hxc]

Cool as someone making a game with tower defense aspects I'm going to have to watch. Thank you for sharing

[u/odiedodie]

Defo gonna watch. I have you include my faves :)

[u/THEaquemeni]

Defense Task Force! Wooooot!