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[Aelexe]

Tower Defense, a game design that can range from monotonously dull to puzzlingly challenging. I am currently in the process of designing (and making) a Tower Defense game to waste some time and practice my Flash skills, but I would like to make it half decent, so:

What significant factors have you guys noted in TD's you've enjoyed that contributed to it being interesting and fun?

[baconman]

Balancing.

Really, in Tower Defense, that is pretty much the only gameplay factor that's totally essential. Don't know how much else you can do with it, besides giving a variety of approaches to barricading enemies. Most TowDef games, I can simply surround the roads - especially around corners - with well placed firepower and consistently level them up and squash my way quite easily. Some have ways you can attack enemies directly, but there's usually an optimized place (off the beaten path) to do that, too.

I guess a good variety of pathways is another key factor. But really, the pathways themselves usually feel so restricted as well. Sometimes there's only so much you can do with them; if you're really savvy you can fork them or have two different pathways that can conjoin aways into the map. One mean puzzler thing you could do is hide the main route, but at the turns place some indicator that they will go in one of the 3 other directions there. Maybe a minifort or something; to add a bit of a path-puzzle solving element to the game (or they can always continue going forward if there's another one straight ahead).

Another dick move would be placing traps (or having a certain enemy type capable of producing a trap along the route) that will entangle the player momentarily upon hitting it. Not long enough to outright die or anything, just stall them long enough to take a hit if enemies are close... just impeding them from placing more towers is often a big enough penalty anyways. Perhaps balanced with the ability to build bridges with which to cross paths unhindered, although it also provides cover for enemies by doing that. Or having the players have to dig to gain materials with which to produce and buy better equipment - but then placing "lowered" towers in these holes would basically level them down a grade, too.

But interesting paths and balancing are what make and break TowDef games. There should be no sudden spike in difficulty that they player isn't properly equipped and given the means to deal with; and path generation/sequencing are really what make any semblance of strategy work.


EDIT: It's not exactly TowDef, but I always enjoyed that part of FF6 where you're protecting Banon from Kefka's approaching forces; although the strategy I usually use to fend them off is rather simple.

[ezuk]

Balance is important, of course.  But it isn’t everything.

The basic appeal comes from surviving the “monster through the door.”  The monster is coming and you have only a flimsy door (or, in this case, towers) to protect you.  If the monster ever gets through, that’s it.  So a premise that feeds into this (protect yourself from zombies; save the village from the monsters, etc.) helps.  A lot.

TD games are also spectacles.  The slow pace lets you sit back and enjoy the carnage/power of your creation rather than being consumed by so many actions per minute or a fast-changing battlefield. 

I like having to set up an economy as well as the towers.  This extra layer of strategy (do I build more refineries or towers?  Sunflowers or pea shooters?) is key for me.

I liked Revenge of the Titans for letting me have a tech tree where I could pursue different towers or upgrade paths.  This to me seems like a natural direction for the genre.  P vs. Z took a twist on this, where you can only choose a set number of plants for each level.  Having to pre-select which towers to use adds another layer of strategy.

I also like defences other than gun towers.  Concrete blocks that monsters have to chew their way through, one-off land mines, platforms that allow other towers to be built on them, status effects (confuse, poisoning, slow, temporary paralysis, turning one type of enemy – flying – into another – creeping, piercing defences that let other towers be more effective, etc.) are what allow for some depth.

I don’t like games like Defense Grid or Desktop TD where the monsters can’t damage towers or somehow have some strategy themselves. 

By the way, Three Moves Ahead has a few podcasts focused on TDs that are well worth your while.

[Moczan]

Plants vs Zombies is a great game, but it's quite original in TD genre. From the ones using more 'standard' approach I really liked Kingdom Rush, with the introduction of soldiers and reinforcements. The fixed build points + rather limited gold upped difficulty enough so it's not another "build most OP tower, upgrade to max, repeat".

[forwardresent]

Revenge of the Titans is an excellent example of a fun TD.

What makes it fun is it's hectic nature, you have a few seconds breathing time to set up before the monsters arrive, strategic placement of towers is important, also upgrades. Every level complete allows you to choose one of quite a number of upgrades to combat the horde, and new enemies are introduced every few levels to keep the difficulty high. Building towers requires money, so minerals need to be refined whilst the enemy is attacking you and every now and again the game drops money onto the map, giving it an extra layer of strategy. Spend your starting cash on resource collection to help you later in the level and leave your defenses open whilst enemies advance, or fortify a position and simply wait until the level drops some cash on the map? That's what makes it fun for me.

[Nebjezus]

I think one of the main problems with Tower Defence games, is that there are so many of them! The game play model itself and all the slight variations and additions upon it have been used to an almost ridiculous extent.

Not that I'm insulting Tower Defence games, heck there is a reason there are so many of them! However I feel like if you want to truly make a great Tower Defence game, your going to have to do something drastically different to stand out from the crowd, whilst still keeping that essence of what make tower defences fun.

Just my two sense .

[ActualDog]

Look to Warcraft III for inspiration!  After all these years of tower defense obsession from the general populace, I honestly believe that no standalone tower defense game beats the best ones from Warcraft III. 

One of the key factors in the success of Warcraft's TD's comes from the multiplayer, which is not always efficient to include in your own game, but they do a lot of other things right as well. 

One of the biggest things Warcraft does right is that they make it amazingly satisfying to kill things.  The best way I can describe it is that it feels really meaty.  Everything from the death animation, to the corpse left behind for a few frames, to the sound effects, contributes to this. 

Another thing that's huge is balancing the wave size.  If it's satisfying to kill things, it's even more satisfying to kill a lot of things, especially at one time.  Give your player some towers that have ways of attacking more than one enemy at a time, either by bouncing or splash damage, or anything else, and send them a massive wave every now and then.  Seeing your towers take down 30 enemies with each shot is one of the greatest feelings out there. 

Make sure that your player has to strategize to win.  Make the player have to maze with their towers, or give the enemies multiple paths maybe.  Make specialized types of enemies and towers that are good against some and weak against others.  Basically, give the player room to be creative and play how they want to, even if their strategy won't be the best, it's fun to have options.

Mix it up!  Some of the best TD's I've played have other stuff going on.  There's one that has little mini games between each level for extra money, there's some that have bonus rounds with ridiculous enemies that don't take down your lives if they make it to the end, some have you managing little workers on the side to give you extra resources, etc.  Just the tower defense can be enough, but sometimes it's fun to have other things to focus on as well.

And finally, upgrades!  A lot of tower defenses ignore this, but in my opinion, it's pretty clutch, and I feel like I'm playing a watered down game if it's not there.  I love having the ability to upgrade my towers to stronger ones.  Not only that, but I love being able to have different upgrade paths for each tower.  Most importantly, however, the tower graphic has to change when you upgrade it!  Upgrading a tower only to have a little square appear under it to signify its rank is just a rip off.  I feel cheated!  I spent all this money on making this tower better; I want it to look cooler as well!

Anyways, there's definitely more than this, but I tried not to repeat too much of what was already said, and these are some of the key things for me.  Feel free to disagree with me also!

[siegarettes]

I'm not a huge fan of the genre, but the ones that due strike me are the ones that allow you some freedom in approach. They should also cut down on the time you are not doing anything, which i find is the biggest problem for me.

Drone part 1 is not exactly tower defense but has elements of it. It struck me because you can approach it many ways. Play it as a shooter, tower defense or a hybrid. Same with Sanctum. Towers are crucial, but not enough by themselves.

[Chromanoid]

A very polished nice flash TD: http://armorgames.com/play/12141/kingdom-rush
balance, balance between complexity and ease of use as well as nice gfx are probably the key factors of good TDs.

[ஒழுக்கின்மை (Paul Eres)]

i sort of answered this with my own td game (in that anything i thought the genre needed i did in my game), but that was back in 2007; there are a few things i would add to it if i were to make it again today

first, i like the idea of "tower attachments" (some td games use this) where you can attack supplementary support towers directly to towers in different combinations, but only a limited number of them. i think this adds a lot to the strategy

second, i like when there are a limited number of spots to place towers. my game just let you place them anywhere, which i don't think is as fun because you can just group all the towers into one single spot (which then destroys all the enemies at once). when there are a limited number of spots to place towers in, there is more variety to it

third, in addition to what i did with the mouse (making the mouse cursor itself a tower that shoots at enemies) i'd give the mouse the ability to upgrade itself by spending money