Jump into Game Development with the Tower Defense Genre

The post presents tower defense as an accessible genre for people who want to start making games. It says the format works well on smartphones and tablets because players choose defenses, place them on the map, and manage resources while enemies cross the area.

It also points to examples like Plants vs. Zombies and Pirates Love Daisies, then discusses tools for building similar games, including EaselJS, TweenJS, SoundJS, PreloadJS, CraftyJS, ImpactJS, and the ScriptTD engine. It closes by stressing gameplay balance, the role of level designers, and the ease of distributing and selling games through app stores.

Reading notes

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• Tower defense is framed as a manageable way for new developers to enter game development.
• The genre centers on enemies crossing a protected area while the player places defenses along a path.
• Resource collection and spending are part of the core strategy.
• Touchscreen phones and tablets fit the placement-based gameplay well.
• Plants vs. Zombies is given as a popular example, with sunlight used to grow plants for defense.
• Pirates Love Daisies is described as an HTML5 and JavaScript tower defense game.
• EaselJS is presented as a helpful JavaScript framework for rich graphics and Canvas work.
• Other tools mentioned include TweenJS, SoundJS, PreloadJS, CraftyJS, and ImpactJS.
• ScriptTD is described as an open source tower defense engine that can be configured through an XML file.
• The post says balancing gameplay takes time and may involve level designers.
• App stores are presented as a simple path for distributing games and earning money.