About Tower Defence - History, Strategy and Famous Games
In a tower defence game you do not control an army. You build defences, and then watch whether they hold. The idea is simple, but choosing where to build, what to build and when to upgrade makes every game a small puzzle. This page tells how the genre came about and how to play it well.
The first games
Many people see Atari's arcade game Rampart from 1990 as the start of the genre. Players built castle walls, placed cannons and defended them against ships. The idea of fixed defences against waves of attackers had appeared in earlier games too, but Rampart made it the heart of the game.
Custom maps for StarCraft and Warcraft III
The genre really took shape in the early 2000s, when players used the map editors of StarCraft and Warcraft III to build their own games. Hundreds of tower defence maps appeared, with set paths, waves of creeps and towers you could upgrade. Many of the rules still used today come from these fan-made maps.
Desktop Tower Defense and the browser era
In 2007 Desktop Tower Defense, a free Flash game by Paul Preece, became a hit. It had no fixed path: players used their towers to build a maze that the enemies had to walk through. Its success brought a wave of browser tower defence games, and the genre soon moved to consoles and phones as well.
Plants vs. Zombies
PopCap's Plants vs. Zombies from 2009 brought tower defence to a very large audience. Instead of towers, players plant sunflowers, pea shooters and nuts on a lawn to stop zombies walking in from the right. Its humour and gentle learning curve showed that the genre could appeal to almost anyone.
Basic strategy
Build where the path bends, because a tower there can reach the path on two or more sides. Mix tower types: slow enemies with frost and let strong towers do the damage, and use splash damage against groups. Spend money early on towers that fire straight away, and save for upgrades before the boss waves. Upgrading a well-placed tower is often better than building a new one in a poor spot.
Frequently asked questions
Is it tower defence or tower defense?
Both are correct. Tower defence is the British spelling and tower defense the American one. The games are the same.
What is a creep?
In tower defence, the enemies that walk along the path are often called creeps. The word comes from the custom maps for Warcraft III.
Why do waves get harder?
Each wave has stronger or more enemies, so you have to keep spending your money well. That steady rise in difficulty is what makes the genre exciting.
What is mazing?
In games without a fixed path, such as Desktop Tower Defense, players place towers to make the enemies walk as far as possible. That is called mazing. In this game the path is fixed, so the skill is in choosing the best squares.
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Play a free tower defence game in your browser. Build guns, cannons, frost and sniper towers along the path, upgrade them, earn money for every enemy and survive 20 waves on three maps.
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