Desktop Tower Defence

March 6, 2007 7:26 PM

Welcome to Desktop Tower Defence Creeps will try and make their way from left to right (and, depending on difficulty setting, from top to bottom). Use money to purchase canons which you then position to force the creeps to route around while sustaining fire. Killing creeps generates more money, which allows the purchase and/or upgrade of canons, which come in useful as the creeps getting stronger/more resistant to fire as the game progresses.
posted by jonson (30 comments total)

Recently spotted

http://www.metafilter.com/57619/Tower-Defence-flash-game
posted by Octoparrot at 7:38 PM on March 6, 2007

Octoparrot - this is a different (albeit similar) game, set in an open arena where you (the player) can set up the maze. The addition of the layout component adds a new dimension to the gameplay, IMO.
posted by jonson at 7:54 PM on March 6, 2007

how many canons has the pope?
posted by quonsar at 8:01 PM on March 6, 2007

896 on my first try.
posted by boo_radley at 8:01 PM on March 6, 2007

I have been playing on and off since Sunday.... it's very addictive....

my best so far is just over 3000....
posted by peewinkle at 8:03 PM on March 6, 2007

Make a maze, I'm at 2200 and still going, first try.
posted by IronLizard at 8:07 PM on March 6, 2007

Though, honestly after hitting level 40 the first time I'm not going to want to play again just to go through all that again.
posted by IronLizard at 8:09 PM on March 6, 2007

I spent way too much time on the last one, and ended up wanting more after I'd beaten it. And here more is - thanks!
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 8:29 PM on March 6, 2007

I wasted days with the last one to...
posted by Samuel Farrow at 8:40 PM on March 6, 2007

Damn you quonsar. Cannons. Also: listen to IronLizard - mazes are key to survival, and if you can position your cannons on a wall and then route a path for the creeps AROUND that wall you will give the cannon more chances to shoot. Try to focus all your cannons in a central area and then add a frost cannon to slow down the creeps when they go through that point. Also: use the cheapy cannons to build the walls. Finally, three of the slow ground missile max upgrade & three of the air cannon max upgrade seems to work for the "normal" difficulty setting (provided you built the maze well. I'll try "hard" now and see how it goes.
posted by jonson at 8:41 PM on March 6, 2007

Totally addictive.

Upgrade the dart cannons until they are ICBM cannons. Cool!
posted by Mid at 9:13 PM on March 6, 2007

Here's a strategy to really maximize your maze's effectiveness. I'm demonstrating on easy for clarity, but it works on the other difficulties as well.

Check this out.
Since you have no constraints on when and where you place your towers, you can build very narrow corridors to herd them, one unit wide. Build your corridor so that there's two exits; a very straightforward one, and a convoluted side path. The game's pathfinding will prefer the short path, and start hustling creeps down this bridge of sniping. As soon as a creep hits the tripwire, throw up a 5G tower at the green location. The pathfinding will now use the side path, and the column of baddies will reverse course and head to the side path.

Bonus fun: sell the blocking tower, and the pathfinding will again reverse course, and march them down the bridge.
posted by boo_radley at 9:16 PM on March 6, 2007 [2 favorites]

hilariously fiendish, boo - but not effective on the flying levels, unfortunately.
posted by jonson at 9:23 PM on March 6, 2007

I want my 2 hours back.
posted by cowbellemoo at 9:25 PM on March 6, 2007

jonson: true, but by the time I got to a flying level, I was flush with cash -- you don't have to make the bridge out of 5G cannons, upgrade em as you go along.
posted by boo_radley at 9:29 PM on March 6, 2007

Now, if you'll excuse me I have some twine to unknot.
posted by boo_radley at 9:47 PM on March 6, 2007

Beating it on easy is, well, easy. Normal is a bit more of a challenge, but if you build a solid maze, isn't too bad. I've played 5 times now on hard and keep getting hosed at the 47th wave (out of 50). Soooo close...
posted by chrisamiller at 10:31 PM on March 6, 2007

Into the valley of death crept the six hundred!
posted by pracowity at 1:09 AM on March 7, 2007

Bonus fun: sell the blocking tower, and the pathfinding will again reverse course, and march them down the bridge.

Oooh sneaky. I like. You can keep em shuffling back and forth.
posted by juv3nal at 1:09 AM on March 7, 2007

This is the best of these games I've seen. Curse you jonson, I want my morning back, and I fear for my afternoon.
posted by imperium at 4:52 AM on March 7, 2007

Maze is unnecessary. Minimal guns, maximally upgraded. You want a slight mazey bit for one entryway, to delay them, so your maxed out squirters at the center can give everyone their time in the spotlight.
posted by Meatbomb at 8:21 AM on March 7, 2007

Meatbomb - even on Normal & Hard?
posted by jonson at 9:09 AM on March 7, 2007

4034. You really want to get the guns to level 5 - the increase in effectiveness is exponential.
posted by Meatbomb at 9:13 AM on March 7, 2007

Huh, I thought a screenshot of my greatest achievement earlier. Here it is.
posted by delmoi at 3:40 PM on March 7, 2007

Huh, I thought a screenshot of my greatest achievement earlier. Here it is.

you died on easy?
posted by juv3nal at 6:42 PM on March 7, 2007

If you submit your score (on normal or harder) it gives you the chance to submit the score to a group and someone started Metafilter already.

Layout that netted me current top spot. Sq is squirt towers, Pe are pellet towers, Sw are storm towers (the AA units) and Fr are freeze towers. The number of dots indicates strength. Pe are fairly useless except as walls but I like to build one to full strength because even though it's slow it can hit all most the entire board if placed in the centre for 480 damage. Useful if a not quite dead Boss gets away from the maze.

Use the send next level button to generate bonus points as soon as your ready for the next wave.
posted by Mitheral at 8:40 AM on March 8, 2007 [1 favorite]

Ugh. This coupled with the NCAA tourney next week are doing a number on my productivity. But it's more fun that shooting fish in a barrel... or maybe it's like shooting fish in a barrel... or designing the barrel so it shoots the fish for you.

waitaminit, am I reading mefi at work?
posted by ilovemytoaster at 10:53 AM on March 8, 2007

How are y'all getting scores in the 5000's? I can't seem to break 4,500 or so.
posted by Bugbread at 4:27 AM on March 9, 2007

The first thing is to finish with 20 lives, any less and you've let points get away, score killing if it's a boss.
posted by Mitheral at 10:46 AM on March 9, 2007

fyi updated with new enemy types & weapons. seems harder.
posted by juv3nal at 3:33 AM on April 4, 2007