Tower Defense

The Initial Idea

     A while back, in my computer science class I designed a small tower defense game in python. It wasn't very advanced, but it had all the basics. A new track was generated each play, and enemies would move along it. You could place towers that would kill enemies if they were in range. Killing enemies would give you coins to buy more towers. If enemies reached the end, you would lose lives until you died. Pretty standard stuff. While being relativity simple, this project would earn me a 5 on the AP test (the highest you can get)

How this was made using python

     Making this simple game was not an easy task. I had to use the limited tools available to me, an IDE and a simple graphics library.  I wrote classes for each of the enemies and towers, then, using the update() function, was able to produce animation. Because the graphics library was not optimized for this kind of work, and because it was made on in internet IDE, it functioned very poorly. That's why I wanted to take this initial design concept and turn it into an actual game

New game engine

About 5 months ago, I begin learning to use a new game engine called Defold. Defold is a 2d game engine created in 2008 and was acquired by king in 2014. King, as in the company that makes candy crush. So I am using the same tools as candy crush developers. The engine offers a lot of flexibility and support, as well as being powerful for being so lightweight.

How I plan to make this game more interesting

I've already got a few Ideas going for this new and improved game. Obviously it should have all the same functionality as any TD, but I Thought of making a twist to it.  At the center, there is a central building/fort that must be protected. Level 1 starts at the entrance of this fort. Once captured, you move to level 2,3 and so on. Enemies from each level move on to the lower one if they make it past, meaning that if your defenses ever get lazy, enemies push through to earlier levels where the defenses are probably lower-tier. This introduces two strategies: 

1. Keep capturing more levels to create a bigger buffer
2. Buff up defense closer to the entrance to support

As I begin to work more and more on basic ideas and concepts, I will refine and keep what works, while throwing out what doesn't. I'm always looking for Ideas from others as well, so if you have any feedback feel free to leave a comment! :)