Tower defense
[1] This typically means building a variety of different structures that serve to automatically block, impede, attack or destroy enemies.
The object of the arcade game Space Invaders, released in 1978, was to defend the player's territory (represented by the bottom of the screen) against waves of incoming enemies.
Parker Brothers' 1982 title Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back for the Atari 2600 was one of the first tie-ins to popularize the base defense style.
1982 saw multiple titles with the primary object of protecting buildings from burning: Fire Attack, Oil Panic and Mickey & Donald.
Green House (1982) was another popular two screen game in which players use clouds of pesticide spray to protect flowers from waves of attacking insects.
Early PC gaming examples include the 1984 Commodore 64 titles Gandalf the Sorcerer, a shooter with tower defense elements, and Imagine Software's 1984 release Pedro.
Pedro, a garden defense game, introduced new gameplay elements, including different enemy types as well as the ability to place fixed obstructions, and to build and repair the player's territory.
Both were released early in the game's lifecycle and had various versions evolve in parallel over time due to the open-source nature of maps.
[17][18] Desktop Tower Defense earned an Independent Games Festival award,[19] and its success led to a version created for the mobile phone by a different developer.
[21] Handheld game console were not ignored in the boom and titles included Lock's Quest and Ninjatown released in September and October respectively.
Popular 2008 titles included PixelJunk Monsters released in January, Defense Grid: The Awakening[23] and Savage Moon in December.
[25] Also released that year were Sentinel, TowerMadness, Babel Rising, Creeper World, Sol Survivor, Comet Crash, Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: My Life as a Darklord, South Park Let's Go Tower Defense Play!, Starship Patrol and Trenches.
With the arrival of Apple's App Store tower defense developers adapted quickly to the touchscreen interface and the titles were among the most downloaded[citation needed], many of them ported directly from Flash.
[26] The awkward combination of experimental tower defense mechanics with 3D graphics was not well received, but later titles refined its execution paving the way for a popular new breed of games.
Around this period the genre matured, gaining recognition as a distinct sub-genre of strategy games and returning in numerous upgraded versions.
2014 saw a number of brand new titles including Space Run, Dungeon of the Endless, Island Days, Final Horizon and The Battle Cats as well the return of Age of Empires: Castle Siege, Defense Grid 2 and TowerMadness 2.
With the advent of social networking service applications, such as the Facebook Platform, tower defense has become a popular genre with titles such as Bloons TD and Plants vs. Zombies Adventures making the transition to turn-based play.
Some games also allow players to modify the attack strategy used by towers to be able to defend for an even more tantalizingly reasonable price.
[39][40] Adding the phrase "Tower Defense" (in capital letters) to the description of an app submission to iTunesConnect and the app store automatically triggers a warning that the submission is likely to be rejected for use of the term; however, writing the phrase in lower case is still acceptable as "tower defense" is a valid description of a game style.
[citation needed] Tower defense games have gained significant popularity on Roblox, with many user-created experiences offering unique twists on the genre.
This game builds upon the classic tower defense formula with advanced mechanics, enhanced visuals, and strategic depth.
TDX has been praised for its engaging gameplay and frequent updates, further solidifying Roblox as a hub for tower defense enthusiasts.
