Zen Tower Defense
There are near-infinite strategic possibilities
The field of casual flash-based games is strongly marked by vapid, shiny games with rapid, casino-style gameplay and no real satisfying aftertaste. Occasionally, this rule of thumb is proven wonderfully wrong.
Enter Gem Tower Defense – a deceptively simple tower defense game based closely upon the classic “Tower Defense” game developed in WarCraft custom maps. The enemies are simple chunks of HP, which run along a preset path. You must build towers to shoot and kill them before they reach their destination.
The game is relatively straightforward in the original setting. Build towers and walls to kill and slow creeps, then reach an arbitrary level without losing and you win! But the real fun begins after that. The Extreme and Survival modes contain even more challenging enemies, and the levels continue infinitely. Survival becomes the only rule, and the game changes dramatically.
With nothing to compete against but the ever-stronger waves of abstract sprites, the game reminds me of Go; there is no way to win, the only true objective is to become better. Very interesting is the interplay between tower placement and tower choosing. The user lays down five “areas” which he would like to prospect. Five randomly chosen towers are revealed on those locations. The user then chooses one tower to keep, and the other four turn into walls of rubble.
This forces an appraisal every level.
In order to build walls, the user must prospect areas which are not ideal for towers. Conversely, to re-prospect in the best tower areas the user must remove existing walls, using up a space he might have used to extend his structure. This balance between expansion and fortification is as old as Go and just as Zen.
Another delightful element of GTD is the minimal user interaction – the user does not need to make snap judgments, because the only interaction they get is between waves, where there is no time limit. This gives the game a laid-back design and attitude that makes up in class and depth what it lacks in excitement and nerves.
Perhaps best of all is GTD’s simple graphics. There are no transparencies, no slick art team designing cool heroes. There are simply rocks and little guys with hatchets, both so small and pixelated that they play to the imagination and the intellect more than the eye.
In short, GTD is a game for architects, Buddhist monks, and intelligentsia. It delights with simplicity and surprising depth. This game deserves praise, appreciation, and time. (I am not ashamed to admit that I’ve used a calculator and graphing paper for GTD, and probably will again)
Happy gaming!
