Tower Defence
Classic.

I’ve loved tower defence games for years. Tower Defence Classic grew out of that love, with inspiration from the custom maps of Warcraft III and classics like Xeno Tactic — a game I still consider a masterpiece.

For a long time, I struggled to find the kind of tower defence I wanted on my iPhone. I wanted a full-fledged strategy game, with room to experiment and build my own defence. Too often, I found aggressive monetisation or something as simple as “put these three towers in these three fixed spots.” I played through plenty of games, but never quite found what I was looking for.

My professional background is in DevOps and SRE. While on parental leave looking after my daughter, I decided to try building it myself. This is my attempt to make the game I’d been wishing I could play.

Not an artist. Still trying.

I’m neither a designer nor an artist, so you might think the graphics look a bit crap. Fair enough — but I really did try, and I’ve put a lot of care into this little game.

A little kinder to your battery

One thing I’ve put particular effort into is optimisation. I profile every action, analyse the expensive operations, and work on making them cheaper. My aim is to keep the game from heating up your phone and draining its battery the way so many modern games do.

I use a dynamic frame rate to avoid calculating frames the game doesn’t need, and to help reduce display power use on devices with an adaptive refresh rate.

I still wanted some room to experiment. You might be surprised to learn that the water in this pixel-art game is calculated using algorithms that describe the movement of water masses. It’s a small indulgence, but even little visual flourishes have a cost. So I’ve added an option to turn decorations like these off when making your battery last matters more.

I know that feeling myself: you’re sitting in an airport or on a plane, hoping to pass a little time with a game, and twenty minutes later your battery is practically gone. I don’t want this to be that kind of game.

A way to support the person behind the game

I’m grateful for any donations or support. They help put food on my family’s table and buy cute onesies and nappies for my daughter. There’s one person behind this game, and your support makes a real difference to my family and my ability to keep working on it.

When choosing what to make paid, I tried to focus on convenience rather than anything that changes the game’s balance. You can play without those extras. I see them as a voluntary way to support the game’s development, with a little extra comfort as a thank-you.

Where I’d love to take it

If the game finds its audience, I’d love to keep developing it with new levels and new mechanics. I also have ideas for a version with team co-op — my wife and I love playing together — and perhaps team PvP further down the line.

Those are hopes for the future. For now, thank you for playing, sharing your thoughts, and giving my spare-time project a chance.