I think a separate prize is a good idea but how will you determine who qualifies as "less experienced"?

As soon as I saw Plants verses zombies I knew what I wanted to do just about.

That's probably the most successful tower defense games I can think of. I never did manage to beat the end boss


And scraggle, I know you're a mod but did you have to give yourself every ribbon? You're stacked like a general!

how will you determine who qualifies as "less experienced"?

That's a discussion we are having on the mod channel but as I see it, you would declare yourself as a newcomer at the start, making you eligible of the newcomer prize(s) but ruling you out of the top prize(s). That's not set in stone yet, just a thought.
As for the "ribbon" I think I'll remove some. It makes short posts take up a lot of space [Edit] Done

Ok, I already started, I'm in.

Here is my first post.

Just to prove I started this today.

I'm wanting to do a space-themed defense game. Everyone bring your A-game, cause I'm not going easy on this challenge! Other than the turret, all graphics are homebrew.

very cool, phaelax.

i've been patiently waiting to play something made here that's similar to this for a dozen years (and i think i finally realized the pun in the thread title, assuming it was intentional)

it was also light inspiration for this jam game from ~a year ago.

so, looking forward to it

Loosely, objects placed by the user that protect the central game object, close enough?

Edit: Tier2?

NM: AppGameKit (Classic or Studio)

Loosely, objects placed by the user that protect the central game object, close enough?

Still sounds like tower defense to me.

Loosely

that makes me nervous since i know where some of our imaginations can venture.

it's a TD-sub-genre challenge where the "basic elements must be distinguishable". i wouldn't expect submissions straight out of the box but at least keep the box in sight?

as far as tier 2, i don't want to limit anyone's skill set but it's an AGK challenge. "recognizable" seems fitting, there, too. i imagine someone could write a TD game in C++ and throw in a couple of AppGameKit commands and declare it "written in AppGameKit!".

anyway, you get the idea

that makes me nervous

I was watching "The Expanse" while browsing this thread and inspiration struck for a low poly 3D game that would suit this genre ... no blue goo don't worry! lol

as far as tier 2

Same can be said for plugins, this is Vanilla Tier1 only then, no C++, no plugins, just Basic? (as per: "anything that i didn't provide for")

this is Vanilla Tier1 only then?

no, no. just not a "C++ game with a couple of AppGameKit commands" thrown in is what i'm hoping for.

sorry for not being clear but it's probably my ignorance showing when it comes to tier 2. suffice to say that everything i've seen on the AppGameKit boards IS AGK to me including any tier 2 stuff. does that help clarify? i havent seen it all but if we see something like this:



can we agree it's not "AGK"? and, not a TD game?

at second glance, we could pull that off in AppGameKit if we wanted to. maybe i'm concerned about nothing

in the end, "If the mods agree that a game is not in the spirit of the Jam then we will omit it from judging" is the "official" statement on both accounts.

we could pull that off in AppGameKit

Because we can, does not mean we should!

It would certainly be a fun experience turning connect 4 into a tower defence game tho ...

If the mods agree that a game is not in the spirit of the Jam

Fair enough, I'll stick to Tier1 Basic, its easier to prototype in anyway.

Eat your heart out Zombies

I said eat your heart out

Lol, Cute!

I have seen the game around but never played it.

Taking enthusiasm from Phaelax's example I'm going for a 3D approach, not sure whether to go with asteroid storm or alien invasion, my tower placement code is done so that's one math headache out the way just need to sync it to tower types in a state machine (the little blue dots are tower placeholders), I need to get back into blender and separate the land masses from the main sphere so I can check for (land v's sea) collisions, and poles, rocky regions etc etc for tower building cost/terrain type and effectiveness, the idea being some can only be placed on land and some only at sea (mobile drone tower ships? still qualify? TD are essentially RTS too, right?)

I want to ... have alien ships land and an invasion force decant so certain regions of the planet become "frontlines" while they try and take over the capitol of that landmass, just chucking rocks at the planet feels like a copout when we got time to do so much more, I want Will Smith, not Bruce Willis!! (See what I did there!! )



I used a bit of foresight this time and stuck the entire game behind a single nested type array so I can save it out to .json, instant save game system, zero effort (don't you just love that feature?)

Not sure what models I am going to use at this point I will probably model my own, the planet and landmasses of course I have too do as I need them done in a very specific way for the collision detection and I need them now so I can write the code but a few ships and some little alien peeps should not be an issue, it will be more coloured primitives until I get round to it tho!

[Double Post]

Soz, don't know what happened there, page crashed and posted 2wice!!

have seen the game around but never played it.

lol Yes, used to play this a lot when it came out, now I'm cloning it .

You should do a planet attack where the planets attack each other lol.

Could we get some clarifications on some elements...

Use your imagination but the basic elements must be distinguishable.

Some questions:

Does the defence have to be exclusively through Constructs?
i.e. Traps, Walls, Emplacements, etc.?

The reason I ask is because Gears of War Horde, Fortnite Save the World and Orcs Must Die... all are reliant on Defensive Structure Construction., but the Players themselves also take an active role in Defence (i.e. they can Shoot the on-coming waves of enemies).
I mean a similar question can be levied at say MOBA., where-in sure traditionally you don't construct things; but the concept of having PvP where-in you have someone playing on the Horde Side as a "Hero Villain" and someone on the Defenders side as a "Hero Champion"., I mean assuming that the Attackers just get their Horde Numbers while the Defenders just get their Defence Structures... well would that be in-keeping with the "Theme"?

Really just curious as to the red-lines in regards to what will and won't be considered a "Tower Defence"

We (the mods) are currently discussing where the lines should be drawn for what is considered a Tower Defence game and what isn't.
The top post will be edited soon with our decision.
[Edit] Done. I've added a few lines above "RULES" which should help clarify things a little.

Could we get some clarifications on some elements...

You had to go and ask!

[Edit] Done

Yup, me too!

Rule 5 directly contradicts rule 1,2,3 and 4, use your imagination "but your game must do this this this and that", that's a very small box you are giving our imaginations to work with.

My imagination is offended by your new rules TBH, and on that note, I'm out!, no joke, this is turning more into a Fiver ad than a game comp, have the mods never heard the term "Genre Busting"?

I have towers that defend stuff, it should be a done deal, how I manage my placement or level handling is down to my imagination and/or skill (or lack of either) but its shackled by genre norms, after all we are programmers, thinking "out of the box" kind of comes naturally

?The code is more what you'd call 'guidelines' than actual rules." - Captain Barbosa

And some real ones:

Dreaming, after all, is a form of planning.? ?Gloria Steinem

The only 3 rules that should apply.
1. The main focus of your game must be based around "Towers"
2. Your "Towers" must defend something.
3. AUP

But I am sure I probably just broke rule 3 myself with this post (disagreeing with a mod) so I'll bid you all farewell now!, may we meet again.

Once the adversaries are on the move, player input is limited to the placement/repositioning of defences"

I don't want to compete myself either, thanks for the invite though.

This is not a competition if we have to build the game as the rules says so.

I was not going to add anything between levels as you need to win upgrades, also it is just now way to much work for a simple fun competition .

Don't know why everyone has a problem with the rules, I think they laid out the basic mechanics of a tower defense game. Place stuff to stop waves of enemies with options for upgrades between waves. That's pretty typical of the genre. I still think there's plenty of room for imagination.