Is a Tower Defense Possible?

yaywaffles95

Hello I'm sort of new to Gamesalad and I was curious as to whether or not one is capable of creating a tower defense game somewhat similar to "Bloons Td 5" and how to do so. I've done some research and found a couple tower defense templates but they aren't exactly what I was looking for and I would rather start from the ground up. Any advice is appreciated!

JScott

Hi yes a TD game is possible with GS. To make a Tower Defense game probably isn't a beginner project, though. Figure out how those templates you've found work and then start your own.
Or start with a few actors, getting them to move where you want, and then interacting with other actors (your towers). Don't worry about graphics, just start with moving, collisions, and the magnitude function.

Gnarly

Not a beginner project but I think it's possible. Cut the TD game into little projects. Moving guns into positions. Enemies moving to attack. Etc etc. A full TD game is a huge undertaking.

Have fun.

Rainbros

Gamesalad is very limited when it comes to sending data directly between actors, so a good (emphasis on good) tower defense is extremely difficult to do properly. I think you would have to use tables somehow, and it would be quite complex. Even the Deep Blue Apps template is poorly built, and comes nowhere near Bloons quality. (I have the project.) So yes, perhaps it is possible, but Gamesalad's limitations make this way harder than it needs to be. I wouldn't advise it, except as a learning experience.

jamie_c

It's definitely possible but like others have said it's not easy. I just started one (for the second time) last week and it's coming along well. But there are lots of hurdles to get over. Mine is so early in the dev stage I don't have anything to show, but I'm feeling pretty good about the possibilities.

BigDave

If you have towers fire at a defined place only - where the minions pass its straight easy
but if you want the towers to aim each unit - or/and nearest enemy
you would need to have a table to update x/y position of every spawned unit as well as killing the entry before you destroy the unit when it dies.

I would suggest solution 1 and build a game where Towers aim at specific points/direction based on where you place them in a defined frequency or have a invisible actor below sending a game attribute if an enemy overlaps with it, basically telling the tower that the enemies are in reach before firing.

UtopianGames

I made a template nearly 5 years ago, I'm sure if I made one today I would do things different but we didn't have the features we have now back then