Techlife » Multi-Player Desktop Tower Defense Game: The Race is ON!

DE-FENSE! DE-FENSE!

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For those unfamiliar with Desktop Tower Defense, it is a simple concept stop the circles from traversing across the playing field. As with most great games, its simplicity is compelling while its mastery is more than a challenge.

Since version 1.5 has been released, as seen on the Prepare to meet your next challenge in casual multi-player gaming, Multi-Player Desktop Tower Defense (MDTD) from Casual Collective. Casual Collective Logo

I have just ~~taken a break~~ finished playing one of the most addictive multi-player Flash games since Stick Arena in order to write about the new, invite only beta trial.

The game is a bunch of mini-races that culminate in an overall winner based on score. The new angle is now your “Defense” is not just against circles but also against your live opponents who can in one game mode use Super Powers, special powers including Lights Out (blacks out your board for a few seconds) or Gold-lock (which stops the spending of gold for a few seconds.) I played in arcade mode which speeds up the gameplay and leaves little time for in-game chat or taunting.

Paul and Dave the games creators invited all users of DTD to sign up for a user name on their new venture Casual Collective with the promise that beta testing would be granted to those users. And lucky Techlife got invited today, oh the things we do for our readers!

The game and surrounding site is still being built, but both Paul and Dave asked for feedback. My feedback is to make the social part a bit easier and more fleshed out. I also didn’t think the profile module was very strong yet. But the reason you are there is the MDTD and that was strong! Basically they take the regular version and enhance it with capability to play against up to 11 other people simultaneously. I only played in 6 person games as I think that is what is working for the beta right now.

During the game the Powermoves are a bit confusing and not that easy to implement yet. I would like to see a bit more clarity of them, probably moving from a letter to an icon would help. Something I have always thought would be great would be to enable a “bubble help” or rollover command key shortcut option. I have gotten a few of them memorized but knowing more would make me a better Multi-player Desktop Tower Defense player.

Like Stick Arena keeping stats on everything would be great. Examples include what place I average my finish with a weighting system placed on more opponents. How many levels, circles, towers, upgrades and more. It would be cool to see past maps. In the new game they offer up awards and storing those would be nice too. I really like fact that when I was the first one out in a game they give me the chance to see how it ends later with a link. I think there was still bugby though as this was not showing everyone’s score a few hours later.

Overall: This was a great single person game and the leap to multi-player has made it a must-play. Of course the caveat is, this is one of the most addicting games I have ever played. If you have anything you need to get done in life, you have been warned. See you on the battlefield.

Did you get an invite? Did you want one? What are your thoughts? Let Techlife know.

Multi-player Desktop Tower Defense game setup