Currently, one of the most anticipated and talked about flash game series around the world is undoubtedly Gemcraft. In recent years, tower defense games have become immensely popular and the end of the madness is not in sight. Let’s take a look at the origin of these games and find out which games contributed to the current success of the genre.

For those unfamiliar, tower defense or simply TD is a subgenre of real-time strategy computer games like Starcraft. The player’s goal is to try to prevent enemies from crossing the map by building towers that will shoot and damage them when they pass by. Enemies and towers often have varying abilities and costs, and these improve and increase as the game progresses. When an enemy is defeated, the player earns money or points, which are used to buy or upgrade towers. The choice and positioning of the towers is the essential strategy of the game. Enemies usually run through a maze that allows the player to strategically place towers, but there are also versions of the game where the user must create the maze from their own towers, such as Desktop Tower Defense. Some versions are a hybrid of these two types, with preset routes that can be modified to some degree by tower placement.

Tower Defense traces its roots to the strategy classic Rampart, a 1990 arcade game. The game involved defending a castle by placing cannons and making repairs between various rounds of attacks. Its success resulted in the game being ported to various platforms including the Super NES, Game Boy, PlayStation 2, Xbox, Gamecube, and most recently the PlayStation Network to offer multiplayer action. In the new millennium, tower defense games began to appear on user-created maps for Starcraft, Age of Empires II, and Warcraft III. Using buildings or defensive units like towers, these custom maps filled online lobbies.

Eventually, indie game developers began using Adobe Flash to create tower defense standalone browser games, leading to the influential release of Desktop Tower Defense in March 2007. Hundreds of game themes and variations have been tested over the years. , including space. and medieval settings. Children’s versions appeared in which players popped balloons or protected a picnic from ants. Protector was released in late 2007 and immediately ranked among the best, offering classes and specialization upgrades. Most recently, it was Gemcraft that took the crown by offering a new twist to gameplay, the ability to combine towers.

The future looks bright for this genre and upcoming titles like Gemcraft Chapter Two and Bloons Tower Defense 6 are sure to set the bar even higher.