What makes Defense Grid different than other types of games we have seen in this genre?

We think there are many elements in Defense Grid: The Awakening where we've focused to really deliver a definitive and polished tower defense experience, but there are three key elements that currently set the game apart.

First, the Defense Grid map types are rather unique for the tower defense genre. Most tower defense games either use a fixed path approach where towers are placed along the side of the road and the alien path is very clearly defined. These games are typically easier for the novice to pick up and quickly understand, but they don't typically allow the player as much creative freedom as open maps. Open map types often have many places where a player can build a tower where the enemies travel and in doing so one can redirect the path of the incoming enemies. This can open up a lot of creative gameplay, but can be confusing to first time players. Defense Grid: The Awakening has maps in a hybrid format throughout such that there are both clear pathways and open areas for enemy redirection in our levels. This allows the first time player to quickly understand what is happening on a level, but also allow them to grow in their creative redirection of the alien invaders as they progress. It also creates some very interesting and strategic level designs as well. We're very excited about how people respond to the hybrid map style.

Secondly, the game's power core mechanic creates a unique improvement in typical tower defense gameplay. The alien invaders in Defense Grid: The Awakening are coming to steal the objects that provide power to your base defenses and they must enter a level, find the power cores where they are stored, and exit a level with the core for them to succeed. Not only does this make the motivation of the aliens more clear, it creates very interesting changes in the location of level hotspots. When an alien is finally destroyed, if it was carrying a power core, it drops that core and the core begins slowly working its way back to the core housing. When a core is free on the map though, an alien invader can pick up that core, turn, and immediately head for the exit without having to traverse the entire level. This "hand-off" mechanic between dying aliens can be seen throughout the game when things are getting tough, and can make trying to defend your cores once they have been initially stolen, a very interesting, intense, and fun game experience.

Thirdly, the attention to detail, polish, balance, and accessibility of the game to both new users and hardcore users is something we're very proud of in Defense Grid: The Awakening. Most tower defense games we've played simply get more and more difficult as one progresses up to the point where most users can't progress any farther and they have to stop playing the game. We want every person who plays Defense Grid: The Awakening to be able to complete the game, but we also want to support several different types of skill levels. Each of our levels has three medals that one can obtain through their skill identified by bronze, silver, and gold level achievements. The novice player can play through the entire game by simply surviving each level while having at least one core remaining. This gets them the bronze achievement and allows them to progress to the next level. Skilled players will be able to achieve the silver and gold level achievements which not only require the player to have at least one core remaining, but require additional resources and core numbers to be remaining as well as other conditions that are more level specific. Combined with our very simple and intuitive controls, we believe that this achievement system allows the same game to be equally fun for players of highly varying skill.