On June 11, 2010 LedgeWizard Games, released their first game, Towers, for the Xbox (Live) Indie Games Platform. A unique and imaginative take on the Tower defence game that sets out to build a deep and rewarding experience without losing any of its vibrant personality.

Based in South Cornwall, England, LedgeWizard Games are a small family based team headed up by Adam Steppens who built Towers in his spare time. I was lucky enough to get an interview with Mr. LedgeWizard himself, Adam Steppens.

What differentiates Towers from other Tower Defence games?

I’ve played a number of good TDs in the past so there are obviously strong influences from some games. I’m hoping that a few of the tower designs are fairly original and that they complement each other well. Each of the towers has a few different versions that can be upgraded to individually, so, for instance, a cannon tower could be given a speed upgrade, or damage upgrade or even eventually both. Different towers have other upgrades available, though the total number for each tower has been kept fairly low so that each tower has strengths and weaknesses which have to be worked into the strategy.

There are also multiple endings based on how well you do. All are achievable and seeing one ending doesn’t lock you out from seeing any of the others. I think it’s very important for people to be able to see all of the content without being locked out for making a decision that they might regret later. That’s something for RPGs I think.

The golden rule that I eventually settled on was to keep it simple. It’s a pretty casual game that anyone can pick up and play. The variety is in the different strategies the player can come up with. Originally, different coloured wizards were going to be able to build different towers, or make it so that different objects in the world would be used for different sets of towers. It all got a little bit complicated and potentially quite restrictive. It also played havoc with the difficulty. I might something like that in a sequel. So the game basically only ever has three options. Build, upgrade and sell.

The game has a fairly sedate pace, especially in the earlier levels. The idea being that the player has a moment to think about which towers to choose and where to place them, rather than the whole game being a reaction test. However, there are times when you’ve got everything under control and just want things to move a little faster, so I added a fast forward control.

How did you get into making a game for the 360?

A friend of mine showed me a site he had been learning from, [xnadevelopment]. He’d followed a tutorial and had gotten a blue wizard to jump around whilst shooting fireballs. I was instantly intrigued and even more so when he pointed out that the software needed to get going was completely free. Needless to say, I was interested and after trying out the tutorials myself, I set about making a game myself. This would become Towers. Originally I designed it as a side on game, like old style platformers. The first step was to create a series of platforms, on which I stood a blue wizard (which I had coincidentally drawn years before, for a game I’d never made). Being fairly new to this, I was quite impressed by my little wizard standing on his ledge. Other’s not so much, but he was the starting point and when I came to sign up for the XNA Creators Club, I couldn’t use my original choices, so I went with LedgeWizard.

From that point I continued learning as I went along, not quite sure what I’d be able to do. Thankfully the XNA forums and numerous code samples are available, so with a bit of time and effort you can achieve a lot. I can’t say I never got stuck, but I persevered and I’m pleased with the way it’s turned out.

What was your favourite part of the process?

Seeing people’s reactions to the game. At one point, I had one tester playing and five other people criticising his tower placements, each asking to have the controller passed to them next, so that they could show them how it’s done. When people get out of their seats and start pointing to where they think towers should be placed it’s very cool, especially when it’s meant to be a single player experience.

Overall, the feedback I’ve received has been incredibly gratifying. As a result of the feedback, we’re even planning an update, to add multiple difficulty levels and are planning on smoothing out the difficulty curve a little. One particular level, Everwinter Trail, has been commented on a few times and is definately possible, but generally harder than the other levels around it. We’ve got some tips on our website at www.ledgewizardgames.com if people are struggling and will possibly offer walkthroughs in the future if people are interested.

What was your least favourite part?

I’m generally happy with everything that went into the game. I cut a number of items early on when it was apparent that they either bogged the game down, or made it overcomplicated. Despite this, the things that did go in took a lot longer than I’d originally expected. I think I told my wife that the game would be done in a few evenings and odd weekends over a month and it dragged out a lot more than that. To be fair, I was learning as I went along, so was essentially encountering new problems at every step. But I worked through each and every one and firmly believe the next one will be quicker. At least, that’s what I’ve told my wife.

There’s almost as much work in getting the game playing right and running smoothly as there is just getting it to work in the first place. I owe a seriously huge thank you to my testers who volunteered their free time playing and replaying the levels as I made minute changes to the levels or the controls or some other incredibly small point.

So, what are you working on next?

Loads of things! Whilst working on Towers, I kept getting ideas that either were too complex to go in and might work for a sequel or for an entirely different TD. I want to work a lot more with game generated music for instance, as it’s an area I really haven’t explored much. Also, I’ve had at least a dozen unrelated ideas. Some being clones and some being quite original. I’ll have to let you know when I’ve picked one!

I tend to create a very rough prototype (like a ghost, wearing a hat whilst wandering through a forest and being shot at by cannons) and throw it out to a few close friends, who will quite honestly tell me that it’s either a rubbish idea, or maybe that it’s got some potential . Getting people to look past placeholder graphics is tricky, plus I’m really not very good with drawing graphics yet, so they have to fill in the blanks with their imaginations.

Lastly, Some of the levels can get a bit tough, Do you have any recommended strategies?

This unintended one arose in early play testing. An interesting use of the lightning tower. Designed to have huge range and really high damage to a single target or anything standing really close. Ideal for boss monsters, since it will always output its maximum damage rather than over-killing. It also targets the monster with the most hit points remaining so that it’s not generally wasted on smaller monsters.

Most people put these towers near the centre of the screen, exposing them to as much of the monster’s paths as possible, but one tester put one right at the end of the path, covering very little ground. It turned out that the tower acted really well as a filter. The tester has put gun towers down to finish off weakened monsters that had gotten past everything else. However, gun towers get locked onto targets, shooting them for as long as they possibly can. Therefore if they start tracking something with a lot of health, weaker monsters that could easily be killed quickly will creep past. The lightning tower solved this by severely weakening or frequently killing off just the tougher monsters as opposed to the ones that the guns could quickly destroy.

Could I please just add a huge thank you to everyone who helped suggest ideas and improvements whilst testing the game. Without you guys the whole experience would’ve been a lot less satisfying and a lot less fun.

You can find and download the game from the XBox LIVE Marketplace. I highly recommend that you give it a go. Or you could visit LedgeWizard games yourself. Here.