Tower defense

Tower defense is a strategy game genre in which players place defensive units to stop waves of enemies from reaching a target. Its central challenge is choosing where and when to invest limited resources.

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Pathfinding: Pathfinding is the computational process of finding a route between locations while accounting for obstacles and movement costs. Enemy route rules determine which lanes defenses must cover.
Tower defense game design: Tower defense game design concerns rules and structures that make placement, enemy waves, and defense upgrades form a playable challenge. It frames the genre's recurring systems as deliberate design choices.
Real-time tactics: Real-time tactics is a strategy game genre focused on battlefield decisions without the extensive base-building and resource gathering typical of real-time strategy. It emphasizes maneuvering units rather than constructing static defenses along enemy routes.
Rampart: Rampart is a 1990 arcade game that combines territory management, wall building, and cannon defense. Its defense-and-repair cycle is an early precursor to later tower defense designs.
Defense of the Ancients: Defense of the Ancients is a Warcraft III custom map in which two teams control heroes and attack opposing bases. Its lineage illustrates how defense-map communities contributed to multiplayer strategy genres.
Range (video games): Range is the maximum distance at which a game unit can detect, affect, or attack a target. Attack radii make placement and overlapping coverage central decisions.
Real-time strategy: Real-time strategy is a video game genre in which players manage resources and units while actions proceed continuously. Tower defense shares resource decisions and battlefield planning with this broader genre.
Lane-based strategy game: A lane-based strategy game organizes combat around fixed routes or lanes connecting opposing sides. Some lane games resemble tower defense but center on sending forces down lanes.
StarCraft: Brood War: StarCraft: Brood War is a 1998 real-time strategy expansion whose map editor enabled extensive player-made scenarios. Custom defense maps helped establish tower defense as a playable format.
Multiplayer online battle arena: A multiplayer online battle arena is a team-based strategy game genre centered on controlling heroes and attacking an opposing base. Some descendants of custom defense maps developed into this distinct genre.