The TD triangle: waves, economy, towers
Every tower defense game is three systems feeding each other:
- Waves pressure you — enemies march the path, each wave bigger or weirder.
- Economy rewards you — kills pay gold, gold buys towers, spending now vs saving for upgrades is the real game.
- Towers express you — your build is your strategy.
When you prompt on Arcade Sandbox, name all three and the AI wires the loop: "10 waves, kills drop gold, towers cost 50/100/200 with one upgrade tier each."
Three towers is enough (if they rock-paper-scissors)
Don't ask for ten towers — ask for three with jobs:
- The workhorse — cheap, fast, single-target. Your early game.
- The crowd-controller — slow or splash damage. Answers swarms.
- The sniper — expensive, huge damage, long range. Answers armored bosses.
Then demand enemies that force choices: "include a swarm wave that punishes single-target builds and an armored boss that punishes splash-only builds." That one sentence creates strategy.
Prompt recipes
"A tower defense game where garden gnomes defend the vegetable patch from waves of snails, crows, and one giant gopher boss every 5th wave. Three towers: sprinkler (fast, weak), scarecrow (slows air units), garden dwarf with a slingshot (sniper). Kills drop coins, towers upgrade once. Ten waves, cozy art, increasingly dramatic gnome commentary between waves."
"A cyberpunk TD: defend the last coffee machine in the office from waves of productivity bots marching through cubicle corridors. Towers are baristas: espresso turret, foam cannon (splash), cold-brew sniper. Bots get faster after each 'sprint planning' boss wave."
"A reverse tower defense: I command the wave. Spawn goblins with a budget each round and route them past the AI's towers to reach the treasury. Between rounds I buy goblin upgrades: armor, speed, a shaman that heals."
▶ FIRST GAME'S FREE
New accounts start with ⚡ 5 free tokens — a 2D build costs 4. Path, waves, three towers: type it and defend.
Build my tower defense →Balance passes are 3-token revisions · share the link, compare final waves.
Balance without spreadsheets
Professional TD studios balance in spreadsheets; you balance by playing and complaining precisely:
- "Wave 6 is a brick wall — smooth the difficulty curve between waves 4 and 8."
- "The sprinkler outclasses everything; raise its cost 20% and give the sniper 50% more range."
- "I always end rich — make late waves cost me hard choices."
- "Add a 1.5x speed button." (Your players will thank you. So will you, on wave 9.)
FAQ
Fixed path or free placement?
Fixed path (enemies follow a road, towers go beside it) is the cleaner first build. Free-placement mazing is a fun follow-up revision: "let me place towers anywhere; enemies path around them."
How long should it be?
Ten waves with a boss finale is a satisfying browser session (~10 minutes). Ask for an endless mode after the campaign for the score chasers.
Can I theme it on my own life?
The genre begs for it — your dog defending the yard from squirrels, your barista life, your Discord server's mods defending #general.
What does it cost?
First 2D game effectively free (5 welcome tokens; builds cost 4), then ~$4 per game plus 3 tokens per balance pass.