DEFENDERS OF THE DAMNED

A Haunting Tower Defense Game – Forged by First-Time Developers

HOW TO PLAY

BEFORE YOU START ⚠️ FULLSCREEN STRONGLY RECOMMENDED

First, use the scroll bars to find and tick the light blue button in the bottom-right corner to enter fullscreen. The default window is too small – this is critical for visibility and gameplay!

CORE MECHANICS

TOWERS

• Damage Tower: High offense, shreds enemies.
• Slow Tower: Slows mobs, buys time.
• Placement: Select a tower type in the shop (right side of screen). Hover over the map – white highlighted circles show valid build spots. Once placed, towers cannot be moved or sold.
• Upgrades: Click an existing tower to spend coins on increased range or damage. Prioritize wisely – every coin matters.

ECONOMY

• Start with 500 coins. Earn more by defeating enemies.
• Coin starvation is permanent. Run out on later levels? You’re doomed. Balance tower placement, upgrades, and saving for emergencies.

OBJECTIVES

• Levels 1 & 2: Survive while servants repair the castle gates. Protect the gates at all costs – their health carries over between attempts.
• Level 3: Endure a brutal timed siege (timer at top of screen). No repairs, no mercy.

PUNISHING PROGRESSION

• Fail Level 2? You’re thrown back to Level 1. Your castle’s damage remains, but all defenses are stripped but the damage stays. Rebuild from scratch with fewer resources and a weakened structure.
• Complete all 3 levels to break the cycle.

CONTROLS & UI

• Left-click: Place/upgrade towers, navigate menus.
• Shop (Right Side): Purchase towers using the two buttons (damage/slow icons).
• Castle Health Bar: Top of screen – monitor it like your life depends on it (because it does).

THE PREMISE

The castle’s walls are a lie. Built on bones, defended by desperation.

Command mystical towers to protect a crumbling regime drowning in its sins. Survive relentless waves of undead across three distinct levels, each more treacherous than the last. Lose on Level 2? Fall back to Level 1 with your castle’s scars intact but defenses stripped – a brutal reflection of the monarchy’s hollow promises.

WHAT WE BUILT

• AI × Pixel Art Fusion: Retro towers and mobs clash against KREA.ai’s haunting, painterly backdrops – a deliberate contrast between the castle’s gilded facade and the rot beneath.
• Punishing Progression: Fail later levels and retain your castle’s health, but rebuild defenses from scratch. A mechanic mirroring the regime’s fragile grip on power.
• Atmospheric Tension: A moody soundtrack underscores the siege, though the absence of SFX amplifies the eerie silence of decay.

THE STORY BEHIND THE GAME

Our first game. Built in 3 weeks. Graded 28.75/30.

As first-semester students at FH des BFI Wien, we embraced Unity with equal parts ambition and naivety. Tower defense seemed approachable – until scope creep struck. What emerged:

• Level Switching Trials: Countless late nights refining progression logic. A team triumph.
• AI & Pixel Synergy: Hand-drawn dreams gave way to curated AI backdrops, blending styles to evoke the castle’s fractured duality.
• Settings Menu Resurrection: Audio systems collapsed until rebuilt from ashes – a crash course in persistence.

FOR PLAYERS WHO APPRECIATE

• Student Project Grit: Janky charm meets genuine effort.
• Strategic Challenge: Straightforward mechanics with escalating stakes.
• Narrative Breadcrumbs: The opening cutscene’s cryptic lore – our small rebellion against pure mechanics.

CREDITS & TOOLS

• Team:
  • Christian Pantuan: Core gameplay systems, enemy AI
  • Andi Tran Riedl: Animations, balancing, wave design
  • Danila Trofimov: UI/UX, level design, and "why won’t this scene load?!" troubleshooting
• Assets:
  • Tower Defense Bundle by Craftpix.net (GUI, sprites, tilesets)
  • Smoke N Dust 01 by pimen (Freezing tower animations effects)
• Background Music:
  • Main Menu Music: Fantasy Medieval Ambient by DeusLower – Free for use under the Pixabay Content License. Link
  • Cutscene Music: Shady Guise by The Soundlings – Available via the YouTube Audio Library, free to use without attribution. Link
  • Level Music: Medieval Adventure by Emmraan – Free for use under the Pixabay Content License. Link
• Sound Effects:
  • ElevenLabs Sound Effects Generator: Used to create custom sound effects by generating audio from descriptive text prompts.
    
  • Freesound:
    • Game_over.wav by deleted_user_877451 – Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 3.0.
    • damage.wav by ash_rez – Licensed under Creative Commons 0 (Public Domain). Link
  • ChipTone by SFBGames: A free tool for generating retro-style sound effects, licensed under Creative Commons Zero (CC0). Created by Tom Vian.
• AI Backdrops: KREA.ai + Midjourney + Pixel It (curated/edited for thematic cohesion) 
• Built With: Unity 6 (6000.0.31f1), sleepless nights, and the existential dread of first-semester deadlines.

WHY WE’RE SHARING THIS

This isn’t a masterpiece – it’s a timestamp. A reminder that every dev starts somewhere. Play it, critique it, laugh at our rookie mistakes. Then watch what we build next.