Stronghold Defenders

Engaging resource management with interesting long-term vs short-term decision making.

Addictive! Just wanted to try it out once, ended up playing for two hours (and I'm not a gamer) to try to survive longer. Easy to learn, easy to play, difficult to master!

I had the honor of testing Stronghold Defenders before its release, so I’ve had a front-row seat watching it grow and evolve into what it is today! From the initial design to its final polished state, it’s been a thrill to see all the changes come together. I remember the first time I played, I couldn’t even destroy the corruption—I kept failing miserably while August was taking down notes and patched things on the fly. Those hours of playtesting were full of laughs and brainstorming, and it was truly a privilege to be one of the testers. But enough about the process—this game is an amazing time-killer! Stronghold Defenders pulls you in with challenging gameplay and satisfying mechanics. There’s a real sense of progress and achievement as you defend against wave after wave, strategizing and adapting to survive. It’s easy to lose track of time while fending off the corruption and keeping your stronghold intact. If you’re looking for something engaging and fun, this game is definitely worth a try! So proud of you buddy!

Such a fun and addictive game! It's easy to learn but keeps you hooked with its unique gameplay. I love how every round feels different. This is a well-thought-out game that I highly recommend giving a try—you'll love it!

Game boils down to 2 things : Did the game give you ballista, and crossroads on the map? No? Reset untill it does

Pretty straightforward to understand, get into and play. I do dislike that you're basically forced to lose until you have some currency to unlock buildings that feel necessary for the game to work properly. I guess without this rogue-lite aspect, the experience would have been over much faster and have gotten more criticism for not being deep or varied enough. I think the game would play better if the resource type camps were all unlocked at the start, and instead more defense towers were created and added as the unlocks. Maybe that would run into its own problems though, people just beating the game on their third or fourth run and being done with it. I do think the core concept and base of this game is fun, but the cheap price is very justified because you'd need a lot more variety and content for a longer, richer experience. The rarity of the rarest towers is pretty bad. I found a couple of rare towers in some of my first runs, then never again. A lot of the fogged events aren't equal. I almost beat the game at 3.5 hours played, just happened to get a good RNG on which shrouded buildings appeared (+resources is inferior to +skillpoints for instance). Anyway, Stronghold Defenders is alright. I had fun beating it but I wish it had waaaay more content because the core of this is fun and the potential is not fully realised.

A tower defence with a focus on resource gathering. In contrast from most TD the goal is not to survive a certain amount of waves but to gather enough resources to defeat the corruption. Failing to keep up with the corruption quite quickly also spells death. When purchasing towers and upgrades choices are randomized making playthroughs quite different in strategy. The aforementioned resource gathering for corruption is also partly randomized by this system giving you choices on how to clear the game. A very fun simple game that might seem quite hard until you have figured out how to balance resource gathering, defending your stronghold and defeating the corruption.