The “big guns” in the TD app world are The Creeps! and Fieldrunners. I own both of these apps, and they no doubt belong on the top of any strategy/TD lover’s list of games. But what about the games that have been “flying under the radar” and have not gotten as much mainstream attention as they should be getting? Well, here are a handful that deserve some more attention. They are all excellent games, both in the TD realm, as well as general strategy games.

Gemcraft

Gemcraft started as an online TD game (as a lot of iPhone TD games do) that has been played over 90 million times. The goal in GemCraft is to combine the magic powers of 8 gem types each with its own special abilities. You can use Pure gems, or combine gems together to craft new and powerful multi-color gems with both their strengths. Use gems in towers and traps to wipe out hordes of monsters preventing them from reaching your mana crystal.
More info at iTunes

Bloons TD4

Featuring a whole host of new tower and enemy types, Bloons TD 4 is the long awaited sequel to Bloons TD. This time the monkeys are serious and are ready to take down the enemy from the land, air and sea. Utilizing a new ranking system you can build up your experience and gain access to even more powerful towers and upgrades. Call in mortar strikes, deploy the monkey aces and harness the power of banana farms as you bid to take down the enemy in true bloon-popping fashion.

I must warn you, Bloons TD4 is a very addicting game! You’ll find yourself saying “just five more waves, then I’ll put it down,” only to have your phone warn you with the “20% battery life” message two hours later haha. The developers have been updating the game with new maps and features fairly regularly to keep their users happy!
More info at iTunes

Pew Pew Land

Pew Pew Land features 48 fun and cartoony levels, 13 of which are unlockable. It has a great choice of towers as well as a diverse array of creeps, including super huge bosses. A really cool and new TD feature, is the ability to play with a friend (some of the later levels are extremely hard). You can even share your scores easily with Twitter or Facebook (a nice addition for any game, bragging rights)
More info at iTunes

4Towers

This game has a similar feel that GeoDefense/Swarm had as far as graphics go. You are only allowed four towers, but you can combine towers to create more towers with more powers/attacks. This fun concept plus a great soundtrack makes this a great game.
More info at iTunes

Tower Defense®: Lost Earth

For some reason Com2uS decided to register a trademark for the name “Tower Defense.” Them doing so meant they had huge faith in the game, or they were just plain crazy (after all, if it’s THE tower defense game, it naturally comes with high expectations). As it turns out, the game really delivers and it one of the best I’ve played to date. With gorgeous graphics, nine towers, dozens of increasing harder levels, super attacks and four game types (standard, survival, gathering, attack); this game sure lives up to it’s hype.
More info at iTunes

Defender Chronicles

This one is my favorite of all TD games I have played. It not only is one of the only ones that has a side-view 2D platform perspective (think Super Mario Bros.), is also introduces a “general” which you can level up and outfit with different pieces of armor which boost your stats. Of course you can level up the general in any way you please, depending on the type of player you are. Highly recommended! (Hopefully Defender Chronicles 2 will be coming out soon, as this game hasn’t been updated in awhile)
More info at iTunes

7 Cities

Coastal tower defense, you build towers next to waterways to destroy invading ships. Towers can gain experience to get more powerful. The graphics are impressive and the creeps come in a wide variety (boats, monsters, treasure chests with cash). 7 Cities even lets you choose a variety of upgrades for each tower. Instead of the tower just getting more powerful, you can choose to increase its fire rate, gold collection, etc.
More info at iTunes

Doodle Defense

The childish “doodle” games seem to be hit-or-miss with gamers. Doodle Defense definitely needs some content updates (only five maps and five towers), but what it does have it does quite well. The graphics are simple, but I feel that simplicity allows you to focus on the strategy needed to beat the levels, instead of ogling at how pretty the pixels are.
More info at iTunes

Crystal Defenders

Yea, I know it’s a bit on a expensive side, but then again what app from Square Enix isn’t haha. I snagged this gem when it was on sale (SE normally does huge sales on all of their games when they release a new one) and have loved it’s combination of Final Fantasy and Tower Defense! Instead of using traditional “towers,” you use characters from the Final Fantasy universe such as a black mage, thief, dragoon, etc.
More info at iTunes

Besiegement

Besiegement is definitely not a graphical powerhouse, but it surely delivers in the area of replay value. It has both open field maps, as well as path oriented maps, and plenty of both.
More info at iTunes

If you have a tower defense app that you enjoy playing that I did not mention, please leave a comment and let me know, as I love finding new TD games Thanks

A new tool has been launched this week to help designers get complete and effective briefs from their clients. It’s called BrieFix and it seems like a useful application for the briefing process. It’s really easy and intuitive for designers to set it up and you may also install it on your website and personalize it with your own logo and color scheme. Another great thing is that you may take it on your own domain, so that clients never feel like they leave your website.

You may set a compilation of questions for logo projects, one for website projects and so on, according to the services you offer. And it’s pretty awesome that you will get all the briefs into one single place, organized by project type, so you no longer have to worry about losing forms or client details on your computer.

What BrieFix aims to do is to help your clients while facing the “daunting” task of creating a design brief. The application is not a simple form, but is rather an interactive and fun tool which aims to “pull out” all the information you need from your clients. For instance, using mood boards and asking your clients to choose logos they like from several sets of images makes it easier for you to get a picture on clients’ design preferences, as visuals communicate things that words cannot.

The Prizes:

Ten (10) winners will each receive a Premium package at BrieFix.com for a 6 month period. That is a $174 value for each winner, totally $1740 worth of stuff!! Even if you don’t win, BrieFix is offering a 30 day free trial of their great app!
Each Premium package includes:

• 15 briefs a month
• 5 compilations a month
• 150MB data storage
• Myname.briefix.com
• Mydomain.com
• Custom branding

How to enter:

• Leave a comment below (something funny/interesting is always a plus)
• Make sure to use a valid email address

Optional:

• Retweet or share this post on Facebook (using the sharing buttons below)
• Follow both myself and BrieFix on Twitter

Slice It!

Description: The “Slice It!” touch is all about slicing shapes into pieces that are equal in size. Accept the challenge, if you dare, but beware! The stages become more and more difficult.
Overcome your boundaries: titillate your brain, until you approach perfection! This is a very fun game that will challenge even the sliest of people.
iTunes Link

Trainyard

Description: Your job is simple: get each train to a goal station. Red trains go to red stations, blue trains go to blue stations, etc. You control the trains by drawing track for them to follow. There isn’t a time limit or even a score; the only thing you need to do is figure out a solution for each puzzle. They start very easy, but get progressively harder (as all good puzzle games should be).
iTunes Link

Doodle God / Doodle Devil

Description: Doodle God puts the power of creation in your hands. Mixing and matching different elements, work your way up, all the way from bacteria and beetles, to clay and ceramics, to tools, weapons and beyond! But beware, creating a whole world is not so easy – inventing the wheel might just end in a plague of zombies…

In Doodle Devil, you’ve already created a whole universe from the four basic elements and you don’t know what to do next? Destroy everything to the ground! Discover the seven deadly sins and there will be no coming back for you! Try to combine elements and invent murder, death, demons, beasts, zombies… which will destroy everything.
Doodle God iTunes Link / Doodle Devil iTunes Link

Words With Friends

Description: Scrabble + Multiple games at once + IM chat = Words With Friends. It’s fun, addicting and a great time-waster. Nothing is more fun than having a long distance scrabble game with a bunch of your friends.
iTunes Link

Ragdoll Blaster 1 / Ragdoll Blaster 2

Description: The simple rules are the same, fire a ragdoll with a touch to hit the target and solve the puzzle. There are over 150 levels (in each game) that will keep you entertained and challenged for days.
Ragdoll 1 iTunes Link / Ragdoll 2 iTunes link

Geared

Description: Geared is a radically new and innovative puzzle game; a unique addition to its genre. The first and only Gear-based game with absolutely no snap-grid. Geared delivers complete and total freedom to the player, bestowing every puzzle with a near infinite array of choices. Pit your intellect against 200 uniquely designed levels.
iTunes Link

Zlider

Description: Guide shooting meteoroids through more than 80 hand-crafted galaxy puzzle levels. Zlider combines puzzle solving with hand coordination in a retro style arcade game. Instead of controlling the meteoroids you navigate by controlling the surrounding walls and objects. The red and blue walls are moved vertically with your left and right thumb. Coordination, fast reactions and planning are needed to clear all the obstacles.
iTunes Link

Osmos

Description: Part physics-based eat-’em-up, part ambient, cosmic simulator, and part Darwinistic game of survival. Your goal is to grow by absorbing smaller motes, but to propel yourself you must eject matter behind you, causing you to shrink. From this fundamental balance, Osmos leads the player through ambient playgrounds, deep solar systems, competitive petri dishes, dense mote-fields, and more.
iTunes Link

Cover Orange

Description: A dangerous cloud carrying deadly poison rain is on the move, and it’s up to YOU to save the exposed orange population. Drag the various objects at your disposal and strategically drop them into each new level to prevent the acid rain from touching the precious fruit. All oranges must survive, so they’ll reward you with lovable shouts and cheers if you complete the task.
iTunes Link

All-in-1 Logic GameBox

Description: Wanna have 9 incredibly fun games for the super low price?? This is the case with All-in-1 Logic GameBox which includes NINE TOP-QUALITY puzzle games with more than 2,000 levels of complexity! The developers update this quite often with new games and levels.
iTunes Link

Ramps

Description: Position and rotate the ramps to guide your ball into the goal, all while avoiding treacherous enemies and terrain! With over 100 levels, and more on the way; there is plenty to keep you busy.
iTunes Link

Moonlights

Description: Moonlights is a tower building physics puzzler, that will challenge the brain and the physics skills of the whole family. If you have ever played World of Goo, this is extremely similar and just as fun to play.
iTunes Link

Note, none of these are my own designs. They all belong to whoever created them. If you like a specific design, click on the link to go to where the image lives. Some are available for print, while others are not. Thanks

Check out part 1 of Love Is All Around Us for more inspiration

Glenn Fabry is a British comic artist known for his detailed, realistic ink and color work. His art can be found gracing the pages of Slaine, Judge Dredd, Preacher, Sandman, Thor, Neverwhere, and the Magic the Gathering card game, just to name a few. Glenn has also produced covers for computer and fantasy magazines, computer games, caricature posters, newspaper strip work, TV advertising, work for Paramount Pictures and even Marvel rides at Universal Studios.

View his website to learn more about him and view his full portfolio.