Description

Tower defence games are a staple genre of gaming culture. The genre is so popular that fans have made variants of tower defence in nearly every RTS game that offers modding capabilities; some of these fan projects have even pivoted to become full standalone games (now that is dedication!). Decentraland has seen several different types of games break into the scene over the course of the platform’s development, but the foundations for tower defence games have never been cemented. I see this as a major missed opportunity not only for players, but also for creators and land owners within Decentraland. The value provided by this project would benefit 3 major audiences: users, creators, and land owners. The created tower defence game fields would provide general users of Decentraland with a fun activity to partake in, while the developed creation kit could be used by creators to generate additional tower defence content. Land owners would be able to leverage the kit by hosting tower defence games on their land, likely monetizing access to premium content or wearables themed around their fields. On top of that, if we can achieve a baseline ecosystem for developing a self-propelling system of user developed content we would be able to apply that blueprint to other game genres. This project will also provide important jobs and invaluable experience to Decentraland community creators. It is absolutely imperative that our community’s skill-level and proficiency in creating for the Decentraland platform is fostered and continues to grow. If developers cannot source resource creation from our community: they will either go elsewhere or choose to conduct their projects in a more developed metaverse. The deliverable tower and enemy assets outlined in this project will be developed and optimised specifically for the platform, giving an in-depth example of how to make assets for Decentraland. The tower defence creation kit will provide everything a user needs to create their own tower defence field (from tower placement to enemy wave generation). The interfaces will be as simplified as possible and heavily documented to ensure users with no coding experience can still create their dream TD fields. The kit will also come pre-packed with the required assets to create a tower defence game (enemies, towers, etc), all for unlimited free use. After development of the kit has completed, four tower defence fields will be made using the creation kit. These game fields will be made available as open-source repositories, as well as being hosted for play by any user in Decentraland. This will allow any user looking to host a tower defence field on their land to do so with minimal effort. It also provides a great starting point for anyone looking to create their own tower defence field, as users will be free to customise/monitise these scenes or any derived scenes in any way they wish. If we can capture the attention of even a small portion of the gaming audience by providing entertaining experiences and empowering tools then that would be a huge win for our community. By nurturing a thriving community of players and creators, we would see the constant generation of new content to attract more users to Decentraland. As we break into new genres of gaming the community (and amount of accessible content in Decentraland) would only grow. While this will likely take significant time and effort, we can begin to lay the foundations for community-based games now.