![]() ![]() ![]() Turns out that's a really complicated message to explain." "We wanted to Kickstart a Defense Grid expansion, and if it funded enough we could do Defense Grid 2. ![]() We went to Kickstarter and learned a valuable lesson," says Austin. Or was it an expansion? "We wanted to make Defense Grid 2 for a while, but we didn't have the budget for it. In the decade since, Hidden Path has returned to tower defense several times, including a series of DLC level packs and a Kickstarted sequel. "We did a little game called Counter-Strike: Global Offensive purely because Valve loved Defense Grid and wanted to work with us." "We got a lot of opportunities from Defense Grid, a lot of reputation," says Austin. Valve didn't seem to mind-they were so impressed by Defense Grid they licensed GLaDOS for a special DLC level pack. "I think Portal was definitely an influence," he says. ![]() Though GLaDOS is a lot less friendly, comparisons between the story and that of Portal are not lost on Austin. Having someone cheering you on and appreciating what you're doing was really important." When you're playing this game you feel like you are the last bastion defending earth against the invaders. "But now when you play the game people praise the story and the talking AI. "I look it at as this great loss of a fantastic story and cutscenes," says Austin. The story was further hacked up and refined, until a succinct, poignant tale of a lonely AI defending the world was left. I went to our writer and told her we needed to get rid of one of our characters. It was frustrating because people didn't care about the story. "We wanted to do interactive dialogue between the player and the computer AI. "We originally wanted cutscenes but didn't have the budget," says Austin. It was a new platform, maybe it'll be big some day?"Īnother of Defense Grid's memorable qualities is the minimalist story, told through the solitary AI character, Fletcher. (That other game was South Park Let's Go Tower Defense Play.) "But we needed the funding, so we went to Steam. "Two months before we were going to launch on Xbox Live Arcade, they delayed us a by a year, because they had a similar game launching at the time," says Austin. I wanted to make Defense Grid because that's a game I wanted to play."ĭefense Grid: The Awakening was originally set to release on Xbox Live Arcade, through a publishing deal with Microsoft. "I wanted to make a AAA tower defense game, since the genre had only been in mods and flash games so far. Austin saw a fellow employee playing Desktop Tower Defense (opens in new tab), and became inspired. They released it in 2008, when the tower defense genre was still mostly mods for games like Warcraft 3 and a few smartphone and browser games. Though Austin and his fellow veterans at Hidden Path had previously worked on several games, Defense Grid: The Awakening was their first self-published title. ![]()
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