An instant action real-time strategy, tower defense hybrid.

What is Deterrence?

Deterrence is a tower defense to put it simply, but it's not just any ordinary tower defense. Deterrence can be described as a special blend of tower defense and real-time strategy mechanics that gives the same instant action feel of a tower defense and the same dynamics, depth, and freedom of a real-time strategy.

Deterrence is dynamic in that there is no one way to defend your objective, the environment such as trees, civil utilities, and civil infrastructure like bridges are destructible which can alter paths for units, and the player can unlock new units, defenses, and upgrades with the research tree.

Deterrence is instant action in that there is no base building tech tree to construct each game, instead, the player deploys troops and defenses right away. The player can take advantage of civilian structures and use those for quick defenses. The player can also call-in power tactical aids to turn the tide of battle.

Deterrence can be described as being a mid-core strategy game by having all the freedom and depth of an RTS while still maintaining a simple economy and having levels that last about 15 minutes like a casual tower defense.

What is the history of Deterrence?

Deterrence started as a tower defense project that existed in the back of my mind while working on Dyflexion, my previous project. Once Dyflexion was complete and released, I immediately began to work on Deterrence in March of 2022.

The original vision was to have all the mechanics of a tower defense, but with all the freedom of a real-time strategy. As the project progressed, the game leaned more towards a resource economy, and offensive gameplay making it purely an RTS game. After a lot of thought. I came to the conclusion that the game was out of scope and became too massive for me to handle. And that's when I came full circle with my original vision.

The scope creep wasn't necessarily a bad thing or a waste of time. It actually gave me a bunch of mechanics to mix and match which in my belief gives Deterrence a unique blend of tower defense and real-time strategy mechanics.

What is the lore of Deterrence?

Deterrence takes place in the future where you play as the human race and fight malfunctioning artificial intelligence. The rogue machine is named Big Birtha for her ability to make copies of herself and install them in autonomous bots, giving them artificial life. Her objective originally was to help mankind create a sustainable future moving forward, but she somehow comes to the conclusion that humanity must be destroyed to achieve sustainability. During this take down of humanity, most digital systems are hacked and rendered inoperable by Big Birtha, so the military is reduced to using old systems and to reestablish communications with allies all while fighting autonomous bots that are doing the will of Big Birtha.

What is the campaign mode like?

The game itself is not story driven, instead, the game is nonlinear – allowing the player to choose their own conflicts. Each mission gives the player rewards whether that be supplies to unlock more defenses, units, and upgrades; or it can be a new tech tree. Ultimately, I'm going for a dynamic approach for the game, so that no one tech is needed to beat a level and that many different strategies can be made to achieve victory. So, when you see a video of someone playing a level you beat, you'll say, “Oh, I never thought of that”, or “That's really different.”

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