Doodle Defense

Fact Sheet

Name

Doodle Defense,

Doodle Defense Mobile

Developer

Andy Wallace

App Store Link

Released

Date

Website

doodledefense.com

Press / Business Contact

andy@andymakes.com

Description

More creative than your mouse lets you be? Doodle Defense is a tower defense game that turns your drawings into weapons.

There are two versions currently available for download. The installation version of Doodle Defense lets players draw their mazes and towers on a whiteboard, with everyday dry-erase markers, to stop projected foes from reaching the other side. Colored circles are transformed into towers that attack the foes in several unique ways, and black lines turn into walls that can redirect foes. The experience is enhanced by the magical feeling of seeing projected game elements interacting with real word drawings.

In the iPad version, the whiteboard is replaced with the touchscreen, and players use their fingers to draw their battlefield. By allowing players to draw their board, rather than just placing pre-made towers with a mouse, the game encourages player creativity and supports limitless strategies.

Doodle Defense was created during my MFA thesis year at Parsons, the New School For Design, for a class taught by Zach Lieberman. After the class ended, I put the game up on Kickstarter, and was delighted to see an outpouring of support, reaching 150% of my goal. After finishing the whiteboard version, I ported the game to the iPad. The project was developed in openFrameworks, and is open-source: the code is freely available on Git Hub.

How To Get It

The iPad version is available on the App Store:

The whiteboard version (Mac only for now) is freely available here.

To play you will need a projector, a white board, an HD webcam, and some markers. I recommend using a laptop since you will need a second screen for calibration. More info is in the pdf bundled with the game. I created the game using a PS3 eye, which required that I download Maccam. Enjoy!

Video

Images

Selected Showings

Come Out And Play

San Francisco, USA, 2012

Science Gallery's GAME: The Future Of Play

Dublin, Ireland, 2012

Parsons Spring Fair

New York City, USA, 2012

Quotes

• "If you're a fan of tower defense games, you're going to love Doodle Defense."

  George Wong, UberGizmo

• "Now tower defense is set for another evolution, this time introducing drawing to the equation."

  Matthew Humphries, Geek.com

• "I've played through my share of tower defense games in my day--and have gotten hopelessly addicted to a few of them--but none really approach Andy Wallace's Doodle Defense when it comes to execution."

  Chris Velazco, TechCrunch

• "[Doodle Defense puts] a new spin on that simple gaming idea using some open source algorithms, a whiteboard, computer, Kinect and a projector."

  Michael Gorman, Engadget.com

• "Wallace has created a fresh game that's proven exciting to crowd-funders."

  Mark Wilson, FastCo Design