godot-genre-tower-defense

Core Loop

1. Prepare: Build/upgrade towers with available currency
2. Wave: Enemies spawn and traverse path toward goal
3. Defend: Towers auto-target and damage enemies
4. Reward: Kills grant currency
5. Escalate: Waves increase in difficulty/complexity

NEVER Do (Expert Anti-Patterns)

Design & Strategy

• NEVER make all towers have the same niche; strictly ensure distinct specialties: Aura Slow, Armor Piercing, Anti-Air, Burst Sniper, and Splash Damage.
• NEVER allow a "Death Spiral" with no exit; strictly provide small comeback bonuses or interest on saved gold to prevent early inevitable failure.
• NEVER make early waves feel like busywork; strictly provide an "Early Call" bonus to skip wait times and accelerate engagement.
• NEVER trust client-side economy updates; strictly require the authoritative server to validate currency addition and tower purchases in co-op.

Pathing & Placement

• NEVER allow the player to "Seal" the exit in mazing games; strictly validate path existence with NavigationServer2D.map_get_path() before finalizing tower placement.
• NEVER use synchronous bake_navigation_polygon() for mazing; strictly offload to a worker thread to prevent 100ms+ frame hitches during placement.
• NEVER use global coordinates for grid logic; strictly convert to Vector2i/Vector3i to ensure pixel-perfect tower alignment.