Resco Defender(aka tower defense for Windows Mobile) recently scored a rave review from TamsPPC. Due to our long-standing cooperation with Resco, I am proud to present you an exclusive interview with the game’s creator - enjoy:
Please tell us a bit more about yourself.
My name is Juraj Mojik and I am a game developer & programmer at Resco.net.
Have you designed other applications/games for mobile devices before?
I have designed and programmed these games for Resco - Seal Ball, Table Soccer, Diamonds and Defender. I also participated on Resco Brain Gain.
Where did you get the idea to create Defender?
Tower defense games are quite popular lately. It is because they are simple and very addictive. We have tried it on ourselves here at Resco so we know what we are talking about 
After some research we found out, that there is no remake for Windows Mobile which fits our needs. So we decided to make our own concept.
What were the main issues you faced while bringing Tower Defence action to the PocketPC?
The issues are almost the same with any game idea that should be played on so many devices - how to make it look good on so many different display resolutions and orientations. We decided to make the whole game map visible all the time instead of scrolling a larger map. We had to layout the information and control elements in such a way, that the game view is maximized on every device.
- square screen
- portrait mode
- landscape mode
Also we had to think about the controls - stylus and keyboard - to make the game as easy to play as possible. The main goal was to keep it simple and fun.
The game’s enemy hoardes sometimes have really astonishing capabilities. How did you work out the balancing?
This is the work of my colleague Michal, who is also a graphic artist - he has spent hours playing Resco Defender and setting the stats for the enemies and the towers. He has set the Medium difficulty to be challenging for him and derived the other difficulties by weakening or strenghtening the enemy stats. He tried to set the game to be entertaining from the beginnig to the end so you have to build and upgrade towers at every level from 1 to 100. I think he was quite successful.
Why didn’t you include a dedicated set of levels/missions? A terrain editor?
We thought that the most entertaining way how to play tower defence games is the creative one - where you do not have a set of levels, but everything is up to you - how you build your maze.
What is your favourite ‘tower layout’? Why?
I prefer long horizontal lines from left to right. Only in the middle I create short vertical lines (arranged like teeth) so the enemies have to go around every top of a vertical line, where I position a boosted black magic tower - very effective for destroying ground enemies. I use almost every type of tower possible to create maximum efficiency:
What is your favourite tower? Your favourite creep?
My favorite tower is the Teleport tower, because wisely used it can have destructive effects. Also the overall graphic effect of this tower is nice.
My favorite creep is the pink one - which we call cloner - the one which when destroyed falls apart into four small ones. I like it because there is a lot of money for this one.
Can we expect a sequel?
We have a lot of interesting ideas, but only time (and success of the first one) will show if we make a sequel. But we would love to.
Anything you would like to add?
We love to hear from players that Resco Defender is entertaining and fun. Thank you for your support.
