2D Game Analysis: Defend Your Castle!

For my 2D game review, I decided to turn to a high school favourite of mine, Defend Your Castle, by XGen Studios. The game is fairly popular, but if you haven't ever played it, I've included the link below.

Play Defend Your Castle

The main gameplay action is to move the attacking stickmen "barbarians" away from your castle. The very title of the game helps to keep the player invested; it isn't a castle belonging to some character in a story, it is simply your castle. As the enemies reach your castle, they begin to hit it, reducing your health bar. To deter them from doing so, you click and drag on the stickmen in an upwards throwing motion, causing them to fly upwards and then land with a satisfying splatter. This is the basic action of the game, though there are further ways to defend yourself as you gain more points from killing the barbarians. The game is divided into levels, with each increasing both the amount and speed of the attackers. In the later levels, there are also attackers with battering rams and giants to combat. To repel these, players can use their earned points to train archers and magicians to defend the castle, as well as the usual click and drag interface. This use of the points system as both a monetary resource and an objective of the game is very useful, keeping the game from becoming needlessly complicated.
The graphics of the game are very simple. The game is played on an isometric plane, allowing the game to send more and more attackers than if the view was purely two dimensional. The style of the graphics is cartoony, including the blood splatters of vanquished enemies, keeping it somewhat appropriate for most ages. Though the castle does sustain damage, this is not displayed graphically.
The game audio is quite simple, with the only real noises being splatters and banging on the castle. The splatters are quite effective in their simplicity; I found that playing the game with the sound off was not nearly as fun, as hearing the squish just made me want to throw the little stick men around more and more.
The learning curve of the game for the players is fair for a casual game. The first few levels are playable by anyone, but as the player begins to build up more defenses and have to use the magicians spells to kill certain enemies it becomes significantly more difficult for a casual gaming audience to keep up with. The actual mechanical dexterity of having to quickly throw your mouse around also becomes physically tiring. The game actually contains an advertisement for a supporting wristrest in the "shop" screen that is shown between levels so that players can upgrade their castle. The game has basic instructions below the main frame of the game, but a few controls, such as the keyboard shortcuts for the wizards spells, are not explained in this space. This would cause difficulty with players who are trying it for the first time and could cause them to give up.
As the player kills attackers, they get points. These points can be exchanged at the end of each level for castle reinforcements, or for the ability generate helpers, such as archers. These helpful resources actually take away points at the end of each level; the more archers you train, the more "Unit Cost" is increased, reducing the amount that a player has to spend on further upgrades. The player eventually kills so many enemies per level that they have more points than can be spent on defenders, and they are forced to upgrade their castle. This is a nice nudge for players who may have misspent their points, as they will need to both upgrade and repair their castle in preparation for some of the later, more difficult levels.
The satisfaction of throwing the attackers around is what makes this game successful. The game does begin to stray from most casual games, however, as it becomes more difficult. The fact that you can save your game is a tell-tale sign that this game is more involved for the player than many others in the casual games category. This increased difficulty did make it popular, and it is easy to see why.