CODE DEFENSECASTORWORKS

Programmable tower defense iPhone · iPad · Mac

Program your defense

Alien machines are swarming toward the relay core. Reroute them with your towers, then write each tower a program: which enemy gets which attack.

See how it plays Browse all 34 issues

App Store release in preparation · Issues 1–5 free

Gameplay: issue 7, The last line, with three towers covering the route to the core
30
issues
5
tower types
15
actions
17
enemy types
150
test cases

How it plays

Place, program, counter.

Gameplay: issue 16, Recursion, with a line of enemies winding through a maze of towers
01

Turn the route into a weapon

Towers change the route enemies walk. Stretch the path, overlap fire lanes, open firing windows—but you can never seal the route completely.

  • Live pathfinding
  • Hex battlefield
  • Never sealed
Gameplay: the program panel of a Lv3 Railgun, three rule lines each mapped to an action
02

Program every tower

Each instruction is “IF rule → action”. A level 3 tower holds three lines, matched top to bottom. Every rule line uses memory, and memory is shared across the whole issue: which tower gets it is your call. Rules and actions are ready-made blocks; no typing.

  • 10 rules
  • Up to 3 lines
  • Memory shared per issue
  • 4 priorities
Gameplay: the tower page of the in-game docs, listing the Railgun's stats and three actions
03

Counters you can read

Armor reduces kinetic damage; shields reduce energy damage. One look at the enemy tells you which tower to send. Every number is written down in the in-game docs.

  • 2 damage types
  • Armor and shields
  • In-game docs

Towers

Seven towers, twenty-one actions.

Each tower unlocks one new action per level, up to Lv3. Tap a level to see how it grows.

RAILGUN

RAILGUN

Kinetic

Single-target mainstay. AP rounds are for armor; mark makes the target take more from every tower.

  • standard
  • apRound
  • mark
PIERCER

PIERCER

Kinetic

One shot through a line of enemies. Lance fires along a line to the edge of the map.

  • rapid
  • spread
  • lance
CRYO

CRYO

Energy

Control, not damage: slow and stun; brittle makes slowed targets take more.

  • chill
  • freeze
  • brittle
MORTAR

MORTAR

Kinetic

Lobbed area damage: shells land where the target was, so slow, packed enemies suffer most.

  • shell
  • cluster
  • shock
LASER

LASER

Energy

Energy damage: ignores armor, blocked by shields. Ramps up on one target; scan cuts shields and reveals stealth.

  • focus
  • split
  • scan
ARC

ARC

Energy

The energy tower that doesn't mind switching targets: arcs jump between neighbors and electrify them so energy hits harder, surge deals half again as much to electrified targets, sync makes linked enemies bleed together.

  • arc
  • surge
  • sync
CAPACITOR

CAPACITOR

Kinetic

Boss hunter: the charged shot fires only when full and ignores defenses; spikes strip three tiers of armor and recharge it on every hit; execute finishes low non-elites outright, and the executed never split or revive.

  • charge
  • spike
  • execute

Enemies

Seventeen enemies, each a different problem.

The number is the issue where it first appears.

ACT 01

  • Process#01
  • Thread#01
  • Armored unit#03
  • Zombie process#05
  • Fork swarm#06
  • Encrypted#08
  • Memory leak#10Boss

ACT 02

  • Drone#11
  • Worm#12
  • Trojan#14
  • Recursive#16
  • Rootkit#18
  • Deadlock twin#20Boss

ACT 03

  • Ransomware#22
  • GC collector#24
  • Race pair#26
  • Kernel panic#30Boss

Campaign

Four acts, thirty-four issues.

Every issue is a level with a new problem: a new enemy mechanic, new terrain, and three test cases. Issues differ by mechanics, not by health multipliers.

ACT 01 · #01—#10

THE LOST SURVEY BELT

The daemon boots. Learn placement, counters, and your first line of program against thread floods, armored units, and fork swarms.

  1. #01Boot the daemonFree
  2. #02Thread floodFree
  3. #03Patch the armor leakFree
  4. #04Merge conflictFree
  5. #05Zombie processFree
  6. #06Fork bomb
  7. #07The last line
  8. #08Encrypted traffic
  9. #09Regression test
  10. #10Memory leak

ACT 02 · #11—#20

HIVEWORKS

Enemies start flying over the maze, replicating, disguising, and cloaking. Firepower is not enough; your programs have to tell targets apart.

  1. #11Bypass
  2. #12Self-replication
  3. #13Kill -9
  4. #14Disguise
  5. #15Data jump
  6. #16Recursion
  7. #17Stack overflow
  8. #18Rootkit
  9. #19Privilege escalation
  10. #20Deadlock

ACT 03 · #21—#30

THE MELTDOWN FORGE

Ransomware locks your towers, GC collectors tear down your maze, and race pairs must die together. Bring a complete program to face Kernel Panic.

  1. #21Slag belt
  2. #22Ransomware
  3. #23Quarantine
  4. #24Garbage collection
  5. #25Defragmentation
  6. #26Race condition
  7. #27Kernel module
  8. #28Stack trace
  9. #29Full regression
  10. #30Kernel panic

After the campaign

Clearing an issue is only the first test case.

Challenges

Boundary and sandbox tests

Open once all three test cases of an issue pass. Boundary test: integrity is 1, with 3 extra elite waves. Sandbox test: only the listed towers and rules, no libraries. 170 test cases across 34 issues.

Endless

Stress test

Opens after issue 10 with the full game. No final wave: every 5 waves, pick a patch that unlocks something new: memory, chips, reveal… The same seed always gives the same run, and your best wave goes to a Game Center leaderboard.

Collection

36 feats and in-game docs

Feats (achievements) record how you solved things; the docs cover every tower, rule, and enemy, unlocked as you meet them. The campaign also has Casual, Normal, and Veteran difficulty.

Pricing

Five issues free. One purchase for the rest.

Issues 1–5 stay free forever. The full campaign is one purchase, yours forever; your progress, test cases, and unlocked rules all carry over.

  • Issues 6–34 and the full four-act campaign
  • Every rule, library, and debug tool, plus the stress test
  • No ads, no subscriptions, no combat stats for sale
  • Restore Purchases supported

iPhone · iPad · Mac | App Store release in preparation

Gameplay: the home screen with the current issue, campaign progress, and test case count

FAQ

Before you start

Which devices are supported?

iPhone, iPad, and Mac. On iPhone and iPad the game is designed for landscape, adapts to the device viewport, and needs iOS / iPadOS 18.6 or later. The Mac version runs in a resizable window with keyboard shortcuts and pointer hover, which also work on an iPad with a keyboard or trackpad.

Do I need to know how to code?

No. Rules and actions are ready-made blocks, and you never type code. A Lv1 tower fires without any program at all.

What is included for free?

The prologue, issues 1–5, stays open forever. Issues 6–34, the full four-act campaign, every rule, library, and debug tool, and the stress test mode unlock with a one-time purchase.

Can I change the difficulty?

Yes. The campaign has Casual, Normal, and Veteran tiers, switched on the home screen: Casual lowers enemy health, Veteran raises it and pays smaller bounties. Challenges and the stress test are unaffected. After a loss, the results page says which wave you fell on, which enemies leaked, and gives one targeted suggestion.

Are there ads or subscriptions?

No ads, no subscriptions, and no combat stats for sale. The full game is a fair one-time purchase.

Does the game need an internet connection?

Core gameplay works offline. Buying the full game or restoring a purchase needs a connection to the App Store.