Canvas Tower Defense is an endless tower defense game with a sharp, retro neon look. Red squares march along a glowing blue road, and you stop them by placing turrets on the black ground around it. There are four turret types and three maps, and every turret can be upgraded ten times in damage, fire rate and range. No wave is ever the last, so your goal is simply to last longer and score higher than your previous run. Teddy Cross built the open-source original, called Canvas TD.
How to Play Canvas Tower Defense
Pick a map from the start screen: Loopy spirals in toward the middle of the field, Backtrack doubles over itself, and Dash is a single straight line. You begin with $35 and ten lives. A new wave of ten creeps arrives on a timer, and the red square at the bottom right fades as the next wave gets close. You can also call it early.
Turrets cannot sit on the path or overlap each other. Each creep you destroy pays cash equal to the current wave number, so later waves are worth far more. Spend that money on new turrets or on upgrades. Each upgrade level costs more than the last, from $25 up to $1,000.
Every creep that reaches the end of the road costs one life. Creep health rises with each wave, so a defense that feels safe now will need more power soon. When your lives run out, the game shows your score and saves it if it makes your top five for that map.
Canvas Tower Defense Controls
| Action | Keyboard | Mouse | Touch |
|---|---|---|---|
| Build a Laser, Missile, Tazer or Mortar | 1, 2, 3 or 4, then click the map | Click a turret in the bottom bar, then click an empty spot | Tap a turret, then tap an empty spot |
| Select a placed turret | — | Click it | Tap it |
| Upgrade damage, rate or range of the selected turret | 1, 2 or 3 | Click Damage, Rate or Range in the bottom bar | Tap the same buttons |
| Move the selected turret ($90) | 4 | Click Move, then click a new spot | — |
| Sell the selected turret | Shift + 8 (the * key) | Click Sell | — |
| Send the next wave now | Enter | Click the red square at the bottom right | — |
| Toggle fast forward | = | Click the blue square under the red one | — |
| Deselect, cancel or pause | Esc | Click Pause | — |
Tips and Strategies
- Open with lasers. At $15 they are the only turret you can afford twice at the start, and they fire quickly at the creep in front.
- Build at the bends. On Loopy and Backtrack, a turret placed inside a turn can reach two or three stretches of road at once.
- Pair a tazer with damage. Tazers slow the fastest creep in range, which keeps enemies under your lasers and mortars for longer.
- Upgrade before you spread out. One turret with high damage often beats several weak ones, since creep health keeps multiplying.
- Call waves early when you are strong. Extra waves mean more kills and more cash, which also raises your score.
- Avoid selling. You get back only 70 percent, and that refund lowers the money-spent part of your score.
Features
- Three maps with very different path shapes.
- Four turret types, each with a special bonus at full upgrade.
- Fast forward to speed through the easy early waves.
- Local high scores: the top five runs per map stay in your browser.
- Keyboard shortcuts for building, upgrading and sending waves.
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