BYTES: The Reverse Tower Defense

About this game

BYTES: The Reverse Tower Defense is a twist on the classic TD formula where you play as the attacker to strategically build your own path and use special tiles to avoid and mitigate damage to your Bytes.

Rogue AI designation "NLAI 74a" or "Complexus" has slipped through New Life security and your goal is to prevent any further damage to the city of East Grid by taking back security nodes.

Game Features:

Dynamic AI

• Bytes features a dynamic AI, the antagonist Complexus, that attempts to counter your actions with turrets she determines will be the best for the job. No one path will ever stay safe for long.
  
• Complexus buys and upgrades turrets with credits earned from destroying your Bytes and passing rounds like a player typically would.
  
• Semi-random elements and Complexus ensures that no level will play quite the same.
  
• 8 Different turrets for Complexus to utilize.

Strategy Gameplay

• Bytes is a game about mitigating damage and adapting to new dangers by building your path.
  
• Mix and match Special Tiles to overcome levels. Use special tiles to protect your Bytes on a dangerous path, jump over gaps, teleport past walls, or out-speed turrets.
  
• Change the formation of your units (Bytes) to cluster them together or space them apart, depending on the danger.
  
• Choose between three different types of Bytes, or fine-tune your own waves in the Byte Editor.

Non-linear level select

Beat levels, unlock upgrades, and tackle more difficult nodes to reclaim the 71 security nodes of East Grid in any order you prefer.
The story of Bytes is progressed as you complete Story Nodes, and you aren’t forced to do them in any particular order. Instead, the Story Nodes will progress the story as you visit them, remembering the order you did them in case you want to revisit old scenes.

A complete story

Bytes features a full story with two primary endings, as well as dialogue options to interact with characters. Take on the role of a hacker hired by New Life to stop one of their AIs, Complexus, from disrupting the city.

Latest news

• Announcements·30 Jul 2024Official

  Perks, fixes, and Balloons.

  Hello. First off, major fix I'm surprised slipped through the cracks. -The Byte Editor properly saves selected models. I think this one came from changes before release. Not sure anyone noticed, definitely not me. Either way, Bytes can use custom models again and it helps differentiate custom Bytes a lot. Whoops! Added perks to use in the Byte Editor: -Replicate When Bytes would die, they instead create a clone with a fraction of their original stats on the spot. Particularly good against slow, high damage turrets. -Regen Byte slowly gains HP overtime. Useful for a few puzzle-themed levels, poison fields, and low-damage turrets. Please let me know if you believe the game leans easy, or if it leans hard. I haven't gotten the feedback I have wanted, so it's hard to say. I worry perks could make it lean easier. Added a secret Balloon model. Unlocked with a secret easter egg in an existing level. Now, I won't tell you which of course, but there's enough there to raise suspicions. You'll know it if you get it; there's a small dialogue scene with Complexus. Hint: It's early-mid game, not late game. I've been wanting to add a Balloons easter egg for a while, and while the Replicate perk was not intended to be a nod to Balloons, it definitely goes well with the new model. General patches: -When loading the level select, the game should try to load some of the special blocks like Firewalls, Slow/Poison fields, Data Vaults, etc. This is because I noticed the bane of all development: shader compilation slowdowns. Ever play a game and it runs slow or jitters for the first time you play it, but it seems to stable out later? That's because you're loading shaders. Once they are loaded, they stay loaded. When working on the update, I had to adjust the build and it reverted my own PC's shader cache. I noticed when loading into a level the poison field didn't load in and it killed my Bytes. This isn't good, so I made those load in before level select. Hopefully that avoids some probl...
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• Patch Notes·28 Jun 2024Official

  Minor launch QOL and bug fixes.

  I've been trying to wait and focus on collecting feedback since launch and fix what comes up. Feedback is very limited, so I will remind to please let me know if you have any issues. That being said, thank you to ModWalker and GodIsPink for getting back to me.  Major fix: -Tile tutorial now properly overrides unlocks, giving the player 4 defense tiles rather than one for the tutorial level that uses them. This obnoxiously wasn't an issue in the development branch, so it slipped by. Minor: -Properly grayed out default byte in the editor to prevent confusion. They were never intended to be edited; they are there to show base values. -Adjusted text colors in the options menu, namely the aspect ratio's font that proved to be too dark to be read for those visually impaired. -Sped up the tool tip fade in slightly when you hover over HUD elements. -Adjusted a few levels. -Corrected minor grammatical issues in dialogue that was missed.
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• Announcements·3 Jun 2024Official

  BYTES:TRTD Released!

  Hello! BYTES is released, and I'd like to say a big thank you to any and all reading this. BYTES:TRTD is my first game, so it means a lot to me. However, for the same reason, it also means I need all the help I can get when it comes to bug reports and feedback. If you encounter any bugs, serious or otherwise, please consider joining the Discord I made and reporting it there. Don't assume someone else will report it, because you very well might be the only one reporting the issue and I can't fix what I don't know! Here's a link: https://discord.gg/2Vm8jqcass As for feedback, I would love to hear what you think of the difficulty of the game. What levels you liked or didn't like. What you thought about the story. How the game runs on your system and what your specs are.... Anything you'd be willing to share. On a different note, know that I have updates in mind for Bytes. I had a specific set of non-story dialogue events, as well as a mostly implemented perk system for the Byte Editor, and more models for the Bytes (including an easter egg one), and I'd also like to do an art pass over some particular textures, but that needed to be pushed back with the release window. This is for the best, however, as I would like to take time to focus on any potential bugs and feedback received after release to shape what I focus on next. Thank you again!
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