但是塔防游戏真的还有市场吗？
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兼容问题
总是有玩家喜欢塔防游戏的，现在市场等待你的可是空前大好的机会。如果聪明的话，小型工作室就应该好好利用这个机会。
That doesn’t mean the genre is dead, however.
从它的名字你就可以看出它并不是一个非常传统的塔防游戏。套用Clash of Clans的构架，它是一个可以建设基地的策略游戏，超级变态网页私服，包含防御策略，但不仅仅只有防御。
It’s also the first Fieldrunners game to adopt a free-to-play model, and it seems that this is the issue at the heart of tower defence’s fall from grace.
But is the demand still there for tower defence?
那么问题来了：现在做塔防游戏的人越来越少，这样对于类似Outplay的工作室来说是不是个好机会？要不要投入更多的人力物力去做塔防游戏？
最近的另外一个例子就是Subatomic Studio于2016年12月发行的Fieldrunners Attack!，自2012年Fieldrunners 2发布以后，这个系列就没有什么动作了，Fieldrunners Attack!是此系列的最新作。
但是App Annie之前的分析也表明了这游戏在吸引新用户方面也是挺费力的，12月发行之后它在美国iPhone收益榜的最好成绩是排名第605，然后在1月9日的时候就掉到了第1293。
But rather than returning to the tower defence genre in which it made its name and enjoyed enormous success, it opted to make Plants vs. Zombies: Heroes – a collectible card game spin-off.
Based on a traditional level-by-level progression, with each stage its own uniquely designed challenge, traditional tower defence is necessarily a finite, yet replayable, experience.
But not everybody is happy about that. A cursory glance at the reviews for Fieldrunners Attack! reveals a strain of negativity, particularly from series fans.
那么结论是什么？为什么有些开发者不再做塔防游戏了？原因很简单——他们相信做别的游戏可以挣更多钱。
Another recent example of this is Subatomic Studios’ December 2016 release Fieldrunners Attack!, the latest entry in a series that’s lain dormant since 2012′s Fieldrunners 2.
“As a free-to-play model, you need to consider elements that keep players engaged and offer an edge to beat the difficulty we’ve set up.
自发行以来，它在美国iPhone收益榜上的位置持续稳步上升，目前的排名是第267位。
Fieldrunners Attack!, as the title suggests, isn’t a traditional tower defence game. Instead, it’s a base-building strategy game in the Clash of Clans mould, encompassing defensive strategy, but not exclusively.
2016年十月，EA发行了该年的首款《植物大战僵尸》游戏，上次的大动作还是2013年的《植物大战僵尸2》。
但并不是每个人都乐见于此。粗略地浏览一下Fieldrunners Attack!的评论你就能看到一堆差评，大部分都是来自玩过整个系列的老粉丝。
看起来EA也是没有要重拾塔防游戏的意思，从《植物大战僵尸：英雄》官网的FAQ板块（现已删除）也能知道EA的想法就是“如果玩家想要玩新的塔防游戏请去下载或者更新《植物大战僵尸2》”。
But now, new tower defence games – particularly high-profile ones – are a rare thing indeed on mobile.
In October 2016, EA launched its first Plants vs. Zombies game since Plants vs. Zombies 2 (2013).
“你看看我们的初始数据有多强大，绝对有市场！”Wittelsburger说道。
Titles like Fieldrunners, Kingdom Rush and Bloons TD briefly dominated the young App Store and various online game portals in the late 2000s and early 2010s, offering bite-sized strategy that perfectly suited casual play.
但这并不意味着塔防已死。
Who remembers tower defence?
“本该是优秀的第三部续作，结果却是个糟糕的游戏。”又是一条。“……就像是山寨版的Clash of Clans。”
And they did. The launch of Plants vs. Zombies: Heroes actually saw its tower defence predecessor enter the top 100 downloads for the first time since August 2015, as well as leaping ahead more than 100 places in the top grossing charts.
Resolution Games的CEO Tommy Palm在谈到Kingdom Rush Frontierss时说：“每个关卡都有好几种不同的通关方法，这样一来就多了很多很多的乐趣。”
This is simply not how free-to-play games function.
“我以为这会是和前作一样的塔防游戏，失望透顶，”这是一条。
Perhaps more importantly, it boasted unprecedented revenues and player engagement levels. From this perspective, with the formula (in broad strokes) a relatively easy one to replicate, it’s no wonder that tower defence has fallen by the wayside while build and battlers dominate.
