''Aegis Defenders'' is a 2D platforming and

tower defense Tower defense (TD) is a Video game genre, subgenre of Strategy video game, strategy games where the goal is to defend a player's territories or possessions by obstructing the enemy attackers or by stopping enemies from reaching the exits, usual ...

game developed by Guts Department. The game originated as a project for

USC USC may refer to: Education United States * Universidad del Sagrado Corazón, Santurce, Puerto Rico * University of South Carolina, Columbia, South Carolina ** University of South Carolina System, a state university system of South Carolina * ...

’s Intermediate Games class and had a successful Kickstarter campaign in 2014. It was later picked up by publisher

Humble Bundle Humble Bundle, Inc. is a digital storefront for video games, which grew out of its original offering of Humble Bundles, collections of games sold at a price determined by the purchaser and with a portion of the price going towards charity and ...

in 2017 with Japanese publishing support from Kakehashi Games. ''Aegis Defenders'' was released on February 8, 2018, on

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, and

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Gameplay

In ''Aegis Defenders'', players control a team of up to 2 characters. In addition to running, jumping, and attacking, each character has a unique sub-ability and can build a unique item. Players can use "cross fusion" to combine items into more powerful ones. Each level is usually split into exploration and tower defense phases. The exploration phase consists of platforming and puzzle solving. During the tower defense phase, players must protect their base (an important person or object) from waves of approaching enemies. There are 18 levels in the story campaign plus 3 bonus levels featuring crossover characters from other Kickstarter games including

Shovel Knight ''Shovel Knight'' is a platform video game developed and published by Yacht Club Games. Development was crowdfunded and the game was released for Nintendo 3DS, Wii U, and Windows in June 2014. It was ported to OS X and Linux in September 2014, ...

, Lunais from Timespinner, and Derpl Zork from Awesomenauts.

Plot

''Aegis Defenders'' follows a pair of Ruinhunters, Bart and his grand daughter Clu, as they discover a powerful weapon known as Aegis and embark on a quest to prevent it from falling into the hands of an evil empire. Along the way they join forces with Kobo the companion drone, Kaiim the monk, and Zula the bandit.

Development and release

''Aegis Defenders'' originated as a student project by Bryce Kho and Lifu Lin for

’s Intermediate Games class. After graduating, Bryce started indie studio Guts Department to develop the project into a full game and launched a successful Kickstarter campaign in 2014. The game was primarily developed by a 3-person team with Bryce Kho as director/writer/artist/designer, his sister Kristen Kho as engineer, and Max Palazzo as producer. Bryce's wife, Lai Xu, co-wrote the script. Max Palazzo and Mike Effenberger assisted Bryce with design and tuning for levels. Guts Department partnered with Power Up Audio for the music and sound effects. The soundtrack was composed by Riley Koenig. It features 14 original tracks that blend together old-school synth elements with more traditional Japanese RPG orchestral music. The game was demoed at several conventions including PAX West 2017

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2017,

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2017,

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2017, and

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2018. ''Aegis Defenders'' released on

Windows Windows is a Product lining, product line of Proprietary software, proprietary graphical user interface, graphical operating systems developed and marketed by Microsoft. It is grouped into families and subfamilies that cater to particular sec ...

and

on February 8, 2018.

Reception

Destructoid ''Destructoid'' is a website that was founded as a video game-focused blog in March 2006 by Yanier Gonzalez, a Cuban-American cartoonist and author. Enthusiast Gaming acquired the website in 2017 and sold it to Gamurs Group in 2022. Histor ...

''s Chris Carter said "Aegis Defenders is a smooth, well-thought-out ride. The original art, charm, and in-game universe only add to it, and I'd love to see more." The game received a Gold Award in the Famitsu cross review, issue 1525 (February 2018), and was nominated for the 2018 SXSW Gamer's Voice Award. It received the "Best of the Mix" award at the E3 Week Mix 2017.

References

External links

* {{Portal bar, Video games 2018 video games Platformers Multiplayer and single-player video games Nintendo Switch games PlayStation 4 games Windows games MacOS games Indie games Kickstarter-funded video games Video games featuring female protagonists PlayStation Network games Video games developed in the United States Tower defense video games Humble Games games