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Asymmetrical

Tower Defence · Unity · Mobile · Team Project · 2023–2024
Asymmetrical tower defence: polygon enemies on a lane with turret placement UI

Polygon enemies follow waypoint paths while the player places and upgrades turrets to stop each wave.

Project Overview

Asymmetrical is a mobile tower defence game built by a small team at university. Enemies are geometric shapes that march along lane waypoints in waves; the player earns cash by damaging them, buys turrets from a shop, and upgrades defences to survive increasingly tough rounds.

The name comes from the varied enemy and turret abilities: camo shapes invisible to basic turrets, lead shapes that need piercing shots, regenerating enemies, and shapes that split into copies when destroyed. Turrets have their own counter-attributes, dual upgrade paths, and targeting modes such as first and last on the track.

Key Features

  • Waypoint movement: enemies follow lane paths and report track progress for turret targeting
  • Wave spawner: JSON-defined waves with per-enemy attributes and counts
  • Enemy attributes: camo, lead, regen, and split behaviours with visual overlays
  • Turret upgrades: two branching paths to tier 4, with camo/lead detection unlocks
  • Targeting modes: first, last, and range-limited selection
  • Shop & economy: place turrets, buy upgrades, sell for 50% refund
  • Mobile controls: touch to open turret stats, upgrade, and sell
  • Multiple turret types: including spinner, sniper, quad, and bomber with explosive splash

Development Highlights

Foundation: enemies & waves

Early work focused on a reusable enemy prefab, waypoint traversal, and a wave spawner that could mix enemy types per round. Enemies track how far they have progressed along the lane: used later for first/last targeting.

Attributes & combat

Camo, lead, regen, and split attributes were added with matching turret counters. Bullets inherit turret stats for piercing and multi-hit damage; explosive projectiles deal splash on impact. Enemies demote a tier when damaged and stronger border-colour variants appear in later waves.

Upgrades & UI

Turrets were refactored behind a base class with a shared upgrade system: two paths per turret, unique tier-3/4 abilities, and afford/bought indicators on the stats UI. Touch controls replaced mouse-only selection for phone playtesting.

Polish & submission

Waves moved from the Unity inspector into JSON for easier balancing. Maps, main menu, XP unlocks, and final turret art were integrated ahead of the January submission deadline.

My Role

Game developer on a four-person team. I contributed to:

  • Designing and illustrating turret sprites for each upgrade tier
  • Building turret upgrade visuals and sprite dictionaries
  • Gameplay programming alongside the rest of the team
  • Playtesting and balancing for mobile

Enemy systems, wave design, and core TD mechanics were led by teammate Kieran Phelan.

Technologies Used

C# Unity Mobile JSON UI Toolkit