Grimward — Tower Defense

Tower defense, the way it should be: no ads. No tracking. No always-online.

Grimward is a sci-fi tower defense I (Andre, a solo developer from Switzerland) built over months in my spare time. A hobby project, not a free-to-play skinner box. You pay once, you get the whole game.

🛡️ PRIVACY-FIRST — THE HONEST DEAL

- No ads. Ever. No pop-ups, no "watch a video for 30 gold" mechanics.
- No tracking. No analytics, no Firebase, no ad SDKs, no telemetry.
- No internet access. The app doesn't even request the INTERNET permission — check it yourself in the system permission manager.
- A single permission: VIBRATE for haptic feedback. Can be disabled in Settings.
- No user accounts. No cloud saves from my side. Your progress lives locally on your device.

⚔️ DEPTH OVER FILLER

6 towers × 3 upgrade levels × 2 end-spec paths = 36 unique tower builds. Plasma-Inferno, Tesla Ion-Lance, Railgun Crit-Sniper, Cluster-Mortar, Disruptor-EMP, Reactor-Strike — each spec choice changes your loadout decision tree. No single build dominates; every map asks for a different setup.

👹 MULTI-STAGE BOSS WITH PHASE-2 TRIGGER

At 50 % HP, every boss flips into Phase 2: pulsing aura, new add-spawners, a new threat layer. The Wave-20 final boss is an 80-second climax fight with a red energy shield phase (CC-immune until the shield breaks) and adds spawning right at the path start. Not a DPS check — actual phase management.

🗺️ CONTENT

- 5 campaign maps × 20 waves — City Ruins, Desert Highway, Arctic Station, Swamp March, Industrial Yard
- 3 endless modes — procedurally generated, fully deterministic (no RNG luck, same setup = same wave)
- 24 cosmetic achievements with progress tracking, 3 of them hidden
- 4 music themes — Default, Industrial, Synthwave, Bio-Hazard — unlock via achievements
- Tower-Mastery system — lifetime kills per tower kind unlock +2 / +5 / +8 % permanent damage bonus
- Tower construction phase — placed towers take 3 seconds to build (cancel anytime, 100 % refund)

🎧 AUDIO + VISUAL POLISH

OGG-Vorbis music with dynamic boss crossfade (main music fades to 0 %, boss-pulse layer fades in). Combat-juice pack: screen shake on crits and boss hits, coin float on kill, defeat slow-mo, boss-death spectacle with shockwave rings. Every gameplay second feels reactive.

🌍 FULLY BILINGUAL

German and English, switchable from the main menu. Both languages hand-maintained 1:1 — no "AI-translated filler German".

💰 FAIR PRICING

One-time purchase. No IAPs. No pay-to-win towers. No "lives / energy" mechanic. You buy, you play, done.

📱 SYSTEM

Android 7.0+ (API 24). ~50 MB download. Smooth (60 fps) on older mid-range devices — tested on Samsung Galaxy A-series.

———

If the free-to-play wild-west is getting on your nerves and you just want a game that works like a game — give Grimward a shot.

Bug reports and feature requests welcome — the app has a built-in crash-share button (Settings → Advanced) that drops the log into Android's standard share sheet. Send it my way via mail or messenger, I read everything.

— Andre, solo indie from Switzerland

Recent changes:
Balance update for EMP towers:

- Enemies now gain brief stun immunity after each stun — waves can no longer be locked in place permanently
- Disruptor (Tier 3): stun duration reduced from 1.0 to 0.8 seconds
- Slow effects (e.g. Reactor Strike) remain unchanged

EMP towers still disrupt the enemy flow noticeably, but a complete permanent standstill is no longer possible. Happy defending!