Holdfast

What we set out to prove

Tower defense that still charts when it has a campaign you can finish and a roguelike mode you cannot. Holdfast is five biomes of hand-tuned maps, then a daily seed run with drafted towers - the Bloons / Kingdom Rush audience plus the people who want a new build every morning.

What made it hard

Classic TD dies on mobile when the tutorial is a lecture and difficulty is a paywall. Roguelike TD dies when drafts are noise and maps are copies. We needed a campaign that teaches by putting you in a bad spot, and a daily mode that uses the same towers without feeling like the campaign on shuffle.

How we solved it

Campaign is 5 biomes × 10 maps. Maps 1-2 introduce a tower or enemy. Map 3 is a pinch (two lanes or a flying pack). Maps 4-7 are the biome puzzle. Maps 8-9 are optional hard. Map 10 is the biome boss with a unique path. Three stars per map: complete, no-leak, and a biome challenge (only two tower types, etc.). Daily seed is 12 waves, three draft picks, one shared leaderboard. Monetization is cosmetics and a battle pass that does not sell stars.

5 biomes × 10 maps = 50 campaign maps, 3 stars each

Session: Campaign map 4-7 min; daily seed ~8 min

1. Biome 1 - Farmland10 mapsArcher, farm, first pinch lane
2. Biome 2 - Marsh10 mapsSlow towers, split path, flying
3. Biome 3 - Quarry10 mapsSplash, elevation, armor packs
4. Biome 4 - Night Wall10 mapsStealthed enemies, lights as towers
5. Biome 5 - Gate10 maps + bossAll lanes, mixed modifiers

What shipped

Tutorial completion held because map 1 is the tutorial. Players who bounced did it on biome 2's pinch map, which is a design problem we can tune - not a store-page problem. Daily seed is the return hook: same skills, new draft.