Inspiration
Tower defense is at its best when the map itself is a decision. We wanted a TD where nothing is placed by menu and habit: every weapon, building, tactic, and even the road the zombies march down, enters play as a drafted card, so no two runs harden the base the same way.
What it does
A single-player, portrait-mode browser prototype. Between waves you draft cards and shape the zombies' path tile by tile; a longer road buys your guns more time but costs cards, coins and grid space. Survive waves to evacuate, or stay for Endless mode and defend the record.
How we built it
The game is written HTML5 Canvas and JavaScript with no engine and no libraries. It was built in an AI-assisted workflow, design decisions, code and balance passes are traced session by session in the build log.
Challenges we ran into
Balancing the card draft was the long tail: we ended up scripting automated bot playtests with different player profiles and tuning against their win rates instead of gut feeling.
Accomplishments that we're proud of
The full arc, draft, build, defend, evacuate, was playable within the first week, and every session since has ended in a playable build. The design's central promise measurably works: in our automated playtests, the runs that invested in a longer road were the ones that survived. And the whole game ships as one readable file a judge can open and follow.
What we learned
Research the constraints first; measure playtests instead of trusting impressions; and focus is about finish, not size.
What's next for No Zombies Allowed
More ways for the road to matter: shaped path pieces, terrain that changes what a tile is worth, and zombies that interact with the route itself. If the prototype resonates, the design is meant to grow into a full mobile release.
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