Kingdom Rush Tribute: Porting a 2D Tower Defense Game to a 3D World using Unreal Engine 4
Christian Stith · TigerPrints (Clemson University) · 2017
Video game remakes are a popular modern phenomenon in which an existing game is remade to target a different platform, a higher resolution, or simply a different audience. Seldom, however, are video games remade into a different genre altogether. In this paper, we describe the process of remaking Kingdom Rush, a popular top-down 2D tower defense game, into a 3D third-person shooter in Unreal Engine 4. In addition to recreating all visual components of the game in 3D, this process revealed several challenges that arose related to transferring the gameplay from a 2D screen to a 3D world. We describe these challenges and their solutions and describe the results of our work: a playable, single-level prototype that mimics the original game in aesthetics and functionality while also incorporating a controllable hero character.