About Defend the Basement

Defend the Basement originally began as an experiment in late February of 2009 by it’s author Ben Kowalewski to learn how to use the Warcraft III World Editor.  Initially inspired by other Warcraft III custom games such as Defense of the Ancients, Battle Tanks, other Tower Defense type games, and a hero defense called Graveyard Defense; Defend the Basement was intended to be similar in style to Defense of the Ancients but without the arena type competitive game play and more comprehensive elements of strategy and cooperative play.  Ben and his local friends often played Warcraft III games together in the basements of each others homes, which is the origin of the game’s name; initially Basement Defense.  Without any prior experience in map making, initial versions of the game were very simplistic in nature.  The first publicly tested version of the game was hosted in late April of 2009, and is available for download here.

As the game was being developed, more and more use of the script editor became necessary to embody the more creative concepts and ideas from the author.  Eventually, the game exploded with custom triggered abilities, creep wave mechanics, complex boss fights, and even some JASS scripting to achieve some of the more complex transient effects.  The experimental nature of the game was retained as elements of Ben’s interests and personal life were added to the game, but learning the World Editor thoroughly changed the game outlook from an experiment to a complete work of art and professional level game design.  Attention to details became important, and as time went on, testing and balancing became a key part of the development process.

Defend the Basement v1.0 was released on April 18, 2011.

About the Author

Ben Kowalewski was born in 1988 and he now makes a living as a mechanical engineer for Moog Inc..  He has been playing video games and using computers since around the age of 5.  Aside from video games, he enjoys model rocketry, modern yo-yoing, playing guitar and making music, inline skating, trampoline, hiking and camping, movies, and skiing.