World Maker Faire: 3D Printed Tower Defense

Seej

Going to the World Maker Faire isn’t all fun and games; sometimes you have to suck it up, pay $130 in cab fare, buy $7 Heinekens, and crash the super not-so-secret after party.  While the company was fantastic, one of the more exciting interactions was [Jim Rodda]’s Seej, a tower-defense-ish game constructed entirely of 3D printed weapons, flags, and blocks.

The goal of the game is simple: Each player gets a Seej engine, some blocks, a few pennies, and three flags. The first person to topple all three flags with ballistic pennies is declared the winner. The Seej engines aren’t just limited to the red and black catapults shown above; there are plans for a ballista available, and we’re sure someone will add a 3D printed trebuchet the the arsenal at some point. We’ve seen at least one example floating around the web.

In all honesty, this game is really fun and well worth the frustration experienced by a pitiable bartender who I hope was tipped well for the night.

12 thoughts on “World Maker Faire: 3D Printed Tower Defense

  1. Thats cool, printing your own miniature Siege engine’s. Later on you could upgrade your game with different types or build different style castles or walls for your Siege engine’s to hit.

    1. But this is entirely new since it’s 3D printed!!!

      To be fair, i am getting bored with these mundane things that get articles just because they are 3D printed. We get it! You can print things with shapes! We don’t need another article just because someone printed a longer toothpick than the last guy.

      1. This is a fun concept, and it would be fairly easy to adapt it to other projectiles or add different elements to the ‘castles’.

        The different flags and character figures on their site are great, but I can’t shake the feeling that the catapults are being 3D printed just for the sake of being 3D printed. They’re just basic shapes that could be made out of another material like aluminum or wood. I’m amazed at the intricately detailed models a 3D printer built from a kit can produce, but to me it seems like a waste to use one to make rectangles. (Yes, I know it lets everyone produce the same catapults, but the type of person with access to a 3D printer would probably also have access to a hand saw and drill set…)

      1. Oy, sorry.
        I probably missed the link
        (and thus the realization that it’s the name of the game)
        cause I looked at the article quickly, next time I probably should read it more throughly.
        My apologies.

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