Today I wanted to talk a bit about the background for Trolls Reborn, how it came to be, and what inspired us during development. This is also a bit of a personal journey, but as it's my baby, it makes sense to weave that in.
Ever since we first showed Trolls vs Vikings at GDC 2013 in California, there has been a lot of interest in the game. Development started in August 2012. On first sight, Trolls may remind players of a certain plants-based game—a fact we've never tried to hide. It's definitively a lane defense RTS / tower defense game with a grid, featuring two opposing forces in a comical style: Trolls vs. Vikings and their gods. That said, let’s explore what makes Trolls uniquely itself.
A Lifelong Journey in Games
My personal background in the games industry spans 32 years. I first got into games at five years old, when a neighbor got an Atari with Pong. From that moment, I was hooked, playing everything I could get my hands on. By 12 years old, I decided I wanted to work with games, and at 19 years old, I did exactly that. Something rather unheard of in Norway at that time, so it was not a life choice I got a lot of support for. Still, ever since 5 years old I’ve then tried to play games almost every day— and still do. To me, games IS my life.
One of the benefits of being old and loving all forms of games is that I’ve seen nearly every new genre emerge as it happened. I’ve always been fascinated by innovation and how new ways of making games evolve. At Funcom, we introduced many innovations to the MMORPG genre, which I worked on for a long time.
The tower defense genre was something I picked up as it emerged. The early days beyond the mods, when it reached the mass market, saw Bloons (2007), Gemcraft 2008), and Desktop Tower Defense (2007) as browser-based hits. With the iPhone in 2008, TD games transitioned from browser to mobile and PC installs, with games like Fieldrunners (2008), Plants vs. Zombies (2009), Kingdom Rush (2011), and Sanctum (2011).
Key Inspirations
Games like PvZ and Sanctum were major eye-openers for me. I loved how Sanctum incorporated active gameplay elements—something I felt many TD games were missing, and how plants was so well balanced. I played these TD games to death, often pushing them to their limits. In Bloons, my PC would crash from too many enemies on screen. In PvZ, I was obsessed with competing on the global leaderboards, breaking the game down to the pixel level for optimization.
At the time, I worked at Funcom, where making a strategy game wasn't on the agenda. But ideas started to form…
The Birth of Trolls vs Vikings
Out of all the TD games, we saw the grid-lane layout in Plants vs. Zombies as the most expandable. When we launched Megapop, we wanted to take the genre further. We looked at elements from Sanctum, Street Fighter, tactics games like Final Fantasy, and even Castle Fights from Heroes III.
It started with the Shaman Zap and his active lightning strike. Then Mikael Noguchi (who had worked on Fatal Fury and Samurai Showdown ports) designed Buster, but as a static melee tank. He was inspired by Guile from Street Fighter. Our lead coder Christian then for fun implemented him as a mobile unit. And from there on it kinda grew. The result? A lane defense game where characters moved around—something that felt fresh and fun.
Our lead designer Thomas later added healing mechanics to Buster, and we added more active units like the Dwarf and the Shaman healer. However, we had to strike a balance—it was becoming too action-focused, so we refined the gameplay while keeping it engaging and active.
Standing on the Shoulders of Giants
When we started development, we didn’t even know Plants vs. Zombies 2 was coming. Since PvZ1 had stopped development, we felt it was the perfect time to evolve the genre. Just as RTS, FPS, MMORPGs, and TD games for that matter continuously evolve, we wanted to add something new to the mix.
A fun moment happened a year after release when I was at Slush, showcasing Megapop. One of the leads from the PvZ team reached out to meet for coffee. He told me he had asked his entire team to play Trolls as an inspiration, since we had solved many mechanics in different ways. That was a cool full-circle moment.
The State of TD Games Today
I feel like tower defense as a genre has hit a bit of a wall. The rise of idle mechanics, free-to-play monetization, and service-game models has led to a lack of fresh ideas. While there are still great TD games, truly new experiences seem rare.
That’s why, with Trolls Reborn, we returned to the core—back to hardcore strategy. We removed free-to-play restrictions, increased difficulty, and added more active gameplay where the entire battlefield is an active combat zone.
We hope to keep tinkering and pushing Trolls forward in the years to come, staying true to this vision of a dynamic, engaging TD experience. Hopefully enough of you will like the game, and buy the full release, so we can see that become a reality. Still, that remains to be seen, but we shall at least do our very best!
What Do You Think?
Do you have comments or want us to cover something specific? Let us know, and we’ll get back to you!
All the best,
Jørgen Tharaldsen
Game Director – Trolls vs Vikings