Last updated on December 11th, 2025 at 08:57 pm
Wildwood: Graveyard Defense – Casual Game Review
Wildwood: Graveyard Defense is a Casual/Action game from Alan Vitek, first launched in 14th October 2019.
It’s rated 4+ and currently has 66+ ratings on the App Store.
What Makes Wildwood: Graveyard Defense Stand Out
POCKET EDITION!
Defend against hordes of ghosts in Wildwood: Graveyard Defense (Pocket) — a fast-paced wave survival game.
You play as a froggy grave keeper. Use your trusty lantern to light up ghosts and pop them. Fight bosses, collect ecto to brew potions, unlock new lanterns. Can you survive the night?
• Defeat challenging bosses!
• Collect unique lanterns!
• Brew power-up potions!
• Compete on leaderboards!
• Unlock a mysterious portal…
Developer's Note:
This is my first game, and I am so thankful for all the support of my family and friends as I’ve continued to work on it. I really hope you enjoy playing, and stay tuned for more updates in the future! Check out the development roadmap and my website for more information. — Alan
This Casual game offers engaging gameplay and regular updates for mobile players.
Player Feedback
As a newer release, Wildwood: Graveyard Defense is building its player community. Early feedback suggests .
Recent Updates & Development
Latest Update: 7th November 2025
Recent improvements include:
V4.3.1: HOT FIX!
• Misc bug fixes
• Fixed intro screen not showing properly for new players
V4.3 Overview
• Squashed a few more pesky bugs
• Updated cover art and branding
Download & Availability
Wildwood: Graveyard Defense is available through the official App Store for iOS devices.
Get Wildwood: Graveyard Defense on App Store
Requirements: Requires iPhone 5s / iPad Air / iPad Air (Cellular) / iPad Mini 2 (Retina) / iPad Mini 2 (Retina, Cellular) / iPhone 6 / iPhone 6 Plus / iPad Air 2 / iPad Air 2 (Cellular) / iPad Mini 3 or later.
Compatible with iPhone and iPad devices.
Player Experience Highlights
Community Insight:
A twist on taking out zombie hordes. Simple gameplay but the increasing difficulty, variety of ghosts, and items make it enjoyable.
Thanks for updating the game every so often, Owen loves playing your game. Great work.
Its difficult to survive until wave ten until you get a new lantern. But its really fun and satisfying to watch and hear the ghosts pop.
The controls are too awkward for us; Id rather it be a twin stick and be able to turn instead of just a shoot button on the right. We love the Halloween vibe though, and hope that it gets expanded with more of that. There are hardly any quality Halloween themed games in the AppStore.
Its way too short, and we would tell you more but we just spent 15 minutes writing a review up only for it to be deleted. So just read other reviews.
Updated review: played the game again after the new update. Suggestions: 1) change the lantern button into a joystick button similar to the movement joystick. That way, players can run and attack the ghosts. To prevent this from being overpowered, limit the turn speed of the lantern joystick. 2) movement joystick activates when you tap the left half of the screen, lantern joystick activates on the right half of the screen. 3) we're not sure whether there is a day/night cycle, but it could be nice if there were. Maybe other mythical/mystical creatures that are day-friendly, and night-friendly creatures other than ghosts. That way you can get some ability and content diversity. To give players somethin' to attach to. 4) we have a ton of ideas about where you could take the game, and potentially the franchise. Let us know if any of that resonates with you, maybe we could work somethin' out! Developer followed up, proactive devs are the best! Old review: very fun game. We only played one round, and found ourselves enjoying it thoroughly. Our main problem is that the joystick control doesn't always work. It can get sticky and cause you to get hit.
This is most definitely an underrated gem that needs more attention as we see so much potential for this game. We hope to see more updates and events soon.
Game joystick does not respond well enough to make it far. Seriously 80% of the time it does not move on first attempt. Fast ghost just kill you. If they can fix that looks fun.
Before we start, we understand this is your first game, kudos, thats an amazing achievement and should not be taken away! You have the foundation of a promising game, it just needs a lot more content. On the plus side, its simple enough that anyone can play it, its pretty to look at and you have a good premise. On the other hand, theres no depth, customization and after you play one wave, you quickly realize theres nothing else to do. Theres no point or endgame to the game and no reason to keep going out wave after wave. Ecto accumulates too slowly and the only thing you can buy are potions which are one-off. The ecto spawning point next to the pot should be based on how well you did the previous game, or how long youve been away, instead its just one ecto each time. Might as well not be there. Theres only one location and its a small map. You could introduce a free-roaming stage or world map with a progression of levels or visit other graveyards, and help them out against a pandemic of ghosts. Introduce a little story and mythology. Immediate suggestion: this game needs an in-game leveling up system like every Roguelike game ever made. You should gain exp when you defeat enemies and when you level up, you can power up your character or lantern. Speed boost, Def, HP, Atk power. Lantern can increase in strength, duration, width of its arc, length of its arc. Flame light, ice light, knockback, arc lightning with bouncing between enemies, slowing enemies. Explosions. The possibilities are endless and seems like such an elementary aspect to a game like this, frankly Im surprised it wasnt part of the initial design. Ditch the potion system and one-off brews and create this system ASAP. Also, you can introduce currency or repurpose the ecto drops. Instead of potions, you should be able to buy armor, accessories and other gear to improve your character. Permanent stats, things like that. You can spend it on improvements to the hut or the grounds, traps, defenses, you can hire other characters/monsters/frogs to help you as mercenaries.The enemies get tougher in the waves, but the hero doesnt so every game is super finite and theres no point in ever playing more than a few times before getting quickly bored. Basically, go play Solomons Boneyard/Keep and get inspired. Like we said, you have something solid here, and should be praised for a first-time effort, but if you want to sustain it, it needs a whole lot more. Im sorry for being so critical, Im truly trying to help! Good luck.
Just a high score game, and gets old quick. Lost pretty quick the first few rounds. Then made it to 5k score and change pretty quick. Current high score is 80k. Could easily achieve with practice. Except there isnt a pull to master the game. Potions are one-time use. Youre better off playing Solomons Graveyard – a 10 year old game. Significantly more depth, and controls arent as wooden.
A fun little game. You are a frog and go out into the graveyard to use your flashlight to make the ghosts disappear. The flashlight has stamina which goes down when you use it. Starts off easy yet gets more challenging. Its great though we wish there was the following: a pause button (though when you click on Game Center its similar to pause), being able to change the sound settings, playing the game in vertical mode, and that there were more areas to unlock/ explore.
Im taking the long way home, where everythings overgrown.
Fun little game with a great design and neat graphics. Highly addictive. We keep coming back to try and top our high score.
Beautifully-simple design. Addictive gameplay.
Simple controls and fun to play! Keep coming back for a better score.
User feedback from Apple App Store
App Details
- Version: 4.3.1
- Size: 232.91 MB
- iOS: 14.0 or later
- Languages: EN
- Content Advisory:
- Developer: Alan Vitek
Last updated: 7th November 2025 | Genre: Casual, Action | Developer: Alan Vitek