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Hiển thị các bài đăng có nhãn weekly progress. Hiển thị tất cả bài đăng

Thứ Hai, 17 tháng 12, 2012

Weekly Update: Shiny Chimchar out now! Bringing the towns to life!

Want to get the Shiny Starters? Shiny Zorua? Shiny legendary dogs? Shiny Mew? or any other shiny pokemon in the game? Adopt them today using SnD coins! Click here for more info.

Visit the PTD: Pokemon Center - a place to trade pokemon, get your Daily Code, adopt Pokemon, view your items and change your avatar!


Ho ho ho! Santa Sam here bring you the gifts this holiday season! Today I released v1.28 of PTD2 and it includes the much anticipated Shiny Chimchar Mystery Gift!

Holidays
As many of you know the holidays can be extremely busy for everybody. I think one of the biggest challenges a person can deal with when making games is the balance of work and life. For a lot of developers work is their life but this can be a dangerous thing. For me personally I value loved ones a lot and I always try to give them priority when it comes to my time but the reality is that it is you guys that really make paying the bills possible so I value you too. Without you guys I wouldn't be able to do what I love as a living and for that you guys will always have my thanks.

This Week's Mystery Gift
I'll be bringing the same poll as last week back to decide the type of the next mystery gift, and then I will do a poll as to which specific pokemon from that type it will be. Go ahead and vote to decide the next mystery gift.

Bringing the towns to life!
This week I want to focus on the towns and cities of the game. I want to add violet city along with the bellsprout/onix trade and a harder rematch with Falkner that will be optional. Also Cherrygrove City will finally be restored and the people will be back in their houses. Maybe even a flower shop!

Creature Universe TD
Creature Universe is progressing nicely in the concept stage. As far as the game itself I'm still prototyping things so it's far from a release but I hope early next year we can start releasing something. These past weeks we have been trying to finalize names for the creatures we have revealed along with finalizing their colors. I'm also designing the first few levels of the game. The game will have at least 100 different creatures and over 40 different levels to play.


    Alpha v1.29.1 is now released
    • Mystery Gift  - Mystery Gift will be out on by Monday!
      • Server Code
      • Game Graphic
      • Game Link
      • Blog Links
    • New Pokemon  Oshawott!
      • New Ability
        • Shell Armor
      • New Attacks
        • Water Sport
      • Graphics
      • Stats
      • Move List
      • Evolution Info
      • Evolutions (2)
      • Breeding Center
      • Trading Center
    • Fixed Mud Sport to lower Electric damage by 67% instead of 33%
    • Item Store
      • PokeCenter Page
    • First Badge is now properly given out
    • Violet City - Why are all the cities empty?! 
      • Map Graphic
      • City Music
      • Onix Trade
      • Falkner Rematch
    • New Pokemon - Onix
      • Added to Breeding Center
      • Added to Trading Center
      Everything below is postponed for future updates! Not enough time this week.
        • Story Level (0%)
        • Cherrygrove City (0%)
          • Flower Shop (0%)
        • Change the Zapdos Fight to be a more appropriate difficulty (0%)
          • Day of the Week Spooky Event (0%)- For Tuesdays
          • Add a graphic for removing a pokemon from the field (0%) - To better tell what is going on when fighting and NPC trainer.
          • Added which pokemon you will be battling in the next battle in 1v1 mode (0%) 
          • Make pressing Enter to trigger a lot of the menu buttons (0%) Pressing enter to log in instead of clicking on it.
          • Top Searchers/Top Request/Latest Trades (0%) 
          • Harden Sound Still plays while Sound FX set to 0 (0%)
           That's all I have for you guys this week, as always let me know what you think on the comments below. Happy Holidays!

            Thứ Hai, 10 tháng 12, 2012

            Getting back on track! Keeping it simple!

            Want to get the Shiny Starters? Shiny Zorua? Shiny legendary dogs? Shiny Mew? or any other shiny pokemon in the game? Adopt them today using SnD coins! Click here for more info.

            Visit the PTD: Pokemon Center - a place to trade pokemon, get your Daily Code, adopt Pokemon, view your items and change your avatar!

            Welcome! Last week there was no update, I got really busy with College Final Exams and taking some Engagement photos. So this week I'm getting back on track!

            Instead of packing this week up with more things to do I will keep it simple so I can finish everything in the list. We already have the Mystery Gift set up which is Shiny Chimchar! Somebody ask if this was a good idea since I regretted having the Shiny Charmander gift. The difference here is that a lot of people payed to get Shiny Charmander before it was a gift so it was a mistake to add it after people had bought it. Chimchar is not available to purchase so it's not a problem adding him to players that are playing now.

            Creature Universe
            I've had some moments to think about Creature Universe. Whenever I think of a new project, for example PTD2, I think what changes in gameplay I can bring to the new game to make it more interesting or different. That is the stage that we are in with Creature Universe. I'm putting together some prototypes with different gameplay ideas and then playing with them, sending them to Dan and then we talk about what works and what doesn't work. The graphics in the prototype are extremely basic so we can focus on the gameplay and not the look. So making changes comes really easy. What you end up learning is that a lot of ideas sound great on paper but don't work as good when you actually play with it in the game. You also don't want to lose what made the game great just to put in new ideas. It is a tricky balance that all game developers must learn.

            Pokemon Tower Defense Fan Film: Episode 5!
            Joel has been working extra hard to get the next episode out. I saw it and it looks great! Check it out!



            Alpha v1.27.1 Released!
            • Added Experience Points to the Checkpoint in 1v1 mode
            • Breeding Feature - Out now! Note: Getting moves from parents is not implemented yet.
            • Added Igglybuff to the game - Obtainable by breeding.
              • New Attacks
                • Charm
                • Sweet Kiss
              • Stats
              • Move List
              • Evolution Info
              • Graphics
                • Normal
                • Shiny
                • Shadow
              • Add to Breeding Center
                • Add to proper Egg Group
                • Add to proper Family
              • Add to Trading Center 
                • Add to Search List
                • Add to Request List

              Thanks for coming by and checking us out! Keep checking back to see how we are progressing during the week! As always let me know what you think!

              Thứ Ba, 4 tháng 12, 2012

              Final Exam Week! Air Starter revealed for Creature Universe! Let's get this done!

              Want to get the Shiny Starters? Shiny Zorua? Shiny legendary dogs? Shiny Mew? or any other shiny pokemon in the game? Adopt them today using SnD coins! Click here for more info.

              Visit the PTD: Pokemon Center - a place to trade pokemon, get your Daily Code, adopt Pokemon, view your items and change your avatar!

              Welcome to another week here at Sam and Dan Games. Up and coming indie developers,  learning new things everyday, coding, having team meetings, dealing with sales, dealing with bugs, answering user feedback and more! Good times! Lots of hard work and dedication!

              Final Exams Week
              Like many of you, this week is my final exam week at college. This means more time studying and less time being able to work on an update. For that reason instead of adding new things to the list I will only work on what is in the list and get breeding and the item store up plus fix some bugs like the checkpoint in 1v1 mode not giving you the experience points. If I have extra time I would like to increase the soft cap some more and add new moves but no promises. Also like every week there will be a new mystery gift!

              Mystery Gift
              So far we have had an Ice, Dark, Fighting, Ghost, Electric, Flying and Legendary pokemon in the mystery gift. So first let's figure out which type we want then we can figure out which pokemon we want from that type. Let's make this happen!

              My friends do stuff!
              Joel did a cool comic showcasing real life pokemon evolution check it out! http://joelsamcomic.blogspot.com/

              Gym Battle Feedback!
              So the gym level has been out for a bit and it had some interesting mechanics. I would love to know what you guys thought about the level. What is too hard to understand? Too easy? What did you like of it? What did you hate? All this information will help me when thinking of future levels.

              Help me squash some bugs!
              A lot of you can't seem to get the game to load while a whole bunch of you can. This is really weird as I've always been able to load the game. What I'm thinking is that this isn't a programming bug at all and more like something happening on the server. What I need is information! First if you have never been able to load ptd2, what browser are you using, did you clear your cache, what country are you accessing the game from, what website are you trying to access it from, what day of the week have you tried to load the game? If you had trouble but can now load it, did you do anything specific to make it load?  My guess is that some people might be timing out with our server.

              Another bug is the one when your pokemon get the moves of another pokemon. I need information as to what you did when this happened and can you replicate the bug and how.

              With this information I will be able to better solve these issues and make everything better for everybody!

              Creature Universe - Air Starter!
              When I first thought of making my own original creatures for my next game I really wanted to take the things that you would expect and flip them on their head. The Air starter is a great example of this! Let's check them out! Here what Bill, one of our artist, sent us as a concept and then the colored version. Keep in mind that the names and descriptions where made by Bill and aren't necessarily final!
              Bill's concept image (not final names or descriptions)
              Colored versions by Bill (not final colors)

              Thanks guys for all the support! As always let me know what you think! Keep checking back to see how I'm progressing in the game!

              Thứ Hai, 26 tháng 11, 2012

              Birthday Wishes! Breeding and Soft Cap Increase! Creature Universe Toxic Starter!

              Want to get the Shiny Starters? Shiny Zorua? Shiny legendary dogs? Shiny Mew? or any other shiny pokemon in the game? Adopt them today using SnD coins! Click here for more info.

              Visit the PTD: Pokemon Center - a place to trade pokemon, get your Daily Code, adopt Pokemon, view your items and change your avatar!

              Hi everyone! First off thanks to everybody who wished me a Happy Birthday, my birthday is today (Monday) and last year on my birthday I made a very special mystery gift and so this year I want to make another one. This year I will choose and it is my wish that the mystery gift be Jirachi!

              Newgrounds and Hacked Arcade Version
              I recently released the Newgrounds (same as the one here, go and rate the game por favor) and the Hacked Arcade versions of PTD2. The hacked arcade version will give you more experience per kill and it is easier to capture pokemon but it tags your pokemon with the hacked tag. Enjoy!

              Soft Cap Increase
              Many of you have been asking for the soft cap to increase, so I will work on that this week. You might ask yourself what the soft cap is since you can level up to 100 already. Well the soft cap is the level in which your pokemon stop learning moves. The soft cap is currently 12 so my plan is to increase it to at least 14 if not higher.

              Breeding
              Another highly anticipated feature is the breeding mechanic and I think this will be a good week to introduce it. Okay so here are a couple of details on how it will work:
              • Most of the rules regarding egg groups, gender, and families from the actual games will be in play here.
              • Breeding and Egg Hatching will take place in the Pokemon Center.
              • To hatch the egg you will have to visit it for a number of days. It will usually take less than 7 days of visits for it to hatch depending on the rarity of the pokemon in the egg.
              • The parents stay with the egg until the egg is hatched. They are very caring!
              • Egg moves will be implemented, same rules as the real game.
              • You can have a shadow or shiny egg hatch
                • You will find out if it's shiny or shadow the moment it's hatched, the egg will look the same.
                • Each parent can increase the chance of the egg being shiny or shadow by a percent.
                • Special held items will be sold that can also increase the chance of the egg being shiny or shadow. You will be able to buy them with SnD Coins or Daily Coins.
                • So let's say each parent can increase it by 4% and the item can increase it by 4% then if both parents are shiny and they are both carrying the item then that will increase the chance for it to be shiny by 16%
              • You will only be able to have 3 eggs hatching per account but you can increase this number with SnD Coins or Daily Coins.
              Everstone and Neeverstone
              Speaking of items I will be adding the Everstone and the Neeverstone (never everstone), the everstone will stop evolutions from happening and the neeverstone will stop any experience from being gained. Both of these items can be bought with SnD Coins or Daily Coins.

              Daily Activity Tweaks
              I won't be adding a new daily activity but I have a changed planned that will make this one more doable. Right now every day you have to find 10 new people to trade with that you had not traded with before. The Tweak will reset the people you traded with each day, essentially you can trade with the same people once a day. I will be adding a different one at some point but for now we are sticking to this one.

              My friends do stuff!
              Joel did a great comic smashup for thanksgiving check it out! http://joelsamcomic.blogspot.com/
              Kevin put up some great sketches that he made in his spare time check them out! http://kxnhtd.blogspot.com/

              Creature Universe - Toxic Starter!
              This is the Toxic Type starter, he starts off pure toxic but ends up Toxic/Ground by the third evolution. Here is the concept drawing from one of our artist Bill along with some non-final names that he came up with.
              Toxic Starter with non-final names

              Alpha v1.27: Released!
              • 1v1 Mode Changes - As described on a previous blog. FINALLY!
              • Mystery Gift- Jirachi!
                • Graphics
                • Stats
                • New Abilities
                • New Attacks
                  • Wish
                  • Swift
                • Add to Pokemon Center
                • Add Mystery Gift Graphic on Game
                • Add Mystery Gift Server Code
                • Change Blog Links
              • In game Items - You can buy these on the Pokemon Center Item Store page, once it is available.
                • Everstone 
                • Neeverstone 
                • Gold Incense
                • Shadow Incense
              • Soft Cap Increase to 14 - Missing Moves
                • Sleep Powder
                • Spark
                • Icy Wind
                • Shadow Punch
                • Light Screen 
              • Daily Activity Tweak - Described in teh blog above
              • Added list in the FAQ page on where to find pokemon and at what time, similar to the PTD1 list
              • Save Party Position 
              • Fixed a bug that was letting you duplicate your party pokemon
              • Release Pokemon - Note: You can't release a pokemon in the game, it is not humane! Please go to the PokeCenter Webstie to release them that way Nurse Joy can take care of them!
              • Add new Level Item interface graphics for the ui (0%)   They are fine the way they are!
               
              Alright well I'm off for now, keep checking back to see how I'm doing! As always let me know what you think!

              Thứ Ba, 13 tháng 11, 2012

              SnD Weekly 11/13: Creature Universe Back to the basics, Webcomic, limited and more valuable Mystery Gift

              Want to get the Shiny Starters? Shiny Zorua? Shiny legendary dogs? Shiny Mew? or any other shiny pokemon in the game? Adopt them today using SnD coins! Click here for more info.

              Visit the PTD: Pokemon Center - a place to trade pokemon, get your Daily Code, adopt Pokemon, view your items and change your avatar!

              Hello everyone,  pretty interesting week we had last week. By interesting I mean lacking in any updates. I must admit that I've had a rough last couple of weeks and the whole security update really took a lot out of me. After a few days of clearing my head and relaxing I'm ready to get back on the horse. In my days off I really had a chance to think about a couple of things.

              Creature Universe TD - Back to the basics
              Do people ever tell you something that triggers something else in your mind? This happens to me quite often. Many times your feedback and suggestions are triggers to other thoughts that help the game grow and evolve over time. In this case Joel, my brother, commented on PTD2 and how complex the game had gotten when compared to PTD1. PTD1 had the element of pick up and play just getting into the action. PTD2 appeals to me because I like to explore and walk around but this comes at a price of having a game that you sit down and play when you have more time. I felt that if I really want to bring CUTD to the mobile market and to save time in development that it would be best to remove the walking around part of the game and stick to a structure similar to PTD1. The focus will then be on making the levels, creatures, attacks, and abilities more interesting to play. Since we already have a Mystery Gift figured out this week the poll will be about which of the two different structures did you like best. PTD1 or PTD2?

              Joel & Sam Make Comics
              I mentioned Joel just a bit ago, he lives only about an hour away from my house so I see him three to four times a week. We talk a lot about projects, games, and movies. Every once in a while we talk about projects that we can work on together but with running Sam and Dan Games, plus school, plus life, my time is very short. With this project I help up with coming up with funny and interesting ideas for comics that cross over famous video games with famous movies. The first crossover is Hunger Games with Fruit Ninja, and Joel came up with Star Wars with Portal. Check them out and comment on the comic blog with what other crossovers you might want to see. http://joelsamcomic.blogspot.com/

              More Limited and Valuable Mystery Gifts
              Mystery Gifts are meant to reward players who are following along the development of our games. The first few Mystery Gifts have been regular versions of pokemon that won't show up for a while. These have value in that they won't be available for somebody that didn't get the Mystery Gift but they will be able to get them once the game reaches that stage pretty easily even thought it could be years before that happens. To further increase the value of Mystery Gift the next Mystery Gifts will be shiny version instead! The only major complaint that people have with Mystery Gifts is that since you can enter the code so much there is an over abundance of them. To counter this you will only be able to enter the code once for each account. You will get 3 pairs of male and female so if you wish to trade them later on you will have 2 extra pairs. After this the code will no longer work for your account and yes I know you can make more than one account and get more but I hope that the extra work involve will lower the amount that people get and thus reduce how many are out there and increase their rarity in the future.

              Weekly Progress
              For PTD2 I'm still working on the items from last week. During my break I remembered the things that I did wrong with PTD1 and the major one was rushing out content to get it out each week. I still like adding things to the game every week (I'm sure you guys wish there was new content every day!) but I want to make sure that what I make lives up to my expectations and a lot of time to get something out in by the deadline I have to cut things down. So what this means is we still get weekly updates but I will make sure that I get things up to the quality that I want to reach instead of rushing things to get them out on time.

              Alpha v1.25: Released!
              • Mystery Gift
                • Graphics
                • Stats
                • New Attacks
                  • Charge
                • Evolution Information
                • Add To Trading Center
                • Change In Game Mystery Gift Link
                • Change Server Code - To give out the correct mystery gift and limit users that have already used it.
              • Update Pokedex when you evolve a pokemon
              • Properly align some pokemon when they are following behind you
              • Better Map UI - Similar to the Battle UI, it shows time of day and your current money amount.
              • Pokedex
                • Implemented in-game
                • Save and Load Pokedex Data
              • Saving Pokemon's party and storage position
              • Add a confirmation popup to the back button on story mode
              • Check the Forgot Password pages for any errors
              • Sponsor Versions of the game
              • Daily Activities - The first activity is to trade with 10 different trainers in the PTD2 Trading Center. 
                • Letting you buy adoption pokemon from ptd2 with Daily Coins 
                • Creating Daily Activity page 
                • Creating first daily activity 
              • Pokemon Researcher
              That's what we have for you this week, we are still working on all the funding prices and all of that so hopefully that will come out next week. We will really need you guys to chip in and help us continue making you great games. As always let me know what you think, I read all the comments posted on here, twitter and all emails. I don't have enough time to answer them all but I do read them.

              Thứ Ba, 16 tháng 10, 2012

              Weekly Progress 10/16: New Mystery Gift, Story Level, Creature Universe: Pick your side! Light vs Dark!

              Want to get the Shiny Starters? Shiny Zorua? Shiny legendary dogs? Shiny Mew? or any other shiny pokemon in the game? Adopt them today using SnD coins! Click here for more info.

              Visit the PTD: Pokemon Center - a place to trade pokemon, get your Daily Code, adopt Pokemon, view your items and change your avatar!

              Welcome back guys and gals! Another week to see the evolution of Sam and Dan games has arrived. Sorry about wait for the blog but better late than never. This week I'm pretty excited about what is coming. We will have a new mystery gift, new story level that will actually have a story to it! (Finally! I know right!) I will finish up the 1v1 changes and a few more things. This week I have to meet with the photographer for my wedding and I have class on Wednesday so instead of packing up the week and then not being able to deliver I'm keeping it short but with meaningful content. So let's get into more detail about this update and then talk a little bit about Creature Universe.


              New Mystery Gift
              For the first Mystery Gift we made a poll to figure out which Pokemon you guys wanted to have and as we all know Zorua won. This week we will have a new poll! The choices will be: Riolu, Axew, Sandile, or Klink. You will have a couple of days to vote so I have enough time to add it to the game.

              New Story Level
              We will finally head to Cherrygrove City but all is not well. There is a report that the Legendary Birds have been spotted but they are causing havoc! I'm pretty excited about this level since it develops the story a little more.  

              Small Level Cap Increase to 12
              Increasing the level cap a bit, note that the new level won't require you to be at level 12 to beat the game will be balanced properly for what level you should be at that point. The level will make use of the effective level mechanic that will temporarily delevel your pokemon on that level but they can still earn experience for their actual level and keep their moves and evolutions. 

              Saving your pokemon's position in storage and party
              Right now when you move people around in your party or storage that information is not saved when you log back in. This update will now save that position information and hopefully fix the bug that will give your pokemon the wrong moves.

              Better Map UI
              Making the Map UI look more like the Battle UI and having information like the current time of the game.   

              Weekly Progress:
              Okay so lets look at the list that I have for this week! Keep checking back as I work on these to see my progress and cheer me on.

              Alpha v1.22.1: Released! Evolution Bug Fixes
              • Fixed showing the wrong graphic if the pokemon that is following you evolves
              • Fixed pokemon evolving not getting saved properly
              Alpha v1.22: Released! Have questions about Effective Leveling? Check the FAQ.
              • New Story Level -  Panic at Cherrygrove City 
                • New Map Cherrygrove City
                  • Rip Sprites
                  • Create Map Objects and Hitboxes
                  • Create Map Layout
                • New Characters
                  • Rip Sprites
                  • Create Character Object
                • Intro
                  • Movie Scene
                  • NPC Character Dialog Changes
                • Level Layout
                  • Background
                  • Spots
                • Level Waves
                  • Set up pokemon
                  • Pokemon Graphics
                  • Pokemon Attacks
                  • Arrangements and timing
                • Ending
                  • Movie Scene
                  • NPC Character Dialog Changes
                  • Cherrygrove NPCs
                  • Cherrygrove Interactive Objects
                  • Add new pokemon to trading search and request
              • Level cap to 12
              • New Mystery Gift
                • Pokemon Graphics
                • Pokemon Stats
                • New Attacks
                  • Endure
                  • Counter
                  • Force Palm
                • New Abilities
                  • Steadfast
                  • Inner Focus
                  • Prankster 
                • Add to Pokemon Center Trading Search and Request 
                • Change Link and Graphic
                • Change Server Code  
              Creature Universe: Pick your side! Light vs Dark!
              A couple of weeks ago in our development team meeting we talked about how your character can make choices. These choices would have a big impact on the world around you. Would you keep thing in order or would you bring things into chaos? We talked about it a lot and many ideas came out of it. So I want to talk a bit about it. In previous blogs we talked about the Neutral, Light and Dark types. These are creature types but they also represent three sides that you can take in the game. There will be two organizations in the game that are after something and they both go about it in two separate ways. If you mostly only help one of them you will join their side. If you help both out pretty equally you will stay Neutral. Which side you join will also determine a few other things. Some creatures when they reach an evolution might evolve in 3 different directions either neutral, light or dark. It totally depends on how your character is aligned. Also some evolution will only happen if you are really deep into Dark or Light. So some creatures will be out of reach if you don't go fully into one alignment. Keep in mind that if you are Light aligned you can still have Dark creatures. There are only a few exceptions.

              Another thing that I wanted to mention is that Light or Dark neither of them are evil. They are both after something and they both have evil people inside of their organizations that you will have to stop. So don't think okay Light = good and Dark = evil.

              As you progress with that organization you might even make it to the top and become its leader!

              So that is all we have for this week. Keep checking back, subscribe to our twitter, leave us a comment. Let me know what you think!

              Thứ Ba, 25 tháng 9, 2012

              Weekly Progress 9/25: New Stuff! Starting locations for Creature Universe!

              Want to get the Shiny legendary dogs? Shiny Mew? or any other shiny pokemon in the game? Adopt them today using SnD coins! Click here for more info.

              Visit the PTD: Pokemon Center - a place to trade pokemon, get your Daily Code, adopt Pokemon, view your items and change your avatar!

              Greetings! Welcome to another amazing week of Sam and Dan games! Last week we almost completed our goal of releasing both a 1v1 level and a story level but we didn't quite make it. I did release it yesterday night which is pretty close I guess. This week again we will attempt to do a Story levels among other things! We love to give you guys content and we love making it. We will also talk a little bit about the starting towns/cities/villages for the first 3 starters in Creature Universe TD. Sound good? Great! Let's get to it.

              New Story Level
              This week we will finally get out of New Bark Town and into Route 29! You might have noticed that once you defeat a battle you aren't able to repeat this battle over and over like you could on PTD1. Well on Route 29 you will be able to repeat battles, catch new pokemon, hunt for shinys! I'm looking forward to making this and finally be able to see pokemon walking around in the wild instead of just having random battles. You will also get your PokePad which will act as a pokedex, a computer and it will also heal your pokemon between battles. Along with this I'll be working on getting your first party pokemon to walk behind you. If I have time I'll be adding the first Mystery Gift and the Trading Center for PTD2. Lots to do!

              Look! 1v1 is evolving!
              I've decided to make some big changes to 1v1, remove a lot of the grinding and focus more on strategy and choices. This requires some shifts on how things work. I'm still thinking about it so not everything is finalized yet. But here are some of the things that will change:
              • There will be no more experience gained from defeating the enemy.
              • You will level up by using rare candies that are given out by beating levels.
              • When you use a checkpoint you will get the same amount of candies that you would have received if you have beaten all the way up to that point. So you can skip the previous levels and still have a powerful team.
              • Every pokemon will now start at level 5 and evolutions will not be available for unlocking.
              I'm still figuring out what exactly I will do with the coins, but I have a few days to think about it. My main goal is to make it so it doesn't feel like you need to grind for the coins to be able to beat a level. 

              So that is a little preview of what we have coming for you this week. Check out the weekly progress below to see how I'm doing during the week. I also added a new "My Status" which will tell you if I'm currently working or not.

              Weekly Progress:

              Alpha v1.191 - Bug Fix: Released!
              • Fixed a bug with the pokeballs not showing up unless you saved and reloaded the profile after receiving them from Prof. Elm (100%)
              Alpha v1.19 - Route 29, PokePad, Bug Fixes: Released! Yes, Shiny Pokemon can show up in the actual battles in Route 29 but not in the map itself.
              • Fixed some NPC typos
              • Slightly Decreased the HP boost on your rival's starter
              • Made the pokemon in your first party slot follow you in the map - Fun stuff but you won't be able to talk to it like in the other games.
              • Fixed Map Issue in Elm's Lab on Story Mode
              • Fixed Issue with Speed resetting between waves in Story Mode
              • Made Story level music stop playing when you leave story mode
              • New Story Level - Route 29
                • Level Intro
                  • Before you get the PokePad
                  • After you get the PokePad
                • Implement PokePad
                • New Map
                • Battle Layout
                  • Swarm Layout - Normal Tower defense fight
                  • Single Layout - 1v1 style fight
                • Battle Waves - Both 1v1 and normal version for each pokemon
                  • Pidgey
                  • Rattata
                  • Sentret
                • Pokemon Map Behavior - how the pokemon will behave in the map
                  • Pidgey
                  • Rattata
                  • Sentret
                • Level Ending
              • Added a Spawning System - This will control how many and where each pokemon spawn in a route. 
              • Saving Extra Info for Pokemon
              • Show Shiny Popup and slow down speed when a shiny shows up
              • After closing a popup window the previous screen will now properly get back focus - When learning a new move or evolving the screen would lose focus when coming back. Not allowing you to use the keyboard shortcuts. This is now fixed.

              Creature Universe Starting Locations!
               Like I've mentioned before each starting creature will have it's own starting location instead of have all 3 available in one town. What this means is that we can really do something special for the starting locations. Giving each of them their own unique style and appearance. For Creature Universe we really wanted to do something different. Instead of realistic towns that are... well kinda boring. We really wanted to do something interesting for each town. Below I will show you some sketches that our artist made to create the mood of each starting location. Keep in mind that these are concept sketches they don't represent the final look of the locations. Also some of these are there to strictly show an idea and not intended to look amazing. Keep that in mind!

              First is the grass starter zone. The grass starter is the chameleon, they mostly live on trees so why not make the town live on top of trees. Not shown in the concept is the flooding that occurs during the rainy season which is the reason they build higher up and the water that is under the trees.

              Work In Progress Concept of the Grass Starting zone
              Then we have the fire starter zone. This place is more industrial, more gritty, it's a mining town. The fire starter zone will have a lush reservation area that the creatures live in that will be very contrasting with the rest of the zone. The fire koala family helps with refining the metals and treasures found in the mines. They also help create the steam that gives power to the town. I don't have a picture as the one I had didn't really show off the town it self but a mining cave.

              Lastly the water starter zone. This place is more outdoors in a place surrounded by mountains. Not shown in the concept is a zone that is dried up due to recent droughts. This zone will be divided between a rich part and a poor part. The water buffalo need water to use water so even with them around they don't completely solve the drought problem as they can only use water in their supply to defend themselves and keep themselves hydrated while doing work like pushing carts and what not.
              Work In Progress Concept of the Water Starter Zone
              So there you have it! Three different concepts for the starting locations. Remember these were just for ideas and should give you a little sense of what each location will be like.

              That is all we have for you this week. As always let us know what you think!

              Thứ Hai, 27 tháng 8, 2012

              Weekly Progress and Anpo Starters

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              Visit the PTD: Pokemon Center - a place to trade pokemon, get your Daily Code, adopt Pokemon, view your items and change your avatar!


              Hey guys and gals! Welcome to another week of Sam and Dan Games. This week we have some sneak peak at the Creature Universe Starters and the weekly progress for what will be new in Pokemon Tower Defense 2 this week. Enjoy!

              Creature Universe (aka ANPO) Starters:
              Okay so every creature game should start with the trainers getting their first creature. In pokemon you started in one town and you picked from three different starters. In most games in the series you could pick from a grass, fire or water pokemon. My first thoughts in designing ANPO were "okay why not have different types available? Why not have all types available?" I thought it would be great if you wanted a specific type to be your starting type. Why only have 3 choices? Then I said "wouldn't it be cool if each starter had a different starting location?" What if since each city specializes in a certain type why not have a starter on each city and have players decide which city they wanted to start from. That all sounded great! But then I came back to earth and thought about how many different types we might have and about how long it would take to make all those cities right from the start. Okay so I like the idea of different cities for each starter. I like the idea of letting you choose which type you want to start. But to release the game I have to limit how many starters I will release the game with. So let's go back down to 3 and then as the game progresses we will add more. Okay so 3 starter types for 3 cities. The starters will be like that cities mascot. They will be an important part of that city. That is the creature that young trainers from that city receive when they first start training.

              Now which 3 types should it start with? My first thoughts were to not do fire, grass, and water. Let's make it different! WOOOO! How about flying, ground, electric? Hmm it doesn't quite work out... Flying isn't super effective against ground... Also it's not that intuitive to figure out who beats who... not as nice as fire, grass, and water. So I decided okay I want more than 3 types for starters but if I only have 3 types then they will be fire, grass, and water. So a few weeks back I had my artist, Kevin, Bill, Evan, Josh and Joel, start coming up with concepts for creatures for ANPO. We have over 100 designs already! But I like to present to you the work in progress sketches of the water, fire, and grass starters for ANPO!
              Work In Progress ANPO Starters
              Weekly Progress:
              This week for PTD 2 will we have another 1v1 level, this level should be enough for kakuna and metapod to level up to 10 so I will include the unlocks for those. Also I'll be pushing for saving in the story mode and the second quest where you can actually pick your starter. Plus if I have time during the week I'll add any small fixes or changes that I find.

              Alpha v1.14 Added the Girl Avatar for story mode, saving for story mode, Bug Fixes and Changes (9/2/12): Released!
              • Fixed a bug that was making attacks that should do at least 1 damage do 0 damage - Like Poison Sting on Geodude
              • Fixed a bug that prevented a pokemon from learning an attack when it evolves and you beat a level
              • Fixed a bug with attacks with an initial cooldown having a cooldown glitch
              • Removed Prof Oak's winning text and added different text in Story Level 1
              • Added Johto Starter sounds to the Story Level 1 Intro
              • Added the correct lost popup to Story Level 1
              • Implemented the girl avatar in story mode
              • Fixed being able to enter houses through windows and walls in Story mode 
              • Lowered the Geodude's level in Level 6 of 1v1 to 10, 11, 12 respectively, also lowered the amount of buffs they do before attacking
              • Gave Professor Oak the correct questions to ask the player on Story Level 1 Intro
              • Fixed a bug with beating a level while playing at a higher speed
              • Added properly deleting profiles when the delete button is pressed  
              • Added saving your story profile
              Alpha v1.13 New Level, Bug Fixes and Changes (8/28/12): Released!
              • 1v1 Level 6
                • Intro
                • Level Layout
                • Waves
                • Ending
              • Added Butterfree and Beedrill as unlockables
              • Lower the effect of speed changes to attack speed
              • Update speed changes to attack cooldown in real time instead of only when a new move is going to be done
               That's all I have for you this week, keep checking back to see how I am progressing on the update, and let me know what you think of the starters and the weekly progress in the comments below or on twitter.
              Thanks!

              Thứ Ba, 3 tháng 7, 2012

              Weekly Progress: New PTD Fan Film, New Race for HTD Approaches!

              Want to get the Shiny legendary dogs? Shiny Mew? or any other shiny pokemon in the game? Adopt them today using SnD coins! Click here for more info.

              Visit the PTD: Pokemon Center - a place to trade pokemon, get your Daily Code, adopt Pokemon, view your items and change your avatar!


              Okay lets talk about some new exciting stuff! First my brother just published episode 3 of the Pokemon Tower Defense Fan Film, this is probably my favorite one so far, click here to check it out now!


              Also the artist for HTD have been hard at work on a new race for HTD and are planning to unveil it soon, check out the teaser shot on Kevin's blog, click here to check it out!

              For PTD 2 I'm still working hard on getting it done, I've been trying to post more pictures and even movies about my progress so you guys can see what is coming.

              Fixing bugs (50%)
              Have Speed altering effects affect the pokemon's attack speed (100%) 

              1v1 mode - level 1 (100%) - Intro level, pretty easy and short.
              • Level Intro (100%)
              • Level Layout (100%)
              • Level Waves (100%)
              • Level Ending (100%)
              Level Ending Screen (Postponed) - A stat screen that will tell you how much money you earned on the level plus other things.
              Pokemon Upgrade Screen (100%) - Adding the two suggestions that you guys requested, being able to change your pokemon in the screen and showing the pokemon's stats. Other additions are showing the nickname of the pokemon along with its name, showing the gender by symbol and background color. Also you can see that you can see your abilities and their description and also change them before the level. Finally I added a new pokedex button that will take you to the pokedex information of this pokemon. It will be more detailed than in ptd 1. You can see a work in progress shot below. (Note: I'm using pokemon with random moves in them for testing purposes, you can't learn these move on Onix without hacking)

              Newer version, female onix, pokedex button, and ability window

              Level User Interface (100%) - The Level UI will be changed to incorporate new mechanics and to not take up as much space as the previous one. Some new features you will notice in the screenshot below is being able to change a pokemon's move mid battle without having to go to the pokemon check menu, it will also help you keep track of the move's cooldown (not pictured below). Another thing you will notice is zoom, speed, and other info will be smaller and not take up as much room as before but still very visible. Where the pokeball used to be there is now a temporary box and an arrow. The box represents the current item you have selected. To change the item you click on the arrow to get a quick menu to pick your item. Items you can pick will be different pokeballs, medicine, berries, and battle items. The last thing you will notice is the 3 professor oaks on the side. For the story mode you will be able to use your traveling partners pokemon in battle! So you will be able to swap between the 3 trainers. One thing that is missing is the menu button, pause button, the special abilities button and some other small things.

              Latest Version of the Pokemon Buttons


              Party Selection Screen (100%)- Slightly refined, added new sorting options that you guys requested, plus additional settings to each sorting option as seen in the pictures below.

              Showing new sorting options with sub menus

              Any attacks that need to be modified for level 1 (100%) - Setting up the new stacking debuff mechanics. No longer will stat changing attack run out. They will also stack so you have to keep applying it to get the max effect. Watch the video below for a small preview. The graphic will get slightly bigger and stack as the debuff stacks. Also your pokemon will prioritize targets that have the lowest stack or no stack at all.
              Attacks Completed:
              •  Tackle, String Shot, Harden, Confusion, Poison Sting, Fury Attack, Tail Whip, Quick Attack, Focus Energy, Bite, Sand Attack, Gust, Peck, Growl, and Leer.
              Level 1 Pokemon Abilities (100%) - Adding any missing abilities for the pokemon found in the first levels.
              • Keen Eye, Tangled Feet, Big Pecks, Shield Dust, Run Away, Shed Skin, Compound eyes, Tinted Lens, Swarm, Sniper, Guts, and Hustle. 
              Pokemon can now learn attacks before and after they evolve on a level up (100%) 
              Creating the profile, profile_story, profile_1v1 classes (Programmer lingo) (100%)
              Pokemon Buying Screen (100%)
              Loading (100%)
              Saving (100%) 
              Item Buying Screen (Postponed) - Items will be postponed for near future update.

                During the week I will keep adding more things and updating what I'm working on. This will give you a better look at where I am at with getting the release done.

                thanks for all the support, I really want to get this out to you guys so please be patient! As always let me know what you think about the fan film, htd race teaser and ptd 2 progress! Thanks!

                Thứ Bảy, 30 tháng 6, 2012

                Hero Tower Defense: Scheduling

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                Alright, time for a update on some HTD related stuff. First off as you may have noticed from the title and date of this post is that I will no longer be sticking to a new HTD post every Thursday. Reason being is that sometimes there just isn't much to report since we are taking our time with the new releases even though we are continuously working on it. So it would seem to make more sense to just make a post only when there is something worth posting about rather than trying to fill a weekly requirement. Plus it uses some valuable time that I could be using to work on the game instead. With that said I'll still be posting about HTD fairly often just not as consistently as before.

                Now onto business. Sam and I put on our business hats and decided that the best thing for us would be to let Sam focus on getting PTD2 going and put the programming for the new HTD graphics setup on hold. The reason is a pretty clear one, more people want to see PTD2 than HTD and we're all about giving you guys what you want. However, don't mistake this to mean HTD progress is stopping. That's not true at all, all that's on hold for now is the programming part, the graphics are still being worked on. If you've been following Kevin's blow you probably already know this (linke at the bottom of this post). In fact, once Sam gets a playable version of PTD2 out he will be dedicating some extra time to HTD in order to get everything moving again. Another thing to keep in mind is that since the graphics are still being worked on in the meantime that the next release of HTD will contain even more reworked content than we originally planned for.

                For those of you that have been looking forward to the next HTD release (like me) and have been patiently waiting, I apologize for the temporary delay but it's ultimately a better route for the company to take. It shouldn't be too much of a delay though really. And for those of you who want to point out Ninja-ja I'll assure you this is a different case because there is more than just one person (me) working on HTD. Plus, a new version of Ninja-ja WILL come out eventually. I just need to find time for it which is scarce these days.

                Thanks for all the continued support guys!


                In the Works:


              • Design

                • Commander/Player Skills (25%)
                • Stat Progression (5%)
                • Pet System (50%)



              • Graphics

                • Unit: Human Male - Animations (90%)
                • Unit: Race #2 - Concepts (20%)
                • Unit: Race #3 - Concepts (10%)
                • Unit: Fire Gecko - Concepts (80%)
                • Unit: Creature #3 - Concepts (20%)
                • Unit: Creature #4 - Concepts (10%)
                • Weapons: Batch #2 - Assets (20%)
                • Armor: Batch #1 - Assets (10%)



              • Programming

                • Interface: Setup (75%)
                • Unit: Setup (10%)


                Check out Kevin's blog, KXN @ HTD for HTD art-related concepts, WIPs, polls, and more!

                Be sure to leave any ideas, suggestions, or other feedback you might have in the comments! Thanks!


                -Dan

                Thứ Năm, 14 tháng 6, 2012

                Hero Tower Defense Thursday: Day 42 - Creatures Vs Races

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                Welcome to Hero Tower Defense Thursday!



                HTD Logo


                Go here to read Day 41 of Hero Tower Defense Thursday.




                Progress on the new art and graphics system is still underway and is going well. We're doing our best to get a new release out to you guys ASAP but we aren't looking to rush it out just so we can have something. I never liked seeing that happen in other games and then having to deal with all sorts of annoying bugs. Granted we're a small group and can only find so much but we do what we can. :)

                Now, on to the topic at hand. Creatures Vs Races! In HTD when we say Creatures we are typically referring to enemy units and when we say Races we are referring to playable heroes. However, there will be units that are both playable races and creatures that you fight. The HTD world isn't one with race wars going on with one versus another but rather just a world full of all sorts of races and creatures that have various factions within different groups. Some are good, some are bad. This allows us to be a bit more versatile when it comes to designating enemies for maps because we can mix various kinds of units together and still have it make sense.

                You might be wondering why aren't all units just creatures and playable races. Well, because it would be difficult to make something like a slug into a playable unit. The playable races require far more animations and set up in order to work with the system we've established. The main reason is because they are dynamic and allow for weapon and armor swapping which requires a lot more assets and work. However, we can always use creatures as companion pets/combat pets since they are a more limited version of a playable unit. So some might end up being available in that respect.

                Another good thing about having creatures as pets and races as enemies is that we can reuse assets that we already have. It's a huge time saver and provides some additional diversity, especially the races. For example, we can use the human race as an enemy and have all the armor and weapons available to outfit them however we like and even give them variations among themselves. We can also use their animations to do different things with. All of this essentially for free since we already have them available for the playable human race.

                We're all looking forward to the next release and hope to share it with you guys soon. Thanks for the continued support!


                In the Works:

              • Design

                • Pet System (50%)
                • Interface Revision (100%)


              • Graphics

                • Unit: Human Male - Revision (100%)
                • Unit: Human Male - Animations (25%)
                • Unit: Fire Gecko - Melee Concept (75%)
                • Unit: Fire Gecko - Ranged Concept (75%)
                • Unit: Meerkat Non-Combat Pet - Concept (25%)
                • Unit: Goblin - Concept (25%)


              • Programming

                • Graphic Processing Revision (75%)
                • Saving Inventory and Equipment Setup (0%)



                Check out Kevin's blog, KXN @ HTD for HTD art-related concepts, WIPs, polls, and more!

                Be sure to leave any ideas, suggestions, or other feedback you might have in the comments!


                -Dan

                Thứ Năm, 7 tháng 6, 2012

                Hero Tower Defense Thursday: Day 41 - Show and Tell

                Want to get the legendary dogs? Shiny Mew? or any other shiny pokemon in the game? Adopt them today using SnD coins! Click here for more info.




                Welcome to Hero Tower Defense Thursday!



                HTD Logo


                Go here to read Day 40 of Hero Tower Defense Thursday.




                Unfortunately the new release won't make it out this week because we were originally thinking we could set up the new interface menus using a mix of the old graphics process with the new graphics process. It seems now that we can't actually do that or it wouldn't be worth it because we'd have to redo it anyway. So we're taking the more efficient route by continuing to work on the new graphics process and then once we have that set up we'll be able to throw together the new interface and it'll be set for good. However, I wanted to give you guys a little bit of a preview in the meantime.

                Hero Customization Screen

                This is the Hero Customization screen where you'll be able to change things like your Race, Hair Style, Colors, etc. You might notice that there's no character roster at the bottom. This is because this screen won't always be available, it's more of a triggered screen that will become available when you are presented with the option to change some of those features. For example it'll appear when you start a new game in order to make your main hero and when you get new customizable heroes or items/quests that allow you change race or hair color. For testing purposes we'll be allowing easy access to this screen from the Party Management screen till we are at a more finalized version of the game.

                Party Management Screen

                Next is the Party Management screen where you'll be able to set up the group you'll take into battle, enter battle, and for now, access the Hero Customization screen. On this screen you can see the character roster, navigation buttons, and a preview of the currently selected hero. The preview will also show you the hero's name, native element (behind the character), and their currently active skills. The Enter Battle text and icon will light up when there's at least one character in your active party.

                Inventory Screen

                And lastly we have the Inventory screen. Your currently selected hero's equipment is on the left and the shared inventory (all characters use the same one) on the right. The check marks on the Helm and Cloak slots are toggles for turning those items visually on and off. In order to see the details of any items/skills you would just hover the cursor over it and details for it will pop up in a window.

                That's all I'm going to show for now, don't want the post to get too large. There are still some placeholders at work here but as you can see it's mostly an overhaul. Hopefully we can get a new release out for you guys soon so you can try it and provide us with some feedback. As you can see we're hard at work though and things are coming together nicely, the current content just takes some time to put together.


                In the Works:

              • Design

                • Pet System (50%)
                • Interface Revision (90%)


              • Graphics

                • Unit: Human Male - Revision (90%)
                • Unit: Fire Gecko - Melee Concept (75%)
                • Unit: Fire Gecko - Ranged Concept (75%)
                • Unit: Meerkat Non-Combat Pet - Concept (25%)
                • Unit: Goblin - Concept (25%)


              • Programming

                • Graphic Processing Revision (75%)
                • Saving Inventory and Equipment Setup (0%)



                Check out Kevin's blog, KXN @ HTD for HTD art-related concepts, WIPs, polls, and more!

                Suggestions and ideas are always welcome in the comments, thanks guys!


                -Dan

                Thứ Năm, 31 tháng 5, 2012

                Hero Tower Defense Thursday: Day 40 - Revised Graphics and Interface Progress!

                Want to get the legendary dogs? Shiny Mew? or any other shiny pokemon in the game? Adopt them today using SnD coins! Click here for more info.




                Welcome to Hero Tower Defense Thursday!



                HTD Logo


                Go here to read Day 39 of Hero Tower Defense Thursday.




                Hope you all had a good holiday weekend! We were all a bit busy visiting with family and such so no game update this week. However, we have been making good progress with all the revising we have going on. The graphics are moving along and the revised interface is just about finished so we should be able to release a new update next week. There's still some tweaking to do but overall it should be a big improvement over what we currently have which is mostly a bunch of placeholders.

                Some of you have commented on how it felt clunky and a bit confusing and that's definitely one of things we've addressed. This new set up should make all the menu screens much easier to navigate and more intuitive. One of the main features is that you can change characters from any screen and the navigation buttons that let you go to other screens are always available. We'll also be making use of tooltips for further instruction as well as displaying things like skill and item details.

                With the interface out of the way I'll be able to help Evan with some of the 3D assets which should also help speed things up. Evan is working on the animations for the Human Male character which requires rigging the model in order to make it easier to animate. I'm getting a render scene set up which will be used for importing any assets and then rendering out frames for all three angles, lighting, and position. Once we have those frames Sam can take and implement them into the new system which will allow him to proceed faster and easier since he'll have some reference graphics.

                So things are moving along slowly but surely. As I mentioned before we hope to have a new version available for you guys next week which should include all the new interface menu screens. We hope you guys will like it and we'll definitely be looking forward to everyone's feedback!


                In the Works:

              • Design

                • Pet System (50%)
                • Interface Revision (85%)

              • Graphics

                • Unit: Human Male - Revision (85%)
                • Unit: Fire Gecko - Melee Concept (75%)
                • Unit: Fire Gecko - Ranged Concept (75%)
                • Unit: Meerkat Non-Combat Pet - Concept (25%)
                • Unit: Goblin - Concept (25%)

              • Programming

                • Graphic Processing Revision (65%)
                • Saving Inventory and Equipment Setup (0%)


                Check out Kevin's blog, KXN @ HTD for HTD art-related concepts, WIPs, polls, and more!

                Suggestions and ideas are always welcome in the comments, thanks guys!


                -Dan

                Thứ Năm, 24 tháng 5, 2012

                Hero Tower Defense Thursday: Day 39 - Community Request: Playable Races!

                Want to get the legendary dogs? Shiny Mew? or any other shiny pokemon in the game? Adopt them today using SnD coins! Click here for more info.




                Welcome to Hero Tower Defense Thursday!



                HTD Logo


                Go here to read Day 38 of Hero Tower Defense Thursday.




                Just a short post this week while we continue to chug away at the next release which should be coming soon. Another benefit of the new graphics system is that it will allow us to more easily add additional playable races. Before it meant an exponential amount of more work when adding armor because of all the additional frames required for the new race. Now, since it's in 3D, it's just a little extra work fitting it to the model of the new race and then rendering out all the necessary frames accordingly.

                So, what this means is we have a lot more flexibility with what sort of playable races we can put into the game since the workload is far less significant. This works out because we weren't going to have much focus on race wars and factions but rather on good and evil. In other words it'll be a common occurrence to see a mix of races working together on everything from daily tasks to fighting a common enemy.

                This is where you guys come in. What are some races you would like to be able to chose from? Are you a fan of the tried and true trifecta of Human, Orc, and Elf? Are you more interested in an obscure race that you don't see so often such as Golems (like Kevin!)? Tell us what sort of races you'd like to be able to play as in the comments!


                In the Works:

              • Design

                • Pet System (50%)
                • Interface Revision (75%)

              • Graphics

                • Unit: Human Male - Revision (75%)
                • Unit: Fire Gecko - Melee Concept (75%)
                • Unit: Fire Gecko - Ranged Concept (75%)
                • Unit: Meerkat Non-Combat Pet - Concept (25%)
                • Unit: Goblin - Concept (25%)

              • Programming

                • Graphic Processing Revision (50%)
                • Saving Inventory and Equipment Setup (0%)


                Check out Kevin's blog, KXN @ HTD for HTD art-related concepts, WIPs, polls, and more!

                And of course, leave any suggestions, ideas, or other feedback you might have in the comments!Thanks!


                -Dan

                Thứ Năm, 17 tháng 5, 2012

                Hero Tower Defense Thursday: Day 38 - New Weapons! Revised Player Controls! MOAR Artists!

                Want to get the legendary dogs? Shiny Mew? or any other shiny pokemon in the game? Adopt them today using SnD coins! Click here for more info.




                Welcome to Hero Tower Defense Thursday!



                HTD Logo


                Go here to read Day 37 of Hero Tower Defense Thursday.




                Alright well we're back up and running after some technical difficulties. Hopefully that doesn't happen again but you never know. You tend to run into some speed bumps no matter how much you plan ahead. Speaking of speed bumps, the transition to the new graphics system is going well. Evan just finished up a nice 3D model for the Human Male and will now start implementing the animations. We have to take things one step at a time since this is our first go at setting things up this way but once we have a system in place things will speed up. I'll also be helping with some of the 3D assets once I finish re-arranging the Interface and some other design and management tasks.

                Kevin and Bill have been working on some new Creature concepts and we've also picked up Josh, another enthusiastic artist who is excited to work on some concepts for us. We've also picked up some assistance from Sam's brother, Joel. He'll also be helping with some art concepts and assets.

                So you've probably noticed by this point that we've only been picking up additional artists, and lots of them. There are a few reasons for this. Primarily it's because art tends to take more time than everything else because of the sheer amount of art work required for video games. They have to create concepts with multiple views, then they have to be modeled in 3D, textured, rigged for animation, animated, and then rendered. And all throughout that process thing have to be tweaked, changed, and approved. In other words, it's time consuming. It's also better for the art to be done before programming so that when the programmer (Sam in this case) codes in something new he has the art assets to go with it. As you've probably seen we currently have a lot of placeholders scattered around HTD. That's because programming is ahead of the art right now. Granted we have to redo a bunch of art now with the new system but that is something that's pretty unavoidable and necessary, but it's a logical move in the right direction and we all agree it's worth the extra time and effort.

                Now then, on to more fun topics. We put a new version up with some new weapons! These were some of the last assets done with the old graphics system so we decided we'd just throw them in. And yes, some are massive, but who doesn't like swinging around huge weapons? The Boomerang is a melee weapon for now, but don't worry it won't stay like that, it's just a temporary arrangement. We also couldn't add the Ranged weapons we had made because we don't have a ranged animation yet and it'd look pretty silly trying to make it work with one of the current animations. So we're leaving those out for now.

                Lastly, we're going to change the way the player interacts with the game a bit and make you more of a commander and less of a 5 person entity. Right now you have access to 5 characters and all of their active skills which you can use manually at will. We've come to the conclusion that this is too micro-intensive for what we want to do so we'll be removing that aspect of interactivity. They skills and everything will still be there to setup your characters with but they'll just do them automatically in combat and will be affected by the behaviors once we have those in. All we're really doing is removing the manual override you can do during combat. We will, however, be adding some new skills that only you, the player, can do. These skills will be along the lines of the Class Native Skill (the same for all heroes, it lets you transfer charges to another Hero), a skill that lets you temporarily power up a character, perhaps a skill that absorbs all charges your heroes have and then unleashing a powerful attack, and probably combination attacks where you'll select multiple heroes to perform a powerful attack that differs depending on the Native Elements of those heroes. I'll elaborate more on this later but we think it'll free up up the player to focus on more fun tasks like strategy and power moves instead of trying to micromanage every hero.

                So, as we continue to catch up again on the new art and graphics process have fun with the new weapons and let us know what you think about the idea for the new player skills. Thanks guys!


                In the Works:

              • Design

                • Pet System (50%)
                • Interface Revision (50%)

              • Graphics

                • Unit: Human Male - Revision (75%)
                • Unit: Fire Gecko - Attack Concept (75%)
                • Unit: Meerkat Non-Combat Pet - Concept (25%)
                • Unit: Goblin - Concept (25%)

              • Programming

                • Graphic Processing Revision (25%)
                • Saving Inventory and Equipment Setup (0%)


                Check out Kevin's blog, KXN @ HTD for HTD art-related concepts, WIPs, polls, and more!

                Be sure to leave any suggestions or ideas you might have in the comments!


                -Dan

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