Monday, November 14, 2011

Pokemon Tower Defense: v4.9.1 is out! and Weekly Progress!

Want to get the legendary dogs? Shiny Mew? or any other shiny pokemon in the game? Adopt them today using SnD coins! Purchase some SnD coins and get Ninja-ja bonus items free! 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!


What's new in v4.9.1

New Story Level - Saffron City - Hurry and get Maruto to the hospital!
New Mystery Gift Alakazam Avatar!
Shinies are back in the wild! - Shinies are back in the wild just like they used to be, the shiny popup will show up just like before and will stay on until you click on it.
Went back and made the game less grindy for new players -  Each level has bonus exp for pokemon under a certain level. If you pokemon training on that level is under the bonus cap then he will receive twice the experience.
Added Zoom In and Out - After countless request Zooming In and Out is now in the game.
You can now choose from the speed options independently instead of having to cycle them.
Fixed Thunder missing when it's raining.
Fixed Solarbeam graphic when the speed is not x1
Fixed Doubleslap not being removed from the target in certain occations.
Added an Opening Song to the game!

Where can I play?
Alright let's get down to business. Another successful week of Sam and Dan Games has passed and a new one is now beginning. Not sure if you guys noticed but on the new level, Saffron City, there is a Mewtwo in the end and he works in a very interesting way. He is the first pokemon to have simple AI. Usually I'm limited to having the enemy only use one move but I for mewtwo I wanted to make him a little smarter. The way he works is that if his health is low he will switch to the move Recover. If he is missing any defense buffs he will switch to that and if non of the above are needed he will use his attack. You can expect enemies to have some simple AI kinda like Mewtwo has in newer levels.

The next update is v5.0 and I wanted to do something special for it since well it's v5! What can be more special than Multiplayer? Well nothing! So v5.0 will have a multiplayer map that you will be able to play. Now multiplayer is something that is not so simple to make. We have to take it one tiny step at a time. For one the service that I use to host multiplayer charges based on bandwidth use. Now the avatar chat was a test to see how much bandwidth would be used by something simple like a chat room. On a really active day the chat will use about 1GB of bandwidth which is actually quite a bit. Now imagine a multiplayer mode of the game with people playing constantly.  Yeah it's going cost a bit. In fact I think a fully working multiplayer mode that is free (meaning no restrictions to only paid users) would easily be over 1,000 dollars a month to keep up. Right now the plan I'm in I pay 25 dollars a month for the multiplayer (avatar chat servers) so let's see how far our plan can go. If we go over the bandwidth limit of the account I will have to shut down the multiplayer for the month or limit access in some way.

Besides that the first multiplayer map will be a simple attack/defend map. One player will attack and the other will defend. To start with everybody will have a preset team available to them but eventually you will have your team available to you for use in multiplayer.

The thing about multiplayer is that it's going to take more than a week so this week the update is going to look really empty because I'll mainly be working on multiplayer and that will take more than a week. So this weekend I will release v4.9.5 and then the week after we will get v5.0. This also allows me to rest a little. It's been a lot of back to back updates with little to no rest in between. So even the great Sam gets tired ;)

Multiplayer - First map (0%)- This is for next week!
Distribution (0%)
Allow players to change their password in the pokemon center (100%) - You will have to supply your own email and password in order to change them to prevent hackers from changing it.
Level Cap Raised to 66 (100%)
New Mystery Gift Pokemon (100%)
  • Graphics (100%)
  • Shiny Graphics (100%)
  • New Moves (100%)
    • Dragon Pulse (100%)
  • Implement Stats on the game (100%)
  • Implement TM/Relearn Moves (100%)
  • Implement on Trading Center (100%)
  • New Evolutions (100%)
    • Graphics (100%)
    • Shiny Graphics (100%)
    • Implement Stats on the game (100%)
Added pokemon attacks to the trading center pokemon (100%) - Thanks Nssvelocity!
Added Shiny Icons to the Trading Center so you can identify shiny pokemon easier (100%)
Added a better description to Silver Wind (100%) - It wasn't missing buffs, the attack excludes accuracy and evasion. Changed the attack text.
Added Hydro Pump as a TM (only usable after you beat Saffron City) (100%)
When a pokemon faints don't remove him from your party turn their button red, except on the 3rd challenge level (100%) - Thanks George C and others that suggested this in the past!
Haze not removing the accuracy drop (100%)-Thank to all that reminded me of this.
Fixed Stealth Rock being able to miss (100%) - Thanks Justin for letting me know!
Fixed a bug with Trading Poliwhirl for Jynx (100%) - Thanks Micah and others for letting me know!
Highlight which speed and zoom you are currently in (100%) - Thanks all who suggested this!
Added Dig as a TM (only usable after you beat Pewter Gym) (100%)
Fixed Sand Tomb not showing the correct weakness color (100%) - Thanks MagZ!
Added Dark Pulse as a TM (only usable after you beat Saffron City) (100%)  - Thanks Jarret!
Fixed not being able to put secondary type Flying types into Flying only spots (100%) - Thanks Arturo!
Added a better description to Moves that can cause instant KO, detailing that they won't hit pokemon higher level than you. (100%)
Fixed Harden being misspelled in the Trading Center (100%)
Added a minor security fix (100%) - Nothing to see here, move along.
Added a star next to shiny pokemon in the Pokemon Center (100%) 
Fixed a typo on the move Acrobatics (100%) - Thanks Daniel!
Fixed an issue with prize pokemon (100%) 
Fixed an issue with not being able to request a pokemon past level 62 in the Pokemon Center (100%) - Thanks Anon! 
Fixed an issue with moves like Fire Blast, Shadow Ball, and Zap Cannon from working properly in faster speeds (100%)

Just wanted to thank you guys again for all the support, even if you just started playing and visit us or if you were here since the cap was level 10. I personally could not have made it this far without you guys. Thanks! As always let me know what you think!

Tuesday, November 8, 2011

Hero Tower Defense Tuesday: Day 13 - Maps



Go here to read the Day 12 of Hero Tower Defense Tuesdays.


In this post I want to go over some ideas regarding different types of maps in HTD.

I've mentioned before that HTD will have both defense and offense when it comes to gameplay. Some maps will be full defense like traditional TD games while other maps are offense. There will probably be some with mix of both to varius degrees. There will also be the usual waves made up of different types of enemies but also bosses that you have to move your characters around in order to attack and avoid certain attacks. Another fun way to beat maps is to require you to survive for a certain amount of time or require you to solve a puzzle-type problem. It'd also be cool for some maps to have multiple options available for completing it or having things you could trigger. For example have you destroy some support for a bunch of rocks and they cause one of the enemy paths to be blocked, etc.

All of the things mentioned above allow us to have a lot of flexibility for making some cool maps in HTD. When I play a game I always like having some variety so things don't get so repetitive and this allows us to do that. The maps will probably vary in size as well with larger ones not fitting on the whole screen when you are viewing it at 100%. However, there will be controls for you to zoom in and how to get a better idea of what's happening on the majority of the map. Some maps might even require you to split up your party in order to cover multiple areas of the same map instead of having them all in the same general spot and able to assist eachother.

With HTD being on a bit of a larger scale and having a more progressive nature the majority of the maps will probably be connected in some way, like having zones. For example, if you enter a cave it won't be just one map unless it's a very small cave. Instead it'll consist of multiple maps each one leading to another sending you further into the cave. There might even be some branching that takes affect in these caves so you would end up doing some exploring in the process.

I realize having maps set up like this can be a bit of hinderance when all you want to do is travel somewhere but we'll definitely have ways available to make traveling easier and more convenient. Think about it like an RPG in this instance. Traveling usually becomes easier as you become more powerful and acquire more money, mounts, and abilities.

On that note I'll leave you with an image that gives you an idea of what a finished map looks like:

A Finished Map

So let me know what you guys think in the comments and check out Kevin's blog, KXN @ HTD for more HTD artwork!

Note: As some of you have noticed, we are now looking to have the first playable version of HTD out by late December. Keep in mind this will be like version 0.1. In other words, it'll just have some of the core mechanics and other things for you to play around with. We like to release the games when they are very early in development in order to give you guys as many chances as possible to participate in helping us make the game and for us to gather feedback every step of the way. Thanks!

-Dan

Monday, November 7, 2011

Weekly Progress, our growth and answering fans, what's the deal with shinies and v4.8.1 official release

Want to get the legendary dogs? Shiny Mew? or any other shiny pokemon in the game? Adopt them today using SnD coins! Purchase some SnD coins and get Ninja-ja bonus items free! 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!


What's new in v4.8.1

Pokemon Fan Film Part 2 - Check it out if you haven't! Short by Joel Otero (My brother :D ) - Check out part 2 of the PTD Fan Film!

New Story Level - Route 12 - Relax by the pier, train and catch some water pokemon.
New Pokemon to capture - Lapras!
Level cap up to 64
Added more features to the chat to prevent spamming
  • Added names being in a blue color to prevent users from impersonating other people.
  • Satoshi users will now have name Satoshi1, Satoshi2... etc.
  • It is now possible to ignore somebody by typing in /ignore nickname (Replace nickname with the users nickname)
New TM - Ice Beam

Made the Waterfall attack animation quicker
Made Waterfall attack show the correct attack type (not effective, super effective or normal
Fixed Zap Cannon doing Shadow Ball instead of Zap Cannon
Make Destiny Bond and moves like that only work on pokemon that are at lower level than you
Fixed Onix learning Double-Edge twice and not learning Stone-Edge
Made both Nidorans have a unique name ingame (Nidoran F and Nidoran M)
It is no longer possible to put pokemon in type specific spots if they don't match the type
Added the attack power to the attack description of Snore

Where can I play?
Welcome to another week of Sam and Dan Games! Woooooo! Let's get started, yeahhh! Okay.. enough of that... So I was looking back at the first folder I made to start working on PTD and it's been over a year since I first started coding this game. The year anniversary release of the game is coming up in March and it's just incredible how far we have come in less than a year. I went from being able to answer every single comment, every single email and single twitter to barely being able to do so. I really wish I could but the amount that comes in everyday is just impossible. I'm not complaining I'm ecstatic knowing how big we are and how big we are going to become but I'm also kinda sad that I'm not able to keep up with the closeness that I had before. I'm still really open to all suggestions and I try to answer those that can't my eye or that offer something that hasn't been brought up before. So if you have tried to get in touch with me before and never got a response I'm really sorry about that, if it is really important then send me a new email and I will try to answer it.

Speaking of fan emails, an email I get a lot is "Hey I had like 20 Enteis and 10 Mews but I lost them in a recent patch" then I usually ask did you get it in a trade or did you buy it. Now let's stop for a second and look at why I ask that. The reason I ask that is SCAMMING! Not you getting scammed, but somebody scamming me. There is no possible way I can tell that you actually had that. It's even possible somebody let you borrow it so you could take a screenshot. The only possible way I know that you had it is if you bought it cause I can see the receipt. Most of the time if this happened to you I'm sorry to say that I can't return it to you.

Okay next let's talk about shinies! Taking them out of the game is something that I know everybody will not feel comfortable with. The fact of the matter is that shinies isn't supposed to be something that everybody has. Heck in the original games you barely saw them, I've played a lot of pokemon and have only seen like 2 shinies. You might ask well what about the mystery gift shiny pokemon? Well I try to say this often but I'm really appreciative and thankful for all the fans that visit us week after week, and I always like rewarding you guys for sticking with me. Mystery Gift is a way to reward players that keep coming back. Then you might ask well what about adoption? You just want money! You are being greedy! You only care about paying users! (Now I know most of you don't feel this way but I want to show you the extreme version.) The SnD coins is a way for you to contribute to us to help us make better games for you. But instead of just donating you are getting something in return, something that is not exclusive. But you might say well all the adoption shiny pokemon are exclusive right now! To that I say... well you are right. So my main priority this week is getting the "new" way of getting shinies up and running.

 Okay so you might still be confused, shinies were hard to find, they had a low chance of showing up why take them away just to make a new way of getting them? what's the point? Well this kinda goes into the next thing I want to talk about and that is HACKING! Listen I know some of you out there use speed hacks, money hacks, and previously shiny hacks. I know it's pretty impossible to stop a lot of these but shiny hacks I just won't stand for them. There are players out there supporting me with their hard earned money and I just can't allow players to get the same thing just but running a program that let's them hack. I'm always going to try my best to try to stop this. That is why I had to take shinies out of the wild. Okay I know this is a long post but we haven't had one in a while so let's keep going! I'm going to talk about the new method of getting shinies.

UPDATE: Because of a large amount of the player base (about 40%) didn't really like the Shiny hunt idea I have decided to put it on hold, shiny pokemon will return to the wild but in a more secure way, in the future I will add something like the shiny hunt to give players an additional way of hunting shinies but for now it will have to wait. Thank you all for your feedback and support!

Sam

Okay I'm calling it... *drumroll*... SHINY HUNT!! Okay so now for the explanation. First is location, location, location. The shiny hunt will only take place in one location per week and everybody will be in the same location. For example the first week might be on Route 1, from there I will post a poll with some options on where to go next and we will go where you guys decide. So week by week you guys get to decide where you want the hunt to take place. So obviously the location will dictate who you can hunt. Using Route 1 as an example you will have a chance of getting shiny pidgey or shiny rattata. Right so let's talk about the "hunting" aspect of this. The hunting aspect is similar to something like the daily code. You come in see if you got lucky and receive your prize. But there are major differences. One is I'm adding a new thingy for the pokemon center that will let you pick a "team". You pick 6 pokemon that will be your current team. In the future you will be able to have your first pokemon in the team follow you in the avatar chat. But talking about shinies this team will show up with you when you shiny hunt. Your avatar will also be there. Having certain avatars and certain team combination will raise your chance of getting the shiny for that location. There won't be any clues and once the information is spread on what combination works I will change the combination. So to summarize:
  • Everybody has the same shiny hunt location every week.
  • There will be  weekly poll about where to go next.
  • You pick a team of 6 pokemon that you own to be your designated "team".
  • You go to the shiny hunt section of the pokemon center and see if you found a shiny.
  • You do this once a day (like the daily code).
  • Picking certain combinations can raise your chance at getting the shiny.
  • If a shiny shows up it will be placed in your pickup spot on the pokemon center instantly.
Also the dogs will also be available to be found on every location that you can hunt in so keep that in mind.

Okay so that's how it's going to be, no more grinding out your shinies and never getting them now you try different combinations of teams and avatars and see if you strike gold. If you find a combination that works well shhhh don't tell anybody or I will change it ;)

On a side note, not sure if you noticed but I added two new tabs to the blog. One is the HTD Tuesdays! tab and it just contains links to the past blog post about HTD in an easy to find way. The other one is the Labs tab and that one contains any ideas that we come up with but aren't officially working on yet. Let me know what you think of them.

Because this blog isn't long enough yet here are this week's questions!

Weekly Questions from the Forums!

1.matepokemon11: Hey, can you add a music option to change music, because i am getting bored of listening to the same music. And since you've added tons of music to the game, could you please make an option to change the music after each song has finished?
Sam: I wouldn't mind doing this but it really isn't a high priority, there is so much to do still. Good idea though.


2. Ninjaoety: As a game developer, do you work on your games 24/7, or do you have alot of spare time?  You do finish releases for PTD quite fast in my opinion, so you must be working alot on them.
Sam: I don't have a set schedule, but it feels like I'm working all the time, I do take some time off in the weekends after the update is out to relax but during the week I work on the blog, answering twitter, emails, and the update constantly.

3. Robert Conley: Would you consider making a level builder so that anyone, including those w/ little to no coding knowledge, could make custom levels that others can play?

Sam: This would also be cool, but like the sound thing it's not really a high priority yet.

4. Ninja God: Can you make Avatars tradeable? I know some, like the dogs, are easily obtained by everyone, but I would like to be able to trade for both the mystery gift ones and the new Halloween ones that I'm missing.

Sam: Yes, I'm heavily considering this especially since some people have been getting duplicates, it would be cool if you could trade to complete the set.

5. KimmyLube: When are you putting me in PTD? LAWL JK JK SAM <3 But in all seriousness, when HTD comes out, how is armor going to work? Will it be something interchangeable in classes, or just one set outfit?

Sam: Sure send me a some sprites of yourself. We want pretty much everybody to wear everything. If you want to be a mage with plater armor go ahead. You will sacrifice some stats since plate armor will feature more strength but you will be more durable.

6. Ume/MMaester: Could you please stop raising the level?  Why do you want us to be so strong before we even get to the supposedly hard gyms? i figure we will be able to beat the next gym in one try at this rate. thats how easy PokéTower was. You could make it, so you will only be able to level up until a certain level if you haven't gotten a certain badge yet. Like in the games Pokémon would not obey you if you didn't have a certain badge. For example, until you win the Cascade badge, the limit is 30. And until you win the Rainbow badge, the limit is 50, etc.

Sam: The reason I raise the cap is to give you guys something to do, plus some people get stuck in the game and out leveling a level is the easiest way out.

7. Ume: When are you gonna be more active in the forums? We are official...aren't we? >insert puppydogface here<

Sam: I really want to be more active but like I talked about earlier in the blog it's really hard to find time to do that.

8. Ume: Oh, I also want your opinion on this.. Who do you think is the best Pokémon between Rhydon, Scyther, Gengar and Lickitung?
Sam: Gengar > Scyther > Rhydon > Lickitung.

9. JohtoTrainer: Will we eventually get to play mini-games for casino coins?
Sam: It sounds like something that would be pretty cool but it falls into that priority list issue.

10. Link: Do you realistically think HTD will be even a bigger hit than PTD, or do you think that when both are finished, PTD will still be bigger?
Sam: I think HTD has the potential to be bigger just because more websites will be able to talk about it and I will be able to put it on more devices (Ipad, iphone, android etc). So I think it has potential to be bigger but it's up to us to execute the idea properly. PTD is already big so we will see.

If you want your question to show up on next week's blog go to our forum now (look at the fan links tab up top) and submit your question.

Okay so finally let's talk about this week.

Added shinies back in the wild (100%)
Going back and making the game less grindy for new players (100%) -  Each level has bonus exp for pokemon under a certain level. If you pokemon training on that level is under the bonus cap then he will receive twice the experience.
New Story Level (100%) - Arrival at Saffron City
  • Level Intro (100%)
  • Level Layout (100%)
  • Level Waves (100%)
  • Level Ending (100%)
New Mystery Gift (100%) - New Avatar - Thanks Kimmy Lube! <3
  • Avatar Art (100%)
  • Implemented in Game (100%)
  • Implemented in Avatar Chat (100%) v1.4 is now out!
  • Implement in Pokemon Center (100%)
  • Set up Mystery Gift Code (100%) - Coming on Monday!
Added Zoom In and Out (100%) 
You can now choose from the speed options independently instead of having to cycle them (100%) 
Fixed Thunder missing when it's raining (100%)
Fixed Solarbeam graphic when the speed is not x1 (100%)
Fixed Doubleslap not being removed from the target in certain occations (100%)
Added an Opening Song to the game (100%)
Allow players to change their email and/or password in the pokemon center (0%) - You will have to supply your own email and password in order to change them to prevent hackers from changing it.
Adding pokemon attacks to the trading center pokemon (0%) - Thanks Nssvelocity!
Silver Wing is missing buffs (0%)

That's what we have so far, as always let me know what you think, and keep coming back during the week to see how my progress on the update is going. As I work/finish parts I will update the blog.

Have a good week and Hero Tower Defense Tuesday is tomorrow so look forward to that!

Tuesday, November 1, 2011

Hero Tower Defense Tuesday: Day 12 - Pets



Go here to read the Day 11 of Hero Tower Defense Tuesdays.


For this update I want to discuss pets, specifically pet placement.

Right now having pets is still a concept as far as development goes but we're getting closer to the point where we'll need to have it figured out so it can be ready for programming and such. Since a lot of it is still up in the air it means any ideas and suggestions from you guys are even more helpful. As I mentioned above I'm only going to be talking about pet placement though. Not pets overall, we'll get into those details later. So let me throw out a few ideas to get things started and then see what you guys have to say in the comments.

First, let me clarify that I'm referring to active pets. Ones that attack, level up, have skills, etc. In other words, not the ones that just follow around behind you. We'll have those too most likely but they are much easier to implement for obvious reasons. Another thing is every character can essentially have a pet because it'll be a class skill and as I mentioned in another post your class is dynamic based on the skills you choose. So you could basically put one point into the pet skill and now have the ability to fight with a pet. Granted you'll need to invest a lot of points in the pet skill and probably other pet related skills to make your pet feasible as you level up. In other words, you can easily have a pet but if you don't invest many points in your pet skills it'll be rather lackluster.

Having pets in a TD game is a little tricky. For example, where do they go on the field? If you have them in the same location as your character would probably look a bit strange because they'd practically be on top of eachother. They could be beside you but then what happens if there is no available area around your character? For example you're a ranged character on a small island safe from melee but only enough room for your character, where does your pet go? Having it just show up at the nearest location probably wouldn't work too well and would be a hassle. It could be possible that if there's not enough room for your pet then it just wouldn't be out, which means you'll need to think a bit more about character location. However, this mostly applies to grounded pets. Flying pets can get away with a lot more but we need something that works for both unless we just go with the idea that flying pets are more versatile since they are in the air.

There's also the option of having the pet be manually placed just like a character. It doesn't have to hang around you perhaps but the disadvantage might be that certain pet skills that your character has might have limited range. So if your pet is on the other side of the map your pet buff might not reach it.

Another solution is to only have the pet appear when it's attacking. Almost like how a projectile from your character acts. I don't see this being a popular choice though because peope like seeing their pets around and it would mean the pet doesn't have health, take aggro, or protect one of your sides while fighting side by side with you.

And finally the last idea was to have the pets literally be characters. The first game that comes to mind where they had this is Dragon Age. Basically, the pet would be one of your 5 active characters that you have out on the field. This is a slightly different route than the other solutions. I wouldn't expect them to have armor and weapons really or maybe they'd just have equipment that doesn't display (we don't want to drive Kevin insane). Also they wouldn't be nearly as customizable as the other characters but they would have skills and such, maybe some skill points that can be assigned as they level up, etc. So think of them as just being more specific and less customizable characters. This might sound like they'd be lesser characters overall but I'd expect them to be quite strong, just more limited. You could maybe even have special combo moves that can only occur when you have certain pets together. For example, maybe you have one character and 4 wolf pets. Maybe you'd get a special passive skill called Pack Leader that gives all your units a nice buff. Just something like that perhaps.

Kevin has some new stuff on his blog, KXN @ HTD. He's always looking for comments on his work so be sure to stop by and let him know what you guys think about the HTD art. Here's a cool sketch Kevin did for uhh...something:

Creature Concept Sketch

Leave your feedback in the comments and let me know what option you like best or if you have your own idea be sure to let us know!

-Dan

Monday, October 31, 2011

Pokemon Tower Defense: v4.7 is out! PTD Fan Film part 2, Web Series, Weekly progress!

Want to get the legendary dogs? Shiny Mew? or any other shiny pokemon in the game? Adopt them today using SnD coins! Purchase some SnD coins and get Ninja-ja bonus items free! 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!


What's new in v4.7

Pokemon Fan Film Part 2 - Short by Joel Otero (My brother :D ) - Check out part 2 of the PTD Fan Film!

New Story Level - Poke Tower 2 - What awaits us at the next level of the tower!?
New Pokemon to capture - It's a surprise!
Level cap up to 62 - Why not!
New Special Halloween Avatars to collect - Thanks Kimmy Lube and Zyon!
  • Follow the Mystery Hunt to get the Gastly Avatar!
  • Play the Daily Code to win one of the 5 Halloween Avatars!
  • Buy the Duskull Costume with your Casino Coins in the Game Corner!
  • Buy any of the Halloween Avatar in the Avatar Store in the Pokemon Center for SnD Coins!
Implementing Accuracy and Evasion properly - Meaning attacks that lower or raise accuracy/evasion will affect the chances of hitting the target. This will work with your attacks and the enemy's.
Add a new effect similar to Black and White when an ability is triggered
Adding more abilities for other pokemo
  • Keen Eye - For Pidgey, Pidgeotto, Pidgeot, Spearow, Fearow, Farfetch'd
    • Prevents other pokemon from lowering the accuracy of this pokemon. 
Changing the way saving works to prevent pokemon from being lost due to server errors - This will also make your saving take less time since it only saves what is necessary.
Fixed a duplication exploit - There was a hole in security that allowed people to duplicate their pokemon.
Added security to the Pokemon Center - It is now okay to share your url with other players.
Fixed an issue that was preventing the lowering of special attack debuff from working
The Lower (Special) Attack Debuff will now last 1800
Attacks that lower the target's (special) attack will no longer make them drop the candy. Only attacks that lower accuracy will make them drop the candy. This results in a shorter cooldown for these attack

Where can I play?
That was a long week! I wasn't sure I was going to make it, but I got most of it done :) My brother finally finished the second part of the PTD Fan Film check it out and let him know what you think. Speaking of my brother, him and I are co-writing a new web series that is a mockumentary (Think The Office) about two brothers who want to work in the entertainment industry. Him  making movies and me making video games. I'll be co-writing and doing some voice work for my character and he will be doing everything else. You can expect the pilot episode sometime in December. For Hero Tower Defense we want to release the first version of the game by January, so look forward to it. I still plan to make a HTD tab and a Labs tab in the near future to talk about any ideas that we have here at Sam & Dan Games. Now for the weekly questions from the forums.

Weekly Questions from the Forums!

1. Mitha: How important is balancing to you? Since most of the stats and moves are given by the original, you don't have much leeway, but you can balance a bit by how the animations work etc. Or don't you care at all about this?
Sam:I do care a lot about balancing the game, once the game is done I will go back and try to fix any imbalances but for now I fix as I go.


2. Robert Conley: Would you ever consider coding the Pokemon Center's trading system using javascript(link showing as javascript:void when moused over) so that we don't have to wait for a page load (instead possibly having a pop up that says the pokemon was removed, put up, or received) to deposit, remove, or receive Pokemon and then returning to the trade page?
Sam: I don't have a lot of experience in javascript but as time goes on I will try to make the Pokemon Center more intuitive.

3. Crazymerio: Will you eventually revamp some of the levels and features so that a new player can better understand the game/give the game more continuity. The best example I can think of is the adding of the main character not appearing in the very beginning of the game. It is very strange for the main character to go from you(outside of the computer) to an avatar in the game.

Sam:Yes! I do plan to do things like this little by little. The level rebalance is for this very thing. Even though I didn't get to finish it this week.

4. Mudkipz: Are we going to see more "cameo"-esk characters?
For example Maruto - The majority of people know who this is supposed to be, and i like the idea of them. If so will se be seeing any of them soon?

Sam: Yes! I will try to fit more in here and there :)

5. Trainer Red: What do you have to say to all the people trying to hack PTD at the moment?

Sam: Stop! Please :)

6. NinjaGod: Do you plan for avatar chat to become the main chat for PTD? (do you expect it to replace the IRC channels when it is done)?

Sam: No, I don't want it to replace the IRC chats.

7. Djm1997: What do you plan to make fly do since we can go everywhere instantly? Will it give us special levels or what?

Sam: I'm still thinking about what it can do exactly.

8. Xehanorto: Do you plan to nerf certain abilities that can't work for a Tower Defense game?
Sam: I usually remove moves that doesn't fit or try to change them. An example of this was Sand Attack not lowering accuracy since the enemy couldn't attack you before, but now that they can I added accuracy and Sand Attack behaves like it does in the game. So some of the missing moves will show up later on possibly.

9. ZKS: Do you plan on changing how Helping Hand works? Right now, it's extremely overpowered and makes all other stat boosting moves (Quiver Dance, Baton Pass, Dragon Dance, etc) worthless. And, do you plan on making BP able to pass a Sub or Water Ring like the games do?
Sam:Helping Hand is overpowered at the moment, to really make things interesting I would have to make buffs/debuffs stack 6 times. I do want to make Baton Pass more useful in the future.

10. Slash: Have you considered making special sprites/versions of certain Pokemon? ex. Ash's Squirtle (Wearing the Squirtle Squad glasses) or Gary's Giant Krabby?
Sam: Yes I have considered it but I never get the time to add them in.

If you want your question to show up on next week's blog go to our forum now (look at the fan links tab up top) and submit your question.

So we have a lot of left over things to do from last week so let's start there.

I won't be able to work a lot today (Saturday) and tomorrow so I will be postponing what is left for next week and releasing in about 2 hours (1:28PM Est), thanks for playing :)

Adding more features to the chat to prevent spamming (100%)
  • Added names being in a blue color to prevent users from impersonating other people (100%)
  • Satoshi users will now have name Satoshi1, Satoshi2... etc (100%)
  • It is now possible to ignore somebody by typing in /ignore nickname (Replace nickname with the users nickname) (100%) - They will be ignored while you are in the chat room, leaving the chat room will reset the ignore.
Adding a new layout to the trading center (Postponed ): ) - Thanks Nssvelocity!
Going back and making the game less grindy for new players (Postponed ): ) -  The newest level will always be top end and require a high level team.
Allow players to change their email and/or password in the pokemon center (Postponed ): ) - You will have to supply your own email and password in order to change them to prevent hackers from changing it.
Change the way getting shiny pokemon in the wild works to prevent hacking of shiny pokemon (Postponed ): ) - Adding a new way to find shiny pokemon.
New Pokemon To capture (100%)
  • New Moves (3) (Skipping one for now, but will add it once I fit all the mechanics in the game for it) (100%)
  • Implement Graphics (100%)
  • Implement Shiny Graphics (100%)
  • Implement Stats (100%)
  • Implement Moves/TMs (100%)
New Story Level (100%) - Training Level!
  • Level Intro (100%)
  • Level Layout (100%)
  • Level Waves (100%)
  • Level Ending (100%)
New TM (100%)
  • Ice Beam (100%)
Level cap to 64 (100%)
  • Acid Armor (100%) - Vaporeon
Add an exp tag when leveling up (100%) - This is a technical fix. This is included in v4.7.1
Made the Waterfall attack animation quicker (100%)
Made Waterfall attack show the correct attack type (not effective, super effective or normal) (100%)
Fixed Zap Cannon doing Shadow Ball instead of Zap Cannon (100%)
Make Destiny Bond and moves like that only work on pokemon that are at lower level than you (100%)
Fixed Onix learning Double-Edge twice and not learning Stone-Edge (100%) 
Made both Nidorans have a unique name ingame (Nidoran F and Nidoran M) (100%) 
It is no longer possible to put pokemon in type specific spots if they don't match the type (100%) 
Added the attack power to the attack description of Snore (100%)

That's what we have so far, as always let me know what you think, and keep coming back during the week to see how my progress on the update is going. As I work/finish parts I will update the blog.

Have a good week and Hero Tower Defense Tuesday is tomorrow so look forward to that!

Tuesday, October 25, 2011

Hero Tower Defense Tuesday: Day 11 - Melee & Behaviors



Welcome to Hero Tower Defense Tuesday!

HTD Logo WIP

Go here to read the Day 10 of Hero Tower Defense Tuesdays.


Time for another HTD update! This week I want to explain our thoughts on how melee characters might work and how enemy actions may vary.

Since HTD is a RPG/TD mix we want try taking mechanics from both genres when it comes to the placement of units and how they work in battle. Also don't forget that in HTD you'll have maps where you're attacking, defending, and some with a mix of both. We also plan to have set character (tower) placements but a lot of them. So while it won't be an open field you will have a bunch of option for placing your units. There will also likely be maps with more than one enemy path. All of these things play a role when it comes to the topics of this post so I wanted to give you all a quick refresher.

Now onto what we had in mind. In PTD the melee characters are basically just ranged characters but instead of a projectile covering the distance you have the character dashing up instead. For HTD we were thinking of having the melee characters just remain stationary in their spot and attack from there. However, they would most likely have a ranged weapon that they automatically switch to when an enemy is far away and some skills might be ranged themselves.

Since melee characters are strongest when they are in melee range having them in a spot that is off to the side of a path, like traditional tower defense, wouldn't be ideal because you would only cover a small area. Imagine a tower with a small radius on the side of the path, it's crappy unless it's in a nice corner or tight U-turn. So we were thinking of just having some placements directly on the enemy paths themselves. This way the melee characters get to be in the thick of battle where they should be while the ranged characters can be in safer areas.

You might asking yourself, "Wouldn't the enemies just walk right past him?" In Traditional TDs, yes, in HTD, no. You'll have skills like taunt that bring nearby enemies to you and keep them there for a time, you'll have skills that can temporarily immobilize enemies, you may also have a skill that acts like a hook that can pull a single target to within melee range from far away. And as I mentioned before there will be lots of locations for your characters so you can move him around a bit, whether it's to get close to an enemy or get out of trouble.

Another concept we want to try is to have enemies with different behaviours. You might see several enemies of the same type coming down a path but they won't all just be running for your base or whatever. Some might be aggressive and actually go after your characters and attack them, others might be defensive and go straight for you base while ignoring your attacks, and then there's always the option of having some with a mix. Perhaps they might run for your base at first but once they get low on health they start attacking your characters instead, etc.

This idea can be handled a few different ways. You can have all of one type of enemy (they would all look the same) with different behaviours which would take you by surprise. You can have different types of enemies with different behaviours so you can identify how they'll act just by looking at them. For example, a werewolf is an attacking unit that will go after your characters while a goblin might be a defensive unit that runs straight for your base. Another option is to have a mix, for example you have multiple dragon whelps coming that all look the same but some are larger than others or have some other slight distinction. The larger ones could be the ones that are aggressive while the smaller ones are defensive, etc.

For those you who haven't yet be sure to check out Kevin's blog, KXN @ HTD to get the latest on HTD art development! The female hair style poll has ended and the results are pleasing because there is nice diversity in the styles that won. Here's a nice update on the female progress with one of the winning hair styles that will be available at release:




Human Female

We'd like to hear what you guys think of these concepts and any ideas of your own that you might have. I've seen a lot of great suggestions from people in the past and all the feedback is very helpful so be sure to let us know what you think!

-Dan

Monday, October 24, 2011

Pokemon Tower Defense: Weekly Progress and v4.6.1 official release

Want to get the legendary dogs? Shiny Mew? or any other shiny pokemon in the game? Adopt them today using SnD coins! Purchase some SnD coins and get Ninja-ja bonus items free! 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!


I'm aware of the people losing their pokemon.

To help resolve this issue I have added Battle Ready Non-Shiny Pokemon to the adoption center that are free of charge for this week ONLY. I will not be able to return any shiny pokemon. I will only be able to refund SnD coins to those who bought them and lost their pokemon.

Also I'm aware of new profiles not being able to save or press many buttons like the back button I will fix this on v4.6.2. Coming out shortly.

v4.6.2 is now out and fixes the saving issue with new profiles.

Thanks,
Sam


What's new in v4.6.1

Avatar Chat v1.0 - The avatar chat is now open, click on the blog tab to enter and chat with your other players.
New Mystery Gift Pokemon Goldeen -Get your own Goldeen!
2 new moves added to the game - For Goldeen.
New Pokemon Evolutions (1) - Seaking.
Pokedex Remembering what you catch even if you release or trade away. 
New Feature - Abilities:
  • Overgrow - Bulbasaur, Ivysaur, Venusaur - Increased damage by x1.5 on Grass attacks when you are below or at 1/3 of your total life. Your pokemon will glow Green when this ability is activated.
  • Blaze - Charmander,Charmeleon, Charizard - Increased damage by x1.5 on Fire attacks when you are below or at 1/3 of your total life. Your pokemon will glow Orange when this ability is activated.
  • Torrent - Squirtle, Wartortle, Blastoise - Increased damage by x1.5 on Water attacks when you are below or at 1/3 of your total life. Your pokemon will glow Blue when this ability is activated.
Trading Center - trades will last a max of 10 days before being taken down - Logging into the trading center will refresh the days left of your trades back to 10 days.
Trading Center - Sort the pokemon when you are offering a trade by number
The move Spark now correctly shows the right attack color when attacking 
Slow down speed to x1 when an achievement shiny pokemon shows up 
Fixed an issue with not being able to play a new game.

Where can I play?
Are you ready for another week of Sam and Dan Games?! Well I am! We haven't had much content here lately for PTD mainly due to building the avatar chat from scratch. But now that that's done I'm ready to ramp it up again on the single player for PTD. But before I get into that, the great members of our forum have provided me with the top 10 questions of the week.

Weekly Questions from the Forums!

1. Samzy: What do you think attracts players to PTD so much? And have you ever looked at PTD and thought, I made this popular creation, well done me :-) ?
Sam: It's not easy to see the game as a player but my opinion is that there are a lot of low quality fan made pokemon games out there. So when a player starts playing this game they might think it's just another bad fan game but when they see that it's fun and doesn't just slap pokemon in they really appreciate it. I am proud of this game and how far it has come :).


2. Mastersnowy: In HTD, will you be adding PTD benefits for beating levels? Or the other way around?
Sam: Yeah, this is something that Dan and I want to do eventually. Both ways.

3. Crazymerio: How do you decide which game suggestions to add, when you add new suggestion from the suggestions tab or from somewhere else?

Sam: This is a good question since there is really no right or wrong way of doing this. I basically look at a lot of variables. For example if we haven't had a new pokemon to catch in a while, when was the last time the level cap went up, what location do we have to visit next, is there major bugs that need to be fixed, is there a hack going around. After all of those are fufilled then I look the list of things I have in my head and the list on the site and which you guys have been asking for and I try to do those.

4. PikachuEevee: Where do you know Dan from?

Sam: We both worked at this warehouse, thats how we first meet.

5. King Slaughter House: Are you as motivated right now as you were when you first developed this game? And if not, what could get your gears grinding again ;-) ?

Sam: Yes and no, I'm still very excited about adding more to the game but when you are starting a new project the motivation is at the highest level. I think just the support of everybody and people playing the game week after week gets my gears grinding.

6. 1superheld: Do you think you will add a style (CSS) to the tradecenter?

Sam: Yes, a fan (Nssvelocity) made a layout a while ago that I want to implement soon.

7. NinjaGod: So, avatar chat is basically useless when someone is spamming... Can we get a kick for flooders and a ban for repeat-offenders?

Sam: Yes, I agree, more features will be added in v4.7.

8. Ume: Are you gonna add a halloween special event/level/story?
Sam: Yes, v4.7 will have some goodies :D

9.Link: How many people BOUGHT ninja-ja... and how many downloaded it after it became free. I'd like to see that comparison.
Sam: We don't actually keep track of how many people downloaded the free version but a little over 3,000 have submitted high scores. Less than 2,000 people have bought it since it came out. I think the big issue is that you have to download Ninja-ja, we have to put a version here on the blog that you can play right on the site.

10. MMaester: Roughly how many games have you already made before PTD? On Newgrounds there are 2 others available (Cannon Challenge and eTheatre), but are there more, and are they playable somewhere?
Sam: I've started tons of games before those two but never finished any of them.


If you want your question to show up on next week's blog go to our forum now (look at the fan links tab up top) and submit your question.

Okay just a quick thing with people getting scammed in the Trading Center. NEVER give anybody the url of any of your trades, only give them the trade ID. If you do accidentally do it log into your game and save. This will make the link not work anymore. I will be patching it up this week so that the url no longer contains sensitive information.

Okay so this week we have it all!

New Story Level - Poke Tower 2 (100%) - What awaits us at the next level of the tower!?
  • Level Intro (100%)
  • Level Layout (100%)
  • Level Waves (100%)
  • Level Ending (100%)
New Pokemon to capture (100%) - It's a surprise!
  • Graphic (100%)
  • Shiny Graphic (100%)
  • New Moves (5) (100%)
  • Add this pokemon's stats into the game (100%)
Level cap up to 62 (100%) - Why not!
New Special Halloween Avatars to collect (100%) - Thanks Kimmy Lube and Zyon!
  • Graphics (100%)
  • Add Graphics to game (100%)
  • Add to Avatar Chat (100%)
  • Implement for Mystery Gift (100%)
  • Implement for Daily Code (100%)
  • Implement for SnD Store (100%)
  • Implement for Game Corner (100%)
  • Implement on Change Avatar (100%)
Implementing Accuracy and Evasion properly (100%) - Meaning attacks that lower or raise accuracy/evasion will affect the chances of hitting the target. This will work with your attacks and the enemy's.
Add a new effect similar to Black and White when an ability is triggered (100%)
Adding more abilities for other pokemon (100%)
  • Keen Eye (100%) - For Pidgey, Pidgeotto, Pidgeot, Spearow, Fearow, Farfetch'd
    • Prevents other pokemon from lowering the accuracy of this pokemon. 
    Changing the way saving works to prevent pokemon from being lost due to server errors (100%)
    Fixed a duplication exploit (100%) 
    Fixed an issue that was preventing the lowering of special attack debuff from working (100%) 
    The Lower (Special) Attack Debuff will now last 1800 (100%) 
    Attacks that lower the target's (special) attack will no longer make them drop the candy. Only attacks that lower accuracy will make them drop the candy. This results in a shorter cooldown for these attacks (100%) 
    Adding more features to the chat to prevent spamming (Postponed)
    Adding a new layout to the trading center (Postponed) - Thanks Nssvelocity!
    Going back and making the game less grindy for new players (Postponed) - This might not make it to this update. The newest level will always be top end and require a high level team.
    Allow players to change their email and/or password in the pokemon center (Postponed) - You will have to supply your own email and password in order to change them to prevent hackers from changing it.
    Change the way getting shiny pokemon in the wild works to prevent hacking of shiny pokemon (Postponed) - It is no longer possible to get shiny pokemon in the wild. A new way of hunting for them will be adding in the near future.

    That's what we have so far, as always let me know what you think, and keep coming back during the week to see how my progress on the update is going. As I work/finish parts I will update the blog.

    Have a good week and Hero Tower Defense Tuesday is tomorrow so look forward to that!