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Monday, November 28, 2011

Pokemon Tower Defense: v5.0 is out! Another week of attempting multiplayer!

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 v5.0

  • Level Cap Raised to 68 - closer to 100!
  • New Mystery Gift Pokemon- Birthday Victini! You guys voted for which Legendary you wanted as a special gift just in time for my birthday. 
  • Added Raikou, Entei, and Suicune's level up attacks and relearn attacks - If they were previously in the game any new moves will be added in the next update. 
  • Bug Fixes
    • Fixed when a shiny shows up highlight the speed back to 1x
    • Changed the background color of fainted pokemon so that it doesn't match the leveling up color 

Where can I play?
Hey guys! Thanks guys for making this birthday really stand out for me, I had a lot of fun and took some time to rest and relax with friends and family. Now it's back to business. Not much to say other than Multiplayer is what's coming next and that I'm going to put 100% on getting it done. Like I mentioned before Multiplayer like everything else in the game will be a work in progress. We will start with one map and premade teams for everybody while I slowly but surely add more moves and maps to it. There is also the issue of bandwidth but we will be playing that by ear and see what happens. There is a chance that I will have to shut it down if the bandwidth gets out of control but if we can keep it free that would be wonderful. I want to add moves that are missing for Victini, Entei, Raikou, and Suicune. Also raise the cap to 70 which will require a couple moves. I know it's been some weeks but bare with me, I will get this done!

v5.1 is now out on the blog. Blog post on monday for official release! Enjoy!

Level cap to 70 (100%)
  • New Moves (100%)
    • Me First (100%) - Mew
  • Change level cap in game (100%)
  • Change level cap in saving code (100%)
  • Implement new level cap in Trading Center (100%)
    Missing Moves for Victini, Entei, Raikou, and Suicune (100%)
    •  Lava Plume (100%) - Entei
    • Searing Shot (100%) - Victini
    • Incinerate (100%) - Victini
    • Endure (100%) - Victini
    • Flame Charge (100%) - Victini
    • V-create will be learned at level 98 for Victini.
    • Fusion Bolt will be learned at level 99 for Victini.
    • Fusion Flare will be learned at level 100 for Victini.
    Adding Seadra and Horsea properly to the Pokedex (100%)
    Removing Shiny Horsea that are hacked, and then adding Shiny Horsea for adoption (100%)
    Multiplayer (100%) - First map, premade teams, can't change moves, randomly either attack or defend, attackers win if they carry the old rod back. Attackers have 1000 energy to use. Defenders win if they don't let the attacker carry the old rod back and the attacker is out of energy. Winning or losing has no rewards or penalties.
    Putting a new pokemon up for trade on my Account samO (100%) - Shiny Horsea is now up for trade on my samO account!
    Added new moves to the Pokemon Center Move List (100%) 
    Removed odd looking reflection on pokeball on the main menu (100%) - :)

    Top 10 Forum Questions of the Week! 

    1. Xehanorto: How do you plan to handle the water routes later in the game? Route 12 was easy as it had the bridges, but for the Seafoam Island routes it will be difficult.
    That's a really good question, I don't really know the answer to that right now. They might require a pokemon with surf to travel them or I might give you a boat or something to travel in.

    2. Robert Conley: Do you have any plans to add more speed multipliers to the game?
    No, I think what we have is fine. Any faster and you might as well just give out free leveling and free shinies.

    3. Ayso24: What would you say is your main motivation for creating such a fantastic Tower Defense game? And one with Pokemon no less? Are you just a HUGE fan of Pokemon or was it an idea that you thought might just work? Is it the fans or the joy in making something that actually is of great quality that pushes you for greater heights in PTD awesomeness?
    I'm a huge original Pokemon fan, I haven't played all the recent ones as much. Creating games is more fun for me than playing them. I've been wanting to make a pokemon game for a while but too afraid of getting shut down and with this one I just went with it. At this point in the game the fans are really the big motivation to finishing it. I feel that I've accomplished what I wanted to accomplish but obviously it's not completed yet. Without fans I wouldn't finish this game.

    4. gogogogo99: Well since your delaying shiny hunt and reimplementing the old way, I got a new question, will there still be a dogs quest? The reason you said there would was because you took out the dogs and shinies, is there still a dogs quest even though they are still in the wild?
    I don't think there will be dog quest. I don't want every player to get a dog. If every player pays for a dog then I can live with that lol.

    5. Miss X: You've added the avatar chat. What will be the next step towards multiplayer?
    Next step is what's happening this week, which is the first map with pre made teams.

    6. Ninja God: How many Mews and how many dogs exist in the game? Or if you don't wanna go that specific, Which are there more of?
    I think they are pretty close with dogs edging Mew out. It's close cause Mew has been around a lot longer and but dogs have more since you can get them in the daily code.

    7. awesome2awesome/Link: To not be boring the heck outta veterans of PTD by doing repeats of mystery avatars, can you put a section in the avatar store in which the previous mystery gift items will be bought? For example in the game corner, so that newer players can obtain them as well?
    Yeah, I doubt I'll revisit old Mystery Gifts and try to include the avatars in different spots.

    8. Ninja God: Could you possibly make it so that there is a send all pokemon to profile button on trade center?
    Yes, all in due time.

    9. Do you plan on adding Waterfall as an HM or only is it only going to be learnable by Goldeen and Seaking?
    Probably add it as an HM at some point.

    10. Grim Reaperchu: Will we be able to catch any legendaries more than once?
    One per profile. Three per account.

    Go to our forums to submit your questions that may show up here on the blog!

    That's what I have for you this week, expect me to update this more often this week, and as always let me know what you think!

    Thursday, November 24, 2011

    Hero Tower Defense Thursday: Day 15 - HTD Thursday's, Progress Update, and Happy Thanksgiving!



    Go here to read the Day 14 of Hero Tower Defense Tuesdays.

    Today is just a small update since it's Thanksgiving. I just wanted to give a brief rundown of our progress and some changes.

    First, a reminder about the HTD day change. Sam was posting the PTD post later in the week at first but recently has been posting it on Monday because it works out better with his current scheduling of the weekly PTD update. Having the PTD post on Monday then immediately having the HTD post on Tuesday squishes things together. To remedy the problem we're going to change things a bit and have the PTD post on Monday and the HTD post on Thursday to have a better spread on the blog.

    Next up I just want to say we're making pretty good progress on HTD and should make the late December release date as planned. We have some additional maps (the cave is multi-level) in the works by Kevin, Sam is adding more mechanics and features, and I'm working on the design of various things including the Tier 1 elemental and class moves and audio. So things are moving along nicely!

    You can find more behind-the-scenes HTD art work on Kevin's blog, KXN @ HTD, check it out!

    And last but not least (although it's a little late) Happy Thanksgiving!

    All feedback is welcome and encouraged! You guys are a lot of help so be sure to let us know of any suggestions or ideas you have in the comments and thanks for all your help thus far!

    -Dan

    Tuesday, November 22, 2011

    Pokemon Tower Defense: v4.9.6 is out! Birthday gift! Multiplayer! 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 v4.9.6

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

    Where can I play?
    Hello! Welcome to the weekly PTD blog, it's a day late but better late than never. What started off as a small update to give me time for multiplayer became something HUGE! As you can see above I tried to kill off as many little bugs as possible. (There are still a bunch running around!) Game Bugs are funny, because for as many that you squash, many more appear when you add more new content. That's life for you.

    As you might or might not know the plan is to have a multiplayer map available for the next update. You can read a lot more about it on the previous PTD blog. I'm not sure when the update will be done, there is much to code, design, and test before it can come to light and last week I didn't even get to start on it. This week is even more difficult due to the Thanksgiving here in the states. Also my birthday is this Saturday, so you can say that I will be busy this week besides working on the update. I will try my best but I'm not sure when it will be done.

    Speaking of Birthdays! So instead of asking you guys for a gift (I want a jet plane! lol jk) I want to give you guys a gift for just being awesome and supporting us here. I can't decide on what to give you guys so I will make a poll as usual. The gifts I have in mind are:

    Celebi - Psychic/Grass - Gen 2
    Jirachi - Psychic/Steel - Gen 3
    Shaymin - Grass - Gen 4
    Victini - Psychic/Fire - Gen 5

    I can guarantee you these pokemon will not show up in a different mystery gift so choose wisely. Also you get to keep them forever once you get it!

    On to the weekly progress list:

    Multiplayer Map (10%) - This is not happening this week.
    Special Birthday Mystery Gift (100%)
    • Graphics (100%)
    • New Moves (Postponed) - New Moves are Postponed until next week
    • Implement Stats in game (100%)
    • Implement TM/HM (100%)
    • Implement in Trading Center (100%)
    Level Cap up to 68 (100%)
    • Implement in-game (100%)
    • Implement in saving code (100%)
    • Implement in trading center (100%)
    Added Raikou, Entei, and Suicune's level up attacks and relearn attacks (100%) - Any attacks that were not in the game yet have not been added. For example Entei's Lava Plume. Those will be added next week along with Victini's moves.
    Bug Fixes (100%)
    • When a shiny shows up highlight the speed back to 1x (100%) 
    • Change the background color of fainted pokemon so that it doesn't match the leveling up color (100%)

    That's all I have for now, have a fun week, as always let me know what you think! Sam out! I will let you guys get first this time :D

    Tuesday, November 15, 2011

    Hero Tower Defense Tuesday: Day 14 - HTD Release Date! Armor & New HTD Day Too!



    Go here to read the Day 13 of Hero Tower Defense Tuesdays.

    Today I'd like to officially announce HTD's release date, which some of you may already know about. Then I'll discuss some thoughts on the armor in the game and HTD's day change.

    First, I would like to announce that we've decided to shoot for a HTD release date of 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. This also helps us to gather feedback every step of the way. So I hope everyone is looking forward to it as much as we are!


    Now onto the armor. I just want to clarify that I'll be talking about armor specifically, not accessories like rings or trinkets or weapons. We'll definitely have those as well but that'll be a different post.

    Armor will certainly play a large role in HTD. After all, everyone likes gearing up their characters with new armor, acquiring new loot, and sometimes even just collecting sets. We intend to have a lot of armor in the game of all types. It won't all be available right from the start of course but we'll be trying to add some every update.

    As I mentioned before there will be various types of armor but they'll generally fall into light, medium, and heavy categories. However, everyone will be able to wear them, it's just a matter of what stats you end up getting from the armor. Generally the defense values of these armors will correlate to their type, i.e. lighter armors have lower defense and heavier armors have higher defense.

    There will certainly be more stats than just defense on armors. Since everyone is able to wear the armors, and your class being dynamic to how you spend your skill points, it means you can have classes like a monk who might wear cloth and a battlemage who might wear plate. So not all cloth will be geared towards casters and not all plate will be geared towards warriors.

    Here's a list what we have in mind for the armor pieces the characters will have:
    • Helm
    • Shoulders
    • Chest/Arms
    • Gloves
    • Legs
    • Boots
    Most (if not all) of these pieces will change cosmetically on your character as well. We know some people like having the option of disabling the helm graphic but still having it equipped so we'll have that for sure.

    Here's a cool sketch from Kevin showing his concept of the Human Male in Cloth Armor:

    Human Male in Cloth Armor Concept

    You can find more behind-the-scenes HTD art work on Kevin's blog, KXN @ HTD, check it out!


    Now about the HTD day change. Sam was posting the PTD post later in the week at first but recently has been posting it on Monday because it works out better with his current scheduling of the weekly PTD update. Having the PTD post on Monday then immediately having the HTD post on Tuesday squishes things together. To remedy the problem we're going to change things a bit and have the PTD post on Monday and the HTD post on Thursday to have a better spread on the blog. We already have this HTD post for this week so the next one will be on Thursday of next week.

    So on that note I give you, HTD Thursdays! :P

    All feedback is welcome and encouraged! You guys are a lot of help so be sure to let us know of any suggestions or ideas you have in the comments and thanks for all your help thus far!

    -Dan

    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