Weekly Progress, Pewter Gym Leader Battle and Level 2 for Story Mode

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

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

Hey everyone! I hope you had/are having a good labor day weekend (in the states). I will keep this one pretty short and sweet.

Weekly Progress:
This week we will have a 1v1 level (Released now on v1.15), we finally reached the first gym! Fighting against the Pewter City Gym Leader Brock. Something special about gym fights is that you will get an increase reward for beating them. For one, once achievements are out you will get an achievement for beating the gym and it will include a reward for your story mode profile. Also you will get more coins than usual, I haven't decided the exact amount. I was thinking either having a high flat amount, or a flat amount plus refunding whatever you spent, or a flat amount plus another amount or whatever you spent, whichever is lowest. I'm still working out the exact details but just know that beating the gym will boost up your coin amount since it is a pretty good place to reach. Also it will unlock either all the starters or just one I also haven't decided and I might put a pool up to see which starter should be out.

On the story side of things I'm working towards level two which will have you getting your first starter pokemon. (Released now on v1.16) Last week I did a lot of the infrastructure for saving and creating maps and such. The more of that that I do the easier it will be to make new levels. I have redone a lot of the saving code to make it faster more efficient plus in PTD 2 story mode you have a map so I also have to keep track of where you are and things like what quest have you completed and what not. Before I would just keep track of level attempted and level completed. With this game things are more complicated so there is a lot more time spent building these extra things. I believe it will be worth it in the end since both PTD2 and Creature Universe will gain much from this.

So that is what I'm trying to accomplish this week, below is the actual list that I will keep updating by completing and adding new things.

Alpha v1.16 Progress List: Released Now!

• Add interactions with objects in the map (100%) - Interaction with signs, tv, etc. 
• NPC Characters for first level (100%)- Prof and other people that live in New Bark Town
• Level 2 quest
• Chikorita Quest (100%)
• Cyndaquil Quest (100%)
• Totodile Quest (100%) 
• Battle Intro (100%)
• Battle Layout (100%)
• Battle Waves (100%)
• Battle  Ending (100%)
• Add the Town Music (100%)
• Add Saving your pokemon's info (100%)

Alpha v1.15 New 1v1 Level: Released now!

• Pewter City Gym Leader Battle 1v1 Mode
• New Attacks Needed
• Rock Tomb
• Custom Onix Attack - Boulder Throw 
• Leech Seed
• Vine Whip
• Stun Spore
• Pursuit
• Mud-slap
•  New Abilities needed
• Chlorophyll
• Level Intro
• Level Layout
• Level Waves
• Level Ending
• New Item Unlocked
• Implement Item
• Add limits to how many you can buy of this item
• New Pokemon Unlocked
• Add Stats
• Add Moves
• Add Graphics
• Allow for multiple pages in the pokemon/item store pages
• Add the TM/HM screen to allow learning TMs and HMs  - These will no longer cost money.

Guys I just want to thank you again for all the support, if it weren't for you guys going to the trading center, telling your friends about the game and visiting the blog we couldn't be doing any of this. I would be working a job that I would have no interest in and I wouldn't be able to make these games for you guys. Thanks again and as always.. let me know what you think!

Weekly Update: PTD 2 Mode: 1 vs 1, Title Screen Contest, Avatar chat is evolving!

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

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


Hey guys and gals! Sam here giving you the weekly update for Sam and Dan Games. I just released a new alpha version of Pokemon Tower Defense 2. This release doesn't give you anything to play but it does reveal the subtitle for the game! Drum-roll please!...... Pokemon Tower Defense 2: Johto's Shadow!

I think this game will be slightly more darker than the previous one. I will still have funny moments and all the colorful stuff but I think the characters will be put into more dangerous situations than the last. But overall it will still be rated E for everyone so you don't have to worry about it.

If you have been following my twitter you might have noticed my dislike of making menus... I really just don't like them.... XD. They take a long time to make even if they are simple. If you look at the new version you can see that there isn't a lot there but all of that took me two days of work to get. I can't tell you how many times I tweaked something because it didn't look right or changed a color or tried something different. Now that I've finally revealed what I want in the title screen it's a good time to talk about the title screen contest!

Title Screen Contest
Okay so I know a lot of you worked on your submissions but you will have to tweak it to include all the buttons and the subtitle from this version. The idea this time around is to have multiple title screens, that either appear randomly or the user can choose his favorite and just keep that one. So that means multiple winners! I haven't determined the prize yet but. since there will be multiple winners the prize will most likely be SnD Coins that you can use on whatever you want. To submit your entry just email me at sotero86@gmail.com with your entry attached and subject "PTD 2 Title Screen Contest". The size should be 800width by 480 height. Make sure to include everything in the title screen currently on PTD 2 and good luck! I will post up the top 10 entries in 3 weeks and let you guys vote for your favorite!

Avatar chat is evolving!

I didn't mention our other game Creature Online Universe (Codename ANPO)  last week because I wanted to keep the focus on PTD 2, but this week I have more news on it. This game is a really long term project that will keep changing and evolving as it goes and in the end who knows what it will be like. It's like a living thing! Essentially this game will revolve around playing with other players online similar to an MMO but yet vastly different at the same time. Because of this, one of the first things that will show up in the game is just players chatting in a location, which sounds exactly like the Avatar Chat! So the avatar chat will be getting new avatars that will essentially be your character in Creature Online Universe.  Right now in the avatar chat you pretty much just have this one rectangle to live in and you can't leave it. So this first step is to have more room to walk around in. Then after that have building that you can go in. Then homes that you can buy, rent or sell. And so on. The Avatar chat will be evolving into what eventually will be Creature Universe! Just as a note: I'm mentioning this now but I don't have a specific date as to when this will actually happen. So just stay tuned every week.

PTD 2 Mode: 1 vs 1
Looking at the poll One vs One is pretty much the winner! So this is what I will focus on first. The idea is that you start with a very basic pokemon and as you battle more you will unlock more pokemon to battle with. Each time trying to get farther and farther earning more rewards to help you come back and try again. As I mentioned in the last blog this mode will be a nice way for me to give you guys something substantial to play while the story mode is worked on. But even this mode won't be made in a couple of days so please be patient. A good thing about this mode is that it rewards your account with some pokemon the farther you get. In the mode the pokemon that you will use will not be available to use in the story mode/pokemon center. But as you get farther and reach certain goals you will get achievements that will give you pokemon as rewards and those you will be able to use in the story mode and will count for your pokedex.

This time around a lot of the rewards that you will get will not revolve around generation 2. My thought right now is that most mystery gifts and achievement rewards will be pokemon from other generations. So look forward to that!

That is all I have for you guys this week, follow me on twitter for constant updates and come back on Thursday for some new Hero Tower Defense news. As always let me know what you think! 

v5.9.1 is out! Team Rocket strikes! Avoiding Scams! Exclamation Points! oh 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! 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! 


v5.9.1 is finally out! It's been a nuts I ran into some bugs with the multiplayer that made me a little crazy, I found a workaround for now but it means that for the time being you can't see who you are playing with in multiplayer (They will always have the default avatar and be called Satoshi) other than that I hope you guys enjoy it once PlayTowerDefenseGames updates to the latest version.

TEAM ROCKET STRIKES!

Instead of calling those wonderful hackers well hackers, I will now call them Team Rocket! There was new hack that went public today but I sent it blasting off into space. So no worries! What doesn't kill you makes you stronger, and with each new hack that gets fixed the security in the game tightens even more. So thanks Team Rocket for doing your part <3

SCAMS!

I get a good amount of email about people getting scammed and there isn't a lot I can do to help the person that got scammed. Mainly cause it is really hard to prove if somebody got scammed or not.

So to help out, here are some great tips to avoid getting scammed!

1. NEVER give out your password, this is very important! I will never ask you for your password, anybody that works for me will NEVER ask for it. If somebody ask for your password, it's a scam! Period.
2. Only do trades that are 6 or less pokemon from each side. Never do trades that require more than one transaction. If one of the transactions you end up giving him really good pokemon for really bad ones than it's a scam.
3. Ask somebody! Also don't ask the scammer's friend, ask on the message board or ask me if the trade sounds good before doing it.

Okay so this week we will take it easy (I have a test on Thursday >.<) we will have a story level with the PTD First look video will have more details on, some new TMs (Dragon Claw for that commentator that keeps asking for it!) In the new level there will be new pokemon to catch! Wooohooo!

Click here to view the PTD First Look Video of v6.0 by GraphicForce!

New Story Level (100%)

• Intro (100%)
• Layout (100%)
• Waves (100%)
• Ending (100%)

New TMs (100%)

• Dragon Claw (100%)
• Sunny Day (100%)

Trade my pokemon from the account samO (100%) - Too many to list >.<
Add new pokemon to trade (0%) - Too many to list, check them out at my account samO.
New Mystery Gift (100%)
New Pokemon to Catch (100%) - Ponyta, Koffing, Grimer, Magmar (Blue version only), Kabuto, Omanyte, Aerodactyl

• New Moves (100%)
• Sunny Day (100%) - Magmar
• Clear Smog (100%) - Koffing
• Sky Drop (100%) - Aerodactyl
• Iron Head (100%) - Aerodactyl
• Rock Slide (100%) Aerodactyl
• Add Stats to Game (100%)
• Graphic (100%)
• Shiny Graphic (100%)
• Shadow Graphic (100%)
• Add Evolutions (100%)
• Add to Pokedex (100%)
• Implement TM/Relearn moves (100%)
• Implement in Adoption (Battle Ready and Shiny) (100%)
• Implement Shadow in Game Corner (100%)
• Implement in Trading Center (100%)
• Implement in Save Code (100%)
• Added New Moves into the Pokemon Center Move List (100%)

Bug Fix (100%)

• Fixed a bug that was causing many water skills to not gain their benefit from Rain Dance (100%) 
• Added security for hackers evolving pokemon that shouldn't evolve (100%)
• Pokemon that you catch on Cinnabar Island will now be the proper level (100%)

We are getting close to the end of PTD 1 which will mean the rise of HTD and PTD 2 and .... something. So keep checking up on my progress this week and leave me some wonderful insightful full of feedback comments that I love to read so much! Thanks everybody!

Pokemon Tower Defense v5.8.1 release! Story level making process, 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! 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! 


Hey guys! V5.8.1 of Pokemon Tower Defense is officially released! Go get your Ponyta and swf, exe, and apk files! I didn't have enough time for the co-op level last week so this week I will see to it. I hope those of you who are far enough enjoyed the Zapdos fight, you can expect similar type of battles for the other birds when we get to them. This week we will continue the story along with some other things.

So to change it up a bit I wanted to talk about what the thought process was for creating the Zapdos fight, and the general process of coming up with a new level for each week.

Step 1: What's going to happen next? - So I have an idea in my head of what the story is going to end like, almost like some bullet points, but the actual details I come up with each week. In this case the gang had just finished spending some time at the Safari Zone, kinda relaxing and just capturing new pokemon. So I thought it was time to make something exciting happen in the story. Your characters had not been to the cycling road so I thought there needed to be a reason to go there. Originally I thought that Gary would show up and tell you that you needed to go to Professor Oak to learn Surf but I didn't want to go to Viridian City again yet since that will be the last gym. I also thought of the possibility of not meeting Gary but another friend on the Cycling Road but I thought I was running out of time and I needed to deal with Gary and the birds in order to move on. Plus I thought the idea of the next level being Gary and the legendary bird would excite the players (you guys). As far as what happens in the level. I always like to make fun of Joey, and just show that our gang still has fun along the way. Also a good reason to travel to the Cycling Road was that they hadn't gone there yet as Joey mentions. Since Gary was running away from the birds I wanted to see him cornered and you show up to save the day! Also making this level with Gary and Zapdos facing off I thought of something interesting for the story and I left some small hints of it in the scene.

Step 2: Level Design - Usually on Monday I will think of the general theme of the next level. Last week was Gary and Zapdos. I knew I wanted to make the fight with the legendary birds.... errr legendary. So I thought okay I want this fight to just be you and Zapdos but Gary is there so he needs something to do. I put that aside for a moment and thought that Zapdos is electric so I want him to be sending out attacks very often and that they should affect your whole group. So since Zapdos will be doing a lot of damage to your party Gary would be perfect to heal your pokemon, similar to Celebi. But I wanted to add more work to the healing, so unlike Celebi you have to actually take your pokemon away from battle to get healed. A player a long time ago suggested an idea to have nurse joy on the side line and you sent your pokemon there to be healed. This was a variation of that idea. Now back to Zapdos. First I thought okay Ground is immune to electric attacks so I would use Drill peck to counter that, which also brought the idea of he being able to target anybody in the field regardless of their position. But I read that flying doesn't do a lot of damage to ground and I didn't want everybody to have to get ground pokemon to beat the level. So I made all damage be a set amount. Also I thought simply removing your units from the field to prevent damage was overplayed and would remove the need to use Gary so I added way for Zapdos to wait for your units to be ready which introduced some bugs (when your party dies the level doesn't end since Zapdos is waiting for a target).

Step 3: Implementation, Balance and Testing (Making it happen!) - This part is the last part to happen, once I have my ideas I set out to animate the scenes make the new characters and create the new moves for the level. In this case most of the characters were done, I just had to make Gary into a Tower and create the new moves for Gary and Zapdos. The new moves can sometimes create technical difficulties. I can spend a good amount of hours bug fixing or just balancing the moves so they do enough damage. Once the bugs are cleared I create a team of pokemon that will be the best to beat the level. In this case I made a team of 6 level 90 Rhydon with Stone edge, I didn't buff them but I thought it would give me a good idea of what kind of damage the players would be able to put out. I played it until it took at least 6 waves to beat him while moving the pokemon around to get healed etc and moving them around to always be attacking Zapdos. After that I tweaked with Zapdos stats a bit to make it just right.

So I hope you guys enjoy seeing what it takes to make the level happen. Now on to the progress list! (Note that Hero Tower Defense Progress will stay in the HTD post from last week)

Weekly PTD progress:

PTD FirstLook!

New Story Level (100%) - Route 19 Training Level

• Intro (100%)
• Layout (100%)
• Waves (100%)
• Ending (100%)

Zapdos boss battle co-op level (100%) - This will be for Monday! Exclusively on PlayTowerDefenseGames.com
New TM (100%)

•  Icy Wind (100%)
• Dive (100%)
• Hail (100%)

New Mystery Gift Pokemon (100%) - Seel! This will be for Monday!

• New Moves (100%) 
• Icy Wind (100%)
• Dive (100%)
• Hail (100%)
• Add Graphic (100%)
• Add Shiny Graphic (100%)
• Add Shadow Graphic (100%)
• Add Stats to Game (100%)
• Implement TM/Relearn moves (100%)
• Implement in Adoption (Battle Ready and Shiny) (100%)
• Implement Shadow in Game Corner (100%)
• Implement in Trading Center (100%)
• Implement in Save Code (100%)

Decide who will I trade my Shiny Mew (100%) - Congrats to xlawrunes, he caught my eye with his all shiny all psychic team of Psyduck, Jynx, Starmie, Alakazam, Exeggutor, Venomoth! This was a hard choice!
Choose a new pokemon to trade for next week - my account is samO (100%) - I'm putting up a big number of shiny and shadow pokemon that I have collect during my journeys! Next week I will trade every one of them, if you see something you like send me an offer!
Add new moves to the Pokemon Center's Move List (100%)
Finish implementing design to trading pages (0%) - Forgot some >.<
Bug Fixes (100%)

• Make Route 17 end if your party all faints (100%)
• Only one weather effect can be active at a time (100%)

Thanks guys for the continued support, I have a couple of things in the works that I will talk more about next week. I will keep updating this list as the week goes on and....As always let me know what you think!

Pokemon Tower Defense: Weekly Progress for v5.5, school is starting, looking for a programmer!

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!

A new week a new adventure in video game development here at Sam & Dan Games. Since the explosive popularity of Pokemon Tower Defense things have changed a lot for Dan and I, and we decided from the beginning that we wanted to make a different kind of game company. Most game companies follow a similar path of developing the game internally for a number of years and then release it into the public making only slight changes based on user input. This method is not incorrect by any means. The developer has a vision of what he wants for the game and takes his time (or however much time he can afford to spend) to make it as close to his vision as possible. They do play test with gamers and non-gamers. I can imagine. to gather some feedback on the game. The process is proven and many companies use it to great success. But we knew that if we wanted to stand out and provide something unique to our players we needed to be different.

So we thought about what we would like other companies to do, or what were new independent companies doing that we really liked. One such person/company was Markus Persson aka "Notch" from Mojang and their hit game Minecraft. While I'm not an avid Minecraft player, as a game designer I can see the appeal of the game. But what really sticks out for me is the method in which the game was released and updated. If you haven't noticed we followed a very similar approach with Pokemon Tower Defense. Releasing a game in it's early stages is a risky thing to do. What if somebody steals the concept? What if players are turned off by an incomplete game? These are all things to keep in mind while using this process. To me it means that I get to know how the players feel about your game at a stage were you can still make changes to it. Pokemon Tower Defense is really close to being done, and your feedback as been integral in the making of it. Sometimes you picked which avatar we should get, or if Joey should battle somebody, even which direction we should head in. Those were choices that I gave you guys to directly affect the game. But your emails and comments gave me great insight into which direction you the players wanted to take it in. While I didn't follow every little request (that would be a horrible thing to do) I did follow request that I felt and many felt should be implemented.

We are getting close to the end of PTD 1. 3 more badges to go until the final showdown, very little new pokemon to add until all 151 are in the game, and less than 100 new moves to add. This game belongs to all of us that have participated in creating it. Even those who are no longer around but helped in past times. Because the game is near completion, you won't be seeing a lot of new features most of the focus will be on finishing what is already there. So what's next for us?

My main priority right now is finishing the PTD story mode. This will grant everybody access to the original 151 pokemon. My main goal with this game was to make a good pokemon tower defense game and I think I have accomplished that but it's still not completed. While I'm finishing PTD I will work with Dan and Kevin on Hero Tower Defense. On top of that I'm going back to school! Starting this week I will be taking two college courses on my way to finishing my Computer Science degree. The great thing about being an independent developer is that you can set your own schedule and work around things in your life. So I will have the task to balance game development with going to school, doing the homework and studying for test. Life is all about balance!

So when PTD story mode is finished I will move the focus to HTD and really try to get that game going. Just like PTD we will be showing you the game as we make it so that you guys can give us your feedback. Once the game is in a good playable form with some levels ready we will deploy it to websites such as newgrounds, playtowerdefensegames, etc so that we can attract new people that are interested in that game. But I never like just working on one game... So while working on HTD and HTD being the main focus I will work on... Pokemon Tower Defense 2! Yes you heard it right! The sequel to PTD is officially announced! The game will focus on the 2nd Generation of Pokemon from the Johto Region and along with all that many of new features that you guys have been requesting:

• 100 new Pokemon to capture and raise
• New Story Line
• Held Items
• Pokemon Genders
• Pokemon Breeding
• Eggs
• Day Care
• Day and Night Cycle
• Different Pokeballs
• More Items
• More Achievements
• Better Interface
• Being able to transfer your old pokemon from ptd 1 into ptd 2
• More Avatars
• and more!

As I said before Hero Tower Defense will be the main focus after PTD 1 is done but PTD 2 will be worked on by me and a few other people at the same time. Along with this game I will be working on other side projects that will take a lot longer to show to you guys. Which brings me to my new next point, we need a programmer!

Looking for new people that want to work with us is actually a pretty hard ordeal. We had many great applications for the artist position and we were fortunate to find Kevin which has shown that he has what it takes. With artist the quest of finding one is a lot simpler, since with art what you see is what you get. With programming it's not quite as easy as looking at a portfolio. But let's do it anyways. This programmer position will let you work with Dan, Kevin and I on all the latest projects that we have here on Sam & Dan games have going. Be a part of our team! We are in need of programming in pretty much all the areas of game development so if you are an expert in gameplay,  interfaces, or tool building apply today!

Here are the requirements.

• Must be 18 years or older.
• Must have at least a year experience using Action Script 3.
• Must have mastery of OOP.
• Must have Adobe Professional CS5.5 or compatible software.
• Must have a passion for Gaming.
• Must speak and write fluent English.

These next ones are things are pluses that will make you more likely to be considered:

• Have published a successful Action Script 3 Flash game on the web.
• Have worked on a published game using different languages and engines.
• C++, Java, C#

So there you go, like the artist position this is a paid position. Here is what we want to know from you:

• Email to sotero86@gmail.com with subject "Programming Job Opening for SnD Games" (Can you follow simple instructions?)
• Your experience in programming: What languages, how long, etc (Do you meet the requirements?)
• Examples of your work: Published games, tools, widgets, etc (Do you have any of the plusses that we are looking for)
• Why you want to work with us? and why should we pick you? (We want to see your passion!)

So let the search begin! I'm looking forward to the applications!

Okay.. So this has been a long post but I haven't really expressed myself fully recently and I wanted to get some stuff out there :)

Now on to the Weekly Progress! I won't reveal too much of what it will be on, the PTD First look by GraphicForce will take care of that. You can expect that (the first look) by the middle of the week.

PTD First Look Video for v5.5


New Story Level (100%)

• Level Intro (100%)
• Level Layout (100%)
• Level Waves (100%)
• Level Ending (100%)
• Implement in game (100%)

New non capturable pokemon (100%)

• Add graphic to game (100%)
• Add stats to game (100%)

New Achievement (100%) - Celadon Challenge!

• Implement in game (100%)
• Implement in server (100%)

New Ability (100%) - Sand Veil - Sandshrew, Sandslash, Digglet, Dugtrio - Sand Veil increases the evasion of a Pokémon in a sandstorm and if on a Pokémon whose type does not already, grants immunity to damage taken from sandstorms.

• Implement in game (100%)

New Mystery Gift Pokemon (100%) - Grimer!

• Implement in game (100%) 
• Graphics (100%)
• New Moves (100%)
• Implement Moves/TMs (100%)
• Implement in Trading Center (100%)
• Implement in Adoption Center (100%)
• Implement Shadow Version in Game Corner and Daily Code (100%)
• Implement in Save code (100%)

Rework Daily Code prizes (0%)- This is coming thanks to all your feedback!
Level Cap Increase (100%)

• New Move due to increase (100%)
• Implement in game (100%)
• Implement new move in pokemon center's name database (100%)
• Implement in game (100%)
• Implement in trading center (100%)

Pokemon Center new look (70%)
Bug Fixes (100%)

• Bug with trading pokemon in game (100%) 
• Add missing information for the move Spike (100%)

Add Ditto, Shellder and Psyduck to the adoption center (100%) 
Add Ditto, Cloyster and Golduck to the adoption center (100%) 

Hero Tower Defense Programming Progress:
Interface - Targeting Functionality for your units (100%) 
Interface - Selecting a specific skill to use against a particular target (100%)
Graphics - Implement new interface graphics (100%)
Interface - Implement zoom in/out buttons (100%)

The list will be filled out with more things as the week goes on, thanks for the continued support and as always let me know what you think!