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?

• Play here on the blog by clicking on the "Play PTD!" tab.
• Download the EXE, SWF or APK by clicking on the "Game Downloads Link" tab.
• PlayTowerDefenseGame
• FreeWorldGroup
• Gamerfish
• OneMoreLevel
• NewGrounds
• MiniJuegos

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!

History of the Grand Theft Auto Logos

- History of the Grand Theft Auto Logos -

1997 Grand Theft Auto
1999 Grand Theft Auto: London
1999 Grand Theft Auto 2
2001 Grand Theft Auto III
2002 Grand Theft Auto: Vice City
2004 Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas
2005 Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories
2006 Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories
2008 Grand Theft Auto IV
2009 Grand Theft Auto: The Lost and Damned
2009 Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars
2009 Grand Theft Auto: The Ballad of Gay Tony
20?? Grand Theft Auto V

FREE Version of the game 'Tsolias vs Zombies 3D' is now available!

The FREE version of the game is now available on the App Store!
It's a good chance for those who want to try the game before you buy.

Download:
http://itunes.apple.com/app/tsolias-vs-zombies-3d-free/id474022435?ls=1&mt=8

Store page:
http://www.store-sakis25games.com/2011/10/tsolias-vs-zombies-3d-free.html

A Demo Game for Fiasco: Harran 1104 AD

Here is the Ilkley Lads game for Fiasco 2011. To save on wasteful handouts, which get picked up and not read, or which due to printing costs rarely cover the game in enough detail, the Ilkley Lads games that have been given to me to organise will come in this format. A couple of pamphlets containing the information here will be available to read at the table on the day. Alongside the pamphlets will be a stack off address slips for this site - simples innit.

The Strategic Positions

Following the release for ransom of Bohemond of Antioch in 1103 AD the northern Franks celebrated by launching two offensives. The first was against the region around Alleppo from which they extracted tribute to pay back loans made for Bohemond’s ransom. The second was against the Byzantines who were trying to reclaim the Cilician territories to the northwest.

In the spring 1104 the northern Franks felt secure enough to turn against the Moslem states to the east. Their strategic goal was to take the mighty fortress of Harran. If this could be taken it would cut communications between the Moslems of Syria and the Moslems of Iraq and Persia. In March they began to raid Harran, and it became clear to the surrounding Moslem states that it was only a matter of time before the Franks besieged the place.

1103 AD had been a time of division for the Moslem world. The Seljuk Sultan Barkiyarok and his brother Mohammed had been at war. Peace was made between them by the division of territory in January 1104 AD; but it was an uneasy arrangement that suited no one. Following the death of Kerbogha of Mosul, Soqman the Ortoqid prince of Mardin had failed to gain the succession (he had backed the wrong horse in the civil war) and was at war with its newly appointed Seljuk atabeg Jekermish.

Harran, independent of Mardin and Mosul, was in a state of turmoil following a successful uprising against its general called Qaraj. His successor Mohammed of Isfahan was murdered by a servant called Jawali; a former page of Qaraj with whom Mohammed had become unwisely intimate. Jawali’s succession was weak and he was incapable of governing and protecting Harran effectively. When Frankish raids against Harran’s fields and trade routes began in the spring of 1104 AD he was in no position to counter them.

Harran was vital to the security to both Mardin and Mosul; Soqman of Mardin and Jekermish of Mosul quickly made peace and, patching up their differences, launched a counter offensive against Edessa to save it.

Hearing news that the Moslems were massing 70 miles from his capital, Baldwin of Edessa sent for help to his lieutenant Joscelin of Turbessel and Bohemond of Antioch. They would beat the Moslems to the punch by marching on Harran immediately. The armies concentrated before Harran and had they stormed the place immediately it would have fallen easily. But the Franks wanted the place intact and they quarrelled over whose flag would fly above its walls once it had been taken. Before the argument had been settled the combined armies of Soqman and Jekermish had swung south and were upon them; this move forced the siege to be broken. The battle that followed would take place across the river Balikh (the exact location of the battle is unknown, but it is certain that it took place some distance from Harran itself).

The Battle

The battlefield was split north to south by the river Balikh. The river was fordable along its entire length, though the banks were muddy in places. To the south west (the Frankish side of the river) lay a large hill. All of the surrounding ground was gently undulating scrubland strewn with bushes and stunted trees; this did not hamper movement, but goes someway to explaining why visibility was hindered.

The Frankish plan of battle was cunningly simple. The Edessans would hold the open ground in the centre / centre left and draw the Saracen into a close quarter fight. Once the Saracen was entangled, the Antiochenes would emerge, from their ambush position, over the brow of the hill (right flank) and crush the Saracens from flank and rear.

The Moslem plan was somewhat similar. Firstly, Soqman’s Turcoman cavalry would engage with the enemy then feign flight back across the river. If the plan was successful the Franks would be drawn into pursuit and then crushed by fresh cavalry set in ambush on the Moslem side of the river.

As it was, the Saracen’s plan succeeded and the Frank’s plan failed. On seeing the Turcoman horse archers fleeing the Edessans thought the battle won and fell into pursuit. Once they had crossed the river thousands of fresh cavalry fell upon them from all sides and they were utterly destroyed and their leaders captured.

Bohemond’s Antiochenes did not even enter the fight. On cresting the brow of the hill, brushing away some light resistance as they did so, they saw the slaughter of the Edessans in the plain below; Bohemond ordered a retreat.

General Scenario Notes

I have devised this scenario to be played with Ager Sanguinis rules by James Roach published in Miniature Wargames in January 2009 issue 309 (with some later unpublished amendments, most of which come from the development of Ager Sanguinis Punic Wars to be published later this year).

The terrain and the forces should be deployed as per the deployment photograph. The forces of Jekermish and the Antiochenes (Bohemond and Tancred) are deemed to be ‘invisible’ to all other forces until they move, shoot, or are discovered. The Antiochenes will only be discovered if Soqman sends troops to reconnoiter from the hill’s summit. The troops from Mosul (Jekermish) will be discovered by the first Frankish unit to cross the river.

Edessa and Antioch

The combined strength of the two armies was put at more than 3,000 cavalry and 9,000 infantry, including many Armenian subjects from the Edessa region. By stripping every garrison of available men it represented almost the entire fighting strength of the northern Franks. For this battle, and using my own units, my figure ratio was roughly 1: 40.

Army Die: D10; Army characterization: 7 cards; D10 sequence deck with one Stratagem card.

Army of Eddessa

Baldwin (Motivation Die: D10): 1 small unit of Knights, 1 unit of turcopoles, 1 unit of Frankish sergeants, 1 unit of Armenian spearmen, 2 units of Armenian bowmen.
Joscelin (Motivation Die: D10): 2 small units of ‘Armenian’ Knights, 1 unit of Frankish sergeants, 1 unit of Armenian spearmen, 2 units of Armenian bowmen.





Army of Antioch

Bohemond (Motivation Die: D12): 2 small units of Knights, 2 units of Frankish sergeants.
Tancred (Motivation Die: D12): 2 small units of Knights, 2 unit of Frankish sergeants.

The Antiochene ambush

Add a ‘Stratagem’ card to the army’s sequence deck: On the appearance of this card the Antiochenes, providing their position is not known to the enemy, can make a triple move as per ‘Move’ card counting it as ‘even’. For the remaining initiative pips in their phase, any enemy unit they contact may not evade, and, where required, any ‘Tactical Advantage’ cards can be used in place of a melee card for a single melee resolution. Its use represents a perfect ambush. Remove after use or the Antiochenes are discovered.

Mardin and Mosul

The best guess at Saracen numbers is 10,000, all of which were cavalry. I have seen certain accounts that break down this figure to 7,000 from Mardin and 3,000 from Mosul, but I have chosen to go with Steven Runciman (A History of the Crusades 2. The Kingdom of Jerusalem) who states “Soqman with a considerable force of Turcoman light cavalry and Jekermish with a slightly smaller force composed of Seldjuk, Turks, Kurds and Arabs.” In game terms this works much better. For this battle, and using my own units, my figure ratio is roughly 1: 40.

Army Die: D12; Army characterization: 6 cards; D10 sequence deck with two Stratagem cards:

The Army of Mardin

Soqman (Motivation Die: D10): 2 units of Ghulam cavalry, 1 unit of Arab heavy cavalry, two units of Turcoman horse archers and 1 unit of Bedouin.

2 Tribal leaders (Motivation Die: D10): Each with 3 units of Turcoman horse archers.

The Army of Mosul

Jekermish (Motivation Die: D10): 1 unit of Ghulam cavalry, 2 units of Arab / Kurdish heavy cavalry.
1 unnamed leader (Motivation Die: D10): 4 units of Seldjuk horse archers.









Turcoman feigned flight

 Add two ‘Stratagem’ cards to the army’s sequence deck: On the appearance of this card, Soqman’s two Turcoman command groups deployed beyond the river may attempt to lure the Edessan commands into an uncontrolled advance.

To attempt feigned flight, one unit from each Turcoman command must move (up to 16”) to contact with a unit of each Edessan command. Roll D8 [Turcoman] Vs D10 [Edessan].

If the Turcoman roll is higher all Turcoman units immediately make a rout move towards, and possibly across, the river. The Edessan units become vexed and must pursue the enemy until they contact an enemy unit or they are rallied: Leaders not in pursuit rally with a Down 1 modifier; leaders in pursuit rally with a Down 2modifier. Turcoman horse archer units in feigned flight count as routed except that when rallying they do not count the down 2 routing modifier and they may be rallied by Soqman as well as their own tribal leader. Any unit in feigned flight that is contacted by the enemy is properly routed.

If the Turcoman roll is equal or lower the Turcoman unit becomes embroiled with its target and must remain in contact.

Figures

All figures (except for 24 ‘Arab’ foot archers by Renegade Miniatures) are Perry Miniatures from their First Crusade range. All figures were painted by James Roach of Olicana Painting Services using Humbrol enamels. All figures are based on 4mm ply wood. Infantry bases are 60mm x 60mm. Cavalry bases are 60mm x 90mm.

Terrain

The table is 10 feet by 6 feet. Terrain tiles are the reverse side of tiles by TSS painted with household emulsion (shades of Dulux Whole Meal Honey). Trees are by Last Valley. Hills are home made. They are constructed from high density polystyrene insulation board. All other terrain is scratch built.

The Ilkley Lads

The Ilkley Lads are an informal group of ‘40 and 50 somethings’ operating out of various private addresses in Ilkley West Yorkshire.

Hero Tower Defense Tuesday: Day 11 - Melee & Behaviors

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!

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

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?

• Play here on the blog by clicking on the "Play PTD!" tab.
• Download the EXE, SWF or APK by clicking on the "Game Downloads Link" tab.
• PlayTowerDefenseGame
• FreeWorldGroup
• Gamerfish
• OneMoreLevel
• NewGrounds
• MiniJuegos

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!

Hero Tower Defense Tuesday: Day 10 - Story

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!

Welcome to Hero Tower Defense Tuesday!

Sketch of logo

Go here to read the Day 9 of Hero Tower Defense Tuesdays.

Today let's talk about the story for a bit.

This area of the game is still rather open-ended and undetermined at this point, more so than most other aspects of the game. So I wanted to tell you guys a little bit about what we had in mind for HTD's story and single player and then get your feedback and suggestions on it.

Elements are a key part of the HTD world which I'm sure is rather clear at this point. We have 5 elements (Fire, Water, Nature, Light, and Shadow) each with their own advantages and disadvantages against eachother as well as their own physical and magical skills that specialize in categories like offense, defense, and utility. You also have a native element that gives you a bit more power with that element and you also gain combination elemental attacks when you make certain matches in the elemental trees. With that in mind it's pretty easy to say the elements should tie into the story and world rather heavily.

The game is of course based in a fantasy world so that opens up a lot of paths. That also means there is a lot to consider.. how much technology is there and how advanced is it? Is the current state of things peaceful or chaotic? Is there some major event currently taking place? etc. The same goes for your character and characters you meet in single player.. how old are you? Are you a king's son or a lowly peasant? Is there something unique about you or your family? Do you have some hidden past? etc. I personally don't like things being too cliche but it's a bit difficult to avoid because there's so much out there that people have already seen but, hey, we'll try.

We have some ideas in mind but without giving away too much I can say you'll be old enough that you're out on your own doing things like adventuring and exploring and whatnot. During single player you'll meet other characters that may join you, probably some from your past and some new. At least part of the story will be about you seeking out something related to your native element, perhaps how to master it so you can acquire greater skills with that element. During your quest there will probably be trials that test your skill with the elemental system. So there might be like a crazy shadow boss you have to fight or a water cavern you have to get through. While I wouldn't say there's a doomsday character who's out to destroy the world you'll definitely come across characters/creatures that are much stronger than you and are terrorizing that area or blocking your way.

So as you can see there's a lot up in the air story-wise. As I mentioned we have a several things in mind that are more solid but I don't want to give it all away. This is also mainly for single player. The multiplayer will continue the story to an extent but have a wider scope. We're interested in hearing what you guys would like to see though. Do you like the uber, evil, insane guy wanting to take over the world? The mysterious past that you gradually uncover? Perhaps just the idea of going out and discovering the unknown?

There will also be side quests and such as well that will probably be completely unrelated to the main story but that's why they're side quests right? I know we have some writers out there with ideas they'd like to share as well. Let us know what you have on your mind! But try to summarize it. ;)

Also don't forget to check out Kevin's blog, KXN @ HTD for all things art related to HTD! You'll find additional concept art, polls to help us decide on certain art aspects (currently which female hairstyles to start with), and he recently added a progress list. Here's a new WIP logo design Kevin made:

WIP HTD Logo

As always let us know what you think and leave your feedback in the comments, thanks!

-Dan

Some changes to the production miniatures.

Looking around the web, the most common suggestions, complaints, what have you, is that the figure appears top heavy. Rightfully so, this is caused by the legs not being true to scale and the shoulders being too wide.

The arms and shoulders need to clear the chest projections so that you can pose the figure, I can however make some changes to the arms and changes to the legs so that the figure has a much more “correct” form.

After polling my project supporters, there was a strong consensus that we use the more “correctly” scaled miniature for the final production models.

I would like to extend a heart-felt thank you to all the supporters that have graciously given to make this project a reality.

Although we have met and exceeded to project goal, I would like to encourage you to take part in the project. The cost to manufacture the prototypes and make the molds has still not been fully paid for. The project will need to reach roughly $7300.00 to be in the black and completely self-supporting.

If you have been on the fence, I hope you view the new more correctly scaled miniatures with favor and help fully fund the project.

 
Thank you for looking and for your support!

I hope you enjoy the changes.
All the best!
Mark-

 

New plastic minis!

 

 

Metal minis

Weekly Progress and v4.5.1 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 v4.5.1

Level Cap up to 60 - Last level increase until the next chapter!
Fast-Forwarding x3 and x4 - Speed up even more!
New Mystery Gift Pokemon Krabby -Get your own cute little krabby!
12 new moves added to the game - For Krabby and pokemon going up to 60.
New Pokemon Evolutions (1) - Kingler.
Fixes:

• Added hints on how to get Flash to the Rock Tunnel level
• Fix an issue with not being able to put Gastly on the field after catching it
• Fixed Perish Song
• Fixed Curse
• Fixed Dragon Tail makes the target turn around before hitting them
• Earthquake's attack info will now include that it will hit your own towers
• Adding more space on Mt. Moon 2 and Cerulean Gym so that you can see pokemon coming before attacking
• Adding Speed x3 and x4
• Using a Shiny Golem and Steamroller, the regular golem graphic shows up
• Fixed Dragonite not learning Wing Attack at 55
• Fixed Lick Attack's text color being the wrong one
• Fixed Shiny Sprites for Ivysaur, Magnemite, Venusaur, Electrode
• Fixed pokemon evolving will say Bulbasaur evolved into Ivysaur
• Added Scope to inventory list in the Pokemon Center
• If a pokemon faints while you are dragging it, it will now not be able to be placed on the field
• Gave Curse a different effect if a ghost pokemon uses i
• Fixed the move description for Outrage, the cooldown is off
• You guys voted! Speed will slow down to x1 when a shiny or legendary popup shows up.
• Fixed bug that the speed text would not change back to x1 when a shiny shows up.
  
• Security Fixes to prevent shiny hacking.

Where can I play?

• Play here on the blog by clicking on the "Play PTD!" tab.
• Download the EXE, SWF or APK by clicking on the "Game Downloads Link" tab.
• PlayTowerDefenseGame
• FreeWorldGroup
• Gamerfish
• OneMoreLevel
• NewGrounds
• MiniJuegos

Well that was a long list! How are you guys? It's been a week since I've posted something here.I traded my Mew yesterday and I put up an Entei up for trade this week. My trade account name is samO so give me an offer. I can pretty much get any pokemon in the game instantly so don't ask for what I want specifically just think about making me a unique offer.

My brother is still hard at work on the next PTD video episode two. Check out his blog and show him your support for the videos. Aperture Eye Films.

Dan is also hard at work on the next Ninja-ja Update. Not sure when he will be done but he is working at it. He is also working on the game design for Hero Tower Defense and it's coming along great. I've been working more and more on HTD and I'm very excited to finally reach a point that we can finally let you guys play.

In a more personal level, I've decided to focus more on College and on creating games so I ended up resigning my job. It was kinda crazy how it all happened but now the dust is settled and I'm ready to move forward.

Speaking of moving forward I have totally failed on even starting the Avatar Chat, that 0% is completely true. To get it done I have to dedicate the whole week to it. So again this week we will take it a bit slow, yet providing you with new things to do. I want to implement a new feature but I'm not sure which of the two I will implement. Help decide which one, but before you vote read the descriptions below.

Option 1:
Held Items - Your pokemon will be able to hold on to different items like the everstone, charcoal, etc. Items will be found in the wild when you defeat a pokemon, in the daily code, the game corner, and by using snd coins to get them.

Option 2: Winner!
Pokemon Abilities - Each pokemon will have their passive abilities like in the game, pokemon might randomly be assigned one of their abilities when you capture it. There will also be some unique abilities pokemon offered in the daily code, the game corner and by using snd coins to get them.

So think about which of these you like to see first (The "loser" will be added in a later date to the game) and vote today!

Okay so here is the list so far!

v4.6 is now out in the blog, the official release along with the Goldeen Mystery Gift will be available by Monday.

Avatar Chat (100%) - Done! Go check it out! *points at new tab on the blog
Pokedex Remembering what you catch even if you release or trade away (100%) - You must first save your game on v4.6 for this to take effect.
New Mystery Gift Pokemon (100%) - This pokemon is shiny, bright, expensive and heavy! Or is that just his name...it's Goldeen!

• Graphics (100%)
• Shiny Graphic (100%)
• Add this pokemon's stats into the game (100%)
• New Moves (2) (100%)
• Waterfall (100%)
• Soak (100%)

New Evolution (100%)

• Graphics (100%)
• Shiny Graphic (100%)
• Add this pokemon's stats into the game (100%)

New Feature (100%) - Abilities - More abilities will be added each week. The reason for this is things like evasion and accuracy attacks are not properly implemented yet and some of the abilities are related to these stats. So I need to add those before I add those abilities.

• Added Abilities for the starter pokemon (100%)
• 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 (100%) - 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 (100%)
The move Spark now correctly shows the right attack color when attacking (100%) 
Slow down speed to x1 when an achievement shiny pokemon shows up (100%)

Weekly Questions from the Forums!


1. Hypermania/Samzy: Do you plan to be FINISHED with the game after Mewthree? Will there be any post-game things to do, so after the main story is completed?

Sam: The main story will be finished, things to do after are playing multiplayer and trying to catch them all.


2. mudemude12: Will more legends from other regions help in the game? (e.g. Celebi, Entei, Raikou, Suicune)

Sam: Since Generation 1 has a limited amount of legendaries, I will introduce some from other generations.

3. JohtoTrainer: Why do you recolor the walking sprites with shiny colors from battle sprites instead of simply using the shiny walking sprites?
Sam: When I first looking for the sprite I didn't find the shiny ones so I had a friend (Haplo) create them. For a possible sequel I will just grab them from there :D

4. JohtoTrainer: Have you considered adding, in some way, Pokemon with event-only moves? (e.g. Surfing Pikachu and Flying Pikachu)
Sam: Yeah, I do think about that, it's more about finding a good timing for it.

5. NinjaGod: Can we possibly get some type of ignore function for the trade center? (I get a lot of spam/lowball requests from the same users and I'd like to be able to auto ignore them.)
Sam: Yes! When will it happen I don't know yet.

6. Marth: When we beat the game will there be a challenge mode where you implement yourself in to the game as the game creator and send every pokemon out one by one shiny and non-shiny until you have sent out every pokemon in shiny and non shiny form and then give us a special avatar? o.o to show we beat the game and the really hard challenge mode

Sam: Sounds interesting, I might do something like that after the game is done.

7. ninja_trainer: Are you going to make challenge mode versions of every gym?

Sam: Not necessarily, but when the story is over I might go back and add more challenge levels.

8. ninja_trainer: Are you going to use some of the Fan-made levels in the game as story levels?
Sam: Probably not, most fan made suggestions are for challenge levels. I enjoy making the story levels myself :)
9. Ace: If, by any chance, Nintendo takes a sudden liking to PTD and would give you tons of dollars to buy it off of you, would you accept and why?
Sam: I think I would accept, one because it's their property and two because they have a lot more resources than me and the game can be a lot more polished and appear on the DS.
10. NinjaGod: Will there be mini-games in PTD for various prizes? (e.g. Duck Hunt -> Pidgey Hunt)
Sam: Sure, this is more about finding the time to create the mini games. There is a lot to be done in the game before I can think about adding mini games.

11. yamamitai: Will we have another chance to catch the weekly code only Pokemon like regular Staryu and Tentacool?
Sam: Yea! Once we get to the spots where they show up in the game or when you get a better rod you will be able to catch them like any other pokemon.

12. gogogogo99: Will you add more things to buy at the game corner?

Sam: Yes! Held items and pokemon with different abilities will show up in the game corner.

13: aleony: Will you ever do special holiday events and give out a special pokemon for that reason?

 Sam: Yes, I think people enjoy things like that :)

14: Crazymerio: If this company ever expands, will you consider hiring another programer in order to decrease the work load and get more done in a week, or however long you plan on programming something? If this company does get larger, do you still plan on trying to listen to your fans to the best of your ability?

Sam: Programmers are really hard to hire because it's hard to really measure how skilled they are. The ideal candidate is somebody who has made a game in flash before in Action Script 3 and that their game is popular and played by many people. Also it is hard because PTD has tens of thousands lines of code so just hiring a programmer and expecting them to start working right away is not realistic. It would take months before they could work on it without much hand holding. But having said that we are always in the look out for talent and plan to expand more in the future. Also we would always try to listen to feedback and make the creation of our games be something kind of like a journey between us the developers and you the fans :)
As I get more done I will add more to the list, as always let me know what you think!

Tsolias vs Zombies 3D Updated to 1.1 with Greek Language support!

The new version of the game is now available on the App Store!
Download:
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/tsolias-vs-zombies-3d/id467351605?ls=1&mt=8

Version 1.1 includes:
- Fixed and improved controls
- More funny quotes for the character
- Support for Greek Language (change from the Options menu)

All comments and suggestions are all welcome and very necessary. :D

Eisenkern Trooper Kickstarter Project and actual prototypes!

Well folks, I need your help. If you enjoy my models and would like to see this product line launch, please head on over to Kickstarter and add your support to the project.

If you're not familiar with the Kickstarter model, the way it works is you receive a reward for an accompanying pledge in support of my project. The more you pledge the better the rewards and the greater contribution you will make to this and future projects. Your positive participation will help a small independent company to grow and thrive and you gain the satisfaction of knowing you made this happen.

And what you have been waiting for....Here are a few shots of the actual prototypes for the Kriegsmarine and Sturmtruppen soldiers.

NEW PLASTIC STORMTROOPERS

New plastic figures proportion change and scale change (above) nothing went untouched for the new plastic line, the size scale and proportions were refined on every component!

These will be produced as lead free pewter miniatures.

Project rewards you say? You betcha!

A closer look at some of the rewards.

Although they did not make it into the Kickstater project... here is a tease of the accessory packs that will be available separately.

I hope to see you there and thank you for your support!