Welcome to the Sam & Dan Games Developer Blog! Let's begin!
Fundraiser Continues!
The fundraiser continues on this week, the first 1% took a loooong time but the second % took only 3 days, maybe things are picking up, only 98 more to go! Let's look at more information for the fundraiser, if you already read it then feel free to skip ahead since I didn't add anything new this week. This is mainly for those who haven't read anything on it and to remind you that we are still doing this. :)
Sam & Dan Games: Fundraiser! Phase 2
Our Goal: $50,000
Raised so far: $2,700.84
Percentage so far: 5.401%
Total Funders so far: 2834 (Number drastically increased due to new ways to donate!)
Last updated: 2/20/13 (5:44 PM EST)
What is this fundraiser about?
Dan and I love making games and we want to continue to make them. If you are reading this then I suspect you have enjoyed PTD and PTD2 quite a bit. Right now Dan has another full time job since we don't make enough to support him. I work full time on the games, relying heavily on ad revenue from the trading center/blog and a part of the SnD coin sales. While those sources provide some help they are far from steady. If ads and sales go down it could potentially lead to me having to stop making games or spend considerably less time working on them. Meaning less updates for you guys. We really don't want it to get to that point so we decided to humble ourselves and ask you, the fans, for help.
The 50k amount might seem like a lot but in reality it is the bare minimum we need to be able to keep working on games for the rest of this year.
Do I get anything for funding?
Yes! Absolutely! We always want to reward our fans when they give to us. Like I mentioned before on a previous blog we will have many prizes for those that donate to us. Some of the prizes include:
- Cosmoids Creatures for your PTD2 account
- Shiny Legendary Pokemon only available to people who help us fund
- Special Exclusive Creature for Cosmoids
- Special Titles for your Trading Account
- Access to the early Alpha version of Cosmoids
- Donate any amount - Access to the Early Alpha Version of Cosmoids with Sam's Graphics
- Just for donating you will get a code that will let you play Cosmoids and give feedback on the game before anybody else. Note: The Early Alpha Version is not released yet.
- Donate $5 or more - Shiny Legendary Rayquaza for your PTD2 account + Previous Prize
- You will get 2 Shiny Rayquaza for your ptd2 account. Note: These will be given out next week.
What is are the Phases?
Since we are constantly working on updates for you guys we have to take everything we do little by little. So the funding will have different phases.
Each phase will come when new prizes are announced. Regardless of when you donate if you have donated enough to qualify for a prize you will receive it once the prize is available.
Sounds good! I want to support you guys, how do I do it?
Thank you! To support us just click on the donate amount below and enter the amount you wish to donate. We will send you the activation code for your donation in an email.
Is there a way to donate without needing a credit credit card?
Yes! You can now watch a short video to donate a few cents and get access to the rewards. You can also complete free offers and surveys to donate. Go to the Pokemon Center's Funding Rewards page to watch the video or complete the offers.
Questions?
If you have any questions at all, email me at support@sndgames.com
Common Questions:
- What if my paypal email is different from my PTD2 email? How will I get the prizes to my PTD2 account?
- Easy! When you make a donation we will reply with a code to your paypal email. On your PTD2 email you can use the code in the near future to activate your prizes. So the paypal email does NOT need to match your ptd email since you will just need the code itself.
- It has been more than 24 hours since my donation but I haven't received any emails?
- First check your Junk Folder for any emails from us. Second if you have nothing on your Junk Folder or you accidentally deleted it then email us at sam@sndgames.com with your paypal email and we will get you your code.
Please allow us up to 24 Hours to process your donation. Cosmoids Early Alpha will begin next week. Hold on to your codes until then. If you haven't received your code and it has been more than 24 hours then check your Junk Folder for the email. Also add orders@sndgames.com to your contacts so that it won't enter your junk folder.
One of the most requested things to add to the game is a way to evolve pokemon that need a high friendship value to evolve. This week I hope to bring that into the game.The way I will implement it is that you can buy a friendship item in the pokemon center using snd coins or daily coins to increase their happiness. Once their happiness is high enough you can evolve that pokemon without having to level up!
Evolution Stones
Just like happiness it's time to add in Evolution Stones. These will also be acquired using daily coins or snd coins.
New Daily Coin Activity
Because we are adding new items to buy with daily coins we will be adding at least one new daily coin activity that you can do to earn your daily coins. I don't have the exact details of it figured out yet but I will talk about it more as the week progresses.
An Unown Problem and a Hidden Power Solution
So Story wise on PTD2 the next spot is the Ruins of Alph which feature the mysterious Unown pokemon. In the original games you would have an Unown for every letter in the alphabet and for ! and ?. The way PTD2 is coded does not support having these different forms so I run into the problem of how I'm going to do it. Unown also learn only one attack called Hidden Power. This move changes depending on the Individual Values of your Pokemon. IV is something that I don't have in PTD2 either. So here I am with two things that don't really fit what I have here. One solution is to add these features into the game but that will take a long time and it's not something I had planned to do. So instead I came up with my own solution. Many might not like it but it is how it's going to be.
So basically the solution is that your Unown will not have a specific form. His form will be randomize every time you play the game. So when you log in the Unown will pick a random letter and become that form while you are playing. Next time you log in it will again randomly pick which form. The same thing will happen with the move Hidden Power. It will change it's type and attack power randomly when you start a battle. So every battle you could get a different type and power but once the battle is going it will stay the same.
Mystery Gift Shelmet
Last week you guys choose Karrablast as your Bug Mystery Gift but as many of you know and mentioned you need Shelmet to make Karrablast evolve. So this week we will get Shelmet and evolutions will be possible! All rejoice!
Funder's prize Shiny Rayquaza
So Rayquaza won the poll and this week I will work on giving those out at the end of the week. Stay tuned!
Cosmoids Evolution
Cosmoids is still under development, I think when I say something like that a lot of you might imagine me and our artist putting many hours into it but the reality is that there aren't enough hours in the day to really give each project a lot of time. The development that is happening for Cosmoids are different conversations about how the game should play. What changes do we want to make from the PTD formula? How should we present changing moves during a battle? Talking to artist about needing a specific designs, getting updates about their progress. The actual work going on is me making some graphics and starting to put together the basic programming for the game that will be the foundation for the project. There is so much to do but so little time, especially when I'm working on PTD2.
Other ways to donate
UPDATE: You can now donate by watching a short video ad or completing free offers and surveys. You get access to the Cosmoids Alpha once that is released and you can eventually accumulate enough to earn other rewards.Go the the Pokemon Center's Funding Rewards page to watch them or complete the offers.
So let's look at the specifics for this week!
Weekly Progress
My Status: Not Working.
PTD 2 Alpha v1.34.1 Released!
- Mystery Gift- Shelmet!
- Added Shelmet and Karrablast Evolution when traded for eachother
- New Pokemon
- Graphics
- Stats
- Move List
- Evolutions
- Add to Breeding Center
- Add to Trading Center
- New Attacks
- Dark Pulse
- Detect
- Metal Claw
- Bone Rush
- DoubleSlap
- Bide
- Struggle Bug
- Mega Drain
- Hidden Power
- Acid Spray
- Double Team
- Quick Guard
- Twister
- Crunch
- Hyper Voice
- New Abilities
- Justified
- Hydration
- Overcoat
- Sticky Hold
- Air Lock
- Fixed 1v1 Ekans Battle
- New Story Level
- New Map
- Ruins Of Alph Outside
- Ruins Of Alph Inside
- Battle Layout
- Unown Map
- Police Map
- Battle Waves
- Unown Map
- Police Map
- Testing New Moves and Pokemon
- New Daily Activity - Breed a pokemon!
- Friendship
- Implementing item in-game
- Implementing in Pokemon Center - Item Store
- Evolution Stones
- Implementing item in-game
- Implementing in Pokemon Center - Item Store
Cosmoids PreAlpha v0.01 Progress
- Level 1 (0%)
- Graphics (0%)
- Backgrounds (60%)
- Title Screen (100%)
- Authentication Screen (0%)
- Room (100%) - Movie Scene
- Island (100%) - Movie Scene
- Level 1 (0%) - Island Path Area
- Units (100%)
- Boy (100%)
- Caterpillar (100%)
- Moth (100%)
- Man (100%)
- Attacks (0%)
- Bug Repellant Bomb (0%)
- Programming (30%)
- Framework (100%) - Basic code that handles changing screens, adding popups, mouse clicks, keyboard input and running the game.
- Title Screen (100%)
- Authentication Screen (0%)
- Movie Scenes (100%)
- Tutorial (0%)
- Level 1 (0%)
- Attacks (0%)
- Bug Repellant Bomb (0%)
- Tiny Bites (0%)
- Waves (0%)
- Win Screen (0%)
- Lose Screen (0%)
- Pre-Level Information screen (0%)