There were numerous bug fixes and balancing issues that had to be addressed, but after what seems to have been forever – the final product is before us all. Several alpha testers have sent in their set of suggestions to me on a regular basis and due to their support I believe this game has become that much more greater.

You can download the game here:

Here are some of the changes and bug fixes:

• Changed Background
  • Title Page: Charcoal like drawing to 3D imagery
  • Game Page: Replaced with a gradient background with an accented menu.
• Added Awards Menu
  • Allows player to access Highscores menu and Achievements menu.
• Highscore Menu
  • Displays user’s high score
  • Reset button to reset user’s highscore.
• Achievements Menu
  • 12 unique Achievements have been added for re playability such as the following:
    • Claustrophobia: Build only of side A
    • Spartan Soul: 1st Cell 100 enemies
    • Mammonite: Never sell a tower
  • Reset button to reset user’s achievements
  • An achievement to allow access to the Editor Menu.
• Editor Menu
  • Allows user to change the stats of each tower.
  • Allows to save changes
  • Allows user to revert to default settings with reset.
• Mechanics Menu
  • Describes the mechanics of game
• Credits Menu
  • All users who have alpha tested the game have been mentioned in the credits.
• Game Fixes and Changes:
  • Wonder Tower has been added.
    • No attack
    • It increases a slight chance of playing against a legendary boss
    • Cannot be sold
    • Increases Point and Score when an enemy is killed with a 1st Cell Bonus Award.
  • Towers have been balanced.
  • Enemies have been balanced.
  • Two legendary Bosses have been added.
    • Legendary bosses are rare and have a very small chance of appearing after the game ends.
    • Legendary bosses chances of appearing can be increased by having more Wonder Towers on the field.
  • 20 Levels have been implemented.
  • Level 21 and 22: Beholds a Legendary Boss that can be accessed to by a very rare chance.
  • Blue Enemies can not be slowed
  • Red Enemies are much faster
  • Achievements can be achieved only by beating the game.
  • Slow Towers now have a smarter AI. Once a target is frozen, it will seek the next closest target.
  • Changed the upgrade time to instant due to a memory error.

As you can see the changes from version 0.9 to 1.0 was immense and huge. My hope is that you will enjoy this game as much as I have creating it during my free time.

If you would like to support me as I continue creating these games there is a PayPal donation button on the bottom and I will greatly appreciate it if you can help me out.

Thanks again, for everyone who has supported this project. Enjoy.

p.s. You can follow me also on Twitter @ 2souldesign

It’s here! v0.9 The game has gone through some significant changes. First of all, there were some features that were missing such as: high scores, restart, and level based increments.

Here are some screenshots of some of the new aspects of the game:

One of the harder things to do as the developer is create a really balanced game. So in an effort to balance it thoroughly I decided to let the alpha testers decide upon a balanced game using the native editor menu. All the stats can be modified to the players wanting. Of course, while the goal is to make the game more balanced, I’m sure a lot will have some fun making some over powered towers “free.”

Selected towers will now be marked with the red highlight and all levels will be started once the GO button is pressed.

Here are some of the bugs I’m currently working on:

• Upgrading animation bugs when the user selects another building before the previously active tower finishes its animation.
• Random tower AI quirks.

Here are the list of upgrades made on the game:

• Added Main Menu Background
• Added Editor Menu
  • Towers can be edited and customized
• Added Selected Tower Highlight
• Added Incremented Levels
• Added a Restart Button
• Added Highscore
• Changed the balance of some “hard” enemies
• Changed the economics of the game: easier money
• “First cell bonus” now gives you extra money as well as points
  • A good strategy is to kill the mob as fast as you can to get more income.
• Changed the top information look with gradient

Once I hear feedback from my alpha testers, I will be implementing the final default enemy set and tower stats and will allow everyone into the v1.0 beta release

Thanks all for the wait,

santoki

No one likes lag. As a developer and a gamer myself – I hate lag. In the recent changes to make the playing field a little more “variety like,” maze/twist and turns, the game became unplayable. This was a bit of a sad down turn for me as I was hoping that the game would be able to still withhold.

The map above went through a standard test and it failed. While it was playable for the first few enemies, once a fourth tower was added, the lag of the game was unbearable. This may very well be the Achilles heal I never wanted to face from the beginning of this project. I may have to in the end alter the map and/or stick to the one way non-maze map.

There was a suggestion made having non-attacking dummy towers and that is what I’m currently trying to make, but it is proving to be programming intensive on my part. I have never done strict path-like AI programming so this will be a very tricky problem to program.

If all else fails however, I feel that the level with the ‘H’ shape still manages to be “OK” for a beta release.

Santoki

It’s been almost a week, but I’ve been waiting for all the alpha testers to try out the game and give me any form of suggestions and/or comments. So now that the wait is over, I decided to sort out all the similar suggestions and comments and show it all to you.

It’s been almost a week, but I’ve been waiting for all the alpha testers to try out the game and give me any form of suggestions and/or comments. So now that the wait is over, I decided to sort out all the similar suggestions and comments and show it all to you.

• Restart button
  • Instead of pressing the play/pause button, it was unanimous that it would be far more convenient to go back in game.
• Breaks between levels
  • The continuous flow of enemies definitely made the game harder, a break to signify a level was requested.
• Highscore
  • It’s always nice to know what your previous score was.
• Cursor of what tower is currently selected
  • Sometimes there might be two identical leveled towers and you may not know which one, a cursor would definitely help the problem.
• Easier Enemies
  • The black enemy with a DEF of 5 and almost double HP of a green enemy caused many to loose several life.
  • The enemies in general were difficult to destroy.
• Sound for a new level/enemy passing/enemy destroyed
  • I will have to experiment on this, but it should help your ego as your towers defeat the enemy one by one
• Tower Upgrades
  • Time: To make the game more challenging a tower being upgraded may make you think twice.
  • Cost: It was a fact, the towers were expensive.
  • Damage: It was overpowered and unrealistic
• Upgrade Speed tower
  • It was a fact, it was fast, but not worth it at all versus the shot tower. The damage was too weak.
• Slow Tower
  • The high cost of the tower and the extremely slow speed made this tower completely a waste.
• Target-fire Option
  • It was suggested that a target fire ability be made (Shoot weakest HP, Shoot highest HP, Shoot closest)
• Exit Animation
  • The enemies simply disappear. A suggestion was made that an animation should be implemented.
• Low Income
  • The game was through a depression. Although the demand was high, the income was scarce.
• Mazes Maps
  • Playing on the same board may get boring, it was suggested that the board be a free for all maze made by the user.

Those were all really good suggestions. I would personally love to implement them all, but knowing that some implementations might lag the s9 I will have to be careful and strategic. There are some changes I know must be made immediately, but in the long run, I would like to see most of these changes implemented.

I will be updating these changes this weekend and hopefully have a v.09 ready for my alpha testers for a final check up before a v1.0 release.

Thank you to my alpha testers, if you have contributed in any way or form in suggestions I will be crediting your alias names in future releases.

Santoki

Today the alpha testers received (or should have received) the latest version of the tower defense game. I know it says v5 on the screen, but it really is v.08 :]

There’s been a few improvements over the game.

• Added a Go button to begin whenever the user is ready for the wave.
• Selling a tower before game start will not receive full money back.
• Selling after game begins will allow the player to receive only 85% of the full cost
• Added a Green, Red and Black enemy
  • Green enemies are the most basic kind
  • Red are speedy
  • Black are defense and HP monsters
• Color coded some of the stats
• 1st cell bonus points
  • Whenever you kill a monster (ball) before they cross the second square you will receive a 1st cell bonus point.
• Gold awarding: A new algorithm has been worked out so that a player received 3x as much more gold for killing a black ball and 1.5x more for killing a red ball.
• Changed the range icon from an eye to an RSS like symbol (radio wave).

If you are an alpha tester, please e-mail me your input!

Thanks,

Santoki

EDIT: oops, I did forget to mention that this is the “hardest” mode available. I set it as default, because I was just that good The beta release will have the easier option. :] – haha.

To the alpha testers, the testing will commence sometime this week.

The alpha testing will mainly consist of weighing the ratios: the cost and rate of towers, the enemy and other balancing issues.

EDIT: CLOSED! 8-19-09

If you are reading this post right now (to be taken down as soon as people fill up [20] spots), it means you are eligible for alpha testing Tower Defense v0.3!

Hurry, there’s only spot for 20!

If you would like to be one of the first to play this game please follow the rules below.

How to apply:

1. Download or view a copy of the Terms and Conditions here.
2. Read it!
3. Apply for it. (Correctly, it’s all in the Terms and Condition)
4. Send in an application.
5. Be one of the twenty (20) alpha testers on queue.

Good Luck!

If you’ve missed the chance, or was one away from the alpha list, don’t worry the game itself will be released very shortly as a beta.

Santoki

EDIT: CLOSED! 8-19-09

I was able to add several towers without compromising much on game lag! This is good news.

At the pace I’m currently going, I expect the alpha to be very soon when a level can be considered “finished.”

Here are some screen shots of the game as of now: (ignore the v0.1, it’s really v0.2)

The blast tower in action. Get that mob before it leaves the screen!

The 4 unique towers ready to stomp any mob! To the left you can see the information box regarding the slow tower.

The icons under the menu are as follows:

• tower cost
• tower attack
• tower range
• tower speed

blue button: upgrade tower

red button: sell tower

I’m already enjoying this game.

Santoki