Weekly Progress 9/25: New Stuff! Starting locations for Creature Universe!

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

Greetings! Welcome to another amazing week of Sam and Dan games! Last week we almost completed our goal of releasing both a 1v1 level and a story level but we didn't quite make it. I did release it yesterday night which is pretty close I guess. This week again we will attempt to do a Story levels among other things! We love to give you guys content and we love making it. We will also talk a little bit about the starting towns/cities/villages for the first 3 starters in Creature Universe TD. Sound good? Great! Let's get to it.

New Story Level
This week we will finally get out of New Bark Town and into Route 29! You might have noticed that once you defeat a battle you aren't able to repeat this battle over and over like you could on PTD1. Well on Route 29 you will be able to repeat battles, catch new pokemon, hunt for shinys! I'm looking forward to making this and finally be able to see pokemon walking around in the wild instead of just having random battles. You will also get your PokePad which will act as a pokedex, a computer and it will also heal your pokemon between battles. Along with this I'll be working on getting your first party pokemon to walk behind you. If I have time I'll be adding the first Mystery Gift and the Trading Center for PTD2. Lots to do!

Look! 1v1 is evolving!
I've decided to make some big changes to 1v1, remove a lot of the grinding and focus more on strategy and choices. This requires some shifts on how things work. I'm still thinking about it so not everything is finalized yet. But here are some of the things that will change:

• There will be no more experience gained from defeating the enemy.
• You will level up by using rare candies that are given out by beating levels.
• When you use a checkpoint you will get the same amount of candies that you would have received if you have beaten all the way up to that point. So you can skip the previous levels and still have a powerful team.
• Every pokemon will now start at level 5 and evolutions will not be available for unlocking.

I'm still figuring out what exactly I will do with the coins, but I have a few days to think about it. My main goal is to make it so it doesn't feel like you need to grind for the coins to be able to beat a level. 

So that is a little preview of what we have coming for you this week. Check out the weekly progress below to see how I'm doing during the week. I also added a new "My Status" which will tell you if I'm currently working or not.

Weekly Progress:

Alpha v1.191 - Bug Fix: Released!

• Fixed a bug with the pokeballs not showing up unless you saved and reloaded the profile after receiving them from Prof. Elm (100%)

Alpha v1.19 - Route 29, PokePad, Bug Fixes: Released! Yes, Shiny Pokemon can show up in the actual battles in Route 29 but not in the map itself.

• Fixed some NPC typos
• Slightly Decreased the HP boost on your rival's starter
• Made the pokemon in your first party slot follow you in the map - Fun stuff but you won't be able to talk to it like in the other games.
• Fixed Map Issue in Elm's Lab on Story Mode
• Fixed Issue with Speed resetting between waves in Story Mode
• Made Story level music stop playing when you leave story mode
• New Story Level - Route 29
• Level Intro
• Before you get the PokePad
• After you get the PokePad
• Implement PokePad
• New Map
• Battle Layout
• Swarm Layout - Normal Tower defense fight
• Single Layout - 1v1 style fight
• Battle Waves - Both 1v1 and normal version for each pokemon
• Pidgey
• Rattata
• Sentret
• Pokemon Map Behavior - how the pokemon will behave in the map
• Pidgey
• Rattata
• Sentret
• Level Ending
• Added a Spawning System - This will control how many and where each pokemon spawn in a route. 
• Saving Extra Info for Pokemon
• Show Shiny Popup and slow down speed when a shiny shows up
• After closing a popup window the previous screen will now properly get back focus - When learning a new move or evolving the screen would lose focus when coming back. Not allowing you to use the keyboard shortcuts. This is now fixed.

Creature Universe Starting Locations!
 Like I've mentioned before each starting creature will have it's own starting location instead of have all 3 available in one town. What this means is that we can really do something special for the starting locations. Giving each of them their own unique style and appearance. For Creature Universe we really wanted to do something different. Instead of realistic towns that are... well kinda boring. We really wanted to do something interesting for each town. Below I will show you some sketches that our artist made to create the mood of each starting location. Keep in mind that these are concept sketches they don't represent the final look of the locations. Also some of these are there to strictly show an idea and not intended to look amazing. Keep that in mind!

First is the grass starter zone. The grass starter is the chameleon, they mostly live on trees so why not make the town live on top of trees. Not shown in the concept is the flooding that occurs during the rainy season which is the reason they build higher up and the water that is under the trees.

Work In Progress Concept of the Grass Starting zone

Then we have the fire starter zone. This place is more industrial, more gritty, it's a mining town. The fire starter zone will have a lush reservation area that the creatures live in that will be very contrasting with the rest of the zone. The fire koala family helps with refining the metals and treasures found in the mines. They also help create the steam that gives power to the town. I don't have a picture as the one I had didn't really show off the town it self but a mining cave.

Lastly the water starter zone. This place is more outdoors in a place surrounded by mountains. Not shown in the concept is a zone that is dried up due to recent droughts. This zone will be divided between a rich part and a poor part. The water buffalo need water to use water so even with them around they don't completely solve the drought problem as they can only use water in their supply to defend themselves and keep themselves hydrated while doing work like pushing carts and what not.

Work In Progress Concept of the Water Starter Zone

So there you have it! Three different concepts for the starting locations. Remember these were just for ideas and should give you a little sense of what each location will be like.

That is all we have for you this week. As always let us know what you think!

Weekly Progress, New 1v1 and Story Level! Types for Creature Universe!

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!

Hi everyone! Last week we had the second level of the story mode released. We got to walk around and talk to the citizens of New Bark Town and go on a little quest to save our starter. This is but the tip of the ice berg for story mode and hopefully you got a taste of what is to come. Did you like it better than the PTD1 style of just watching an intro playing the level and watching an ending? Let me know! Your feedback here in the comments, twitter, emails, facebook and on the forums help shape this game. Like I've said before I spend a good amount of time reading everything you guys write. I might not have enough time to answer them all like I used to but I do the best that I can to answer ones that are crucial or easy enough for a quick answer.

Okay so moving on to this week we will have both a new 1v1 level and a new story level! Lots of new content coming your way.

For both the Story and 1v1 level I will be adding some new technology to the game engine. I've been meaning to add this for a while but haven't had a lot of time. The new technology will be for the trainer you are battling against. Usually they will bring out a pokemon and you defeat that pokemon then they bring out their next one. It's very similar to how the waves work in PTD1 because I'm using the same engine for the trainers that I use in the waves. The new tech will be to allow for the trainers to have a team like you do and to be able to switch out pokemon in battle just like you can. Which will make the fights more interesting and dynamic.

Other than the new tech, 1v1 will now be headed to Route 3, we got some trainers to fight there and also a new pokemon to unlock. Can you guess who it is? All I can say is that it likes to sing a lot.

Speaking of sing, I will be making some changes to how the sleep mechanic works. Previously it would just put you to sleep for a certain amount of time regardless of how much damage you took. Now it will put you to sleep for a longer amount of time but taking damage will most likely cause you to wake up. Making it better for use against somebody that is attack you.

For the Story mode you will be challenged to your first fight. Speaking of this fight I've had reports of people finding an interesting way of leveling up your starter past level 7. This is pretty much my mistake so don't worry if you did it, I will be fixing it in the next version so it should no longer be possible.

Speaking of leveling, I also want to announce a new feature (inspired by my playing of Guild Wars 2)! In PTD1 you could very easily just level up enough so that a level was incredibly easy. In PTD2 there will be a limit as to how high you can be for each level to preserve that level's difficulty (to a point). So for example, lets say your starter is level 12 and you go into Route 29 (The first route in Johto). That means you would massively out level this stage. Most pokemon on this level will be level 2-4. What the game will do is temporarily turn your level 12 pokemon into a level 6 pokemon. Your pokemon will keeps its attacks, evolution, and abilities but it will have stats like it was level 6. Notice that the cap is higher than the highest level in the area but it is still within a certain range. Also since you get to keep your attacks and evolution you will still have an advantage. It just makes it so you can't simply steam roll everything once you get level 100 pokemon. What do you think?

I also plan to bring out the first Mystery Gift! We had a poll a while back and the first Mystery Gift for PTD 2 will be Zorua! Mystery Gift codes will be done a tiny bit different, you will still go to PlayTowerDefenseGames.com and try to figure out the code and you will also enter the code on that site's version of PTD2. Before you could go to any site and enter it but now it is exclusive to their site. Since most people would just find the code on a different site and just use it straight off without visiting our great sponsor.

Lastly I'll also be working on the PTD2 Pokemon Center. It will be very similar to the PTD1 but I still have to do a lot infrastructure changes. I don't think it will be out this week since I have so much to do but I hope to get a good amount done and who knows maybe it will be out too.

Alright so that was quite a bit of info. Let's look at the Weekly Progress list next. Also remember I update this while I'm working so make sure to come back every once in a while to see how I'm doing :)

Weekly Progress:

Alpha v1.18 New Story Mode Battle: Released now!

• Fixed a bug with the Ability Intimidate that was preventing it from being applied to enemies that swapped into the battle
• Fixed a bug that is preventing the Arena Trap Ability and other attacks that trap you from working on Enemie
• Made it so Arena Trap will not work on pokemon that are immune to ground attacks
• New Level Modifier Feature - This only applies for Story mode and not 1v1 mode.
• New Story Level
• New Character
• Quest Intro
• Properly load your pokemon to the profile
• Properly saving Pokemon Information like leveling up, learning new moves and gaining experience
• Get Pokemon Unique ID after saving
• Get and Give Pokemon Position 
• Sending Info
• Receiving Info
• NPC AI for battle
• Battle Layout
• Battle Waves
• Quest Ending
• Implementing a level cap at 10 for Story Mode
• Lowering any pokemon that went over 10 back to 10
• Implementing in the server
• Implementing in the client

Alpha v1.17.1 Critical Bug Fix: Released now! 

•  Fixed a bug that was preventing players from completing the second quest on Story mode 

Alpha v1.17 New 1v1 Level: Released now!  

• Added Sponsor Intro
• Made starters have a chance to be both female and male instead of just male
• Fixed a bug that allowed you to keep leveling up your starter
• Moved the Back button in the story level to a different spot
• Made it so if you aren't facing an NPC then you won't talk to it
• Made it so bumping into an NPC will now make it stop and face you
• Changed the Police officers text for when you are a female character
• Limited the amount of potions you can have on you in 1v1 mode to 15 - This won't be like the rare candy where you can only buy 2. This means that you can only have a max of 15 on you at a time but if you use any of them you can go back to the max for the next level.  
• Made the Sleep status effect last 12 second but any damage taken has a 50% chance to awake up the target
• Increased the cost of Kakuna, Metapod, Beedrill, and Butterfree in 1v1 mode  to 25, 25, 45, and 45 respectively
• Added New Pokemon to the game (3)
• Graphics (100%)
• Shiny Graphics (100%)
• Shadow Graphics (100%)
• Stats (100%)
• Attack list (100%)
• Evolution Information (100%)
• Added New Attacks to the game
• Sing
• Pound
• Disable
• Wrap
• Glare
• Fake Tears
• Fury Swipes
• Added New Abilities to the game
• Cute Charm
• Friend Guard
• Intimidate
• Unnerve
• Illusion
• Added Gym Leader Checkpoints to 1v1 - Once you reach a gym leader you will be able to start playing at that gym leader battle.
• Added New Trainer AI Feature - Very basic trainer AI, when his/her pokemon faints he will take out the next one. Implementing feature into the game engine.
• Increased Coin rewards for any level that gave less than 20 coins to 20 coins - This is help reduce the feeling that you need to grind a lot for coins. This also helps balance the fact that you can only hold a certain number of potions on you in this update. I'll be keeping an eye on the numbers and will tweak as necessary.
• Added New 1v1 Level
• Intro
• Level Layout
• Level Waves
• Previous Level Ending Text
• Added New 1v1 Trainer AI - This is the AI for the trainer in the new level.
• Changed PTD 1 link on the main screen to point to the sponsor's website.

Alright now let's talk a bit about Creature Universe TD. Many of you might not know but Dan and I hold team meetings every week. We chat with our artist about Creature Universe, we see what everybody is working on and talk about the design of the game. So for the last few weeks we have been talking about the types that we were going to use for Creature Universe. This hasn't been an easy task. We all had different opinions. Some of us wanted to remove some types. Others wanted to add even more types. In the end we started from the beginning and asked ourselves which types MUST be around. After we figured that out we went ahead and added some new ones, combined some other ones and even removed some. Here is the list of the types that will be in Creature Universe! Granted this list could still be tweaked in the future. But for now this is what we have decided.

Normal/Neutral - Unlike Pokemon this type will actually be Neutral to all other types. It has no weaknesses but also no advantages. This type will also be more limited than I pokemon where a bunch of creatures had this type along with another one.
Fire/Flame - Pretty self explanatory.
Water/Aquatic - See Fire.
Grass/Plant - See Water.
Electric/Lightning - See Grass.
Air - This type is pretty much what flying is in pokemon.
Ice - See Electric.
Ground/Earth - This type combines what pokemon would have as Ground and Rock into one type.
Metal - This is kinda like Steel, but it can be different metals. Basically very strong and sharp.
Toxic - Like Poison type in pokemon but a lot better.
Dark - Like Dark in Pokemon but this is the type you would see ghost show up in.
Light - This type is something completely new. It's the counterpart of Dark. You would see more magical creatures like psychic show up with this type.
Mythical - This is the type for legendary creatures. The plan we have for it is that it is very defensive against all types except for Neutral, Light and Dark. It also has no offensive advantages.

So these are out types! Something old, something new, something combined. It's got a little bit of everything. The only types advantage we have figured out are Mythical and Neutral since those are really different from the rest. We are still working on specific type charts for the rest so stay tuned for that later on. Or what kind of type charts can you guys come up with? I would love to see them with explanations as to why you did what you did.

Also creatures will have almost like secondary "types" we are calling it species. For example your creature can be a type Fire but it can also be a bug species. Being a bug will carry certain advantages or disadvantages. Other species might be like "reptile", "mammal". We are still working on this part but I just wanted to mention it so you guys knew about it.

Well that was a lot of info! I hope you guys have a good week this week and as always, let me know what you think!

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!