Latest Mobile Games: May 2018

Saturday, May 26, 2018

Path to Cosmoids TD Prototype

Hello again,

With Cosmoids TD I want to return to writing weekly blog post to give you a glimpse of the development process. So here we go.

The first step of making a game is to choose a genre or multiple genres that you want your game to be. For Cosmoids TD that genre is obviously Tower Defense with a mix of "Pokemon" which is a Role Playing Game.

This provides a sort of guideline for building your game. After you have figured this out you can have a good idea of what are the different components that your game will need. These components will be a part of your first prototype.

Your first prototype should give you an early glimpse of how your game will play. At this point you shouldn't care too much about graphics since you are still figuring out the controls and feel that you want.

Prototype Work In Progress

So here are the first items I have for the Cosmoid TD Prototype and my progress on them:

Create new project in Unity (100% Completed)
Create Player Avatar Graphic (100% Completed)
Put Player Avatar on Level (100% Completed)
Player Avatar must be able to move to different spots on the map (100% Completed)
Create Cosmoid Starter Graphic (100% Completed)
Put Cosmoid Unit on Level (100% Completed)
Enemy Units must be able to travel down a path (100% Completed)
Create UI for showing the player's Cosmoids (100% Completed)
Be able to place your Cosmoids into a spot in the map (100% Completed)
Add a basic Attack (100% Completed)
Enemy units can take damage and have a life bar (100% Completed)
Be able to change a units spot on the map (See next blog for more progress)
Be able to capture a weak enemy unit (See next blog for more progress)

As I work on the game I will update this page, on my next blog post I will post about some ideas I have that will make Cosmoids TD different from Pokemon Tower Defense.

Thanks for reading and playing my games! See you next time! As always, let me know what you think!

Saturday, May 19, 2018

The path to a new Journey!

Hi everyone,

It's been over a year since my last blog post and I have to admit it feels a little weird, and nerve wracking, but at the same time exciting. So much has happened between then and now that changed and in some way liberated me. So I wanted to share some of that with all of you as well as talk about this new journey that I want to take. So let's get started!

I'm not one to tell a long story so I will cut this pretty short. In the middle of last year I had some medical complications that restricted me from sitting down for long periods of time, and that really impacted the amount of time I could work on games. It was a frustrating period as my full time job is also programming and so that required a lot of sitting. (A standing desk was not an option at the time for my office but has since become an option.)

After trying many solutions that didn't end up working, I ended up getting an out patient surgery that solved my problem. I was relieved and was ready to keep working on games again, but suddenly I got a big news announcement from my wife. We were expecting a baby!

This is Caleb! Our baby boy!

Now it wasn't a complete surprise as we were trying to have a baby but we just didn't expect it so quickly! A lot of time has passed since then, 6 months to be more exact, and we know that we will have a boy and name him Caleb. Many of you might be a long way from having a child or might not be wanting to have kids (and that's perfectly fine) but for me having a child has actually been a dream of mine, and I'm looking forward to it.

The thing about having a child is that it really makes you think about your future and what kind of legacy you want to leave behind. This brings me to my decision and new path which I want for us to go in.

For a long time I've wanted to do an original game using Cosmoids. Cosmoids are pokemon like creatures that a group of artist and I came up with a while ago. The whole point was to make an original game using these creatures but for some reason or another it never happened. I always felt a responsibility to PTD, and it honestly felt like an obligation. Having a child has reminded me that this is not an obligation but something I do out of passion. Something that I should enjoy doing. I know that it may make some people disappointed or mad but I just can't work on PTD3 any more. The main issue with PTD is that I can't really share it with the world. It has to exist in sort of a shadow and that's not something that I want. I want to make a game and share it with everybody, have it be on different platforms (Flash has been slowly dying for years now, which is sad).

And so I've decided that I want to make a Tower Defense game like PTD but with Cosmoids. I believe that Tower Defense games can still be fresh and fun.

So in closing I want to say "Thank You". Whether you just started playing PTD or you've been around for a while. Thanks! If you are interested in being a part of this new journey I would love to have you, your feedback is invaluable to me and I would love to hear it.

So as always.. let me know what you think!

Sincerely,
Sam