The Purge

Want to get the Shiny Starters? Shiny Zorua? 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!

Welcome to the Sam and Dan Games Developer Blog!

PTD2 Trainer Pass! Get it today!

A great way to support us while getting amazing rewards!

So let's talk about what you get:

• Increased chance for Shiny/Shadow pokemon to appear in the wild
• No ads while you play the game
• Get a copy of shiny giveaway pokemon automatically every week
• Faster Breeding - Breed with only one visit instead of 2, essentially breed something everyday!
• Faster Leveling - Get twice the experience on every battle!
• Giveaways for pass holders only

You get all of this for only $1.99! One time payment! Get it today!

The Purge
Why can't I play the game? What is this purge that Sam keeps talking about in Twitter? Is my account going to be purged? Will you purge my account? Those are the questions on everybody's mind.

I'm here to answer. For years now the PTD1 and 2 database (where all the user accounts, pokemon, trading information are stored) has been pilling up without any sort of maintenance done on them. The result is databases FULL of data that is no longer used and all it does is slow everything down.

A week ago the servers just couldn't handle it anymore and strange problems started occurring in the game. After talking to my webhost's support team. They told me the problem resided in my side, it was not a hardware issue, and so the PURGE started.

Over 6 months ago I created a code that will write down everybody who logged in ptd2 and stored it in a list. The purpose was that after 6 months we would purge out any other inactive accounts. After talking it over with Dan we decided to also save accounts that had bought the trainer pass or had snd coins (even if they hadn't played for 6 months.)

This would ensure that players that are active can have an even faster experience and all server problems can be resolved a lot quicker.

However one does not simply purge millions upon millions of pokemon in one day. It is a process that takes planning and more importantly TIME.

So I set about creating a script that would automate the whole process. My first attempt could only delete 10 accounts every 20 seconds. We have 7 million account! Lets do the math!

First lets figure out how many attempts it would take if you only do 10 at a time. So 7million divided by 10 = 700,000. That's 700,000 attempts at 20 seconds per attempt. How many seconds is that?

700,000 times 20 = 14,000,000 seconds! Now how many days is that? 14,000,000 seconds / 60 (seconds per minute) /60 (minutes per hour)/24 (hours per day) = about 162 days!

So at that rate the whole purge would take about 162 days!!!!!!

So I worked on making the whole thing faster, instead of deleting a whole account at once I would go thru each database and delete each one individually. This turned out to be a much faster method (can handle over 3000 entries per 10 seconds and many times even more!), but it will still take some time.

So what I will do is update you on how many databases are left to purge that way we can keep track and see how close we are getting. Please not that some databases are smaller than others so some will go a lot faster, some might take a whole day.

So please bare with me and give a moment of silence to all the purge pokemon. Thank you!

Until then I will be working on Designing Champions TD, that means figuring the game out so that we have a clear idea of how long it will take to finish. My hope is that we can finish Champions in 6 months! What do you think?

PTD 2 - Trainer VS Complete!

• Pick your avatar (100%) - from the ones you have unlocked
• See more opponent info (100%) - See their wins and their trainer ID
• Win Streak Mechanic (100%) - Win 7 battles before losing 3 to win a random TM from 10!
• Win Streak TM Rewards (100%) - Win one of the following Hone Claws, Dragon Claw, Psyshock, Calm Mind, Toxic, Bulk Up, Venoshock, Sunny Day, Rain Dance, Earthquake

Purge Progress Complete!

(Most PTD2 Data is finished, except for trading data which will be last and shouldn't take very long, because all data is held at one server I can't re enable PTD2 until everything is done.)

Complete PTD1 Pokemon Storage Database 5 - about 25 million entries
Complete PTD1 Pokemon Storage Database 6
Complete PTD1 Pokemon Storage Database 7
Complete PTD1 Pokemon Storage Database 8
Complete PTD1 Pokemon Storage Database 9
Complete PTD1 Player's Items Database
Complete PTD1 Player's Achievements Database - about 200k entries
Complete PTD1 Player's Game Corner Database - about 546k entries
Complete PTD1 Player's Daily Codes Database - about 549k entries
Complete PTD1 Player's Pokedex Database - about 4 million entries
Complete PTD Player Account's Database - about 7 million entries
Complete PTD1 Trading Center Database - about 211k entries
Complete PTD2 Trading Center Database - about 600k entries

I'll be updating this during the day as the process moves from database to database. Thank you for your support!

Back in action! PTD2 update released!

Want to get the Shiny Starters? Shiny Zorua? 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!

Welcome to the Sam and Dan Games Developer Blog! Back in action!

Sam and Dan Games: Fundraiser! Phase 3
Help us keep making games and earn awesome prizes like Shiny Rayquaza and Shiny Heatran!  
Our Goal: $50,000

Back in Action!

It's good to be back! First I want to thank you all for all the kind words that you gave Zaira and I. We had a wonderful wedding and honeymoon. It was a much needed break from work. I'm fully refreshed and ready to make some content!

PTD2 Update 1.49 Released!
I just finished a new update it contains a lot of goodies for you guys and gals.

• Pokemon Size Adjustments - This was a long time coming. Usually I would resize pokemon manually and more or less estimate how big or small they should be. What I did was changed it so the sizes are automatically figured out using programming instead of me doing it manually. From 0 to 10 feet units will scale at a faster pace than from 10 or higher feet. If it all scales the same you end up with giant Steelix. So I used rattata to figure out 1 foot and your character represents 5 feet. Then I took my Steelix size and made that the measure for how the bigger pokemon should scale. The outcome is that sizes should be more consistent now. Some pokemon got smaller and some got bigger but should be accurate to the game.
• Soft Level Cap Increased to 36 - Added 11 new attacks to reach the 36 soft level cap. Please note that pokemon that can learn these attacks will be able to learn them even if they are learned at a higher level than the soft cap.
• X-Scissor, Megahorn, Shadow Claw, Flash Cannon, Dizzy Punch, Psycho Cut, Whirlpool, Stone Edge, Venoshock, Blaze Kick, and Sludge Bomb.
• The promised Giveaway Pokemon - This coming week I will be giving away Shiny Tepig, Gothita and Electrike.
• PTD1 to PTD2 Transfers - 15 new pokemon to transfer over! Go to the PTD1 Pokemon Center to transfer your pokemon from ptd1 to ptd2. Keep in mind you can't transfer them back to PTD1 once you transfer them over.
• Ponyta, Rapidash, Magnemite, Magneton, Farfetch'd, Doduo, Dodrio, Seel, Dewgong, Grimer, Muk, Shellder, Cloyster, Drowzee, and Hypno.

That's all I have for today, stay tuned for our next blog on Monday! As always let me know what you think!

Moving Forward one Step at a time

Want to get the Shiny Starters? Shiny Zorua? 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!

Welcome to the Sam and Dan Games Developer Blog! Moving forward one step at a time.

Sam and Dan Games: Fundraiser! Phase 3
Help us keep making games and earn awesome prizes like Shiny Rayquaza and Shiny Heatran!  
Our Goal: $50,000

Moving Forward one step at a time

It has been almost a month since I last wrote a blog post, making Pokemon Tower Defense changed my life quite a bit but the changes in the last few months have had a greater impact on me than anything else in my life and they aren't done. What changes are you talking about Sam? The biggest change was moving out from my parent's house. The move itself wasn't that bad besides having my computers stop working for a bit. The transition has been harder. You go from a place where most of the responsibilities are split among several people living in a home to just you. You are responsible for everything and everything takes time. Time away from doing the things you were used to doing. After about a month I feel like I'm getting used to it and I'm able to split my time effectively so that I can create content for you guys and girls. My wedding in also very near (less than 2 months away) luckily we have most of the preparations done and now it will be all about the final details. It has been a fun journey and I look forward to actually getting the wedding done. For the honeymoon I will be away for 2 weeks, so there won't be any updates during that time since I won't be around. That is why I'm not taking breaks now and I try to keep pushing forward one step at a time.

This week's update

For this week I really want to keep advancing the story mode of the game. We have been stuck at one badge for such a long time! I think it's time to reach Azalea Town and get our second badge! Along the way we will travel through South Route 32, Union Cave and Route 33. There will be new pokemon to catch, a new item to buy and some new PTD1 to PTD2 transfers! 

One of the pokemon that you can catch is Slowpoke. Slowpoke will have a chance to be holding a King's rock and that will be the only way to get one for now so look out for that. You will be able to evolve Slowpoke into Slowking and Poliwhirl into Politoed by trading them with the King's Rock so look forward to that.

Also this update we will finally be adding the Cosmoid Fundraiser rewards for those who donated 10 or more they will be able to choose one of the cosmoid starters for their PTD2 collection!

As usual we will also have the mystery gift and the giveaway pokemon. Right now it looks like Poison will win this week.

Weekly Progress

Cosmoids Progress

• Design Level 8 - 11 (50%)

PTD2  v1.47.1 Released! (100%)

• Mystery Gift (100%)
• New Graphic (100%)
• Change Links (100%)
• Add code to Server (100%)
• New Pokemon (100%)
• Graphics (100%)
• Stats (100%)
• New Attacks (100%)
• Defend Order (100%)
• Heal Order (100%)
• Toxic (100%)
• New Abilities (100%)
• Wonder Guard (100%)
• Speed Boost (100%)
• Honey Gather (100%)
• Evolutions (100%)
• Add to Breeding Center (100%)
• Add to Trading Center (100%)
• Fix being able to use the running shoes with Shift before you get them (100%)
• Fixed an error in the attack Scary Face's description (100%)

PTD2 future release

• Cosmoids Fundraiser Reward (0%)
• Graphics (0%)
• Stats (0%)
• Evolution Info (0%)
• Add to Trading Center (0%)
• Game breaking glitch that won't let you fight lugia (0%)
• Fix Metal Coat not showing up before you grab it the first time (0%)
• Added a confirmation page to adopting player's pokemon (100%)

PTD2  v1.47 Released! (100%)  (Download latest version on the Game Downloads Page)

• New Pokemon (100%)
• Graphics (100%)
• Stats (100%)
• New Abilities (100%)
• Drizzle (100%)
• New Attacks (100%)
• Perish Song (100%)
• Evolution Info (100%)
• Add to Breeding Center (100%)
• Add to Trading Center (100%)
• New Item (100%)
• Graphic (100%)
• Programming (100%)
• Implement on Pokemon Center Website (100%)
• Azalea Town (100%)
• Town Music (100%)
• Map Graphic (100%)
• Triggers/Collision (100%)
• People (100%)
• Houses (100%)
• Kurt Graphic (100%)
• Map Graphic (100%)
• Triggers/Collision (100%)
• People (100%)
• Gym (100%)
• Bugsy Graphic (100%)
• Map Graphic (100%)
• Triggers/Collision (100%)
• Trainers (100%)
• Battle Maps (100%)
• Background Graphic (100%)
• Double Battle Layout (100%)
• Single Battle Layout (100%)
• Bugsy Battle Layout (100%)
• Gym Battle (100%)
• New Attacks (100%)
• Spinarak Attack (100%)
• New Pokemon AI (100%)
• Metapod's Pattern (100%)
• Scyther's Pattern (100%)
• Ariados' Pattern (100%)
• PokeMart (100%)
• New Items (100%)
• PokeCenter (100%)
• Slowpoke Well (100%)
• Map Graphic (100%)
• Triggers/Collision (100%)
• Fishing Spots (100%)
• New Pokemon Behavior (100%)
• Battle Wave (100%)
• Transfers Slowpoke and Slowbro from PTD1 to PTD2 (100%)
• Fixed a misspelling with the ability Truant's name (100%)
• Certain fights will give double experience if your pokemon is under a certain level (100%) - For example if you are below level 35 during some of the new waves you will get double experience for that pokemon to help you reach the intended level.

PTD2 v1.46.3 Released! (100%)

• Mystery Gift (100%)
• New Graphic (100%)
• Change Links (100%)
• Add code to Server (100%)
• New Pokemon (100%)
• Graphics (100%)
• Stats (100%)
• New Abilities (100%)
• Immunity (100%)
• Toxic Boost (100%)
• Truant (100%)
• New Attacks (100%)
• Slack Off (100%)
• Evolution Info (100%)
• Add to Breeding Center (100%)
• Add to Trading Center (100%)
• Added the correct music to Union Cave (100%)
• Fixed a bug with Route 33 battles not showing the current time graphic (100%)

PTD2 v1.46.2 Released! 

• Union Cave (100%)
• Map BFloor 1 (100%)
• Graphic (100%)
• Triggers/Collisions (100%)
• Trainers (100%)
• Route 33 (100%)
• Map Graphic (100%)
• Triggers/Collision (100%)
• New Wild Pokemon Battles (100%) - Higher level while pokemon with evolutions included in waves to provide more experience.
• Trainer (100%)
• Fixed a bug when switching shoes and going into a new map would cause the game to be unresponsive (100%)
• Make the Shift key toggle running shoes (100%)

PTD2 v1.46 Released! (100%)

• Mystery Gift (100%)
• New Graphic (100%)
• Change Links (100%)
• Add code to Server (100%)
• New Pokemon (100%)
• Graphics (100%)
• Stats (100%)
• New Abilities (100%)
• Poison Touch (100%)
• New Attacks (100%)
• Aqua Ring (100%)
• Poison Jab (100%)
• Poison Tail (100%)
• Poison Fang (100%)
• Evolution Info (100%)
• Add to Breeding Center (100%)
• Add to Trading Center (100%)
• Route 32 South (100%)
• Map Graphic (100%)
• Triggers/Collision (100%)
• Fishing Spots (100%)
• Trainers (100%)
• Union Cave (100%)
• New Wild Pokemon Behavior (100%) 
• Onix (100%)
• Sandshrew (Gold Exclusive) (100%)
• Battle Map (100%)
• Fishing Battle Map (100%)
• Fishing Battles (100%)
• Wild Pokemon Battles (100%)
• Map Floor 1 (100%)
• Graphic (100%)
• Hiker NPC Graphic (100%)
• Triggers/Collision (100%)
• Trainers (100%)
• Battle Waves (100%)
• Trainer Positions (100%)
• Trainer Dialog (100%)
• Fixed a bug that would make the enemy stop attacking under certain conditions (100%)
• Transfer Goldeen and Seaking from PTD1 to PTD2 (100%)

That's what is coming this week, keep checking back to see how I'm doing and as always let me know what you think!

Going to the past: The next PTD2 Story Update and more!

Want to get the Shiny Starters? Shiny Zorua? 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!

Welcome to the Sam and Dan Games Developer Blog! Coming back from chaos!

Sam and Dan Games: Fundraiser! Phase 3
Help us keep making games and earn awesome prizes like Shiny Rayquaza and Shiny Heatran!  
Our Goal: $50,000

What's New
It has been chaos, to say the least, these past couple of weeks. For the first time in my life I moved out of my parents house and into my own apartment. All of this in preparation for my wedding which is 2 short months from now! Chaos might have been a soft word. With all the moving also came computer problems. I had to take my development computer to be fixed and now my old computer is giving me trouble. I've never had this much trouble before! While I haven't been able to really sit down and work on anything my mind has not stopped thinking about what and who is making all of this possible. You guys and gals are the reason I'm able to push my life into the next stage and I'm able to wake up every day and think about making video games instead of coding something I have no interest in for somebody I don't even really know. Because of that I will give it my all as long as you guys will have me.

I did manage a few things, Cosmoids got a small update, some tweaks on the first level to make it a bit shorter and some massive changes to the tutorials so they are easier to understand and more to the point.

Speaking of Cosmoids...

Designing a game before coding it
The way I make Pokemon Tower Defense is that each week I think about what to work on next and early in the week I will make a plan, write the blog with my plan and then I try to accomplish my plan. In more detail this means I'm making it up as I go. Each week I think about where the story could go. While I have some very basic plans for the overall story, the lines of dialog and the different events that will happen are not planned out months in advance. At the most I will have an idea like having Mewthree win, and then slowly during the week I will think about how this will happen. Same with the battles, ptd1 transfers, new attacks. Having been doing this for a few years now I can see that there are benefits to this method. The main benefit is the speed that you can put things out. There are however some drawbacks to this style. I think an obvious example is the Avatars in PTD1. Your player doesn't have an avatar until later in the game. This is the result of not having time to add it initially but then eventually getting the time and figuring out how to add it in. Going back and adding it to all the previous levels would have been a big undertaking that would have stalled the game updates so I was never willing to do it. At the same thing I think it is odd to add new things as you go and having the old content not take advantage of these things.

So for Cosmoids I want to design the game in advance before I make it. What this means is that I will be coming up with the levels and moves in advance before I actually code them. Then I will see what everything looks like and be able to implements new things into the whole game instead of just adding them as I go. So far I have designed up to level 5. My goal for the game is for it to have about 40ish levels before I consider it complete.

Designing a level doesn't take a very long time but making it interesting, challenging, and fun can be quite a challenge. For Cosmoids we are following a similar formula that PTD1 has. You watch a story scene then you play the level and you watch another story scene. So the first thing you have to think about is where is your story at. What happened in the previous level, in the previous story scene and where do you want the story to go and how will it tie into the next Cosmoids you want to use on the next level. Then you think about what attacks should this new Cosmoid have and how is it different from the others. What kind of different role can it take. Finally using those new attacks you create an idea for how the level itself will play. What will be the challenge on the level. How will you test the player. Will it be a puzzle or the ability to dodge moves. Or will he have to have Cosmoids that have high defense. A lot of thought goes into making each level. So being able to focus on just the design lets you do it quick and it also lets you see the big picture quicker which can hopefully lead to the game feeling more unified.

Going to the past: The next PTD2 Story Update
It's going to be a good one! Mewthree has taken over the world with his massive clones, your friends, family and heroes are about to be captured. Celebi, the time traveling pokemon, shows up and offers you a chance to save the world but you must go to the past to change it! This update will have you going to the past. You will be able to visit the locations that you have already visited but 10 years into the past. In the world you aren't born yet and Silver is still alive! What can do you to stop the events in the future? Only time will tell.

The past will be a different place, while the maps themselves will look the same, you can expect more people to be around, and different house and buildings to be accessible.

You will be able to enter the poke mart and buy items. You will be able to enter the pokemon center and rest until night time, day time or early morning. Essentially giving you control over the time of day. There will be more trainer battles in the Routes.

Another cool feature is that you can travel back to the future! Talking to celebi from your pokepad will allow you to travel back a few moments before Mewthree took over the region, allowing you to replay old battles or talk to people in the future after finding out more about them in the past.

There is a lot of content to be added to make this update possible and I hope you guys enjoy the things I have planned.

Weekly Progress

Cosmoids Progress

• Design Level 8 (70%) - Honey Badger vs Bees
• Design Level 9 (50%) - Electric City
• Design Level 10 (50%) - Electric City 2
• Design Level 11 (50%) - Electric City 3 Boss

PTD2 v1.45 Released!

• Mystery Gift (100%)
• Graphics (100%)
• Stats (100%)
• Attacks (100%)
• Block (100%)
• Stealth Rock (100%)
• Abilities (100%)
• Soundproof (100%)
• Evolution Info (100%)
• Add to Breeding Center (100%)
• Add to Trading Center (100%)
• Bug Fix - Can no longer use items that have zero quantity (100%)
• Traveling to the past (100%) - Travel 10 years into the past to save the world! 
• Past Route 30 (100%)
• New NPC Graphics (100%)
• House 1 (100%)
• House 2 (100%)
• Trainer Battles (100%)
• Past Route 31 (100%)
• Trainer Battle (100%)
• Past Dark Cave (100%) - No Changes
• Past Violet City (100%)
• People Outside (100%)
• Houses (100%)
• Map Graphics (100%)
• People Inside Houses (100%)
• Sprout Tower (100%)
• Trainer Battles (100%)
• School (100%)
• Map Graphics (100%)
• Trainer Battles (100%)
• Gym (100%)
• Map Graphics (100%)
• Gym Battle (100%)
• PokeMart (100%)
• Add new Items (100%)
• PokeCenter (100%)
• Past Route 32 (100%)
• Trainer Battles (100%)
• Past Ruins of Alph (100%)
• Trainer Battle (100%)

PTD2 v1.44 Released!

• Mystery Gift (100%) - Shiny Sandile!
• Traveling to the past (100%) - Travel 10 years into the past to save the world! 
• New Pokemon (100%) 
• Graphics (100%) 
• Stats (100%) 
• Attacks (100%) 
• Embargo (100%)
• Horn Drill (100%)
• Evolutions (100%)
• Add to Trading Center (100%) 
• Add to Breeding Center (100%)
• New Story Scenes and Battles (100%)
• Talking to Celebi (100%)
• Past New Bark Town (100%)
• Town (100%)
• Lab (100%)
• Gold's House (100%)
• Silver's House (100%) - Still locked!
• Crystal's House (100%)
• Special Spot (100%)
• Past Route 29 (100%)
• Trainer Battle (100%)
• Past Route 46 (100%)
• Trainer Battle (100%)
• Past Cherrygrove City (100%)
• Trainer Battle (100%)
• Houses (100%)
• Map Graphic (100%)
• Flower Trade (100%)
• Pokemon Center (100%)
• Map Graphic (100%)
• Allow you to change time (100%)
• Nurse Joy Graphic (100%)
• PokeMart (100%)
• Map Graphic (100%)
• Add new items (100%)
• Allow you to buy items (100%)
• Item Security (100%)
• Save Money on the Server (100%)
• New NPC Characters Graphics (100%)
• Fixed a bug that would not reset a map's music if you exited Story Mode (100%)
• The story maps will now show the name of the location that you are in (100%)
• Trainer Adoptions will now show if the pokemon is hacked in the Adoption Page (100%)
• Added a Trainer Adoptions link to the Adoption page (100%) - You can easily find the pokemon trainers are putting up for adoption on that page.

Thanks for sticking with us! That's all I have for you this week. As always let me know what you think!

Weekly Progress 10/1: New Features and Critical Bugs!

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!

Hola! Another week means another update! Last week we brought in Route 29 to story mode, which meant some really exciting things! Seeing wild pokemon in the map, your first party pokemon following you, capturing new pokemon, and hunting for shinies. But with that brought a new set of features that need to be added and a new set of problems and bugs to fix! That is the nature of games. So let's talk about what is coming this week.

Critical Bugs:
We have a number of what I like to call critical bugs. Bugs that really ruin the experience of the players and should have priority in being fixed. For this update we have 3 of such bugs.

• Saving not working (sometimes) - This one is pretty hard to fix because it sometimes works and it sometimes doesn't. You guys have given me some info that will help track it down. A reliable method to making this bug happen would be appreciated if you guys can come up with one. I have to be able to recreate the bug to solve it.
• Not learning moves - Apparently if more than one pokemon has to learn a move or evolve there are some cases when they don't. This is linked to using faster speeds in battle when this happens.
• Hole in the Route 29 map - There seems to be a gap somewhere in the map that lets the user get inside the forest where they shouldn't be going to. I mean to find this hole and do something fun with it.

Features:
After the critical bugs are dealt with (or after I'm tired of trying to fix them) I'll move into new features that I think are necessary before the game can progress much farther. The way I decide which feature should come next depends on what you can do in the game and how much use it is going to get by you guys. It's all about effort vs reward when choosing what to work on next.

• Trading Center for PTD2 - To me this is a staple of the game and what really supports me to keep developing the game. It will start as a copy of the PTD1 version but I will be improving it over time. You guys have given me a lot of great suggestion to what and how the Trading Center could be improved.
• 1v1 Mode Changes - I'm honestly not sure if this will be a quick change or if it's going to take the whole week. I'll have to make the changes and then rebalance the mode so that it won't be too easy/hard. If you don't know what the changes will be check out last week's blog.
• Mystery Gift - Zorua is ready to go but I have to work things out with the sponsor and make the screen for this to get it out.
• Day and Night - This is an interesting one, adding the Day and Night cycle to story mode. This will mean new pokemon to catch and new npc dialog for different times. I also have to answer some questions like: Will time only move forward in Routes? (Like you can be in a town and time will stand still, when you go in the route it will gradually change to night and back to day again. Then go back into town and it will be what ever time you ended up in but it won't change until you go to the route again.) And the technical aspects of how I will do it. Will I use a tint effect or a movieclip overlay? (Technical speak)
• Held Items - This one is pretty fun too. Probably start with berries. I have this idea that berries can have multiple charges. So they last more than one use with a cooldown between uses. Also leads up to super berries that have unlimited charges.
• Releasing Pokemon - Now that you can capture pokemon you need a way to get rid of them.

I also have some left over items from the last few weeks. So that's what I have this week I hope to cover a lot of it. Keep checking back to see how I'm doing, ask questions, give suggestions, or encourage me. It's up to you!

Weekly Progress:

Alpha v1.19.9: 1v1 Mode Changed! Bug Fixes, Small Changes, Pokemon Center!: Released! 

• Mystery Gift Screen (100%)  - OUT NOW! Get your Zorua!
• PTD 2 Pokemon Center OUT NOW!- Note: Other pages, such as Daily Gift, Inventory, Game Corner will be added/changed later on as the game develops.
• Create Trade Page - You will be able to make up to 3 separate request for your trade. Meaning you can request a Shiny Zorua OR Shiny Rattata OR Shadow Sentret. Also you can specify gender. Each request can have up to 10 pokemon up from 6.
• Your Trade Request Page
• Search Trade - Can now search by Gender and you can view all 3 possible request the other trainer has put up.
• Searching for any gender instead of just Male or Female for both regular search and want search
• 1v1 Mode Changes - Note: The last level might be a little too hard right now, I'll fix it up next week.
•  Defeated target will no longer give out experience
• Evolutions will not be available for unlocking
• Every pokemon will now start at level 5
• You will level up with candies that are given out after 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
• Lowered the cost of some pokemon.
• Made the level with the old Hiker easier.
• Added the Pokemon Center to the Mode Select Screen
• Fixed a bug that is preventing new users from saving their game
• Fixed a percentage problem on Sentret's waves
• Made it so you can play PTD 1 and PTD 2 at the same time

Alpha v1.19.5: Bug Fixes, Small Changes and additions: Released! 

• Fixed a bug that some battles in story mode give you money when they shouldn't 
• Even after you have more than 6 pokemon, the game will put the first 6 on your party in story mode
• Instead of disappearing completely, Sentret that are hiding will now just be faded
• Wave Security
• Prevent users from playing story mode and using the PTD 2 Pokemon Center at the same time to prevent duplication exploits that come when trading is activated.
• Saving Bug - FIXED OMG! It was a stupid server problem, so it should work now!
• Gap in the Route 29 Map - Did something fun with it.
• Added a Police Officer infront of Route 46's entrance
• Randomize the level and distance of the wild pokemon waves to break the uniformity of them
• Pokemon Center  
• Picking which profile to enter - The profile page will now show profile that you have made from PTD 2, including your avatar and version color.
• Side Bar - Integrate PTD 2 info into the side bar.
• Home Page for PTD 2 - Being able to retrieve or release any pokemon to your corresponding profile.
• Adoption Page- This page includes Shiny Starters and Shiny Zorua to start.

Creature Universe TD
Last week's CU meeting that I had with the team was really short. We updated each other on what we were doing and called it a night. The game is progressing but I don't have a lot to share with you guys this week. Next week I hope to bring you guys some new creature designs and info.

That's all we have for you this week. Keep checking back to see how I'm doing, and as always, let me know what you think!

Weekly Progress: Memorial Day

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 guys this will be short and sweet, it's memorial day weekend here in the United States which means everybody is relaxing and not working. Including us! Dan was out for the week end, I barely touched the computer and I'm assuming the artist also did as they pleased.

Progress is happening for PTD2 1v1 mode. I know a lot of you have been waiting and waiting and waiting but we are pretty close. If nothing else goes wrong (It did.. I deleted a bunch of files by mistake, but its taken care of now) I expect to have something to show you guys by this weekend! I might run into some issue that can delay the release so keep that in mind.

Well... I said it was going to be short, so just have a good week and look forward to the weekend!

Pokemon Tower Defense 2: Creating replayability

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!

Well that was fun... not! We are finally back up and running here at Sam and Dan games. We had outgrown our GoDaddy Shared Hosting server and had to move to a new Virtual Private Server over on Wired Tree. The process was very painful. This was mainly cause I myself had very little access to the server. I did have access to the files and database so I managed to manually move millions and millions of pokemon over to our new server. They did not like it! But they seem pretty happy now in their new home. As one might expect we went from a really low 7 dollars a month to a bigger 50 dollars a month on web hosting cost. Thankfully you guys have been very supportive and thanks to you guys we are able to cover the cost with no trouble. If we continue to grow you can rest assured that we will continue to upgrade to meet the demand.

Spring semester ended about 3 weeks ago around the time when PTD 1 was finished and I think mentally it put me in relaxed state. After finishing a race the last thing you want to do is start a new one. Now 3 weeks later I've had time to relax, spend time with the loved ones, and think about the next steps.

The reality is that Dan and I wanted Hero Tower Defense to be much farther a long at this point in time. If that would have happened there would have been more time to really get PTD 2 developed and ready to go. As you can see though HTD is still in very early stages so it means that for us to continue surviving PTD 2 and Creature Universe (ANPO) must move forward. This is something that a lot of you wanted so I think it works out for everybody.

For PTD 2 my main priority right now is to create a mode with high replay value. The reason for this is that the story mode will take longer than a week this time around and I want something that you guys can continue to play even when you are done with the story. For these modes I have two different ideas:

One on One Mode: This mode would be very similar to the Champion level in PTD 1. You and your opponent can only use one pokemon at a time. In this mode you would be able battle against a computer character or against other players. You would also be able to do two vs two and three vs three. You would start out with some very basic pokemon and then as you play more you will be able to get new pokemon to use in this mode.

Survival Mode: This mode will be more like a traditional Tower Defense game and more like the traditional levels of PTD 1. Your pokemon won't retain their levels so when you play this mode your pokemon will start at a base level and you will level them up to battle against computer waves coming at you that get harder as time goes on. As you play more you will be able to get new pokemon to use in this mode.

Both of these modes would feature pokemon from Generation 1 to start with but can grow to have pokemon from many generations.

So which mode do you want to see first? Let me know on the blog poll!

Also if you have any questions or comments I would love to hear them, as always let me know what you think!

Pokemon Tower Defense's Final Release! A postmortem, and looking forward to the future!

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!

It has been a long time coming but the end of Pokemon Tower Defense is here! From start to finish it has been a year and a half. Blood, sweat and tears! But the outcome has been more than worth it. We have leveled up, and evolved so much from the beginning. We went from hobbyist to full time game developers. From no fans to thousands of fans. This is only the beginning of our long journey and we want you to come with us!

As you move forward in any stage of your life it's important to look at your successes and your mistakes. There is a lot of valuable information in these things, especially your mistakes. In our case we will examine what I think went right in PTD and what went wrong. These things will help me with the development of PTD 2.

What Went Right

1. Crossing Pokemon with Tower Defense - This was the most critical element to the success of the whole game. Fortunately we got it right. I knew just the name Pokemon Tower Defense would catch many people's attention but the combination of elements will make them stay. From catching pokemon and using them as your towers, to having your towers stay leveled up and evolved between levels. This is something that I plan to continue and expand for the sequel. Adding breeding and pokemon holding items among other things will help the game move to the next level.

2. Community Involvement - Adding the feedback button and asking for help to improve the game, especially in the early stages of the game really helped to build the community. This is something that we will continue to do with all our games. Your feedback from comments, emails, votes on polls heavily influences the direction that our games take. Votes usually affect the games directly.

3. Weekly Updates - Waiting for the game to be completed was something that I couldn't afford to do. Releasing a game is similar to rolling a dice. The odds are mostly against you. The longer you take to roll the dice (release a game) the more risk you take on. Working on a game for some months and releasing it as an Alpha helps me to see if people are into a game and see if its worth spending more time on. Once the game was a success people just wanted more and more. I thought it would be great to have a new release each week almost like a TV series. Fans would be looking forward to the release each week, keeping the interest in the game going while being able to expose the fans to new ideas that I have for future games.

4. Pokemon Center - The Pokemon Center, most specifically the Trading Center was a great success even though it is very basic right now. It gave a chance for you fans to trade each other. I was also be able to add other options like the game corner to add other things to do in the game. The Pokemon Center will get improvements for the sequel that will make transferring and trading a whole lot easier. The ads on the Pokemon Center also help to fund the development of the game.

5. SnD Coins and Adoption - Snd Coins and Adoption really help fund our future games and also gave you the fans a chance to support us more directly while getting something in return. This system will be used for all our future games including PTD 2. In the near future we will add more ways to get the coins.

6. Game Story - Adding the story to the game (most Tower Defense don't have a story) really helped to make the game more compelling and gave a lot of chances to add cameos for characters from the anime and game. Also it added the opportunity to add references to other media that I enjoy. PTD 2 will have a new story that is loosely related to the first game.
 

What Went Wrong

1. Weekly Updates - Yes, I know I put this on the what went right section but it also went wrong in a lot of ways. I really think the quality of the game suffered due to the quick update schedule. While I'm proud of how the game turned out as a whole I know that if I had more time the quality would have risen drastically. Many times I found myself with a lot of interesting ideas but not having the time to implement them in time. The story suffered a lot also do to quick updates. Epic fight scenes were turned into just something mentioned in the dialog instead of me being able to show it. For PTD 2 we plan to take more time to make sure everything is like we want it while still trying to maintain a good schedule. More on that later.

2. The Grind - I felt that while some grinding was acceptable it was impossible to continue playing without having high level pokemon. This resulted in many people using the hacked version or having to grind out their characters while doing something else. I don't think this is fun and I want to reduce the need to grind in the sequel as I don't think it adds anything to the game. Shiny hunting will remain relatively the same but that is something that is optional.

3. Multiplayer - I had many grand ideas for multiplayer but I never got the time to fully realize those ideas. Also the way I set up the attacks in the game didn't lend themselves for multiplayer which affected how synched the levels are (not very). For the sequel I want to rebuild the attacks to work for a multiplayer setup. Also focus more on the multiplayer as it adds re-playability to the game.

4. Updating the game - Another big part that went wrong getting the update to the players. A lot of sites probably have older versions of the game that don't even work. For the sequel I want the game to check for the latest version and update itself so that everybody can get updates instantly as I put them up and I also won't have to be sending out updates to 5 different sites.

What else do you think went right and what else do you think went wrong? Let me know.

Now for the future!

My main focus now will be working on Hero Tower Defense, but that game will not be moving at the same fast pace as PTD so that will allow me some time to work on PTD 2 and our Creature Universe game (Project ANPO). I know some of you just want me to work on PTD 2 but the reality is that I also need to focus on original games that can take Sam and Dan games farther than a pokemon game can. Since we don't own the rights to pokemon I can't put the game on the different app stores and sites like Kongregate. Also PTD can get shut down at any point and I wouldn't be able to do anything about it so putting all my eggs in that basket is not a good idea.

I'm sure Dan will mention on this week's Hero Tower Defense blog but HTD is going to be getting some significant changes in the graphic department that will help speed up the development.

For Project ANPO Dan and I got to talk a lot about how the game will work and we made good progress on that. What I hope to do this month is work on a prototype so that I can start testing out the different mechanics that we have in mind and so that you guys can check it out and give us your feedback.

For PTD 2 the question I get asked the most is "When is it coming out!?" Well to be honest I don't even know when it's coming out. I will keep you guys posted. I did have an idea which is to make a special mode that has a lot of re-playability that will use the generation 1 pokemon (since I have all their stats and graphics already created) and release that first which will give you guys something to do while the game is in development. But even this mode will take a while to build so I don't have any specific dates to give out. Just follow me on Twitter and follow the blog for weekly updates to the game.

Alright guys, I really appreciate all the support for this past year and a half. I hope you enjoyed the game and if you want some more then I will be working hard to keep it coming. Thanks for everything you do!

As always let me know what you think!

Weekly Progress, Hacker vs Hacker, the poll, shiny legendary beast (dogs), and more!

Want to get the 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!

Hello hello! Welcome to a brand new week of Sam and Dan games! I'm bringing you the latest news about what is going on with Pokemon Tower Defense 1, PTD 2 and our Creature Game (Project ANPO). Lets get on with it.

First lets look at the progress for what is left of the game, as you can see three new levels are needed, there won't be an update this week since these will take longer than the simple training levels. But I expect the final update to be out the week after, so look forward to some pretty hard battles and the end of the game!

• Elite 4 (100%) (Fight the elite 4 using the same team but team is completely healed between fights, potions will reset between fights (thanks for asking Kpwbo), any fainted pokemon will be brought back in full health between fights (thanks for asking Ethan))
• Intro (100%)
• Layout (100%)
• Waves (100%)
• Lorelei Ice Type Battle (100%)
• Koga's Poison Type Battle (100%)
• Bruno's Fighting and Rock Type Battle (100%)
• Lance's Dragon Type Battle (100%)
• New Moves for the enemy (100%)
• Freeze all towers (100%)
• Slippery Floor (100%)
• Brain Freeze (100%)
• "Anti" Poison (100%)
  
• Ending (100%)
• Champion Fight (100%)(Champion and Mewthree)
• Intro (100%)
• Layout (100%)
• Waves (100%)
• Ending (100%) 
• Unknown Dungeon (Mewtwo and Mew) (100%)
• Intro (100%)
• Layout (100%)
• Waves (100%)
• New Moves for the enemy (100%)
• Tower Teleport (100%)
• Return to Pokeball (100%)
•  Ending (100%) 
• Adding new pokemon (100%) - Mewtwo
• Add to Save Code (100%)

• Change Lorelei's Character Avatar to the right one (100%) 
• Fix Bruno's Avatar in the level select screen (100%) 
• Fixed an issue that would erase your avatars when you bought an avatar in the avatar store (100%)
• Fixed an issue that does not let you end the level if using a move like sunny day (100%)
• Added Shadow Mewtwo and Mew to the Game Corner Random Shadow List (100%)
• Fixed a bug that was preventing Blue version players from getting all the waves in the Unknown Dungeon level (100%)
• Fixed a bug that was not resetting your towers health between levels causing your towers to have a huge amount of health when they shouldn't have that much, removing all challenge (This only happens in the Elite 4 and Champion levels (100%)
• Fixed a bug that was preventing your pokemon from getting the proper HP boost in the Elite 4 levels (100%)
• Missing Gym Achievements (100%) 
• Implement in game (100%)
• Implement in Server (100%)
• Remove Shadow Magmar and Shadow Squirtle from Game Corner Random Shadow List (100%)
• Convert all Legendary Beast (Dogs) to their shiny version from regular (100%) 
• Add Shiny Graphics (100%)
• Add Shiny Graphic to the trading center (100%)
• Change the Adoption Center to Shiny (100%)
• Convert all current trades to shiny (100%)
• Convert all account to shiny (100%)
• Allow the hacked version of the game to use hacked version pokemon to get hacked version legendary birds (100%) (This will show up on v1.0)

The last two points are of special interest. Converting all Legendary Beast (dogs) to shiny. I never really explained it so I can see why some of you are confused. Well PTD 2 is set on the Johto Region which has Entei, Suicune, Raikou in them. In that game you can expect to catch the regular version without having to pay. So I think people that paid 20 snd coins for them would be very upset that other people can easily get them without paying. Converting them to shiny allows for the regular version to show up in the game while still having the shiny be rare as the beast are now. If you really just want to have them be regular as one person mentioned then you will have to wait until they are available in PTD 2, another possibility is that I convert them but then add the regular ones in the adoption center for a smaller coin price.

The second point is that in the hacked games you can't get the legendary birds at all. This change will allow you to get them in the hacked version of the game but they will be branded as hacked version.

Speaking of hacking... I wanted to clarify the different levels of hacking, what I'm okay with and what I'm not okay with. What I do to stop them and what the hell happened this weekend. So first I want to talk about "Hacked version" pokemon and playing the hacked version on various websites like hacked arcade games. Having pokemon with the "Hacked version" tag (that can be seen on the pokemon center) or playing the hacked version games on those sites, (You can see HACKED VERSION in red letters in the main screen) is not something that I'm against. Which is why I asked you guys if you wanted a way to convert from "hacked version" to normal. Since playing the hacked version is not really hacking at all but more like a cheat code. Any other form of hacking, either using cheat engine or any scripts I do not agree with. Recently we have some drama with hackers attacking other hackers and users were caught in the middle of it. I believe everything is resolved now. So lets move on. (If you want to find out more about the whole incident head to our fan run forum.)

So looking at the poll I can see that the majority wants to be able to convert hacked pokemon back to normal, but a good chunk (29% as of writing this) don't want it. Some might think that it's not fair since you can level up pokemon much faster in the hacked version. But they also have to spend their precious casino coins on clearing hacked pokemon that you can spend on Shadow pokemon. If anything I'm interested to hear what could be tweaked in the idea that would make it so you would agree with it.

PTD 2
I get a lot of emails asking me questions or giving me suggestions about PTD 2. While I can't answer them all (I wouldn't be able to get anything else done if I did) I do read them all since it's easier to read and move on that read and think of a good reply to send back. People talk about different things in these emails but the one thing that people talk about the most is transferring pokemon from PTD 1 to PTD 2. So I want to talk in more detail about my current plans (these can change) on the subject.

1. Yes, you will be able to transfer your pokemon from PTD 1 to PTD 2.
2. You won't be able to transfer pokemon from PTD 2 to PTD 1 if they don't exist in PTD 1 or have moves that don't exist in PTD 1. Any other pokemon that exist in PTD 1 and has moves from PTD 1 can be transferred back and forth. (By exist I mean that you can capture in PTD 1)
3. You won't be the same character in PTD 2 that you are in PTD 1 so your pokemon won't obey you when you trade them over unless you have the proper badge. So transferring a level 100 won't mean that you can beat the game easily since that pokemon won't obey you.
4. You won't be able to trade pokemon from PTD 1 to PTD 2 until you have 4 badges in PTD 2. After you get 4 badges the ability to trade from PTD1 to PTD 2 will be unlocked. 
5. When you trade a pokemon over to PTD 2 it won't lose any of its experience or level.

I hope this explains a lot of the questions.

Creature Universe (Project ANPO)
I've been so focused on PTD 1 and HTD that I haven't been able to design more for ANPO. If you haven't read the past post for ANPO I suggest you check them out to get all the juicy details.

Before I conclude, I wanted to say that there won't be any new Mystery Gifts for PTD 1. Also for PTD 2 I'm going to rethink the Mystery Gift to see if there is a better way of making it happen or if I will keep it the same.

As always let me know what you think! I read all the comments, so even if I don't reply rest assured that I read it. I have to read them to accept or deny them so even if you post doesn't get published I looked at it. :)

So have a good week and keep coming back to check out my progress and Thursday for HTD! Enjoy!

Final Update Progress, Test, PTD 2 and ANPO news update!

Want to get the 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!


Hello! I hope you enjoyed my little April Fools joke! PTD will not be closing down and I will not get rid of accounts, so don't worry about it! I tried to make it really obvious because I didn't want to worry any of you. :)

I released v6.5 which contains Shadow Missing No as Mystery Gift and that is the only new thing there. You might noticed that I put the graphics in for the new level in the chapter select and level select, those won't work until the final update is out.

Speaking of the final update I'm making progress as you can see below. Keep checking back all week while I  make updates :) cheer me on!

• Viridian Ending (Movie Scene only level, sets up the last chapter of the game, Lickitung NPC trade will happen on this level) (100%)
• Intro (100%)
• Adding the crucial Lickitung NPC trade to the new level (100%) 
• Implement in game (100%)
• Implement in Save Code (100%)
• Add Max Potion (100%)
• Ending (100%)
•  Power Plant (Zapdos, Electabuzz (Red Only), Magnemite) (100%)
• Intro (100%)
• Layout (100%)
• Waves (100%)
• Ending (100%)
• Seafoam Island (Articuno, Seel) (100%)
• Intro (100%)
• Layout (100%)
• Waves (100%)
• Ending (100%)
• Victory Road (Moltres) (100%)
• Intro (100%)
• Layout (100%)
• Waves (100%)
• Ending (100%)
• Elite 4 (Fight the elite 4 using the same team but team is completely healed between fights)
• Intro (0%)
• Layout (0%)
• Waves (0%)
• Ending (0%)
• Champion Fight (Champion and Mewthree)
• Intro (0%)
• Layout (0%)
• Waves (0%)
• Ending (0%) 
• Unknown Dungeon (Mewtwo) (0%)
• Intro (0%)
• Layout (0%)
• Waves (0%)
• Ending (0%)
• Implement unique catching for legendaries (you can only capture one regular, one shiny and one shadow of each legendary bird, that would equal to 9 different legendary birds that you can catch) (100%)
• Capturing Shiny and Shadow (100%) 

• Remove Coming Soon text from Viridian Ending (100%)
• Set Mystery Gift to Regular Missing No. (100%) - This is the last and permanent Mystery Gift that the game will have for new players to get.
• Remove Alpha Version Text from the game (100%) 
• Remove Legendary Dogs from the wild in the game (100%)
• Convert all Legendary Dogs to their shiny version from regular (0%)
• Add new moves to Pokemon Center's Move List (100%)
• Add Missing HMs (100%) 
• Fly (100%)
• Graphics/Programming (100%)
• Adding to Pokemon's HM list (100%)
• Strength (100%)
• Graphics/Programming (100%)
• Adding to Pokemon's HM list (100%)
• Surf (100%) 
• Graphics/Programming (100%)
• Adding to Pokemon's HM list (100%)
• Add Level Select Graphics (100%)
• New Moves (100%)
• Psystrike (100%) - Mewtwo 
• Adding new pokemon (87.5%) - Mewtwo, Articuno, Zapdos, Moltres, Electabuzz
• Graphics (100%)
• Shiny Graphics (100%)
• Shadow Graphics (100%)
• Add Stats to game (100%)
  
• Relearn Moves (100%)
• TM/HM List (100%)
• Add to Save Code (80%)
• Add to Pokemon Center (100%) 

I will be talking about PTD 2 and ANPO some more on this blog but I have a test tomorrow (Tuesday) so I have to cut this short for now. I will update it on Tuesday night or Wednesday with some juicy details on PTD 2 and ANPO. I will also post on twitter when that is ready.

As always! Let me know what you think!

Finished Moving, Pokemon Tower Defense One Year Anniversary, the last update, random game sequels, PTD 2 news, ANPO news, and more!

Want to get the 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!

Hello everybody! I'm backkkkkkk!! So as many of you know I recently moved and getting internet has taken way longer than I expected so we had two weeks of PTD silence besides the update (which I hope you guys enjoyed (: ) I'm using slow public internet right now but on Tuesday (3/20) the cable company is coming to install internet (hopefully...) Update- Got internet! Woo! The move went well, I'm still adjusting to the new location, learning where the grocery stores are at and finding the best routes to use etc Thank to everybody who was concerned with how everything went, I really appreciate it :)

Happy Anniversary Pokemon Tower Defense!

Pokemon Tower Defense was first released to the Android Marketplace on March 10, 2011!  I remember releasing it and never expecting it to grow as big as it did, and I'm always very grateful to all of you guys and gals for making this happen! My goal for the game was to finish the story mode in a year or less and while I didn't complete my goal I think we got pretty close!  

As a special gift the next Mystery Gift will be...... Regular Mew! This will be your first chance to get Regular Mew, after a week the gift will change and Mew will be added in the game with a secret way of finding it.

The Last Update! (To rule them all?)

So going back to completing the game... the next update will complete the game! Yes, you heard (read) right! The next update will contain all the remaining levels:

• Power Plant (Zapdos, Electabuzz (Red Only), Magnemite) (0%)
• Seafoam Island (Articuno, Seel) (0%)
• Victory Road (Moltres) (0%)
• Indigo Plateau (Fight the elite 4 and Mewthree), Unknown Dungeon (Mewtwo) (0%)

PTD v6.4.1 is now out on the blog, it has a new level cap up to 100! New Mystery Gift - Regular Mew! Enjoy!

Level cap to 100 and all the moves that are left (100%)

• Implement in Game (100%)
• Implement in Saving Code (100%)
• Implement in Trading Center (100%)
• Add new Moves (100%)
• Aura Sphere (100%) - Mew (level 100)
• Overheat (100%) - Victini (level 97)
• V-Create (100%) - Victini (level 98)
• Fusion Bolt (100%) - Victini (level 99)
• Fusion Flare (100%) - Victini (level 100)
• Sky Attack (100%) - MissingNo (Relearn Move)
• Sharpen (100%) - Porygon (Missing Attack)

• Add move names to Pokemon Center's Move List (100%)

Mystery Gift Pokemon - Regular Mew (100%) - Out now on v6.4.1!
Adding the crucial Lickitung NPC trade to the new level (0%)

But as you might have guessed this update will take longer than a week. How long will it take? I don't even know myself which is why I will keep updating the blog with my progress towards finishing it. I really don't want to try to rush the ending since I want it to be very special. The reason I'm not releasing it little by little is that I really want you guys to experience it all at once.

Random Game Sequels

When I got my internet back and saw the huge pile of emails that I have there I saw a couple that were really interesting. Mostly regarding a game that I didn't make but it's called Pokemon TD 2: Kanto. If any of you were wondering I had nothing to do with this game at all. If you want to know what I think about it, then my response is... neat. I don't own Pokemon so the fact that somebody made this game doesn't bother me and I think that it is pretty flattering that somebody decided to make it, it's interesting to me to see the changes that he made to the game and friendly competition is always welcomed :) On a side note, my sequel will be about a million times better ;p

Pokemon Tower Defense 2

Speaking of sequels! You guys made it loud and clear in the last poll! 56% of you want instant capture with the pokeballs. Looking at all the comments and arguments made, I totally agree with you! What I will do is keep the 100% catch rate when weakened but still have multiple pokeballs, I'll think of ways to implement them without letting you capture the pokemon when they have really high health and then I will present the idea to you again.

For PTD 2 I really want to introduce some elements to the game that will make the game fell fresh while still retaining what made PTD well PTD. Here are 3 new elements that I want you to look at and tell me what you think.

1. The "candy" can move - When I say the "candy" I mean the thing that the attacking units will be after, so it can be candy, a pokemon, an egg, etc. In PTD 1 the candy was always stationary. Only the enemy could move it and then you could manipulate the enemy (using moves like whirlwind) and then defeat them to change its location. In PTD 2 sometimes the "candy" will try to return to it's original spot once dropped. Sometimes it might be trying to leave the level by itself. Adding this new functionality will enable all kinds of new levels.
2. Blocking or Unblocking paths - A new mechanic that I want to add for PTD 2 is being able to block or unblock a path that your enemies or allies can go in. An example is the enemy has direct access to the "candy" you can block their path but putting an obstacle in their way (How exactly you would do this is still up in the air) and now they have to down a long way to reach the "candy" giving you more of a chance to defeat them. In the same way you might want to unblock a path, you might have to use attacks to destroy the the obstacle or have your pokemon carry the obstacle away.
3. Special Abilities - Another feature that many modern Tower Defense games have is some sort of special ability that you can use to help you defeat the enemies. In a lot of game this will be a Meteor attack. Something that you can click and drag to the enemies to unleash upon them. Normally you will have to wait for this move to recharge, charging it might be done by your towers attacking or just naturally over time. The special abilities will vary based on what your current team is.

So that is what I have in mind, some new mechanics that will enable all kinds of different new levels. Tell me what you think on the comments below.

Creature Universe Game (ANPO)

This game is always shifting, changing, evolving in my head. Recently I decided it was time to start putting down some notes on paper to really start to brainstorm what this game will be about and what ideas I want to explore in it. Today I bring you some of my notes plus I open it up to you guys to tell me what you think this game could be about. Note that while I read every single comment I can't comment or agree with all of them but I do read them and they do affect my decisions and way of thinking. So they are more than welcome.  While in the bathroom (a lot of interesting ideas usually come up in the bathroom) I started to write down my thoughts.

• First I want the emphasis of the game to be the world and creature simulation.
• The world is vast and has many secrets scattered all around for players to find (Think Zelda, Mario Bros)
• Creatures are dynamic and feel alive

When I reached that note I stopped and I said what does that mean? How do you make something feel alive? After some thought I came up with an answer. (There are many answers to this question, which I want you guys to tell me what you think it can be.) My answer isn't some sort of ultimate answer but just what I came up with. I thought that for a creature to feel alive when you see it out in some area would be that the creature must:

• React how you would expect it to - This is a very important idea. One of the top reason I play videogames is to see how the game reacts to my actions. Imagine punching somebody in a game and having them gain health instead of losing it. That reaction would be totally unexpected but weird and bad in my opinion. Cause and effect must make sense for a player. So to make the creatures feel alive they have to react to you in ways that you would expect them to. If you run at a bird in real life, that bird would most likely fly away. If it doesn't I usually freak out, is the bird used to humans/ isn't afraid of them? How the creatures react to your character, surrounding and your actions is a big part of making the world and creatures feel alive, in my opinion.
• Their actions must vary - Nothing ruins the illusion of something feeling alive more than seeing a pattern. If the creatures keeps repeating the same pattern over and over you just see it as a system but if the creature does something that makes sense but isn't following some sort of pattern then you really start believe it is thinking about what to do rather than following a set of rules. A certain amount of randomness must be introduced into the creatures but also some rules since animals aren't random but they follow their instincts. (Just to be clear the randomness plays out when they are in the wild and not once you "captured" one. Once you capture a creature they won't randomly run away or anything and they will obey your commands.)
• They have objectives - The last thing is that these creatures are a step above animals, they are a little bit smarter and have a wide range of emotions that they will express. Because of this creatures must always have an objective that they are trying to follow. I have a long list of over 20 objectives that creatures would have at any given time. Some examples are:
• Locating Food
• Having fun
• Running away from something
• Protecting something
• Gathering with others
• Looking for a fight

So to me these are some of the things that the creatures in this game must have to make them feel alive in the way that I want them to feel. What do you think would make the creatures feel alive in this game? Let me know in the comments below!

And More!

The goal from the very beginning for Dan and I was to make fun games that we liked and we thought it we liked the games there must be people out there that will like them to. That is still our goal. We also wanted to be very open with our fans and let them in on the process of developing games. We really strive to be very open with talking and listening with you guys because in the end if you guys don't enjoy our game then we failed. I want to thank you guys for the continued support, this first year has been a roller coaster ride with mostly ups than downs and we wouldn't be here with you. I would still be working a desk job wondering if my games would ever take off. I'm really looking forward to the ending of PTD, I'm extremely impressed and excited for anything HTD, and also excited for PTD 2 and Project ANPO. Let's make this next year even better than the last!

Sincerely,
Samuel Otero

Weekly Progress List, New Servers, Pokeballs for PTD 2 you decide!

Want to get the 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! 


I apologize for the Mystery Gift, it was going to be a really cool pokemon that I discovered but it ended up glitching and this weird pokemon showed up called MissingNo. So enjoy that ;)

PTD 2 a New Beginning!

We finally made it all the way back to Pallet Town on Pokemon Tower Defense, I'm pretty excited to finish the story levels and to focus more on PTD2. PTD one will not be receiving any drastic changes from it's current form as you guys might have noticed. A lot of the suggestions and ideas that you guys contributed will be pushed to PTD 2 instead. I really want PTD 2 to feel like a big upgrade from PTD 1, almost like how the original gold and silver felt like after red and blue. What this will mean for the game is smaller buttons! What I mean with smaller buttons is that the original game was meant for the Android marketplace and the closest  competition was a Tower Defense game that is still pretty popular on the Android Marketplace that featured a really plain layout in the game. Black background with big buttons. For the sequel the main target for the game won't be mobile devices so you will see menus and interfaces that have the computer in mind. Speaking of the computer! They have keyboards! So expect a lot of hotkeys for things like changing your moves and switching your pokemon. The next possible change that you guys asked about the whole time for PTD 1 is different pokeballs!

Pokeballs

Okay so like I said before you guys always asked about having different pokeballs for PTD 1, and I thought it was a great idea until I looked at how the game worked. Now as we all know once the pokemon is weakened you use the pokeball (which is unlimited in PTD 1) and you catch it. The first thing I thought about for better pokeballs (great ball, ultra ball) was to increase the percentage that a pokemon life would be to be considered weakened. But this would make the game very easy if the ultra ball you only needed to bring a pokemon down to 50% of their life to catch them.

Now in the Nintendo games, pokeballs had a chance to not capture a pokemon this wasn't automatic like it is in PTD 1. is that something you want to see in PTD 2? What I had in mind is that pokeballs don't automatically capture the pokemon but instead it plays out the animation like the game and the pokemon can escape, this makes adding other pokeballs easier since they would improve your chance at capturing a pokemon, also some pokemon can only be captured with different pokeballs. On a side not special pokemon that have red bars (like shinies) would still be instant capture like they are now.

Along with this in PTD 2 you won't have unlimited pokeballs, you will have to buy them when you start the level (if you want to). To go along with that change leveling up will no longer cost money and be automatic. This is something that has been requested for a long time and these changes it will make it happen.

So tell me do you want pokeballs to have a chance at capturing a pokemon and have different pokeballs or just have one type and have it be 100% chance once weakened? Vote on the poll and have a lasting impact on the game.

New Servers

So we all hate when the server is slow and when you get an error page in the trading center (trust me I hate it too!) So using the funds that we get from SnD Coin purchase from amazing users like you ;) and from Ad Revenue we are currently paying for a Virtual Private Server which is the next step for us in improving the speed of our pages. Now the process of moving everything to the new server is going to take some time and there might even be a maintenance period where nobody will be able to play our games, but I'm trying to do the best that I can to make it smooth so you won't lose time or the time will be minimal. Just know that we are doing our best to make thing work better around here, using your contributions (which we are very grateful for and appreciate very much!)

Weekly Progress

For this week we will again have a story level, new TMs, and a new Mystery Gift! Along with more PTD 2 items which I didn't get a chance to do last week. Also around the middle of the week there will be a first look video for PTD 1.

PTD First Look Video by GraphicForce:

PTD 1 Progress:

Story Level (0%)

• Intro (0%)
• Layout (0%)
• Waves (0%)
• Ending (0%)

New TMs (100%) - (Giga Impact, thunderpunch, ice punch, fire punch, focus punch)
Trade my pokemon in the trading center (100%)
Put new pokemon up for trade (100%) - My account is samO
New Mystery Gifts (50%) - This is for Monday!

• Implement in Saving (0%) 
• Implement code in Game (0%)
• Pokemon Stats (100%)
• Pokemon Everything Else (100%)

Bug Fixes (100%)

• Fixed a typo in the description for the attack psyshock (100%)

PTD 2 Progress:

Temporary Title Screen (0%) - The final one will be from the contest winner, but I will make a placeholder one for now.
Options Menu (0%) - Adding some more options here, like a logout, and more.

HTD Progress:
Click here to see my HTD progress for this week.

That is all I have for today so let me know what you think! If you have any questions about PTD 1 make sure to check out the forums and chat rooms to find answers before you post them below it helps you get a faster answer and it helps me be able to take care of the less common comments/suggestions/questions.

Thanks again! and guess who got first comment... again! ;)

Weekly Progress, Day and Night system for PTD 2, PTD 2 Title Screen CONTEST!

Want to get the 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 guys and gals. Another week of Sam and Dan Games has begun! v6.1.1 of Pokemon Tower Defense is now out! You can get your very own Shadow Lickitung by finding the Mystery Gift Code at the link above. (Yes I know he doesn't know Shadow Rush, but you can relearn them move if you want :) )

 We are working hard to get you guys some entertainment and at the same time thinking about what the next steps are for us. As an small independent game studio (we aren't even an official company yet, but will be this year) the best thing we can do is create new and exciting games. Pokemon Tower Defense is an exciting game but we really can only do so much with it because we didn't create Pokemon. Which is why you will see us focus on Hero Tower Defense once PTD 1 is over. But I realize that most of you here are fans of PTD and I have created over 400 moves which I plan to maximize. So I will also be working on PTD 2 on the side.

Last week I put up a poll about the Day/Night System for PTD 2 (which I explained last blog) and it looks like the winner is a Dynamic Day/Night System! Because that is the winner I wanted to include more details about it.

The Day/Night System will work similar to how it works in the game. Some pokemon or events will only happen at certain times in the game's clock. But unlike the game the clock will not be based around 24 hours or around your device's time. It will be based on your play time on levels. Each complete day might like 2-3 hours, when you first play the game will be in day time and as you play the time will be changing. About half way through the day you will enter night time. So as you can see it's not tied to any specific time zone or your computer's clock.

Last week I also finished the preloader for the game, so instead of seeing a white screen you will see a percentage on screen and I made a cool little race so you have something to be entertained by while you wait. The race is Chikorita vs. Totodile vs. Cyndaquil as you load your game they will move closer to the finish line and who knows maybe they will evolve. This is just a small detail that I hope you can appreciate while you wait for the game to load.

Also PTD 2 will have a nice little intro scene that Joel, my brother,  made. Joel will also be helping make the intro and ending cutscenes for all the levels which will help make them more interesting and detailed. It will also help me complete more since I will have my hands busy with HTD.

PTD 2 TITLE SCREEN CONTEST!
Speaking of intro scenes, just like PTD I'm holding a competition for the actual title screen of the game, this time they can't have their own animated intro (since the game will already have an animation to start) but can have animated elements. So no rolling pokeball and pikachu coming out of it but you can have the rollovers or animations in the page itself. For now just put the same elements that the current game has on there. (Start, Options, Feedback, the Mystery Code, Pokemon Tower Defense 2, a Sam Game, and tell us how to make it better) Post these on our forum so other users can comment and give you feedback. The prize will be all 3 SHINY LEGENDARY DOGS! Which won't be available until PTD 2 comes out later this year. Like I said don't email me your entries, post them on the forum. This contest will run for at least a month so you will have time to make them special. Show me what you got!

We are also talking about our third game which is the Creatures Universe game (Project ANPO), you can read more about it here. As the weeks go by I will be talking more about the ideas I have for it on the blog so look forward to that.

This week in PTD we will have a new Story level, new TMs, a new Mystery Gift, new level cap, along with some other bug fixes. I will also put some of my pokemon up for trade, got any special request for what pokemon I should put up for trade? Let me know in the comments. Also let me know which TMs you would like to see this week in the comments. (TMs with moves that are already in the game will be more likely to be added this week)

PTD First Look for v6.2 by GraphicForce!


PTD 1 Progress:

Story Level (100%) - Pallet Town Training

• Intro (100%)
• Layout (100%)
• Waves (100%)
• Ending (100%)

Mystery Gift Pokemon (100%) - This is for Monday! MissingNo. The Glitch Pokemon!

• Implement in Saving Code (100%)
• Stats (100%)
• Graphics (100%)
• Moves (100%)

Added Toxic to the Pokemon Center's Move List (100%)
New TMs (100%)

• Hydro Pump (100%) - Being available to more pokemon.
• Bulldoze (100%)
• X-Scissor (100%)
• Fury Cutter (100%) 
• Sludge Wave (100%)
• Psyshock (100%)

Level Cap Increase (100%) - Level cap to 95

• Implement in game (100%)
• Implement in Saving Code (100%)
• Implement in Trading Center (100%)

PTD 2 Progress:

Temporary Title Screen (0%) - The final one will be from the contest winner, but I will make a placeholder one for now.
Options Menu (0%) - Adding some more options here, like a logout, and more.

HTD Progress:
Click here to see my HTD progress for this week.

That's all for today! As always let me know what you think! If you have any question about PTD, beating a level or how to get a particular pokemon head to our forums, many people there will be happy to help you. If you have account problems send me an email for everything else leave me a comment below!

Weekly progress, let's talk PTD 2 and ANPO!

Want to get the 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! 


v6.0.1 is out! We are getting close to the end of PTD 1 Story Mode! To put things into perspective here is what is left to do:

• Two more gym then we head to the elite 4 and face off with Mewthree and his mind slaves.
• 8 New moves need to be added for all the pokemon to have their level up moves.
• 6 Pokemon that you can't catch yet in the game: Electabuzz, Articuno, Zapdos, Moltres, Mewtwo and Mew.

In the game right now we have:

• 32 Story Levels - 6 gym badges
• 400+ different moves
• 145 pokemon that you can catch

That is how close we are! Now keep in mind that there are over 600+ moves in all 5 generations combined so there isn't much left to add move wise if I were to make the sequels. Now you might be wondering things like when is the sequel coming out? or is anpo going to be made?, or just what the heck is this anpo thing? Well I've got answers!

To be honest the sequel hasn't been started yet, starting this week I will post some progress for PTD 2 along with discussions about the changes that I want for the game and also adding polls for you guys to decide some things too. But before I get into that let's talk about what is coming this week for PTD 1.

If you have beaten the Cinnabar Island level you will know that the Gym battle against Blaine is next! Just like other Gym battles you can expect a challenge and some unique twist that will hopefully match the theme of the gym and his pokemon. How this gym will play out is something I will figure out during this week and by the weekend we will have a new story level!

Other than the story level, I will include more TMs that are not yet implemented in the game along with any small bug fixes here and there that I can find.

For PTD 2 I will take a lot of the same code from PTD 1 so it won't take 5 months to build like PTD 1 originally did but I will be making a lot of changes. A good number of them come from request that you guys have made! So the first thing to do in PTD 2 is something that many of you have requested or indirectly requested and that is a PRELOADER! Yes! Finally! I know... PTD 2 progress will be slow and steady but I will share a small list of a few changes and ideas I have for PTD 2:

• Preloader! (No more "all I see is a white square" emails!)
• Faster logging in - The game will only initially load your current party only to speed up logging in. The rest of your pokemon will now be accessed on a different screen and that will load the rest of your pokemon by boxes.
• Box system - Similar to how the game is you will store and load pokemon by boxes and you can sort by box rather than having a long list of pokemon to handle.
• Buff and Debuffs stay on - When you move your pokemon from one spot to another it will no longer lose any of it's buffs or debuffs or statuses.
• Buffs and Debuffs Stack and stay on forever - Just like the game debuffs and buffs will now stack up to 6 times and they will last until removed or the pokemon faints.

• Day and Night levels - I'm not sure exactly how I will handle this, there are two options to pull this off.
• One is having two levels for each area, one during the day and one at night.
• Two is having a global clock for when you play and the levels adjust to that clock.
• While you play a level the time would be changing and it would get darker.
• The time would not be in real time, a whole day might pass in 30 minutes.
• This is not based on time zones but the time that you spend in the game.
I put a poll up so I can see what you guys think about it!

• Genders and Breeding - Pokemon will now have genders and you can breed pokemon using similar rules to the real game. The breeding part will probably be in the pokemon center, but hatching the eggs will most likely be in the game itself. You would put the egg on a spot, some eggs require more time on a spot to hatch than others.
• The Power of Badges - Something that I missed for PTD 1 which is your pokemon will only obey you if you have the proper badge, otherwise they will fall asleep. (This would only apply to traded pokemon)
• Transferring your old Pokemon from PTD 1 to PTD 2 - I'm still not 100% sure at what point in the game I will allow for trading your pokemon, but what I'm thinking is that you need to get to a certain point in the game before this is allowed. Also the "power of the badges" point prevents people from just bringing level 100 pokemon and beating the game easily.
• Holding items - Your pokemon will be able to hold berries and different items that will enable them to use them in levels just like the real game.
• Improved Trading Center - The trading center works right now but a lot of things are very tedious to do. Especially if you are trading a lot of pokemon. The plan is to continue to update the trading center to make it more user friendly and streamlined.
• Improved Multiplayer - Multiplayer right now is slacking, this is something that I want to improve drastically in the sequel.

This is but a small preview of the improvements I have in mind for the sequel. Now let's talk about Creatures Online Universe aka Project ANPO.

As many of you might know the reason I started programming to begin with was so I could make an online creature game. The world of pokemon was something that I thought was great and it really inspired me to learn programming and find ways to create games. 10 years later here we are and I'm getting closer and closer to finally being able to make this game. Now pokemon is a fine game as it is now but there are a lot of things that I think could be improved. I think they focused a lot of the battling and balancing out the different pokemon for battle and that's is great but the real reason I like pokemon is for discovering the pokemon and I loved watching the show because I could see almost how these pokemon lived in their habitats and how they interacted with each other (something that the show got away from in the later seasons) So the game I want to make is more about that. About going out and exploring and finding new creatures. Rather than just focusing everything on battling. I like battling but when a diglett can use Aerial Ace then it ruins the illusion for me. I liked it when each creature had it's own unique move or something to make them stand out. Details like these are the kinds of things I'm aiming for this game. Does this sound like something you would want to play?

Now you might be wondering what about Hero Tower Defense!? Well Hero Tower Defense has really great art and really great art requires time and motivation is part of the artist. We recently got another artist for HTD that will be working part time so that will help a bit. Once PTD 1 is finished I will spend more time working on HTD while working on PTD 2 and some ANPO on the side. I think a lot of you will want me to work less on HTD but HTD is something that will help us grow and since it's original we can take it to the mobile devices and not worry about it getting shut down.

PTD First Look by GraphicForce - Check it out now!

Okay so here is the progress list for this week:

PTD 1

Mystery Gift (100%) - Shadow Lickitung
Picking who to trade my pokemon to (0%)
Putting new pokemon up for trade (0%) - My trade account is samO
Story Level (100%)

• Intro (100%)
• Layout (100%)
• Waves (100%)
• Ending (100%)

New TMs (100%) - Rock Slide, Dragon Pulse, Shadow Ball, Charge Beam and Toxic
Bug Fixes (100%)

• Final Gambit doesn't faint your pokemon after using it (100%) 
• Fixed a bug that was making Final Gambit hit the target for twice the user's total damage (100%)

PTD 2

Preloader (100%)
Title Intro (100%) - Thanks Joel for making this for me!

Setting up the graphics for the preloader

HTD

Skill Selection Screen (100%)
Bug Fixes (100%)

As always let me know what you think! Sam out!