Week #005: Winners and Whelps

Tonight's post comes to you a little later than usual, as I wanted to wait for the first Community Impact Poll to officially come to it's end so that I could talk about it (as if the results could have changed that dramatically in just an hour or two, but whatever, play along!).

As stated, these three hairstyles will be made available for any human female player character in the initial release of Hero Tower Defense. I am rather pleased with the results myself, as I believe these three styles offer a nice balance of diversity. Remember that the runner-ups are being placed aside and may still make it into HTD some day, so no complaining!

Be sure to stay tuned, I'm sure the male's hairstyle choices will be decided through a similar fate...

This week I thought it would be nice to take a break from "Cheryl" and take a look back at the little treasure whelp, who we haven't looked at in quite some time. I would actually like to get to introducing his daddy here soon, but I feel like there's still plenty of things to go through before we need to look at new content... and some things might be better left unseen until you have the game in your hands, yeah?

One other thing I really wanted to clarify was a few things about the notes on progression. As you can see (and I'm sure some of you already did), I stuck them up on the right side bar so that they can be more conveniently and regularly seen. However it should be noted that these are a pretty limited view into my world. For example, at the moment they're really only tracking the progress on the human female player character, and just because they aren't being regularly advanced doesn't mean that I'm not getting work done elsewhere (for example, the HTD logo). As such, they should not be considered a countdown to when the game will be released.

Speaking of the HTD logo (which has primarily been shown over on the Sam & Dan Games blog), while keeping in mind that it is still very much subject to change, please feel free to drop your thoughts about it to me here, I am still actively taking notes to refine and improve it!

Week #004: Let's Talk! Hero Tower Defense

Welcome back loyal watchers and those not-so-loyal that won't be reading until tuesday evening! Unfortunately, last week was pretty slow for me, and I don't have much to show this week (or rather, much that I can show...).

[Human Female - Base Assets]:[||||                     ]:[018%]

  [Initial Hairstyles]:[|                        ]:[002%]

        [Equipment Structure]:[|||||                    ]:[019%]

   ["Maximum Steel" Plate Armor Set]:[||||                     ]:[016%]

[Total Progress]:[||||                     ]:[015%]

I did, however, take a little time tonight to put together a progression list. These seem to be in demand, which I can understand, since it's certainly more fun to see solid numbers instead of a lot of the word "soon". Having a definitive goal can sometimes help me push forward as well. This should also help you to understand just how much I get done and at what rate, which might give an idea of just how much time a game like this takes to produce. I won't lie, it's quite the ambitious project!

Please keep in mind that these progress lists may be rather dynamic. I'll update it at least each week (and consider sliding it off to the side as another blog gadget, to be updated "live", or at least at the end of each night), but there may be currently unaccounted for assets that might drastically skew the "total progress" number. For example, I didn't include any equipment that may need created outside of the initial plate armor set.

I'll probably make it a nice and shiny visual eventually too, once an idea fitting in with the rest of the blog theme comes to me. I was going to use some candy, but I... ran out.

That aside I did want to preview the updated idle stance for our player character here. I wound up 'tweening it for a bit more smoothness, and went ahead and put in Heaven's Tail as an example of how things will look in-game. Please don't let this preview skew the outcome of the poll oh who am I kidding Heaven's Tail is going to win.

Speaking of, don't forget that there's still another week for you to vote on your hairstyle of choice. Tell your friends to vote, if you want! You can find the options in last week's blog post. The top three hairstyles will be included in the game as the initial three style choices at launch. Runner-ups will be filed away for future inclusion. You can find the poll directly to the right. Voting for your choice via comments will not get your vote counted.

That'll be all for this week, I'll try to bring more goodies with me next week!

Week #003: High Heels and Hairstyles

This week I'll be talking more about HTD's starring female lead, codename "Cheryl".

There have been mixed reactions (from both the community and the higher ups) in regards to the human females sporting high heels. In the aftermath of last week I encouraged you to stay tuned for my solution, and I'll go ahead and kick things off with that.

Images represent a game currently in development.

As you can see here, the presence of high heels in the base character sprite design allows for a lot of freedom when it comes to boot design. Along with the previously previewed high heel design, shorter, thicker heels are possible as well as boots with flat soles. Keep in mind that none of these designs are necessarily final. It should also be noted that the base design itself is still up in the air, for example, the thigh-high boots have recently been scrapped.

You might be wondering what we're going to do in the case of, say, an open-toe flat-sole boot design. While I didn't include an example of that above, I assure you that we've already thought of it and have solutions in the works.

Finally, as promised, this week will kick off the first of my Community Impact Polls (CIP), deciding on the girl's initially available hairstyles. Here are the nine potential designs, with some other notes below.

Images represent a game currently in development.

The three top voted designs will be included for use in character customization at game launch, while runner-ups will be referred to for future design inclusions. You can only vote on one, so take your time and choose carefully! Community Impact Poll #001 (which will be found on the bar to the right) will remain open for the next two weeks.

See you next week!

Week #002: Introducing "Cheryl"

As you may have noticed, oh, right about now, I'll be making my posts between monday night and tuesday morning, at most, a full day prior to the main Sam & Dan Games blog's dedicated tuesday HTD post.

This means two things. One, that Sam and Dan will be able to easily summarize what's going on here in the tuesday evening posts, for those who don't yet follow both blogs (or simply don't want to). This will especially be helpful when we start holding more community-interaction polls.

Two, it means that if you follow KXN@HTD as well, that you'll be getting that weekly fix a day early! If that isn't incentive to tune in, I don't know what is.

Now, speaking of polls, I was a little surprised at how many people were interested in seeing stuff I do in my free time. Joke's on you, since I'm pretty much all HTD all the time lately. However, I went ahead and added a link to my deviantArt to the side area there, for those interested. Don't forget that this poll will be open for another week yet.

Oh man, just shut up, Kevin. We want to see the art! Okay, okay. Without further ado, this is HTD's human female player character, code name "Cheryl".

Images represent a game currently in development.

Sam and Dan really have me hooked on the idea of community interaction, so what I'd like to do for the first community input poll (CIP..?) is decide on Cheryl's initially available hairstyles. I could just throw together a few choices and have you guys vote on them, but I feel like we can do better than that.

I want the community to help pick the options for the poll itself, too! Just include your ideas in your comments. The more clear details you offer, the better chance you'll have of getting your idea picked. References are also welcome, even if they're just images of a certain character's hairstyle you really like. You don't have to be an artist to contribute! After I gather the ideas up and post some mock-up sketches, I'll open a poll to decide which of the hairstyles will be initially included in the game.

Looking forward to seeing what you guys come up with. See you next week!