Week #026: By Popular Demand

(05-12-12) Update: We've been getting so many great suggestions that I decided to keep this open for another week before we start narrowing them down for a poll. Keep 'em coming!

It sure has been a while. On Thursday, Dan filled you in on the graphical overhaul and why things have been so slow for us lately. It's certainly been a busy, chaotic time.

But I'm happy to say that I feel more positive about this project now than I ever have. You shouldn't let this speed bump worry you, because things are looking up! I should also be sure to mention that there are absolutely no hard feelings from me in regards to this change of direction; I do not feel that my job with the company is in jeopardy, and I do believe that this change is the best for everyone.

Just what does it mean to you, the player, though? It is sad to say that very few of my graphics will be appearing in the final game now, but you should expect the same overall style regardless of this new direction. Dan and Evan seem devoted to sticking to that style, and you can be sure that I'm devoted to making sure everything maintains the same (or improved) charm.

This brings us to the purpose of this blog. I have no plans to discontinue it, but the amount of final assets you see may wind up being limited. What you can look forward to seeing is more concept art and test animations for characters and creatures alike. I'm planning to make a post highlighting just what myself and the rest of the art team (we're a team now!) are working on, but I didn't want to clutter this homecoming post and distract away from what everyone's really interested in...

Community Impact Opportunity #002:

Pets! That's Right... Pets!!!

Images represent a game currently in development.

OMG is it finally time!? It is. As you can see above, this little fellow is what I have in the works as HTD's first out-of-combat pet. The fun, of course, won't stop here, and we felt it only proper to let you, the players, decide on what kind of pets you want to have with you in HTD. Leave your demands in the comments and we'll sort through them, decide on what will work and what won't, and I'll create a poll in the coming weeks to narrow the choices down!

Please be sure that you're logged in to Blogger when you leave your suggestion, so that you can be properly credited if it comes down to your idea winning.

Until next time!

Week #025 and a Half: April Fool's!

For those of you that didn't figure it out, yes, yesterday's post was an April Fool's gag. Gotcha! There are a few things worth keeping in mind, though, of course, and that's why I'm here tonight. I didn't want to flood the post yesterday with all of this and wind up ruining the illusion.

- The real title screen is in fact under development. It just isn't high on our priority list at the moment. I'm still looking forward to sharing it when the time comes, and I assure you it's something completely unique, and not parodying any video games from the '90s.

- The complete flood of "first" posts yesterday was the result of me writing the post just before I had gone to sleep, and therefore couldn't approve any comments until I woke up. I always publish them all so that you can have an idea on how close to first you actually were, and so that it doesn't look like I'm playing favorites. Any comments throwing around obscenities in regards to people "lying" about being first (or in regards to anything, really) are unacceptable and won't be approved (unless I'm not paying attention). As before, since this is an unscheduled post, the First! Comment Scoreboard will not be in effect today.

- Now for the bad news (this part is not an April Fool's gag - again, this is why I didn't talk about it yesterday). As of Friday my tablet pen suffered a most overdue death, and as my luck usually likes to domino, the back-up I had stored for just such a day isn't working either. Luckily, I did determine that it's just the pen and not the entire tablet, so it's a cost that doesn't hurt as much as it could have. Still, I've been forced to take an inconveniently timed vacation, putting me a bit further behind how behind I already was. Obviously, this means light spells won't be making it in this week. In the end, I want to take a little time to play catch-up, and will be postponing further blog posts until I reach that level of comfort once more. If the hiatus winds up lasting long enough, I'll be sure to have Dan say something on the main blog once I'm getting started again, for those that don't follow here as regularly.

Until then!

Week #025: Every Game Needs A Title Screen

I may or may not have slept through my alarm in regards to last week's blog post. I hope this week makes up for it!

A lot of you have been eager to see less temporary title screen graphics for Hero Tower Defense. Taking note of the demand, I shirked my responsibilities, priorities be damned, and devoted my time to just such a project. Today (after some struggling), I'm happy to finally raise the curtain on the final graphics. I hope they don't disappoint!

Week #024: The 23 Hour Day

March 18th Update: As I mentioned, I will not be making a post this week due to my just-ending vacation. I planned to make a post only talking more about these references and where they were from, but no one knows! In the best interest of the sport of obscure trivia, I am not going to ruin the fun by revealing the sources myself. Tune in next week (March 25th), when I'll likely be talking a bit about the development process involving the first tier of light skills.

I've a lot in store for you this week! One would think I'd plan ahead more often with results like these.

First up, we have the requested and sometimes demanded cursor redesigns. With our little speed bump involving last week's release, I had a little time to finally catch up on these, both redesigning the old and coming up with some proper grabbing frames for any drag-and-drop functionality. Hopefully these are a bit more fitting.

Second, it should be known that I find weakness in wasting countless hours reading up on meaningless trivia on Wikipedia. Thanks to this, I have a great appreciation for our own HTD Wikipedia authors doing their research when it comes to references even as small as the source of my avatar. So I thought I would share a few of the in-game nods I have in store for HTD.

Some of you that have been around since the beginning may have seen these two assets before in various previews of the Fortuitous Cave. The Treasure Lord's hoard itself is home to several references that any 2004 raider should be able to spot one or two of.

Just recently - another side-effect of last week's delay - I created this weapon for use in the game (stats not final) based on something I saw in a recent addition to Netflix.

Images represent a game currently in development.

I haven't yet talked to Sam or Dan involving any sort of reward for spotting all of these references... but I'll be sure to make note of those who can!

This week may be a slow one, as I've thrown around the idea of taking the week off. As such, next week's blog post may be a quiet or completely non-existent one, but I'll be sure to check in to judge reference guesses as well as answer any questions if nothing else.

Week #023: One Week Earlier...

If I had known that these graphics weren't making it in just yet, I would have shown this off last week. As far as I know this interface is slated for release this coming thursday, but you're getting a sneak peek anyway!

Images represent a game currently in development.

A few things I've yet to fully implement are of course the final graphics for the figures, and the hero preview area (the big one). This will likely just house a placeholder for now, but will eventually be a bit more polished and dynamic.

You also have water spells to look forward to this coming week, although I unfortunately don't have much concrete to show there just yet.

Week #022: Newcomer - Bill Cass

Due to the nature of interface design that I've spoken about recently, it was rather easy for me to outright forget about making a post last night. By the time I remembered, I wasn't even really sure what to go about posting.

With the addition of Bill to our team, I thought I'd take a bit to talk about him and just what he'll be doing for HTD. I've known Bill for well over a decade, and knew from the word go that he would be the one capable of matching my style without even blinking. My goal is to have him focus on what I don't necessarily excel at, and vice versa. Therefore, I'll still be handling all character animation myself. You won't have to worry about later animations looking slightly off as if they were handled by someone else or anything.

Images represent a game currently in development.

One thing he can definitely excel over me at is creature design. This is a part of the application process we put him through; to design an enemy creature for use at a later point in the game. To be clear, this is not something we're looking at including anytime soon, but are definitely filing away for a later date. I was personally really blown away by this design and some of the ideas Bill had, and I'm eager to push ahead and make it happen.

For his first assignment, Bill is hard at work on the first tier of water spells that are set to be added next week.

Week #021: Insert Clever Title Here

As I mentioned last week, things have been slow lately, to an outside viewer. There's a lot of fixing, refining, polishing and catching up going on involving the characters, and interface design is truthfully, not all that involved or interesting.

This week, I'm going to talk a bit about one of my own ideas I've been pushing to put in the game. What was once no more than a splash of presentation just recently evolved into something with purpose, and with our time being devoted to the interface lately, you'll likely be seeing some early bits of it in the coming weeks, even if the ultimate goal might still be months off.

Introducing

Hero Figurines

The original idea for figurines actually came to me in a dream when HTD was still very early in development. Belonging to a Jumanji-style game board, the tiny figures represented your heroes as they progressed through their skill trees, represented by the paths on the board. Expecting the heroes to be held responsible for the well-being of this piece of equipment during their dangerous travels was eventually deemed illogical, and the idea was canned.

Months later, we began looking at the game's pre-battle interfaces, and when I was tasked with laying out the hero management screen, the idea made a comeback. I started with a simple goal: that these supposed figurines would be less stressful for the engine to load in a timely manner than full-blown previews of your heroes would be. The hand-carved wooden figures would be unique to your hero's race, gender, and class to assist in quickly identifying your heroes, and clicking on them once would bring up a dynamic preview elsewhere on the screen, along with options to configure their equipment and skills. Dragging the figures to another area would allow you to arrange a party before entering battle.

The current placeholders that you'll be seeing soon in-game
along with some very early development of the final figurine graphics.

I initially planned that these figurines would also be painted to match the color of your native element, but we ultimately decided that this could be confusing or misleading.

Jump ahead to just a few weeks later, and only a week ago, when the new design dawned on me: What if players could find or purchase paints for a very small fee, and paint these figurines themselves to add extra, cosmetic-only effects to their heroes? Imagine flashy auras, a little extra flare for their abilities, titles and more!

It should be stressed that this idea is of course still very early in development, and none of these exact bonuses have been decided on, and probably won't be for months to come. These examples should be considered nothing more than just that; examples.

Regardless, it's an idea that I'm very excited about and I wanted to take the chance to talk about, being one of the first ideas that I came up with on my own to contribute to HTD. I hope everyone is looking forward to it as much as I am!

In the case of the next week being another slow one, I wanted to open the gates for another question and answer session. Let 'em rip in comments and I'll answer them next week or sooner.