new video
07 Jul 2008
Around three weeks ago I had an unfortunate incident where I broke my collar bone while playing soccer with a couple of friends. Not too cool I can tell you. For a couple of days I had difficulties with even the simplest things like putting on a t-shirt or tying my shoes. The latter was actually impossible for a while.
Fortunately the fracture is located at a position (near the end instead of the middle) where it heals faster than usual. I can pretty much move my schoulder again without pain, although raizing my arm above my head is still no option.
Anyway, despite all this, the project has not entirely come to a full standstill. For this update I actually wanted to fix the broken animations but I changed my mind and figured I'd do something more important instead. The sprite you've seen so far was actually hard coded and not very useful. I could move him around, but that was pretty much it. What has now changed is that I can select a sprite from the toolbar, place it on the map and it'll walk to a predefined tile, which is pretty much how it will happen in the game. I've created a small video which will probably give you a better idea of how it looks.
ajor update
10 Jun 2008
After a small brake away from VD (due to redesigning a local chess site) I'm now back on track again. Last week has actually been a pretty productive week, where I had the opportunity to make a lot of code optimizations, a few new but very cool options in the editor, as well as a couple new features in the game itself.
Although about 3/4th of the changes cannot be properly made visible with a screenshot, I really wanted to post one anyway. If only it was to give you at least some basic idea of how things currently are.
On the left there is a rough, but functional menu from where I can select objects and sprites to be placed on the map. The objects are actually loaded from a file created by the editor, so everything I add in there, is automatically added here. (That is btw, also the reason why the images appear similar.)
Another, at first glance, small addition is the little selection thingy (how do you call that anyway?) around the peasant. Now, I say at first glance, because you might be surprised to learn about the work that has gone into it, before it actually worked the way it should.
I wont go into great detail, but in a nutshell, what I did was, I created an extra option in the editor where I'm able to select a section of an object. (for example the tree trunk) This info is then saved, together with all the other object information.
Now, when I run the game, I check my mouse coordinates and see if they're inside the selection I made in the editor. If that's true it's a hit and otherwise it's not. Sounds pretty simple, but really it still took me quite a while before I actually had everything covered properly.
One tricky and annoying thing for example was actually to find a way to prevent multiple actions after a single mouseclick, when various objects, or the map or the menu are on top of eachother.
Anyway I'm glad this is working now, so I can take that one off the list. Next thing is to get the animations working again. That kind of got broken during these updates.
Oh well, this pretty much covers it for now. I shall attempt to make the next update sooner. In the meantime, if you have any comments, please add them, if only it's to let me know that someone is actually reading all this
ower Defense research
16 May 2008
When I wrote the demo in 2006 there weren't that many TD games around. At least not that I can remember. It seems however, that people have been very busy now and then.
A couple days ago I was browsing around for a bit, hitting random links that seemed interesting to me, when I came across a gameportal featuring a simple flashbased Tower Defense game. As I played for a bit, I wondered if there were any more of them and so I went on to do a bit of research.
It didn't took long to realize that there are in fact a whole lot of them. Towerdefence.net for instance, has close to one hundred different games listed. The majority of them are flash games that can be played right from within your browser, but there are also a couple games(10) which have to be installed first, in order to play.
Now, I haven't played them all of course, but from what I can tell, a Tower Defense game nowadays has to have quite a few unique feature in order to stand out. You're just not going to cut it anymore with just a random track, some turrets and a bunch of creeps running towards a goal.
It is not my intension to write reviews about TD games, but I do want to highlight a few games here, which I found interesting or which you might find enjoyable to play as well.
Onslaught: nice and simple. There's a collection of tracks to choose from. The interface looks a bit odd at first, but it's actually quite efficient. And although there dont seem to be many different turrets, there are quite a few upgrades the player can unlock. It's easy at the start but after a while it gets harder fast.
Bloons 2: I wanted to mention this for the subject alone. Very clever and good fun as well.
Harvest Tower Defense: Not a flash game, but really if you're into TD games, download it, give it a try. The concept is pretty cool and refreshing. You're definitely going like this.
Wicked Defense: When the author asked me to test Wicked Defense, a couple months ago, I thought it was the weirdest TD I had ever seen. Dont get me wrong though, it's definitely weird in a good way. The graphics are unique, the rules are the same but in order to win, you'll have to use your head rather than placing towers at random positions and upgrading them as fast as possible.
Village Defense: I was actually a bit shocked when I saw this one. For a split second I thought they had created a page about my game (yeah right), but that idea quickly faded when I actually saw the page...
As a TD game it's really not the best of the family. The design is somewhat awkward. For example, the title suggests you're going to defend a village, but you wont actually see it. On top of that you're defending it using thugs(?), monks and guys with assault rifles. I mean, what kind of a combination is that?
Anyway, so much for the research. I've again learned a couple things, although some were less than pleasant
In case you are wondering about the name. I'm going to use it as a working title from now on and start looking for something else. I am of course open to any suggestions.
In the meantime, a little sideproject, a website for the local chessclub, is keeping me occupied for at least another two weeks. However, that's not to say I'm doing nothing with VD, just a little less than usual. It might just be that the next update will not be such a great one though.
ite update
29 Apr 2008
I've worked on several site updates in last few days. There were some things I just had to change. For instance, the video from a couple posts back was constantly loading even if you had seen it already. Not a very cool thing because it's eating my bandwidth and you're waiting for something you dont necessarily want to see.
Another thing I've changed is the screenshotsection. The images there, have been reorganized, placed in different categories and ordered by year.
It actually made me realize that there's an entire year between what I'm doing now and the first demo. Time is just going too fast :-/
Anyway, there's more new stuff in the pipeline, but I'll keep that for later. I've got a couple days off now, so I'm kind of hoping for a bigger update next time.
