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!


Welcome all! Let's get right to it. If you are very into games then this week was a special treat for you. E3 is going on right now! Giving you a look at all the great new games and systems coming out this year and early next year.

E3
I saw all the conferences from Microsoft, Sony and Nintendo and all I have to say that while I wasn't blown away by anything I felt like there was still a lot of solid games shown. What was your favorite thing at e3?

It might be surprising but I actually don't play a lot of video games. I tend to buy the really good ones but I never finish them. I like to get a taste of what the game is like but once I get the taste my drive to finish them goes away. I do find time to finish them eventually but rarely does a game suck me in from start to finish. Some of the games that I recently bought are: Diablo 3, Startcraft 2, Skyrim, Zelda: Skyward Sword, Xenoblade Chronicles. I did finish Zelda, played about 20 hours of Xenoblade and I'm in Act 2 of Diablo 3 (normal difficulty) but Startcraft and Skyrim I have barely played.

Most of my time is dedicated to spending time with the loved ones and making games, blog post, answering emails for you guys! Oh and going to university... So lets talk about what I've been working on!

PTD 2
For PTD2 I wasn't able to get the 1v1 mode finished... :( that's my face! It was actually a bigger task that I had anticipated since there is a lot of changes to the base of the game but I am working on it. I still don't have a solid date for you guys so just hang in there while I put forth my best effort. If I had to guess I would say 2 more weeks. But.. sometimes obstacles are hard to predict so I can't promise you anything.

Some good news is that I've decided that every Mystery Gift pokemon for PTD 2 will be a pokemon that will not be included in PTD or PTD 2 for regular capture. Making the mystery gifts very rare for those of you who are following our progress. So I added a poll for you guys to first decide which generation should the first mystery gift pokemon be from? (Note that future mystery gift can and will be from different generations 3-5) Also in the comments tell me which pokemon and why he should be the first mystery gift!

Small games vs Big games
So besides being the head programmer for HTD, sole developer for PTD and PTD 2, it's also my job to always be thinking about what direction Sam and Dan games should go into. When you think about a path to go into you are also saying that you don't want to follow the paths that you didn't choose. Sometimes choosing to make one game over another game you have to give up or put on hold something else. Life if pretty much about these difficult choices. One of the choices that Dan and I have been thinking about is about the scope of our games. As you know, we are a pretty small team right now. We have about 6 artist but most of them are freelance and they can't put in the same amount of time into working on games. So this impacts the size of our games. So the thought is that instead of thinking of big, huge games that require a lot of human resources (that we can't afford) we would try to think of simple yet deep games that don't require a lot of resources and that our current resources can handle a lot easier. What does this mean for HTD and PTD 2? Nothing! Those game while still pretty big are something that we can manage. Especially PTD 2 since all the graphics are essentially done (since they are taken from the games), HTD will still take its time being made but we have other things in mind that will help us generate resources to make future games for you.

Sadly there is one game that will be put on hold.. Creature Online Universe (aka ANPO) will be put on hold pretty much indefinitely. While this is a game that I very much still want to create, it is currently out of our reach, resource wise. We wish we could drop everything and work on this but we also have bills to pay and food to buy... But there is a bright side!

Because ANPO will be put on hold we will be free to think about smaller projects for you guys to play. Smaller projects means we can get them done sooner which means you get to play them sooner! While working on HTD and PTD 2 we are also working on very small prototypes and pitches for some smaller games. I can't wait to bring them out and show them to you guys soon!

As always let me know what you think! Your opinions and feedback are greatly appreciated and affect the direction that we go in! Thanks again!

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!


Working
Work, work, work! That is what we are all about right now here at Sam and Dan Games. Let us look at what everybody is working on!

First the artist, since all the graphics in Pokemon Tower Defense are taken from the actual games we don't really need artist for PTD2, I mean admit it you love my attack graphics! So all of them are working on Hero Tower Defense. Kevin, our first artist, made a great blog post about what the artist have been making this past month. Check it out here. Not in the blog is the work that Joel has done. Joel while working on the PTD Fan film and his other projects was able to complete some weapon designs and a weapon model. Dan will also be lending his hand at helping with the 3D models.

Second the programmers. Yes there is more than one! I've been talking to him for a long time now about joining us and now he is finally ready. I would like to welcome Jonathan to the team. He will be helping with the programming starting off with some new game prototypes that I will talk about down below. I'm also a programmer, I'm working on HTD, PTD2, and also some prototypes.

Lastly the designers. Dan as you might know is in charge of designing and managing HTD, with feedback from the team. He is also in charge of the HTD blog post and answering SnD Coin orders. I'm in charge of PTD, PTD 2, and the weekly progress blog. Dan and I work together to figure out what we should focus on and which paths should we take as a company.

PTD 2 Improvements
Believe it or not I can't just copy and paste all the code from PTD to PTD 2! A lot of it needs to be refined and some critical parts drastically changed. This is why it has taken so long for the 1v1 mode to come out. I'm here to tell you about some of the improvements that I have been able to make to PTD that I hope you will enjoy. So here we go.

1. You can now swap tower positions by dropping a tower in the other tower's spot.
2. Attack's cooldown won't reset if you change the move, return the pokemon or move a tower from its spot.
3. Damage text will now be white and have a dark background behind it to make it easier to read the text. Also all types of damage will have the same color. Super effective damage will be larger, and ineffective damage will be smaller font. Also critical damage will show up as slightly bigger and in a yellow color. So that its easier to see when you get a critical hit or when somebody critically hits you.
4. When you change the size of the map it will now center itself. (See HTD's map)
5. You can't drag the map so that it will be off screen. (See HTD's map)
6. Many other improvements to the level code.

When you play PTD2 you will notice a bunch of small changes to almost every area in the game. I hope you guys will enjoy them when the time comes. (I'm still working on it!)

Small Games
So last week I talked about small games. Not sure if I mentioned it before but Dan and I are about big complex ideas. We like games with a lot of depth. I tend to go for the more easy to pick up and hard to master, and he tend to go for the hardcore from the start games. A good example would be my love for the Super Smash Bros series and Dan's love for the Street Fighter series. The problem is we don't have the money to make the big complex games, and even something of medium size (like HTD) will take us a good long while to make. So it is with this in mind that we want to produce some smaller but fun games for you guys to play. Three prototypes we are looking at are: A beat em up game designed by Kevin. A barrel jumping game (like the original donkey kong) inspired by the a concept from Joel. A simple RPG designed by me inspired by the 3DS RPG Find Mii. These will be fun games that will be connected in an interesting way that I'm not ready to reveal at this time.

Pick your first Mystery Gift!
So the 5th Generation of pokemon won for the first poll and you guys gave a lot of great comment as to who you wanted from different generations. I gathered up all the names and I picked the top 3 plus I added my own suggestion (Sandile) to the poll. Make your pick!

That's all I have for you this week, thanks for the support and as always let me know what you think!

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!


Hi guys, I'm feeling a lot better thanks for your concern and support.

So last week I talked about making a non-gaming announcement this week. After 6 years of being with my girlfriend I proposed to her this weekend! and she said yes! I actually made her a very small game as part of the proposal since I am a game developer after all. She loved it and we are very happy, next step is to plan the wedding >.< haha so lets get back to games!

Okay so PTD 2, this week I'm gearing up to work all out on getting this ready. Like always I like to be very open about what I'm working on so I will post a progress list of what I have to do and will be updating it all this week as I make progress on it.

Party Selection Screen (100%)- Slightly refined, added new sorting options that you guys requested, plus additional settings to each sorting option as seen in the pictures below.

New Party Screen Sorting Options

Showing the sub options for sorting options

Pokemon Upgrade Screen (60%) - Adding the two suggestions that you guys requested, being able to change your pokemon in the screen and showing the pokemon's stats. Other additions are showing the nickname of the pokemon along with its name, showing the gender by symbol and background color. Also you can see that you can see your abilities and their description and also change them before the level. Finally I added a new pokedex button that will take you to the pokedex information of this pokemon. It will be more detailed than in ptd 1. You can see a work in progress shot below. (Note: I'm using pokemon with random moves in them for testing purposes, you can't learn these move on Onix without hacking)

Newer version, female onix, pokedex button, and ability window

Pokemon Store Screen (0%)
Level 1 (0%)
Any attacks that need to be modified (50%) - Setting up the new stacking debuff mechanics. No longer will stat changing attack run out. They will also stack so you have to keep applying it to get the max effect. Watch the video below for a small preview. The graphic will get slightly bigger and stack as the debuff stacks. Also your pokemon will prioritize targets that have the lowest stack or no stack at all.
Saving (0%)
Loading (0%)

During the week I will keep adding more things and updating what I'm working on. This will give you a better look at where I am at with getting the release done.

That is all I have for today, keep checking back for more. As always let me know what you think!

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.

Alright, time for a update on some HTD related stuff. First off as you may have noticed from the title and date of this post is that I will no longer be sticking to a new HTD post every Thursday. Reason being is that sometimes there just isn't much to report since we are taking our time with the new releases even though we are continuously working on it. So it would seem to make more sense to just make a post only when there is something worth posting about rather than trying to fill a weekly requirement. Plus it uses some valuable time that I could be using to work on the game instead. With that said I'll still be posting about HTD fairly often just not as consistently as before.

Now onto business. Sam and I put on our business hats and decided that the best thing for us would be to let Sam focus on getting PTD2 going and put the programming for the new HTD graphics setup on hold. The reason is a pretty clear one, more people want to see PTD2 than HTD and we're all about giving you guys what you want. However, don't mistake this to mean HTD progress is stopping. That's not true at all, all that's on hold for now is the programming part, the graphics are still being worked on. If you've been following Kevin's blow you probably already know this (linke at the bottom of this post). In fact, once Sam gets a playable version of PTD2 out he will be dedicating some extra time to HTD in order to get everything moving again. Another thing to keep in mind is that since the graphics are still being worked on in the meantime that the next release of HTD will contain even more reworked content than we originally planned for.

For those of you that have been looking forward to the next HTD release (like me) and have been patiently waiting, I apologize for the temporary delay but it's ultimately a better route for the company to take. It shouldn't be too much of a delay though really. And for those of you who want to point out Ninja-ja I'll assure you this is a different case because there is more than just one person (me) working on HTD. Plus, a new version of Ninja-ja WILL come out eventually. I just need to find time for it which is scarce these days.

Thanks for all the continued support guys!


In the Works:

Design

• Commander/Player Skills (25%)
• Stat Progression (5%)
• Pet System (50%)

Graphics

• Unit: Human Male - Animations (90%)
• Unit: Race #2 - Concepts (20%)
• Unit: Race #3 - Concepts (10%)
• Unit: Fire Gecko - Concepts (80%)
• Unit: Creature #3 - Concepts (20%)
• Unit: Creature #4 - Concepts (10%)
• Weapons: Batch #2 - Assets (20%)
• Armor: Batch #1 - Assets (10%)

Programming

• Interface: Setup (75%)
• Unit: Setup (10%)

Check out Kevin's blog, KXN @ HTD for HTD art-related concepts, WIPs, polls, and more!

Be sure to leave any ideas, suggestions, or other feedback you might have in the comments! Thanks!


-Dan

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!


Also the artist for HTD have been hard at work on a new race for HTD and are planning to unveil it soon, check out the teaser shot on Kevin's blog, click here to check it out!

For PTD 2 I'm still working hard on getting it done, I've been trying to post more pictures and even movies about my progress so you guys can see what is coming.

Fixing bugs (50%)
Have Speed altering effects affect the pokemon's attack speed (100%) 

1v1 mode - level 1 (100%) - Intro level, pretty easy and short.

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

Level Ending Screen (Postponed) - A stat screen that will tell you how much money you earned on the level plus other things.
Pokemon Upgrade Screen (100%) - Adding the two suggestions that you guys requested, being able to change your pokemon in the screen and showing the pokemon's stats. Other additions are showing the nickname of the pokemon along with its name, showing the gender by symbol and background color. Also you can see that you can see your abilities and their description and also change them before the level. Finally I added a new pokedex button that will take you to the pokedex information of this pokemon. It will be more detailed than in ptd 1. You can see a work in progress shot below. (Note: I'm using pokemon with random moves in them for testing purposes, you can't learn these move on Onix without hacking)

Newer version, female onix, pokedex button, and ability window

Latest Version of the Pokemon Buttons

Party Selection Screen (100%)- Slightly refined, added new sorting options that you guys requested, plus additional settings to each sorting option as seen in the pictures below.

Showing new sorting options with sub menus

Any attacks that need to be modified for level 1 (100%) - Setting up the new stacking debuff mechanics. No longer will stat changing attack run out. They will also stack so you have to keep applying it to get the max effect. Watch the video below for a small preview. The graphic will get slightly bigger and stack as the debuff stacks. Also your pokemon will prioritize targets that have the lowest stack or no stack at all.
Attacks Completed:

•  Tackle, String Shot, Harden, Confusion, Poison Sting, Fury Attack, Tail Whip, Quick Attack, Focus Energy, Bite, Sand Attack, Gust, Peck, Growl, and Leer.

Level 1 Pokemon Abilities (100%) - Adding any missing abilities for the pokemon found in the first levels.

• Keen Eye, Tangled Feet, Big Pecks, Shield Dust, Run Away, Shed Skin, Compound eyes, Tinted Lens, Swarm, Sniper, Guts, and Hustle. 

Pokemon can now learn attacks before and after they evolve on a level up (100%) 
Creating the profile, profile_story, profile_1v1 classes (Programmer lingo) (100%)
Pokemon Buying Screen (100%)
Loading (100%)
Saving (100%) 
Item Buying Screen (Postponed) - Items will be postponed for near future update.

During the week I will keep adding more things and updating what I'm working on. This will give you a better look at where I am at with getting the release done.

thanks for all the support, I really want to get this out to you guys so please be patient! As always let me know what you think about the fan film, htd race teaser and ptd 2 progress! Thanks!

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!


You can play by going to the "Play PTD2" tab. 


Pokemon Center Progress List:

• Add de-leveling feature (0%) - For Casino Coins or SnD Coins (Similar to removing hacked version) you can lower the level of your pokemon. The purpose of this feature was to allow you to use your pokemon from ptd1 earlier in ptd2 but my faithful fans from the forum do not agree this is a good features. They argue that this will make the game too easy. (They are right! Level 10 Mewtwo still pwnes you!) So I will listen to them and not add it. I'm listening guys/gals!

New Level, Bug Fixes, New Additions v1.10 (08/16/12): Released now!

• Level 5 1v1 mode
• Intro
• Level Background
• Waves
• Ending
•  Attack Foresight needed a better attack graphic
• Fixed an issue that was showing the wrong HP value in the pokemon check screen after playing a level
• Added a stacking global cooldown to changing attacks on a pokemon - every time you change and attack a small 0.3 second global cooldown will be added to your pokemon. Normal play will not change, but spamming your keyboard changing attacks constantly will result in your pokemon not being able to know what you are asking him to do (a long global cooldown that resets once its done)
• Fixed a problem with a pokemon learning a new move and another pokemon evolving at the same time, or two pokemon evolving at the same time
• Added a confirmation popup when you try to exit 1v1 mode
• Fixed pokemon getting hit when they are removed from the stage
• Fixed Kakuna and Metapod not learning Harden when they evolve
• Added unlockable Metapod, Butterfree, Kakuna and Beedrill when you evolve Caterpie or Weedle
• Increased the cost of potions to 10 - Since buying a potion is pretty much like have a whole new pokemon the price was increased.
• Changed Antidote to be unlocked at level 2
• Added new item Parlyz Heal unlocked at level 3
• Add a multiplayer map for 1v1 mode (Postponed due to poll results)- Before I get too deep into creating the story mode I have to make sure multiplayer will work with the new setup. So I have to start making/testing it as soon as possible. This will help story mode have multiplayer that actually works.

Bug Fixes, Work in Progress Story mode v1.09 (08/11/12)

•  A work in progress version of Story Mode is in this version, you can only walk around, you can walk over things and you can walk outside the map. These are not bugs, the mode is simply not done yet.
• Add missing description for a pokemon unlocked on level 4
• Made Sand-Attack work on Flying types as it should
•  Test Map New Bark Town for Story Mode - Story mode is totally not ready, what you see is where I am at currently. You can only walk around.
• Main Characters Male and Female - Will use HG/SS character graphics as default.
• Graphics
• Pokemon for first Route of Story Mode - With a level cap at 10
• Graphics
• Regular
• Shiny
• Shadow
• Stats
• Abilities
• Frisk
• Insomnia
• Attacks
• Foresight
• Hypnosis
• Start adding Johto Starters for story mode - With a level cap at 10
• Graphics
• Regular
• Shiny
• Shadow
• Stats
• Abilities
• Overgrow
• Leaf Guard
• Blaze
• Flash Fire
• Torrent
• Sheer Force
• Attacks
• Razor Leaf
• Poison Powder
• SmokeScreen
• Ember
• Water Gun
• Rage
  

New Level (4), Fixes, and Additions on Alpha v1.08 (08/09/12)

• New Level for 1v1 level 4
• Intro
• Level Background
• Waves
• Ending
• Abilities for future levels
• Sand Veil
• Arena Trap
• Sand Force
• Sand Rush
• Rock Head
• Sturdy
• Weak Armor
• Attacks for future levels
• Astonish
• Defense Curl
• Rock Polish
• Mud Sport
• Bind
• Screech
• Rock Throw
• Make Ash's pikachu and caterpie always be male - This matches the anime.
• Added stat totals to the Buy Pokemon screen
• Added a new item "Antidote"unlocked after beating level 3
• Fixed items working on pokemon that don't need them or can't use them  - For example using potion on a pokemon with full health or is fainted, or using antidote on a pokemon that doesn't have a poison.

Bug Fixes and Additions on Alpha v1.07

• Fixed bug with potion going on the wrong pokemon
• Made Nidoran F be female
• Made the enemy pokemon have the proper random gender - This will be based on the actual chance of that pokemon being female or male in the pokemon games.
• Show gender and level in the life bar of pokemon in the field
• Show gender in your party's profile blocks
• Added a delay to having the screen scroll when you first drag a pokemon
• Fixed issue with fainted pokemon receiving experience
• Added keyboard shortcuts for various things
• "P" for pause and play
• 1-6 to select which party member you will command
• Z, X, C, V to switch moves in the currently commanded pokemon
• Changed Ash's Pikachu ability on level 3 of 1v1 to Lightningrod instead of Static

New Level on Alpha v1.06

• New 1v1 Level (3) - Joey goes back in time
  

Changes/Bug Fixes on Alpha v1.05

• Added the buy items screen
• Enabled item use in the levels
• Added a pokeball next to pokemon that you have already bought in 1v1 mode
• When buying a pokemon in 1v1 mode it will now say "You bought a pokemon!"
• Change text during 1v1 tutorial to mention being able to change abilities 
• Fix issue that would crash the game when your pokemon had certain abilities on
  
• New Abilities for level 3 rewards
• Poison Point- For Nidorans
• Rivalry - For Nidorans
• Static - For Pikachu
• Lightningrod - For Pikachu
• New Attacks for level 3 rewards
• Scratch
• Double Kick
• Thundershock
• Thunder Wave

Changes/Bug Fixes on Alpha v1.04

• Enable Ability Change in the Poke Check screen
• Increased experienced earned by trainer owned pokemon by 50% 
  

Changes/Bug Fixes on Alpha v1.03  

• Make pokemon not take poison damage when taken off the field but they won't lose their poison status- Thanks @doofinc!
• Added the missing coin prize after level 2- Thanks @opticALEXpert! Now you can start to pile up your money.
• Let you skip cutscenes after you have beaten a level or seen it in the current play through

New Level ready on Alpha v1.02

• New 1v1 Level 2 - Joey heads to Viridian Forest

Small Bugs fixed on Alpha v1.01

• Music keeps playing after the level is over
• Changing a move in the poke check screen in the level will not update the move on the level itself
• Can't delete the 1v1 profile
• Pokemon say they are level 1 when buying but are actually level 5

PTD 2 1v1 Mode Released!
PTD 2 1v1 mode level one is now released!!!! Wooo hoooo! It took a long time just to get to this point so I want to talk more about the work that I did and about the 1v1 mode itself.

When you play the level you will notice how short it is and might ask yourself, "Why did this take so long?" well the truth is that so much has changed inside of the game that it's unbelievable. You can expact 2-3 new levels next week for 1v1 mode since a lot of the foundation has been completed.

Some major things that didn't make it in were the items. I almost had those done but I really wanted to focus on just getting the level out first. Also the pokemon check menu in the party select screen needs major work still and those things will come in the near future.

For the level itself it was a lot of fun to bring back Joey for this mode. I thought it would be hilarious to see Joey go through this virtual training and I'm looking forward to seeing how he does in there.

For the mode itself everything you play you will be trying to reach as far as you can go, right now there is only 1 level so it's not very challenging to beat it but eventually there should be at least 100 levels for you to try to reach. If you lose you will start over but will get to retain any coins you gathered. If you go below 10 coins it will automatically reset your coin amount to 10 when you restart. Also any pokemon or items that you have unlocked will stay unlocked so that you can start with a more powerful pokemon the second time around.

I would love to hear more about what you think of this mode so far.

PTD2's Name Change
The big elephant in the room would be the sudden title change for the game. We went from Johto's Shadow to Generations. Today I want to talk more about what this change. It is more than just a name change as you might imagine. PTD 2 will now contain pokemon and locations from all generations of pokemon!

Another big change is how you will play the game.. and this is HUGE change so listen up!

You will now be able to move around with your avatar and partners just like the real game! You will be able to travel from one region to another, truly being able to catch them all in one game.

So what will be happening is that along the way you will encounter different people that need your help or are causing trouble. They will give you quest and you must complete and will unlock the ability to capture different pokemon. When somebody challenges you to a fight or when you run into pokemon in the wild (you will see the pokemon walking around in the map!) it will go into tower defense mode and you will battle in Tower Defense style.

So this game will be what I like to call an "Open World Pokemon Tower Defense Game".

A lot of the quest will be inspired by the anime so you will get to play out some fun events similar to the anime. There will also be quest that will be completely original designed by me!

All of this will be for the story mode which will come at a future date, for now I'm focusing on getting more attacks and pokemon ready for 1v1 mode.

I'm really excited about all of this and I hope you guys are too! As always let me know what you think!

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 and gals! Welcome to another week of Sam and Dan Games. This week we have some sneak peak at the Creature Universe Starters and the weekly progress for what will be new in Pokemon Tower Defense 2 this week. Enjoy!

Creature Universe (aka ANPO) Starters:
Okay so every creature game should start with the trainers getting their first creature. In pokemon you started in one town and you picked from three different starters. In most games in the series you could pick from a grass, fire or water pokemon. My first thoughts in designing ANPO were "okay why not have different types available? Why not have all types available?" I thought it would be great if you wanted a specific type to be your starting type. Why only have 3 choices? Then I said "wouldn't it be cool if each starter had a different starting location?" What if since each city specializes in a certain type why not have a starter on each city and have players decide which city they wanted to start from. That all sounded great! But then I came back to earth and thought about how many different types we might have and about how long it would take to make all those cities right from the start. Okay so I like the idea of different cities for each starter. I like the idea of letting you choose which type you want to start. But to release the game I have to limit how many starters I will release the game with. So let's go back down to 3 and then as the game progresses we will add more. Okay so 3 starter types for 3 cities. The starters will be like that cities mascot. They will be an important part of that city. That is the creature that young trainers from that city receive when they first start training.

Now which 3 types should it start with? My first thoughts were to not do fire, grass, and water. Let's make it different! WOOOO! How about flying, ground, electric? Hmm it doesn't quite work out... Flying isn't super effective against ground... Also it's not that intuitive to figure out who beats who... not as nice as fire, grass, and water. So I decided okay I want more than 3 types for starters but if I only have 3 types then they will be fire, grass, and water. So a few weeks back I had my artist, Kevin, Bill, Evan, Josh and Joel, start coming up with concepts for creatures for ANPO. We have over 100 designs already! But I like to present to you the work in progress sketches of the water, fire, and grass starters for ANPO!

Work In Progress ANPO Starters

Weekly Progress:
This week for PTD 2 will we have another 1v1 level, this level should be enough for kakuna and metapod to level up to 10 so I will include the unlocks for those. Also I'll be pushing for saving in the story mode and the second quest where you can actually pick your starter. Plus if I have time during the week I'll add any small fixes or changes that I find.

Alpha v1.14 Added the Girl Avatar for story mode, saving for story mode, Bug Fixes and Changes (9/2/12): Released!

• Fixed a bug that was making attacks that should do at least 1 damage do 0 damage - Like Poison Sting on Geodude
• Fixed a bug that prevented a pokemon from learning an attack when it evolves and you beat a level
• Fixed a bug with attacks with an initial cooldown having a cooldown glitch
• Removed Prof Oak's winning text and added different text in Story Level 1
  
• Added Johto Starter sounds to the Story Level 1 Intro
• Added the correct lost popup to Story Level 1
• Implemented the girl avatar in story mode
• Fixed being able to enter houses through windows and walls in Story mode 
• Lowered the Geodude's level in Level 6 of 1v1 to 10, 11, 12 respectively, also lowered the amount of buffs they do before attacking
• Gave Professor Oak the correct questions to ask the player on Story Level 1 Intro
• Fixed a bug with beating a level while playing at a higher speed
• Added properly deleting profiles when the delete button is pressed  
• Added saving your story profile

Alpha v1.13 New Level, Bug Fixes and Changes (8/28/12): Released!

• 1v1 Level 6
• Intro
• Level Layout
• Waves
• Ending
• Added Butterfree and Beedrill as unlockables
• Lower the effect of speed changes to attack speed
• Update speed changes to attack cooldown in real time instead of only when a new move is going to be done

 That's all I have for you this week, keep checking back to see how I am progressing on the update, and let me know what you think of the starters and the weekly progress in the comments below or on twitter.
Thanks!

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!

Hi everyone! Last week we had the second level of the story mode released. We got to walk around and talk to the citizens of New Bark Town and go on a little quest to save our starter. This is but the tip of the ice berg for story mode and hopefully you got a taste of what is to come. Did you like it better than the PTD1 style of just watching an intro playing the level and watching an ending? Let me know! Your feedback here in the comments, twitter, emails, facebook and on the forums help shape this game. Like I've said before I spend a good amount of time reading everything you guys write. I might not have enough time to answer them all like I used to but I do the best that I can to answer ones that are crucial or easy enough for a quick answer.

Okay so moving on to this week we will have both a new 1v1 level and a new story level! Lots of new content coming your way.

For both the Story and 1v1 level I will be adding some new technology to the game engine. I've been meaning to add this for a while but haven't had a lot of time. The new technology will be for the trainer you are battling against. Usually they will bring out a pokemon and you defeat that pokemon then they bring out their next one. It's very similar to how the waves work in PTD1 because I'm using the same engine for the trainers that I use in the waves. The new tech will be to allow for the trainers to have a team like you do and to be able to switch out pokemon in battle just like you can. Which will make the fights more interesting and dynamic.

Other than the new tech, 1v1 will now be headed to Route 3, we got some trainers to fight there and also a new pokemon to unlock. Can you guess who it is? All I can say is that it likes to sing a lot.

Speaking of sing, I will be making some changes to how the sleep mechanic works. Previously it would just put you to sleep for a certain amount of time regardless of how much damage you took. Now it will put you to sleep for a longer amount of time but taking damage will most likely cause you to wake up. Making it better for use against somebody that is attack you.

For the Story mode you will be challenged to your first fight. Speaking of this fight I've had reports of people finding an interesting way of leveling up your starter past level 7. This is pretty much my mistake so don't worry if you did it, I will be fixing it in the next version so it should no longer be possible.

Speaking of leveling, I also want to announce a new feature (inspired by my playing of Guild Wars 2)! In PTD1 you could very easily just level up enough so that a level was incredibly easy. In PTD2 there will be a limit as to how high you can be for each level to preserve that level's difficulty (to a point). So for example, lets say your starter is level 12 and you go into Route 29 (The first route in Johto). That means you would massively out level this stage. Most pokemon on this level will be level 2-4. What the game will do is temporarily turn your level 12 pokemon into a level 6 pokemon. Your pokemon will keeps its attacks, evolution, and abilities but it will have stats like it was level 6. Notice that the cap is higher than the highest level in the area but it is still within a certain range. Also since you get to keep your attacks and evolution you will still have an advantage. It just makes it so you can't simply steam roll everything once you get level 100 pokemon. What do you think?

I also plan to bring out the first Mystery Gift! We had a poll a while back and the first Mystery Gift for PTD 2 will be Zorua! Mystery Gift codes will be done a tiny bit different, you will still go to PlayTowerDefenseGames.com and try to figure out the code and you will also enter the code on that site's version of PTD2. Before you could go to any site and enter it but now it is exclusive to their site. Since most people would just find the code on a different site and just use it straight off without visiting our great sponsor.

Lastly I'll also be working on the PTD2 Pokemon Center. It will be very similar to the PTD1 but I still have to do a lot infrastructure changes. I don't think it will be out this week since I have so much to do but I hope to get a good amount done and who knows maybe it will be out too.

Alright so that was quite a bit of info. Let's look at the Weekly Progress list next. Also remember I update this while I'm working so make sure to come back every once in a while to see how I'm doing :)

Weekly Progress:

Alpha v1.18 New Story Mode Battle: Released now!

• Fixed a bug with the Ability Intimidate that was preventing it from being applied to enemies that swapped into the battle
• Fixed a bug that is preventing the Arena Trap Ability and other attacks that trap you from working on Enemie
• Made it so Arena Trap will not work on pokemon that are immune to ground attacks
• New Level Modifier Feature - This only applies for Story mode and not 1v1 mode.
• New Story Level
• New Character
• Quest Intro
• Properly load your pokemon to the profile
• Properly saving Pokemon Information like leveling up, learning new moves and gaining experience
• Get Pokemon Unique ID after saving
• Get and Give Pokemon Position 
• Sending Info
• Receiving Info
• NPC AI for battle
• Battle Layout
• Battle Waves
• Quest Ending
• Implementing a level cap at 10 for Story Mode
• Lowering any pokemon that went over 10 back to 10
• Implementing in the server
• Implementing in the client

Alpha v1.17.1 Critical Bug Fix: Released now! 

•  Fixed a bug that was preventing players from completing the second quest on Story mode 

Alpha v1.17 New 1v1 Level: Released now!  

• Added Sponsor Intro
• Made starters have a chance to be both female and male instead of just male
• Fixed a bug that allowed you to keep leveling up your starter
• Moved the Back button in the story level to a different spot
• Made it so if you aren't facing an NPC then you won't talk to it
• Made it so bumping into an NPC will now make it stop and face you
• Changed the Police officers text for when you are a female character
• Limited the amount of potions you can have on you in 1v1 mode to 15 - This won't be like the rare candy where you can only buy 2. This means that you can only have a max of 15 on you at a time but if you use any of them you can go back to the max for the next level.  
• Made the Sleep status effect last 12 second but any damage taken has a 50% chance to awake up the target
• Increased the cost of Kakuna, Metapod, Beedrill, and Butterfree in 1v1 mode  to 25, 25, 45, and 45 respectively
• Added New Pokemon to the game (3)
• Graphics (100%)
• Shiny Graphics (100%)
• Shadow Graphics (100%)
• Stats (100%)
• Attack list (100%)
• Evolution Information (100%)
• Added New Attacks to the game
• Sing
• Pound
• Disable
• Wrap
• Glare
• Fake Tears
• Fury Swipes
• Added New Abilities to the game
• Cute Charm
• Friend Guard
• Intimidate
• Unnerve
• Illusion
• Added Gym Leader Checkpoints to 1v1 - Once you reach a gym leader you will be able to start playing at that gym leader battle.
• Added New Trainer AI Feature - Very basic trainer AI, when his/her pokemon faints he will take out the next one. Implementing feature into the game engine.
• Increased Coin rewards for any level that gave less than 20 coins to 20 coins - This is help reduce the feeling that you need to grind a lot for coins. This also helps balance the fact that you can only hold a certain number of potions on you in this update. I'll be keeping an eye on the numbers and will tweak as necessary.
• Added New 1v1 Level
• Intro
• Level Layout
• Level Waves
• Previous Level Ending Text
• Added New 1v1 Trainer AI - This is the AI for the trainer in the new level.
• Changed PTD 1 link on the main screen to point to the sponsor's website.

Alright now let's talk a bit about Creature Universe TD. Many of you might not know but Dan and I hold team meetings every week. We chat with our artist about Creature Universe, we see what everybody is working on and talk about the design of the game. So for the last few weeks we have been talking about the types that we were going to use for Creature Universe. This hasn't been an easy task. We all had different opinions. Some of us wanted to remove some types. Others wanted to add even more types. In the end we started from the beginning and asked ourselves which types MUST be around. After we figured that out we went ahead and added some new ones, combined some other ones and even removed some. Here is the list of the types that will be in Creature Universe! Granted this list could still be tweaked in the future. But for now this is what we have decided.

Normal/Neutral - Unlike Pokemon this type will actually be Neutral to all other types. It has no weaknesses but also no advantages. This type will also be more limited than I pokemon where a bunch of creatures had this type along with another one.
Fire/Flame - Pretty self explanatory.
Water/Aquatic - See Fire.
Grass/Plant - See Water.
Electric/Lightning - See Grass.
Air - This type is pretty much what flying is in pokemon.
Ice - See Electric.
Ground/Earth - This type combines what pokemon would have as Ground and Rock into one type.
Metal - This is kinda like Steel, but it can be different metals. Basically very strong and sharp.
Toxic - Like Poison type in pokemon but a lot better.
Dark - Like Dark in Pokemon but this is the type you would see ghost show up in.
Light - This type is something completely new. It's the counterpart of Dark. You would see more magical creatures like psychic show up with this type.
Mythical - This is the type for legendary creatures. The plan we have for it is that it is very defensive against all types except for Neutral, Light and Dark. It also has no offensive advantages.

So these are out types! Something old, something new, something combined. It's got a little bit of everything. The only types advantage we have figured out are Mythical and Neutral since those are really different from the rest. We are still working on specific type charts for the rest so stay tuned for that later on. Or what kind of type charts can you guys come up with? I would love to see them with explanations as to why you did what you did.

Also creatures will have almost like secondary "types" we are calling it species. For example your creature can be a type Fire but it can also be a bug species. Being a bug will carry certain advantages or disadvantages. Other species might be like "reptile", "mammal". We are still working on this part but I just wanted to mention it so you guys knew about it.

Well that was a lot of info! I hope you guys have a good week this week and as always, let me know what you think!

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!

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!



New Mystery Gift
For the first Mystery Gift we made a poll to figure out which Pokemon you guys wanted to have and as we all know Zorua won. This week we will have a new poll! The choices will be: Riolu, Axew, Sandile, or Klink. You will have a couple of days to vote so I have enough time to add it to the game.

A couple of weeks ago in our development team meeting we talked about how your character can make choices. These choices would have a big impact on the world around you. Would you keep thing in order or would you bring things into chaos? We talked about it a lot and many ideas came out of it. So I want to talk a bit about it. In previous blogs we talked about the Neutral, Light and Dark types. These are creature types but they also represent three sides that you can take in the game. There will be two organizations in the game that are after something and they both go about it in two separate ways. If you mostly only help one of them you will join their side. If you help both out pretty equally you will stay Neutral. Which side you join will also determine a few other things. Some creatures when they reach an evolution might evolve in 3 different directions either neutral, light or dark. It totally depends on how your character is aligned. Also some evolution will only happen if you are really deep into Dark or Light. So some creatures will be out of reach if you don't go fully into one alignment. Keep in mind that if you are Light aligned you can still have Dark creatures. There are only a few exceptions.

Another thing that I wanted to mention is that Light or Dark neither of them are evil. They are both after something and they both have evil people inside of their organizations that you will have to stop. So don't think okay Light = good and Dark = evil.

As you progress with that organization you might even make it to the top and become its leader!
So that is all we have for this week. Keep checking back, subscribe to our twitter, leave us a comment. Let me know what you think!

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!

Hey everyone! I hope all is well for you. Things are running right along here at Sam and Dan Games, and I'm here to bring you the goodies for this week. So let's get started!

Mystery Gift
This being the last week of October it would be a shame not to have a Ghost pokemon be the mystery gift so I put up a bunch of different Ghost to pick from. Let's the best one win! Golett is the winner!

Day Of the Week Events
In some Pokemon games you will get trainer battles, contest or some events that only happen during a certain day of the week. This feature is coming to PTD2 and CUTD. The first of such events will be a Spooky one that will only happen a certain day of the week and only at night! Look forward to it and the reward that it will bring.

New Route 31
I'm also adding a new Route that will come with a few new Pokemon to capture.

Pokedex!
Finally we will get the Pokedex! The Pokedex will keep track of what you have caught, now that we have evolution I need to add the Pokedex that will more accurately keep track of what you have instead of giving you credit for things just because you have the evolution.

Level cap to 100! (Sorta)
This one is sort of a bold move, but with the Effective Level mechanic this can work. So you might ask what about moves and evolutions? Well this is where the sorta part of it works out. Getting all the moves done quickly is out of the questions so what will happen is that you will level up but you won't learn any new moves passed the soft level cap (12). Evolutions on the other hand are pretty easy to put in so you will be able to Evolve! I think it's a good trade off. Instead of playing a lot and not gaining exp you will be able to keep leveling up your creature while you try to get the Daily Challenge or just shiny hunting. With the Effective Level mechanic levels will still provide some challenge without me having to make them extremely hard for anybody who doesn't level up or is just starting to play.

Daily Challenge and Other things..
You can read last week's blog post to find out more about Daily Challenges. I will also be working on these to get them out as soon as I can.

Okay so now that we talked about what I'm working on, let's look at the weekly progress list.

Alpha v1.24.1: Released!

• Golett Mystery Gift should only give out one pokemon and it should be genderless
• Geodude in Swarm battles should not have the attack Take Down
• Fixed a bug with not being able to pick your starter when starting a new game
• Fixed a bug with certain pokemon's TM list
• Bug with Jigglypuff's swarm battle
• Problem with Gastly learning curse

Alpha v1.24:  Released!

• Give Metapod and Kakuna Relearn moves so they can level up
• Fix issue with a Shiny or Shadow Evolving and losing it's shininess if you save after evolving and not before
• Fix issue with the map not scrolling when you walk around while being caught in Spinarak's Web
• Display Force Palm's Damage in the info box
• Level 100 cap
• New Evolutions from Current Pokemon Added to the game (19)
  • Graphics
  • Stats/Info
  • Attack Info
  • Evolution Info
• New Pokemon Added to the game (5)
• Graphics
• Stats/Info
• Attack Info
• Evolution Info
• New Evolutions Added to the game (12)
• Graphics
• Stats/Info
• Attack Info
• Evolution Info
• Route 31
• Map Graphics
• Map Triggers
• Map Spawn Locations
• Map Spawns
• Dark Cave
• Map Graphics
• Map Triggers
• Map Spawn Locations
• Map Spawns
• Route 46
• Map Graphics
• Map Triggers
• Map Spawn Locations
• Map Spawns
• New Map Behaviors (7)
• Zubat
• Bellsprout
• Gastly
• Phanpy
• Geodude
• Spearow
• Jigglypuff
• New Wild Pokemon Battles (7)
• Swarm Style
• 1v1 Style
• New Abilities Added to the game
• Iron Fist
• Klutz
• No Guard
• Pickup
• Levitate
• Gluttony
• New Attacks Added to the game
• Rollout
• Odor Sleuth
• Flail
• Take Down
• Lick
• Spite
• Curse
• Growth
• Mean Look
• Fixed a bug when trying to check your items when you didn't have any in 1v1 mode
• Mystery Gift
• Add Pokemon and Evolutions
• Change Server Code
• Change Client Code and Graphic

Meteor Crisis in Creature Universe!
I always like to end the blog post with a little bit of Creature Universe. A few weeks ago I had a meeting with the crew and we came up with this idea, and this week we developed it some more. When you start playing Creature Universe a big event will happen that will shake the planet and affect everybody that lives there. A great Meteor has crashed into the planet, but didn't destroy it!!! Everybody is overjoyed that they are still alive but in a few days strange events start happening all throughout the world. The grass starter island called "Pillar Island" is now swarming with bugs! Will you help in this hour of need? Check out one of the bugs that you will face on Pillar Island.

Work In Progress Toxic Creature

I hope you guys enjoyed that little preview and that you keep coming back every day to check out my progress on the update. As Always let me know what you think!

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!


Hello world! Welcome to another week of Sam and Dan game goodness. Originally we had planned for a big event for this week but we couldn't get all the details sorted out, so it will have to wait until next time. So what is the big event about? Well, basically we will be needing you guys to help us keep developing Ptd2 and Cutd. You can think of it like a kickstarter except it's not really about one project but about the whole company. We are working out some cool prizes for those of you who wish to help us out. Like I said before we won't be starting it this week but I wanted to give you guys the heads up of what is coming.

Security Measures
Many of you have noticed that there are a lot of hacked pokemon flying around in the trading center. This week I will spend a good amount of time beefing up the security among other things. So that one person that keeps spamming my twitter can finally relax for a chance.

Update on Security Measures:
There is a lot of misinformation going around (especially on YouTube videos) about what happened and how it happened. So I'm here to tell you what happened, and how it happened straight from the source.

First I patched up the game so certain hacks would no longer work. Some hackers will complain about this but really they can only blame themselves for this. If they were to hack for their own personal collection and just stay quiet about it then I wouldn't even notice and would leave them alone. But... they decided to start putting up illegal trades and tried to scam other players. That is not acceptable so I had to step in and add more security.

After I did this it was time to remove any illegal pokemon (pokemon that you can't catch in the game yet like Ho-oh for example) from any account that had them. I had a list of all the illegal pokemon and I had the id of who the original owner was (the person who captured/created this pokemon) and who the current owner was (the person who had the pokemon in their account).  Usually for the person who currently had the pokemon I simply removed the pokemon from their account. If the person had multiple illegal pokemon even if he didn't create them I would remove more valuables. You really should know better than to hold multiple illegal pokemon, period.

People who created multiple illegal pokemon also had valuables taken. Creating illegal pokemon is not acceptable either. If you created so many illegals and you tried trading other people for them trying to scam them your account was completely reset.

The next step was removing any pokemon that had illegal shiny values. For example shadow totodile or shiny vanillite. I followed the same rules as illegal. The more you had the more you lost. Most people only owned 1 and all I did was remove it and move along.

The last check was for shiny starters or shiny zorua that the original owner had not paid for.

Okay so that was the process, I went and checked each account by hand. This wasn't an automatic thing where bam a bunch of random accounts were deleted. If you lost a lot of things the things you lost were hacked and I couldn't allow them to stay in the system. If you buy a stolen good and the police finds out about it, they won't put you in jail but they will take away the stolen merchandise. 

As far as how many accounts were affected by this less than 200 accounts were affected by this. This is out of millions of accounts that exist. So less 1% of all account lost something. Don't for a second think that thousands and thousands of account were affected. Trust me I did this by hand and thousands would have taken me weeks to do. Also like i mentioned before most people only lost 1-2 pokemon and less than 20 actually got their account reset.

Well I hope that cleared some things up for you guys. Thanks for understanding, it was actually pretty sad for me when I have to delete pokemon like that... it definitely took a lot of my motivation out from this week.   

Getting it done
So I've been piling up a bunch of new features and things that I've been wanting to add and it is finally time to get them done. This week I will focus on the things that were left behind from last week without adding too much to it.

Pokemon Researcher
While making the behaviors for the different wild pokemon I started to test them and I was having a lot of fun just watching what they did. So I thought that it would be pretty fun to have a mode that you could just spawn some pokemon and watch them interact with each other and with you. You can't capture them or battle. You just get to play around and see if anything fun happens. This mode is really easy to add since all the work for it is pretty much done. Just have to make some menus, which I hate >.<

Mystery Gift
The poll this week will start with asking for what type you want to see this week and then it will move to a list of possible candidates. Let's figure this out together!
 

Weekly Progress

My Status: Working on blog!
Alpha v1.25 Progress List:
Note: The list below is for v1.25 when it is released.

• Security Stuff (100%) 
• Can no longer log into story mode with an illegal pokemon (pokemon that you can't obtain yet) (100%)
• Can no longer save an illegal pokemon (100%)
• Removing current illegal pokemon (100%)
• Removing hacked shiny starters and shiny zorua and their evolutions (100%)
• Add New Pokemon to the Trading Center (100%)  
• Make all Golett's Genderless (100%) - Might have to cut out a few body parts, ouch!
• Properly align some pokemon when they are following behind you (100%) 
• Better Map UI (100%) - Similar to the Battle UI, it shows time of day and your current money amount.
• Pokedex (0%)
• Saving Pokemon's party and storage position (0%)
• Daily Challenges (0%)
• Day of the Week Spooky Event (0%)
• 1v1 Mode Changes (0%) - As described on the previous blog.
• Sponsor Version of the game (0%)
• Add a confirmation popup to the back button on story mode if you haven't saved (0%)
• Release Pokemon (0%) - Note: You can already release them in the Pokemon Center if you don't want to wait for this to be done.
• Pokemon Researcher  (0%)
• Add list in the FAQ page on where to find pokemon and at what time, similar to the PTD1 list (0%) 
• Fixed bug with the attack Uproar not waking up pokemon in battle (0%)
• Add a graphic for removing a pokemon from the field (0%) - To better tell what is going on when fighting and NPC trainer.
• Add new Level Item interface graphics for the ui (0%)  
• Added which pokemon you will be battling in the next battle in 1v1 mode (0%) 
• Make pressing Enter to trigger a lot of the menu buttons (0%) Pressing enter to log in instead of clicking on it.
• Check the Forgot Password pages for any errors (0%) 
• Top Searchers/Top Request/Latest Trades (0%)

Creature Universe: Map Abilities
Ptd2 introduced the concept of the map. Creature Universe TD will take it even farther with map abilities. An example of this is very early in Pillar Island, the grass start zone, you will be given some bug bombs to throw at some bugs to clear them out. I made an awesome concept sketch to illustrate this example.

Bug Bomb takes out bugs, one of the map abilities you will get

 So instead of only walking around you will be able to equip items to do different actions. Your creatures don't get left out on the action. Each family of creatures will have their own ability that they can use in the map for different effects. In this example the Grass Starter which is still unnamed has a tongue ability that lets him eat certain bugs. You will be able to switch place with your creature so that you can control it while your trainer avatar follows it. Here is another amazing concept sketch that I made to illustrate this example.

Grass starter using his map ability on a bug creature

  In CUTD your character will perform more functions than the characters have ever had in ptd and ptd2. That's all I have for you this week, keep checking back to see how we are progressing. As always let me know what you think! Sam out.