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

Want to get the legendary dogs? Shiny Mew? or any other shiny pokemon in the game? Adopt them today using SnD coins! Click here for more info.

Visit the PTD: Pokemon Center - a place to trade pokemon, get your Daily Code, adopt Pokemon, view your items and change your avatar!

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

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

• Elite 4 (75%) (Fight the elite 4 using the same team but team is completely healed between fights, potions will reset between fights (thanks for asking Kpwbo), any fainted pokemon will be brought back in full health between fights (thanks for asking Ethan))
• Intro (100%)
• Layout (100%)
• Waves (80%)
• Lorelei Ice Type Battle (100%)
• Koga's Poison Type Battle (100%)
• Bruno's Fighting and Rock Type Battle (100%)
• Lance's Dragon Type Battle (0%)
• New Moves for the enemy (100%)
• Freeze all towers (100%)
• Slippery Floor (100%)
• Brain Freeze (100%)
• "Anti" Poison (100%)
  
• Ending (100%)
• Champion Fight (0%)(Champion and Mewthree)
• Intro (0%)
• Layout (0%)
• Waves (0%)
• New Moves for the enemy (100%)
• Tower Teleport (100%)
• Return to Pokeball (100%)
• Ending (0%) 
• Unknown Dungeon (Mewtwo) (0%)
• Intro (0%)
• Layout (0%)
• Waves (0%)
• Ending (0%) 
• Adding new pokemon (0%) - Mewtwo
• Add to Save Code (0%)

• Change Lorelei's Character Avatar to the right one (100%) 
• Fix Bruno's Avatar in the level select screen (100%) 
• Fixed an issue that would erase your avatars when you bought an avatar in the avatar store (100%)
• Fixed an issue that does not let you end the level if using a move like sunny day (0%)
• Missing Gym Achievements (0%)
• Convert all Legendary Beast (Dogs) to their shiny version from regular (0%) 
• Allow the hacked version of the game to use hacked version pokemon to get hacked version legendary birds (0%) 

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

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

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

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

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

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

I hope this explains a lot of the questions.

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

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

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

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

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

Want to get the legendary dogs? Shiny Mew? or any other shiny pokemon in the game? Adopt them today using SnD coins! Click here for more info.

Visit the PTD: Pokemon Center - a place to trade pokemon, get your Daily Code, adopt Pokemon, view your items and change your avatar!


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

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

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

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

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

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

As always! Let me know what you think!

Weekly Progress, Pokemon Tower Defense 2 Talents, Creature Universe (ANPO) Battle System!

Want to get the legendary dogs? Shiny Mew? or any other shiny pokemon in the game? Adopt them today using SnD coins! Click here for more info.

Visit the PTD: Pokemon Center - a place to trade pokemon, get your Daily Code, adopt Pokemon, view your items and change your avatar!


Hey! Nice to see you again! Like all Mondays it's time for the weekly progress blog here at Sam and Dan Games. If you haven't read last week's blog I suggest you read it. I talked about the ending of PTD 1 and the last update to come to the game among other things.

So keep track of my progress as I finish the game I will be posting updates here on this blog post.

• Viridian Ending (Movie Scene only level, sets up the last chapter of the game, Lickitung NPC trade will happen on this level) (0%)
• Intro (0%)
• Adding the crucial Lickitung NPC trade to the new level (0%) 
• Add Hyper Potion (0%)
• Ending (0%)
•  Power Plant (Zapdos, Electabuzz (Red Only), Magnemite) (0%)
• Intro (0%)
• Layout (0%)
• Waves (0%)
• Ending (0%)
• Seafoam Island (Articuno, Seel) (0%)
• Intro (0%)
• Layout (0%)
• Waves (0%)
• Ending (0%)
• Victory Road (Moltres) (0%)
• Intro (0%)
• Layout (0%)
• Waves (0%)
• Ending (0%)
• Elite 4 (Fight the elite 4 using the same team but team is completely healed between fights)
• Intro (0%)
• Layout (0%)
• Waves (0%)
• Ending (0%)
• Champion Fight (Champion and Mewthree)
• Intro (0%)
• Layout (0%)
• Waves (0%)
• Ending (0%) 
• Unknown Dungeon (Mewtwo) (0%)
• Intro (0%)
• Layout (0%)
• Waves (0%)
• Ending (0%)
• Add new moves to Pokemon Center's Move List (100%)
• Add Missing HMs (40%) 
• Fly (40%)
• Strength (40%)
• Surf (90%) 
• Graphics/Programming (100%)
• Adding to Pokemon's HM list (0%)
• Add Level Select Graphics (100%)
• New Moves (100%)
• Psystrike (100%) - Mewtwo 
• Adding new pokemon (87.5%) - Mewtwo, Articuno, Zapdos, Moltres, Electabuzz
• Graphics (100%)
• Shiny Graphics (100%)
• Shadow Graphics (100%)
• Add Stats to game (100%)
  
• Relearn Moves (100%)
• TM/HM List (100%)
• Add to Save Code (0%)
• Add to Pokemon Center (100%)

As you can see there is a lot to be done! Keep cheering me on as we reach the final miles of this race!

Just like Hero Tower Defense every week I will talk about PTD 2 and Creature Universe (ANPO) leading up to the eventual pre-pre-pre alphas. Then just like PTD 1 and  HTD we will keep updating the games until they are finished. This is just our way of keeping you, the player, involved in the process of game creation as much as possible. So instead of waiting a year and a half to see PTD 2 and longer for ANPO we will talk about them and show you our progress along the way. PTD 1 took a year and a half to make, imagine if PTD 1 just released today?! The game would be totally different I would think, a lot of your feedback was incorporated. Also without you guys I wouldn't have pushed myself so far to get it done as fast. So I really think this method will work for us here, what do you think?

Pokemon Tower Defense 2

So last week I talked about a few new mechanics that I thought would help add some new freshness to the game. Most of you really liked the ideas so I'm very happy with that and will make plans on how to add those in. This week I want to talk about something that some of my favorite Tower Defense games have that PTD 1 didn't have. This "thing" that I'm talking about is Talents!

Introduction "Trainer Specializations"!

 I also love talents systems in games, and I think it will make a great addition to PTD 2. So let me talk a little bit (for those who care lol) about how this idea came to be and my different thoughts on getting to where I am with the talents now. So while looking at some other games and their talent trees I thought it would be amazing to have some sort of talent tree in the game. My first thought was "okay every pokemon will have a talent tree!" Then I was like.... "NO WAY!" having a talent tree on every pokemon, while interesting, would take forever and could prove to have many issues attached to it, including: overwhelming players, making the database even bigger and take longer to save and load! So then I thought how about if the trainer can specialize in a certain type of pokemon, almost like a gym leader! That sounded really cool to me.

So the way it works is that you will have a trainer level. You level it up by playing levels in the game. At the end of each level you will get experience points for your trainer. The higher and more difficult the level the more experience points you get. When you level up you will get talent points that you can assign on any of the specialization trees available. There will be a tree for each type of pokemon in the game. Each tree will give you bonuses not only for a particular type of pokemon but for all your pokemon. For example a fire talent might be like "Increase all your towers' damage by 5% if you have a fire pokemon in your party.". Talents will also unlock Special Abilities (I talked about these on the last blog) only accessible from talents.

So now that you read about Trainer Specializations, tell me what you think! Now onto Creature Universe!

Creature Universe (Project ANPO)

Last week I talked about the creatures feeling alive and dynamic. This is something that I want to show up in every facet of the game. This week I will start introducing the battle system. Note that this game is in a very early stage. You are pretty much getting the notes that I'm writing down as I come up with them. Something like a battle system is really hard to explain but I will try my best here to paint the picture in your head. Okay so for a long time I thought it would be very interested to make a game that when you told your "avatar" to do something he wouldn't do it automatically. Essentially your "avatar" would think about it first before doing it. Imagine you have a warrior character but his "courage" stat is low. So if you tell him to attack a dragon, he isn't going to run in there! While this is a good idea in theory... it probably isn't that much fun. Once you character has enough "courage" he might just do everything you tell him to. So what's the point?! It wasn't until I started thinking more about ANPO that I realized "Hey! I might bring this idea back!" but while I can bring part of it back, it needed some heavy tweaking.

Essentially you will control your avatar (your human trainer) and he will issue commands to your creature. Then your creature will try its best to perform your command. So what does it mean to "try its best to perform"? To me this means that creatures have limits! In pokemon a creature has some limits in the form of Attack, Defense, Speed, and PP. These are fairly straight forward, but I want to add some new stats into this game. What if your creature had a "Reaction Time" stat? I want the battles in this game to be in real-time instead of turn-based. So reaction time would be how long it takes from your command going out to the creature performing it. So lets say your creature is going to tackle the enemy but the enemy is about to throw a hyper beam kind of attack straight at you, and you the trainer select the dodge + left command! Depending on your creature and the timing of your command your creature will dodge or get hit by the enemy's attack.

Also a big change from pokemon would be the attacks! The moves in ANPO will be done by chaining a series of commands. The example I used above "dodge + left" is an example of this chaining. While just saying dodge (maybe to save time) will make a creature dodge in a direction that the creature chooses (probably random or based on something else) you can be specific and say "doge+left" or "dodge+front" etc. Each creature will have a set of commands that are standard for all creatures. Things like "dodge", "run", "attack", "jump" are examples of a few of the standard commands. But then bird like creatures will have "fly", "flap wings", "peck". Using a combination of these will result in different attacks! You will also be able to save custom combinations so you don't have to keep selecting them over and over.

So I hope this gives you a small view into what I'm aiming for. You don't have direct control over your creatures but you will be issuing them commands. As you get to know your creature more and more you will learn the timing for when to issue commands to be able to battle effectively. You will also be able to train your creature to increase its speed and reaction time.

I hope you guys have a good week, and as always let me know what you think on the comments below!

Try to keep the comments about this blog post, if you have any account issues check out the forums and our FAQ page for help on solving common issues.

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

Want to get the legendary dogs? Shiny Mew? or any other shiny pokemon in the game? Adopt them today using SnD coins! Click here for more info.

Visit the PTD: Pokemon Center - a place to trade pokemon, get your Daily Code, adopt Pokemon, view your items and change your avatar!

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

Happy Anniversary Pokemon Tower Defense!

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

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

The Last Update! (To rule them all?)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Random Game Sequels

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

Pokemon Tower Defense 2

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

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

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

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

Creature Universe Game (ANPO)

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

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

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

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

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

And More!

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

Sincerely,
Samuel Otero

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

Want to get the legendary dogs? Shiny Mew? or any other shiny pokemon in the game? Adopt them today using SnD coins! Click here for more info.

Visit the PTD: Pokemon Center - a place to trade pokemon, get your Daily Code, adopt Pokemon, view your items and change your avatar! 


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

PTD 2 a New Beginning!

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

Pokeballs

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

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

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

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

New Servers

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

Weekly Progress

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

PTD First Look Video by GraphicForce:

PTD 1 Progress:

Story Level (0%)

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

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

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

Bug Fixes (100%)

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

PTD 2 Progress:

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

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

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

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

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

Want to get the legendary dogs? Shiny Mew? or any other shiny pokemon in the game? Adopt them today using SnD coins! Click here for more info.

Visit the PTD: Pokemon Center - a place to trade pokemon, get your Daily Code, adopt Pokemon, view your items and change your avatar! 


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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

PTD First Look for v6.2 by GraphicForce!


PTD 1 Progress:

Story Level (100%) - Pallet Town Training

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

PTD 2 Progress:

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

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

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

Pokemon Tower Defense: Weekly Progress for v5.5, school is starting, looking for a programmer!

Want to get the legendary dogs? Shiny Mew? or any other shiny pokemon in the game? Adopt them today using SnD coins! Purchase some SnD coins and get Ninja-ja bonus items free! 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!

A new week a new adventure in video game development here at Sam & Dan Games. Since the explosive popularity of Pokemon Tower Defense things have changed a lot for Dan and I, and we decided from the beginning that we wanted to make a different kind of game company. Most game companies follow a similar path of developing the game internally for a number of years and then release it into the public making only slight changes based on user input. This method is not incorrect by any means. The developer has a vision of what he wants for the game and takes his time (or however much time he can afford to spend) to make it as close to his vision as possible. They do play test with gamers and non-gamers. I can imagine. to gather some feedback on the game. The process is proven and many companies use it to great success. But we knew that if we wanted to stand out and provide something unique to our players we needed to be different.

So we thought about what we would like other companies to do, or what were new independent companies doing that we really liked. One such person/company was Markus Persson aka "Notch" from Mojang and their hit game Minecraft. While I'm not an avid Minecraft player, as a game designer I can see the appeal of the game. But what really sticks out for me is the method in which the game was released and updated. If you haven't noticed we followed a very similar approach with Pokemon Tower Defense. Releasing a game in it's early stages is a risky thing to do. What if somebody steals the concept? What if players are turned off by an incomplete game? These are all things to keep in mind while using this process. To me it means that I get to know how the players feel about your game at a stage were you can still make changes to it. Pokemon Tower Defense is really close to being done, and your feedback as been integral in the making of it. Sometimes you picked which avatar we should get, or if Joey should battle somebody, even which direction we should head in. Those were choices that I gave you guys to directly affect the game. But your emails and comments gave me great insight into which direction you the players wanted to take it in. While I didn't follow every little request (that would be a horrible thing to do) I did follow request that I felt and many felt should be implemented.

We are getting close to the end of PTD 1. 3 more badges to go until the final showdown, very little new pokemon to add until all 151 are in the game, and less than 100 new moves to add. This game belongs to all of us that have participated in creating it. Even those who are no longer around but helped in past times. Because the game is near completion, you won't be seeing a lot of new features most of the focus will be on finishing what is already there. So what's next for us?

My main priority right now is finishing the PTD story mode. This will grant everybody access to the original 151 pokemon. My main goal with this game was to make a good pokemon tower defense game and I think I have accomplished that but it's still not completed. While I'm finishing PTD I will work with Dan and Kevin on Hero Tower Defense. On top of that I'm going back to school! Starting this week I will be taking two college courses on my way to finishing my Computer Science degree. The great thing about being an independent developer is that you can set your own schedule and work around things in your life. So I will have the task to balance game development with going to school, doing the homework and studying for test. Life is all about balance!

So when PTD story mode is finished I will move the focus to HTD and really try to get that game going. Just like PTD we will be showing you the game as we make it so that you guys can give us your feedback. Once the game is in a good playable form with some levels ready we will deploy it to websites such as newgrounds, playtowerdefensegames, etc so that we can attract new people that are interested in that game. But I never like just working on one game... So while working on HTD and HTD being the main focus I will work on... Pokemon Tower Defense 2! Yes you heard it right! The sequel to PTD is officially announced! The game will focus on the 2nd Generation of Pokemon from the Johto Region and along with all that many of new features that you guys have been requesting:

• 100 new Pokemon to capture and raise
• New Story Line
• Held Items
• Pokemon Genders
• Pokemon Breeding
• Eggs
• Day Care
• Day and Night Cycle
• Different Pokeballs
• More Items
• More Achievements
• Better Interface
• Being able to transfer your old pokemon from ptd 1 into ptd 2
• More Avatars
• and more!

As I said before Hero Tower Defense will be the main focus after PTD 1 is done but PTD 2 will be worked on by me and a few other people at the same time. Along with this game I will be working on other side projects that will take a lot longer to show to you guys. Which brings me to my new next point, we need a programmer!

Looking for new people that want to work with us is actually a pretty hard ordeal. We had many great applications for the artist position and we were fortunate to find Kevin which has shown that he has what it takes. With artist the quest of finding one is a lot simpler, since with art what you see is what you get. With programming it's not quite as easy as looking at a portfolio. But let's do it anyways. This programmer position will let you work with Dan, Kevin and I on all the latest projects that we have here on Sam & Dan games have going. Be a part of our team! We are in need of programming in pretty much all the areas of game development so if you are an expert in gameplay,  interfaces, or tool building apply today!

Here are the requirements.

• Must be 18 years or older.
• Must have at least a year experience using Action Script 3.
• Must have mastery of OOP.
• Must have Adobe Professional CS5.5 or compatible software.
• Must have a passion for Gaming.
• Must speak and write fluent English.

These next ones are things are pluses that will make you more likely to be considered:

• Have published a successful Action Script 3 Flash game on the web.
• Have worked on a published game using different languages and engines.
• C++, Java, C#

So there you go, like the artist position this is a paid position. Here is what we want to know from you:

• Email to sotero86@gmail.com with subject "Programming Job Opening for SnD Games" (Can you follow simple instructions?)
• Your experience in programming: What languages, how long, etc (Do you meet the requirements?)
• Examples of your work: Published games, tools, widgets, etc (Do you have any of the plusses that we are looking for)
• Why you want to work with us? and why should we pick you? (We want to see your passion!)

So let the search begin! I'm looking forward to the applications!

Okay.. So this has been a long post but I haven't really expressed myself fully recently and I wanted to get some stuff out there :)

Now on to the Weekly Progress! I won't reveal too much of what it will be on, the PTD First look by GraphicForce will take care of that. You can expect that (the first look) by the middle of the week.

PTD First Look Video for v5.5


New Story Level (100%)

• Level Intro (100%)
• Level Layout (100%)
• Level Waves (100%)
• Level Ending (100%)
• Implement in game (100%)

New non capturable pokemon (100%)

• Add graphic to game (100%)
• Add stats to game (100%)

New Achievement (100%) - Celadon Challenge!

• Implement in game (100%)
• Implement in server (100%)

New Ability (100%) - Sand Veil - Sandshrew, Sandslash, Digglet, Dugtrio - Sand Veil increases the evasion of a Pokémon in a sandstorm and if on a Pokémon whose type does not already, grants immunity to damage taken from sandstorms.

• Implement in game (100%)

New Mystery Gift Pokemon (100%) - Grimer!

• Implement in game (100%) 
• Graphics (100%)
• New Moves (100%)
• Implement Moves/TMs (100%)
• Implement in Trading Center (100%)
• Implement in Adoption Center (100%)
• Implement Shadow Version in Game Corner and Daily Code (100%)
• Implement in Save code (100%)

Rework Daily Code prizes (0%)- This is coming thanks to all your feedback!
Level Cap Increase (100%)

• New Move due to increase (100%)
• Implement in game (100%)
• Implement new move in pokemon center's name database (100%)
• Implement in game (100%)
• Implement in trading center (100%)

Pokemon Center new look (70%)
Bug Fixes (100%)

• Bug with trading pokemon in game (100%) 
• Add missing information for the move Spike (100%)

Add Ditto, Shellder and Psyduck to the adoption center (100%) 
Add Ditto, Cloyster and Golduck to the adoption center (100%) 

Hero Tower Defense Programming Progress:
Interface - Targeting Functionality for your units (100%) 
Interface - Selecting a specific skill to use against a particular target (100%)
Graphics - Implement new interface graphics (100%)
Interface - Implement zoom in/out buttons (100%)

The list will be filled out with more things as the week goes on, thanks for the continued support and as always let me know what you think!