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20.07.2011, 08:29
Roadmap to CreepTD 1.0.0
Hello everyone,
it has been a lot of fun to me to develop the game to its actual state with this yet small but smart community behind it. So its important to me to talk to you about the 1.0.0 roadmap that brings a real bunch of new stuff to the game.
I recently stumbled into some issues that could not be resolved that easily, so I decided to reimplement big parts of the game with my own code. While doing so, I realized that there is so much untapped potential in this game, that I could not stop to add some bigger changes. I somewhat thought "if you are going to do something, than follow through it completly". Currently this contains the following updates (probably more):
- New game graphics code that is able to work with animations and is much faster than the previous
- Protocol improvements to reduce message overhead to a minimum
- A huge code review and refactoring to make development much easier for me, e.g.:
- - I tidied up the whole Creep and Towers code and added functionality for visible effects and special abilities
- - I refactored all the internal constants to really make sense the way they are and more stuff of this that won't be interesting to you in the first place
- I added logging functionality to the Survivor game mode to allow Survivor rankings per map. I am going to release another web site update together with the 1.0.0 server and client to take advantage of this
- I added improved strategies to the Survivor A.I., especially an EndGameStrategy working with different kinds of large creeps
All this are good news. Now the bad one - at least for some of you, I think. I run into trying to make the game more twothousandandeleven and to do so I am going to make some changes that will affect gameplay. For example:
- I removed the Fat Colossus creep and added a Independence-Day-like Mothership Creep that is able to launch small new Creeps on its way through the map. However, this is more a good looking effect than a real threat
- I am planning to give the green-column Creeps some sence while adding the ability to aid other units to them
- I am doing the above because I want to introduce some kind of common battleground theme to the whole game even with a tiny introduction to each Creep
- To make this clear: I am not going to make that big changes to the way the game is played and loved, but some small ones that will somewhat affect the gameplay as you know it today. E.g. there will be new tactics to separate green creeps from the others to lower their slight but existing healing effect or, on the other side, sending a green creep together with a wave. Also the mothership must be taken into account because it will drop (currently I think Large Mantas) on its way (it will however not drop in the last segments of the map).
- I redesigned all and animated some of the Creep images to a more space-ship like design. However, every unit will maintain their design characteristics (except the mothership creep). This will affect the look and feel slightly but most creeps except the above explained are not touched in their settings.
- I am planning to make the Survivor mode a real classic TowerDefense mode where income is static and most credits are reached by bounty because I think that this is the most common mode played solo and generally understood by most of the towerdefense players out there
So far, this is my roadmap to 1.0.0 and I am currently on my way to make the next release a 1.0.0 Beta. It will last a few days, of course, there is a lot work to be done.
So, please tell me your feelings about the changes I am going to make to the game. Do you think you will probably love them - some day - or is this a no-go for you? Is there something I should take into account from your point of view? Speaking for myself, at least I am really excited to take the game a step further after two years of stagnation.
Cheers
dcode
P.S. I have added some alpha graphics so that you can get a first impression about how little or how big the affection might be
it has been a lot of fun to me to develop the game to its actual state with this yet small but smart community behind it. So its important to me to talk to you about the 1.0.0 roadmap that brings a real bunch of new stuff to the game.
I recently stumbled into some issues that could not be resolved that easily, so I decided to reimplement big parts of the game with my own code. While doing so, I realized that there is so much untapped potential in this game, that I could not stop to add some bigger changes. I somewhat thought "if you are going to do something, than follow through it completly". Currently this contains the following updates (probably more):
- New game graphics code that is able to work with animations and is much faster than the previous
- Protocol improvements to reduce message overhead to a minimum
- A huge code review and refactoring to make development much easier for me, e.g.:
- - I tidied up the whole Creep and Towers code and added functionality for visible effects and special abilities
- - I refactored all the internal constants to really make sense the way they are and more stuff of this that won't be interesting to you in the first place
- I added logging functionality to the Survivor game mode to allow Survivor rankings per map. I am going to release another web site update together with the 1.0.0 server and client to take advantage of this
- I added improved strategies to the Survivor A.I., especially an EndGameStrategy working with different kinds of large creeps
All this are good news. Now the bad one - at least for some of you, I think. I run into trying to make the game more twothousandandeleven and to do so I am going to make some changes that will affect gameplay. For example:
- I removed the Fat Colossus creep and added a Independence-Day-like Mothership Creep that is able to launch small new Creeps on its way through the map. However, this is more a good looking effect than a real threat
- I am planning to give the green-column Creeps some sence while adding the ability to aid other units to them
- I am doing the above because I want to introduce some kind of common battleground theme to the whole game even with a tiny introduction to each Creep
- To make this clear: I am not going to make that big changes to the way the game is played and loved, but some small ones that will somewhat affect the gameplay as you know it today. E.g. there will be new tactics to separate green creeps from the others to lower their slight but existing healing effect or, on the other side, sending a green creep together with a wave. Also the mothership must be taken into account because it will drop (currently I think Large Mantas) on its way (it will however not drop in the last segments of the map).
- I redesigned all and animated some of the Creep images to a more space-ship like design. However, every unit will maintain their design characteristics (except the mothership creep). This will affect the look and feel slightly but most creeps except the above explained are not touched in their settings.
- I am planning to make the Survivor mode a real classic TowerDefense mode where income is static and most credits are reached by bounty because I think that this is the most common mode played solo and generally understood by most of the towerdefense players out there
So far, this is my roadmap to 1.0.0 and I am currently on my way to make the next release a 1.0.0 Beta. It will last a few days, of course, there is a lot work to be done.
So, please tell me your feelings about the changes I am going to make to the game. Do you think you will probably love them - some day - or is this a no-go for you? Is there something I should take into account from your point of view? Speaking for myself, at least I am really excited to take the game a step further after two years of stagnation.
Cheers
dcode
P.S. I have added some alpha graphics so that you can get a first impression about how little or how big the affection might be
- Mothership (will rotate very slowly and drop creeps from its center)
- 16.png (500 Bytes) Viewed 17043 times
- Attachments
-
- Shark (see Phoenix)
- 6.png (236 Bytes) Viewed 17034 times
-
- Mercury
- 1.png (204 Bytes) Viewed 17035 times
-
- Speedy Raider Alternative (would rotate fast, not yet decided)
- 7.png (244 Bytes) Viewed 17035 times
-
- Fast Nova (rotates)
- 3.png (237 Bytes) Viewed 17035 times
-
- Mako
- 2.png (188 Bytes) Viewed 17042 times
-
- Speedy Raider (Will strafe from the left to the right of the path - I am not sure if I should rework it completly, see posted alternative version)
- 7.png (437 Bytes) Viewed 17042 times
-
- Demeter (see Zeus)
- 5.png (221 Bytes) Viewed 17042 times
-
- Vulture (see Zeus)
- 9.png (238 Bytes) Viewed 17042 times
-
- Large Mamba (will animate, somewhat glow)
- 4.png (488 Bytes) Viewed 17042 times
-
- Ray (see Phoenix)
- 10.png (190 Bytes) Viewed 17042 times
-
- Racing Mamba (will rotate fast)
- 11.png (235 Bytes) Viewed 17042 times
-
- Big Toucan
- 8.png (226 Bytes) Viewed 17042 times
-
- Express Raptor (will rotate fast)
- 15.png (284 Bytes) Viewed 17042 times
-
- Zeus (regeneration effect will be shown as a blinking health bar, maybe an additional red cross)
- 13.png (216 Bytes) Viewed 17042 times
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- Phoenix (slow immunity will be shown as a shield effect)
- 14.png (197 Bytes) Viewed 17042 times
-
- Huge Titan (will rotate slowly)
- 12.png (249 Bytes) Viewed 17042 times
Think it, design it, build it, run it. That's what I do.
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