The editor has been under development for a bit of time now, mainly due to the scale of customization available. A lot of time has went into making nearly all aspects of a level customizable. This includes the simple layout of paths and objects such as trees and spawn points but it also includes customizing the towers, monsters, effects, etc. This means a player could create unique content for a level, such as special towers and monsters and allow others to play it.
Below is a video demonstrating how easy it is to setup a new level and play it.
Of course this only demonstrates the very basics of what the editor is capable of. Currently, features include the ability to resize the level, change the ground and path tile textures, manipulate game objects, edit the level difficulty values and the properties editor which allows you to customize the game objects.
Below is a picture of the properties editor dialog. Please note that this is not the final UI and changes are to be expected. Most of my time was spent on creating functionality and not much on the beauty of the interface.
The properties dialog allows the user to customize nearly all values of an object. The user can copy, create, and delete individual properties. They can also save, load, and merge the entire properties collection. This means if a user wants to reuse the properties of a certain level, they simply load it and save the map.
Yes the properties editor is complex and before I do a public release I will make sure to make videos on how to use it. Currently, I have made tooltips for nearly all the editable values which does a quick explanation of what the property does.
Anyways, I will continue working on the editor and hope to have a public release available soon, within the next month or two. This will also include the ability to upload customized maps and play uploaded custom maps!
I realize I have not updated the development blog in over 2 months but it’s not because I haven’t been busy working on it. A lot of the time has been spent on developing the editor but I have also managed to add some additional content to the game as well.
I’d like to show off three new monster types that I think will make the game more fun and challenging.
The first is what I named the Infested Grotesque which is simply a fat monster that explodes and spawns new rats at its location which can really cause havoc if not dealt with early on.
The second and third are what I call attacking monsters which are monsters who can destroy towers, clearing blockades and opening up paths for the other monsters.
The tank is a ground monster, who moves very slowly but has a large amount of health and will take a path similar to a flying monster but will attack any towers it encounters.
The dragon is a flying monster who spawns randomly around the level and will fly around attacking your towers.
Anyways, this was just a quick teaser update and I will try to post another soon with updates on new towers and levels as well as the development of the editor.
I’ve achieved many of my milestones with the game but ultimately it still needs a few fundamental systems that would help bring it all together.
The game itself features many different types of towers which can do many different things. As the game systems grew, the towers and what they could do became more sophisticated. As for the core game, the towers continue to change and are always being balanced, modified, or added to. When it comes to towers I want to balance and make each one feel rewarding and fun to play and have an ultimate final upgrade implemented for each base tower (30+ base towers).
The monsters are also being modified and added to. When it comes to monsters I want to add at least one more boss type which I am calling the summoner and I want to also revisit the special types of monsters and find more creative ways of irritating the player. I also need to create more challenging wave spawn groups which will help create uncertainty during a level and will increase the difficulty and strategy required.
There are other systems I have considered implementing as well and I will post a future blog about some of the different ideas that could really improve the game and strategy.
Sounds have been on the back burner the entire time with my focus on developing the engine and systems for playing. I feel the sounds should be simple with the game and should mostly be made-up of ques from the interface and any important game events. I’ve already begun compiling all the different sounds I may require. However, I will also have to search out a artist/composer and figure out costs for such tasks. I estimate this development milestone would take at least a few months. Textures have also been on the back burner the entire time of development. I hired my first and only texture monster artist at the beginning of February this year and he has recreated much of the base core of monster textures and I hope it will continue. However, towers and other textures such as environmental objects and path/ground tiles need to be ‘recreated’. Much of the textures used are from the very beginning, obtained from free sites or created by myself and was never meant to be permanent. My priority for this would be the towers then the path and ground tiles and finally any misc objects. Currently there are almost 100 different towers (30 base towers with two upgrades each) so there are a lot of different textures required and I think it is important to have each upgrade be visually “improved” meaning it should improve upon the base tower texture by adding something visually to it. The pathing and ground textures will be less demanding as I feel there are only so many different grounds and paths, finding someone who can make them will be the hard part. I estimate this development milestone will take at least six months but it really depends on investment.
The game has the ability to customize many of the aspects of a level, everything from customized Towers to Monsters, Effects and Buffs, and many of the level properties such as what can spawn, the difficulty values, and much more. However, to really utilize it would require spending time creating an editor that is semi-friendly to users but allowing for deep customization. I estimate this would require at least 3 months of work before a well defined prototype could be available.
With an editor implemented, custom levels could be created by any player, and I feel the next logical step would be to allow the player to share this custom content with others. This means implementing a database and interface for downloading/uploading levels and ratings/comments. The game itself would have an user-interface directly accessible from the main menu allowing you to browse all custom uploads and download and play them. Allowing for anyone to upload a level or leave a comment/rating should also be considered which could really help with content growth. I feel this could be implemented in a few months.
So in conclusion the current goals are balancing the game, adding assets such as textures and sounds, and implementing a level editor and a way to share content. I will make future blog posts about progression, thoughts and ideas, and anything else related to the game and its development!
This is my first official blog post and I just want to give a detailed journey into how and why I started developing my game.
It started 5 whole years ago when I decided I wanted to learn how to create a game for my little tablet. After some research and a few weeks, I got setup in Android Studio using Java and LibGDX to create a game using openGL to render images onto the screen. This quickly evolved and a few years were spent creating game systems that were both optimal and easily expandable.
This last year I finally decided to start pushing towards a public release but I was lacking in many user-friendly aspects so I spent this last year alone optimizing the interface, balancing the game, and adding new art so I could release a working version to the public and get feedback and ideas for improvement. I did finally release it on Google Play Store and after a few months, not a single person has viewed it, which I find very odd. However, I will not let this deter me and I will continue working and improving on the game and hopefully one day a spot light will shine on it.
In conclusion, the journey has been long, fun, frustrating, and educational. I think it was well worth the time spent and will continue spending because it is a project of passion and joy for me. I love video games and creating one is just as fun as playing one! I will continue to update my blog with information about my continued journey and this will hopefully be the first of many posts.
