Hero Tower Defense Thursday: Day 19 - Happy Holidays! HTD Pre-Alpha v0.001 Release!


Go here to read Day 18 of Hero Tower Defense Thursday.



First off, Happy Holidays everyone! We'll all be taking a short break while we enjoy the holidays but we might jump in every now and then to answers comments and such. I hope you all have a good time during the next several days and get lots of cool stuff!

Speaking of getting cool stuff, we here at Sam & Dan Games would like to give you guys a small gift of our own; the first release of HTD! Yay! Now you may have noticed the title "Pre-Alpha v0.001." This is pretty accurate. In other words this is like the very beginnings of HTD's physical form. For those of you who haven't been following the HTD's posts you might play this be wonder where the rest is. We've done a lot of stuff but as with most big projects the inital stage of development takes a lot of time in order to build the foundation and set things up for everything else to follow. You guys have been very helpful in that process with giving us feedback and we plan to continue asking for it every step of the way. This early release being one of those steps.

This version is basically just a demo survival map with some basic, core functions of the game. You have to protect the character with no armor (we don't have armor done for them yet :P) for as long as you can. Eventually you'll get overrun but it's a good testing ground for trying things out as we continue to add stuff. There are no profiles, leveling up, choosing skills, or manually triggering skills but they'll be coming soon.

While there isn't much there right now, this is our starting point, and from now on we'll be releasing updates for HTD as often as we can. There's a lot to come and we'll be asking the community for ideas and suggestions on a regular basis. Everything from quest ideas to weapon concepts to level designs. We have plenty of our own ideas but it's not like we can think of everything and having you guys help out is a great resource. Kevin's blog, KXN @ HTD is one way you can voice your opinion on such things. He puts up art related polls and asks for feedback on stuff he's currently working on as well as answers questions you guys might have for him.

So play around with this early release, see what you think, and let us hear your feedback in the comments! Have fun and Happy Holidays!

-Dan


Hey guys! It's been a long time coming but we are finally at the release for Hero Tower Defense! I'm pretty much going to repeat most of what Dan said! The game is really early, but I hope you guys can see what is there and use your imagination to see where the game is going to go. Some small things that aren't mentioned is that you can use the arrow keys to move the map and the "-" and "+" to zoom in and out. I wanted to thank Kevin (our artist) for doing such a great job! Thanks pal! I also want to thank Dan for answering all the SnD Coin emails and for taking over the design of HTD! ;P My family and girlfriend (they probably won't read this) but I thank them for all the support, letting me spend all this time on the computer! Lastly I want to thank you guys for such a great year, I say this a lot but I always mean it that without you guys we wouldn't be here right now releasing this game. I hope you guys have a good Christmas and New Years. See you guys in 2012!
As always let us know what you think!
-Sam

Comments

  1. third? now, i'll go view the game xD

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  2. It's so small it doesn't even need a preloader.

    Also, it's kind of hard to tell which one I'm moving since they all look the same

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  3. Im the anonymous third, the game is very great! so.. its a preprepreprepreprepalpha xD So, congratulations to sam, dan and kevin and HAPPY HOLIDAYS! and for a break (bien merecido).

    And, a dude for sam, and other for dan

    Sam: Do you think in add new legendary pokemons of others ligues in a events, for example, the new game of pokemon? (Rumble Blast)

    Dan: Sorry if the question is not very ''beatiful'' but, when release the next version of Ninja-Ja

    Sorry for the bad lenguage.
    Regards from Argentina.

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  4. OMG! love the game already! it's so simple! hopefully in the top 15 commentors

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  5. Woohoo! This game is awesome! But i'm a women and can't change that yet...? And we were just thrown right in the game... Im a little confused but SO HAPPY TO GET TO FINALLY PLAY IT!!! After so much talk i was ready!!

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  6. @Wes - Very small :), also when we start getting into the actual story mode of the game all the characters will look different so you won't run into that problem. For this "demo" version we wanted to give you guys 3 units to play around with and since we don't have any other armor made they all look the same.

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  7. @Athermes - Yeah, think of this more as like a demo :) there is a lot more work to be done before it will get to a stage that the game won't pull weird things on you.

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  8. Very nice for a pre-pre-pre-and so on-Alpha stage.

    I can hardly wait for the future updates. Well done.

    Have a nice Christmas, guys.

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  9. HTD is very good in my opinion. Im surprized that its a prototipe!


    -I check every day

    P.S for PTD, I put up a lot of pokemon for trade I decided now I will only have 1 of each shiny pokemon, shadow pokemon, and no normal pokemon unless legendary.

    P.P.S sory my P.S was so long.

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  10. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M6Mufyv-OVI
    also you need a menu button xD

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  11. Nice for a pre-alpha. Also are you supposed to be able to move the character you need to defend by placing another character on top of her and switch their places.

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  12. @Brandon - Nice find! No you aren't supposed to be able to do that >.<

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  13. is the first lvl of hero td ment to be impossible ?

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  14. Helpful hint or glitch?

    you can move the position of the civilian (or whatever you are trying to protect) by moving your hero on top of her this will cause the civilian to move were the hero was before you moved your hero

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  15. Awesome sam! (or dan not sure which)! I believe this game will go far, and can't wait for more fun filled update. Happy Holidays!

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  16. Sam, Kevin, and Dan HTD ,while obviously in its early stages, looks to have a bright future! it is a great idea that i think could become one of the greatest games on the internet. the idea seems good and it also seems like there are alot of places you could go with it. Good luck in progressing in this game! Also please dont just throw aside PTD or Ninja-ja because while i know it may be tempting to just work all on the newest game because you have a reason to be inspired, but both your other games are still very good games that i they think can also progress in their own way. Again good luck progressing. ill be cheering for you!

    -Entei bound

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  17. Hey guys,
    Just tested the prototype and it's looking really good. Animation is sweet, and the gameplay looks pretty good. I imagine with future updates there will be options of spells to use when you click on one of your ladies (just like in PTD)? Really great so far though, keep up the good work. I can't wait for the full release

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  18. Great game, the dragging motion could be improved. ( when you pick up a girl to move her, have the original be faded or something). Of course, im sure you guys have already thought of that

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  19. After playing the game a little too much and winning every time I read Brandon's comment and successfully sent the ragged women to the front and had her killed. I was so pleased with myself... Then i realized how sad that is

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  20. It was very good for a prototype. I got killed because the lady you have to protect moved randomly. I think it was because I dragged one of the people where she stood. Animation is good. I just wish you could tell whether the enemy was using projectiles or their bare fists. Overall. I seems nice. btw, would this ever become an app like pokemon tower defense once did? At least it won't get taken down because of copyright.

    -Random Dude

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  21. really love the graphics!
    first impression is good, can't wait to see what's next ^^

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  22. Wow, so streamlined. I'm still trying to beat it though.

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  23. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZhHIzhKYS_E

    BALLLD.

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  24. not much right now, but i know you will make it great.

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  25. you know how PTD was an app? is HTD going to become an app eventually too?

    Tower

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  26. Hey guys! YEY for HTD release! =D

    Loved this pre-alpha, its in a really good way ;)

    The way it goes is pretty fluid, I like it! Just afraid if welps are this size what size will dragons be? And bosses!!! =P

    Hope there will be and underwear version of the chars when you have no armor at all and that is the starting gear above that =) I want Maximus in white boxers with red hearts and ofc Sheryl sexy underweare ;)

    @Sam/Dan - When you pic a char it should be untargetable, seems dogdy while you are grabbing it it is taking damage where it was. The rest is nice, and the elemental "buffs" are really easy to see (previously I was afraid of that part =P).

    @Kevin - Still can't see those 2 angles on the tail, guess they all lacked UV while growing in a cave =P Still the rest is all pretty neet! =D You outdid youself on the spitting and death animation, loved the dead, its so realistic I almost regret killing the whelps =P

    @EVERYONE!!! - Last but not least! Wish you all a Merry Christmas with all your loved ones and a Great New Year! ;)

    Kisses and Hugs

    Gon & Gon's pets =P

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  27. i like the way the game is going. the concept is pretty unique fore a tower defense game. just a couple of questions though. will the characters always be able to be put on a grid, or will there later be select spots only? the other question is, would you consider putting a were-cat species in the game. i could always send you a pic of what i mean.

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  28. Hi sam. I tried the game and have two question
    Is it free to play and i could just move my characters, is some creature going to attack or what, nothing happend.
    But still i love ptd and i think that you are doing a great job

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  29. @Sam Otero
    I just played HTD for the first time and I cryed when the game ended cause I found it amazing! The graphics are amazing!, the female character has very nice design!, the enemys look amazing!, so far im gonna really like this game as it advances! Amazing job to you guys (Dan,Sam, and Kevin) I look foword to more HTD :) -Matthew10

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  30. Cool I see a little test run looks so far. Nice job so far

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  31. I love the concept, btw what are the orange thing floating around them. love it

    happy holidays and great job

    -platypusboy0226

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  32. WOOT played it the second it came out last night stayed up late for it!

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  33. @sam,Dan,kevin-Epic. Just one question- what happened to the origal ( forgive me, my spelling sucks) male charater which was made in the first few htd tusesdays?

    thanks

    Good luck in the new year

    ps check out my trade account- same name as above

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  34. I love the style of the game. Doesn't feel so much like a Tower Defense game while still having the essential mechanics for that classification. I hope the grid styled map is primarily for early maps and as the levels get harder the select spots decrease in amount.

    Also, playing this release I thought of something. When one of your characters die, they should just fall dead on their square so that if you can revive people for whatever reason you can just click on them. However, the downside to them being dead would be that you can't move them, thus making their square unreachable. What do you think?

    Btw, i love it. So much fun. Thanks for the Christmas gift. :)

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  35. I just checked out the game and think it is off to a great start. Continue the good work.

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  36. Great game, Sam. I like how we can at least change the looks of our person. And what are those weird orangy orbs?

    -Haxing Cat

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  37. is the first level endless?

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  38. @Anon 12:24 AM - Thanks! To answer the question for myself all I can really say is that I don't really have an ETA right now. I work on it whenever I get the chance but it's just going slow because I'm learning and trying new things with programming as I go. It hasn't been forgotten or anything, I've just been busy.

    @Heroman - Glad you like it! However, I can't promise it'll be that simple forever. There are a lot of features that aren't in yet but the goal is to have a nice blend of easy/simple use with some complexity for depth.

    @I love pokemon - Thanks, it's only going to get better. :)

    @m16dernwarfare - Nice video! Yeah we do need a menu button, probably have it in the next update.

    @Anon 1:45 AM - Yes, we set it up like survival mode just so you guys could have some fun with it. It makes for a good testing ground as we add more stuff.

    @Anon 1:47 AM - That's a glitch lol :P This is why it's helpful having you guys point these things out for us, thanks!

    @Benny - All 3 of us worked on it, no worries. ;) There's tons of stuff to come so keep checking back for updates.

    @Entei bound - Wow, thanks for the compliments! We will certianly be working hard to make it one of the best games and I'm pretty confident it will be with your guys help. Don't worry, we definitely aren't throwing PTD or Ninja-Ja to the side by any means. We enjoy working on those games just as much as HTD. With HTD we just had this great idea and wanted to put something out to see what you guys thought, and it seems that you agree. :)

    @Anon 2:36 AM - Yeah, there will be a way to manually use a skill whenever you choose to. There won't necessarily be a "full release" becuase we'll just be building on this as we go. It'll be like PTD where it gets updates all the time.

    @Anon 2:40 AM - Good idea with the fading, I'll be adding that to the list. :)

    @Athermes - Lol

    @Random Dude - Thanks, eventually there will be a different color whelp that does the fireball attack while this one only does melee. Probably have that in the next update. We definitely have plans to release some version of HTD as an app for the phones, I just can't give any sort of ETA right now.

    @Anon 3:46 AM - Good to hear, thanks!

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  39. This is awesome! I can easily see how great this game is going to be. I wouldn't think of this as pre-alpha though, I would think of it as an interactive preview to the game. I really like how the attacks and graphics look, great job Kevin! A couple questions though:
    Is this going to be updated weekly like ptd?

    Is it going to be updated starting this week or are you going to keep working on it and update it in a month or a couple months when it can start in the actual Alpha stage?

    Is this level survival?

    Once again this game is going great and I already know this will be great! Thanks for the pre-alpha/preview of htd. HERO TOWER DEFENSE!!!

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  40. So simple, yet so fun :D

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  41. the prototype sucks but I will like the future HTD

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  42. @ Mewtwo Master - I eventually convinced Sam and Dan to push the males when I started working on the females and wound up making a lot of improvements and other functionality that wasn't yet noted when I made the male characters. I made a blog post over on my own a few weeks ago going into more detail about this. The males are currently slated for revision and should be available as soon as the next update.

    No ETA, obviously, but we'll probably talk more about that just inside of the new year.

    Don't get any ideas, this is probably the only thing we have set in stone for the next build so far, so you won't be getting any other information out of me. But implementing character customization will certainly be a priority.

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  43. @Christ Tan - You can't beat it, we just have it set for survival mode right now.

    @Anon 5:20 AM - Lol

    @Anon 6:16 AM - That's the plan! :)

    @Tower - We plan to eventually have HTD as an app for the phones, yes.

    @Gon - Big bosses are always fun! :D

    The civilian character you have to protect is actually the base, no armor version of the female but there will be plenty of other clothing/armor eventually.

    The problem with making the character invulnerable when picking them up is that it allows you to sort of exploit it. It's like you're literally making the character invincible for as long as you have them in that state.

    @knight2622 - Technically these placements are select spots, otherwise you'd be able to place the characters anywhere on the map. Different maps will have different placements but generally we wanted there to be a good selection of spots (but not the whole map) so that you could try different character placements and strategies.

    A were-cat sounds interesting, either post a link of an image here or send me an email at dbell1984@gmail.com

    @Jarrett - Thanks!

    @platypusboy0226 - The orange orbs are fire charges that your characters are building up every time they do their Native Skill (it's the one where the character points their sword in the air). This skill puts a DoT on the enemy and gives your character a charge which makes their skills of the same type a little stronger. The charges can also be consumed by finisher skills (not in the game yet) that do a lot of damage.

    @ltledragon - Nice, hope it was worth the wait! :)

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  44. it is awesome for a v0.001.I can't wait for the next updates.And i hope the newbie armor is cool,not like armor made of any leather and a random rusty metal.I mean,can it be at least "pretty good"?

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  45. Like my name says, it pretty good..even for the pre-release. Looking forward to release of HTD :P

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  46. sam, i know you are always busy and all so i only daydream about new things that could go on but this time i had an awsome idea. for the game if you ad items one should be a dark ball where you go to the pokemon center and turn a normal pokemon into a shadow pokemon but of course it would have to be rare. sorry for wasting your precios time merry christmas!
    sinseriously
    Da ninja
    p.s. please excuse the typing i am ten

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  47. Maybe in HTD you could make the enemys stop attacking when you move a player

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  48. Why don't now you put this on Android market once you have got it out of a prototype since you was forced to take PTD off last time

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  49. @Dan - Big bosses for the win (after some wipes =P) yeah ;)

    Oh rags is what we get when we have no armor? =( Ok *snif* *snif* so much for the sexy + funny underwear ='( (or the "other clothing may include that part?)

    I understand the exploit but, dunno if it can become too much since you can only grab 1 unit at a time so if you are managing a party of 6 you have 1 that takes no dmg but also isn't doing anything, its if you were with a party of 5 without being able to move those 5. Besides imagine you have to take a char from one side to the other of the map and wile you are with it in your "hand" moving it to place it, when you place it... it just died where it was before that you weren't looking LOL Well its just a suggestion, you guys are the bosses ;)

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  50. Can people without armor have any more clothing?

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  51. 2 sugestions:
    1. when you release next version, add to the list, which things we will be able to change(like race, armor and so on) like you have done with gener. then we can see a little more of the game :D
    2. Please keep this "suvival mode" when the game is more finished. So we can go and see the new armor when it is released

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  52. @Anon 1:46
    I'm sorry but this prototype does not suck. I know it's just your opinion but remember how much this shows us. We get to see how the art will look in gameplay(Awesome!) What the attacks look like(Double Awesome!!) And we are able to see a preview of what a great game it will be(remember, will be). But I do agree with you that this will be awesome. Awesome!!!
    Can anyone guess my favorite word?(hint, ends with some and starts with awe)
    This is Awesome!!!

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  53. I don't really like it how the enemies can still attack you when you're moving your heros...

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  54. Thanks for the demo! Was fun, and can't wait to see how this looks a couple months from now.

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  55. It was really worth staying up lol!

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  56. It's very good for the pre pre pre version. I can't wait until the next version is out. It's awesome!

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  57. @Kevin- thanks for the answer ps the correct term for the game is beta verson as it is not v1.0

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  58. the game looks cool =D
    waiting for a new version

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  59. beta version! That's what it is! Thanks Mewtwo Master. I wasn't sure what to completely describe it with yet.

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  60. @Sly Kamaui - The amount and location of the positions will vary for each map really. Some may have a lot while others may only have a few. We'll be trying different arrangements as we go but it's ultimately for strategic control over the map.

    The characters will indeed stay there once KOed so that you can revive them we just don't have the graphics for it yet. Your idea of having them block the position could be interesting though, might have to try that, thanks!

    Your welcome! :)

    @Anon 6:54 PM - Yeah, we just set it up like survival mode for now.

    @Guitarman13579 - Thanks!

    It'll be updated often but we don't want to set any schedule just yet because we're still finding our pace. The goal would be to have at least some sort of update once a week but HTD requires more people and more development of original content compared to HTD so it takes a bit longer.

    We'll be striving to give you guys updates as often as possible and we want to keep you all in the loop so we can get constant feedback. We don't want to go off and develop a large chunk and then find out you guys dislike it and realize we wasted a bunch of time. Plus, it's more fun this way. :)

    The current map is just set up as survival mode for testing purposes for now.

    We will be working to make HTD better and better so check back often for updates!


    @Lightless - Haha, yeah there's plenty more to come though.

    @Anon 1:46 PM - Lol, fair enough. Be sure to give it another try down the road a bit when it's a bit more developed. ;)

    @Anon 1:45 PM - Newbie items probably won't be like rags for armor and rusty swords starting out, that never made sense to me. The starting equipment will probably be pretty normal stuff, it just won't have all these special stats or look unique or ornate.

    @Pretty Good - Hah, well that's pretty good to hear.

    @Da ninja - Hm, I usually leave the comments directed at Sam for him to answer but I'll respond to this one.

    If you're saying to have a dark ball in HTD that you could then use in PTD that'd be cool. We like cross-game ideas. Now that I think about it the dark ball could be like a shadow ball of some sort since shadow is an element in the game and you could do something with it in HTD in order to trigger an item to use in PTD, could be pretty cool, thanks! :)

    @Anon 5:48 PM - It's possible but then you'd be able to abuse that by constantly picking up characters that are being attacked. Maybe if we had some sort of cooldown on moving characters around it would fix that though.

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  61. @Gon - Indeed!

    Well, at least for right now rags are the base yeah. That's just what we started with. We can always change it to accommodate other types of clothing like you are suggesting. We actually might have to really but we're leaving it at this for now. Nothing is really out of the question at this point lol

    True, you make some good points and examples. I suppose if the character was essentially disabled while you were "holding" them it'd be fine. Right now the character stays active while "holding them" so they keep attacking and everything. We just have to tweak it a bit to see what's best but this is good feedback for sure, thanks! :)

    @Joel Otero - Thanks! :D

    @BobTheLawyer - Technically they might need less (not nude though of course) in order to accommodate certain types of armor in the future. Basically the armor goes directly on top of the base so if the base has too much stuff on it then there's no way around it becaues it'll always be there. For example, say you have a male character and you want him to be some kind of shirtless fighter who wears a vest. If the male base has a shirt on it then you'll never be able to have that because the shirt is would literally be part of the base. So instead it'd looke like he's wearing a vest over a shirt.

    @Anon 8:28 PM - Those things are definitely on the list but I can't promise they'll make it into the next version just because we'll be updating as often as possible, even if it's just small stuff.

    You'll be able to see the armor other ways but if you mean like leaving this current map in as a sort of testing ground where you can experiment with things then certainly! I like the idea, maybe we'll make like a dojo or something instead of using the cave entrance and then add some fun stuff in there.

    @Guitarman13579 - Awesome sauce!

    @Anon 12:18 PM - Several people have commented on that, it's certainly something we can change so we'll be looking into other options.

    @Palmogranite - No problem! We'll be putting out updates as often as we can so check back regularly.

    @ltledragon - Hah, good deal :)

    PBStyle - Thanks!

    @Pitibruna - We'll be back to working on it as soon as the new year begins. We all needed a little break for the holidays. :)

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  62. I don't really understand this game... Add more explications because, killing dragons is cool but I can't play the others versions... (Before v0.0001)
    Thx

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  63. I have a suggestion. What if there's a map that's literally a training ground. It could have different areas for training in different things. For example, if you're defending, little targets on wheels come at the target. Maybe if you want to attack something there could be a map where you have to destroy targets? It would basically just be a tutorial that would be a bunch of different types of level objectives in one place.

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  64. @Dan - Glad to see my suggestions are helping ;)

    IMO rags should be the default "chest" + "pants" that you sell for your first coppers. Will wait for the underwear then =P

    @SND + players - Wish you all a Great 2012 with cool pets ;) (both ingame and IRL =D)

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  65. when i frist played it was like it would never end and it diden't!! I wan't you to make it better.

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  66. This is very good and I like it and I can't wait for the next updateJanuary 2, 2012 at 7:25 AM

    Period

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  67. Overall it looks like its going to be a good game. Just a few recommendations:

    1. Show the range of the attacks.
    2. Be able to choose which opponent to attack (if possible be able to choose to attack individually or as a group).
    3. Scroll the screen when moving characters like in PTD.
    4. Choose between attacks (I think I noticed a ranged attack and a melee attack but not entirely sure).

    I look forward to the coming months when this game keeps improving. Congratulations to the three of you.

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