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Eric
06-04-2012, 07:25 PM
Got the title for my entry, got the idea (a tower defense), got a ready-made map editor (http://www.mapeditor.org/), got some ready-made tilesets (http://www.lostgarden.com/2006/02/250-free-handdrawn-textures.html), but... that's about it!

Obviously towers, monsters, missiles & UI will be quickly-made programmer art...
Music & sounds may not happen, as finding good free ones takes a lot of time...

Target goals:
- At least 3 maps + a world map where you can journey between level maps ;-)
- HTML5 from Object Pascal via SmartMobileStudio/DWScript
- Chrome (desktop) and Safari (iPad) as primary platforms, + IE9 if time permits. Is that okay for the judges?
- 60 FPS, with lots of sprites and stuff on screen

Safari on Windows doesn't seem to have hardware acceleration, but if Safari on Mac should have it (but I don't have a Mac, so I can't test).
FireFox doesn't seem to have hardware acceleration (or it's not good), so it's out.

Attached is the first map, taken in Tiled, where I used a vector layer to define the monster's paths.

WILL
06-04-2012, 09:10 PM
Neat! :)

I like how you've shown good use of all the development tools. They really can make the difference when making your game!

Eric
11-04-2012, 09:16 AM
Got the world map now, from http://www.fantasymapmaker.com/free-fantasy-maps/
Positioned the locations "flags" directly in Tiled (where the map is a single big tile).

Gameplay coming along nicely, should have something to show in the next days :-)

Eric
13-04-2012, 12:08 PM
Here is a "gameplay" screenshots, with some more programmer art and a new map (btw Tiled just plain rocks)

Most of the UI is not active yet, just pre-positionned, but monsters already follow the path, towers are tracking, firing and killing stuff.
That said, to drop towers, you still have to edit the source code... hoping to get the drag'n drop done this week-end, then it should be "playable" :)

pstudio
13-04-2012, 10:49 PM
looks like you got a game soon. Looks good though I've used the same tileset myself before, so I will always see my own game when I see those tiles :)

chronozphere
14-04-2012, 03:37 PM
That looks awesome. Would like to know how good the HTML5 gaming experience is. :)
Will you be using particle-systems?

Too bad I couldn't join. Job and studies are consuming all my time. :(

Eric
14-04-2012, 09:51 PM
That looks awesome. Would like to know how good the HTML5 gaming experience is. :)
On Chrome, IE9 & iPad, it's very reactive, the HTML5 canvas is very well accelerated. In many ways, it could handle more complex stuff.
iPhone is smooth, but the game isn't designed for it, so you can't do much if you don't have tiny fingers :)


Will you be using particle-systems?
Not really, explosions are sprites, though when you fill up the map with missile towers, the missiles and explosion make up a particle system of some sort...

Eric
14-04-2012, 10:09 PM
A video just before I go to sleep. The playback rate is incorrect and stuttering for some reason.

The easy part (the code) is essentially done, now comes the hard part: maps, gameplay tweaks & level design, better art, sounds... some of it just won't make it for the deadline :(


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cq4gOufKaaI

WILL
15-04-2012, 07:58 AM
That's time management old friend. :)

There is however the post-competition finish-up that everyone does. You may have just gotten your entry in and meeting the end goals by the skin of your teeth, but it's in. Now you get to finish off all those things on your list to consider it completed. It's kinda fun to see who can stick it out to finish off their entries.

Nice video, but you don't seem very good at your own game. ;) That or you need to balance it a bit more in your favor.

paul_nicholls
15-04-2012, 09:23 AM
Nice work dude :)

Jimmy Valavanis
15-04-2012, 05:42 PM
Looks very interesting, better graphics for enemy and defence units and it will rock!

Eric
16-04-2012, 07:06 AM
Nice video, but you don't seem very good at your own game. ;) That or you need to balance it a bit more in your favor.
It's actually currently way too easy (need it to test level completions, etc.).

I'll ramp up the difficulty a bit for the PGD version, but not too much, so it won't take hours for the judges to reach all the levels! (8 distinct maps right now, with 11 locations, as a couple maps are recycled twice)


Looks very interesting, better graphics for enemy and defence units and it will rock!
Alas, that's probably something that won't happen, I'm just too ineffective when making graphics, and they don't even look very good...

On the other hand, there is already a "Challenge" (hard, infinite, semi-random) mode, for which I would like to squeeze in global leaderboards if time permits ;)

Ñuño Martínez
16-04-2012, 11:25 AM
You did finished the game! :o I should take this seriously! ;) :D

code_glitch
16-04-2012, 03:29 PM
Wow, now that brings back some knongregate memories. Looking forward to playing this one folks ;) Looking great there Eric!

Eric
18-04-2012, 07:04 AM
Added global leaderboards with Playtomic (http://playtomic.com/?ref=egrange), picked them since they were free and had an HTML5 API 8)
Their API si very simple to use: one line to setup, one line to record a highscore, one line to get the leaderboard!

Won't get any Challenge points for it, but there is a cool factor to it I couldn't resist! (of course, less cool will be cheaters, but let's cross that bridge later).

Not much presentation in the leaderboard yet, it's just a big rounded rect + text, I'm using HTML5 Canvas ShadowBlur for the font effects.

I also have a start icon now, quickly made up with iconJ (http://www.iconj.com/iphone_style_icon_generator.php).

paul_nicholls
18-04-2012, 09:25 AM
Nice work with the leader-board Eric! :)

WILL
19-04-2012, 03:36 AM
Leader-board := awesome!

Every little detail just makes your entry all the more impactful Eric. You are true to form in this competition. Can't wait to play it when the deadline hits. ;)

Eric
20-04-2012, 03:13 PM
Time for a beta!

bit.ly/wartrail

Should work best on:
- Windows: Chrome, IE9
- iOS: iPad 2/3 (use "add to home screen")
- OSX: Safari

Alternate platforms:
- Chrome for Android 4.0 (ICS, tablet recommended), playable framerate.
- Android 2.3 with alternate browsers that have a good fullscreen mode (Boat Browser f.i.), low framerate.
- Windows Opera & Safari have low framerate. FireFox is not supported yet.
- iPhone 3GS/4 have good framerate, but controls are too small.

What can be tested?
- Only the bottom five locations in the world map are playable, "Shinai ruins" is meant to be non-winnable for now
- The first 2-3 locations should be rather easy
- "Ulan Gathor" (bottom left) is a "bonus map" and should be hardish (passing it won't be required to reach the last locations).

Winning any location unlocks the next location(s), a flawless victory (3 stars, 100% health) unlocks the Challenge mode for that location.

Challenge mode is infinite, with global Leader boards, first ranks should be easy to grab, not many competition yet ;-)

Some dialogs are still using the browser dialogs, so they can look out of place, don't choose to block them!

paul_nicholls
21-04-2012, 12:51 AM
It works for me ok, nice work Eric :)

Jimmy Valavanis
21-04-2012, 05:40 AM
Worked fine - Chrome + Windows7 64 bit!

Cool :)

de_jean_7777
21-04-2012, 11:18 AM
It does not work for me. The map loads and show, and the flag is there at the first position, but when I click it nothing happens. This happens in Firefox 11. It works in Chrome though.

Eric
21-04-2012, 12:45 PM
It does not work for me. The map loads and show, and the flag is there at the first position, but when I click it nothing happens. This happens in Firefox 11. It works in Chrome though.
Yes, as I wrote, Firefox isn't supported yet, it will likely be later on, but will probably be slow (Firefox canvas hardware acceleration is either not enabled by default or buggy afaict)

Eric
27-04-2012, 11:37 PM
Entry submitted!

Last version also playable at bit.ly/wartrail, preferably on Chrome, other browsers should work, but may not have best speed or all sounds.

Eric
28-04-2012, 03:29 PM
Oopsie, fixed a last minute bug, uploaded a "_fixed" version, should show as 0.1.3

Ingemar
28-04-2012, 04:08 PM
Oopsie, fixed a last minute bug, uploaded a "_fixed" version, should show as 0.1.3

Last minute? But the last minute is tomorrow! (Unless my definition on the 29th is way off.)

WILL
28-04-2012, 10:12 PM
You can submit new fixed or updated versions as always. I'd recommend that you just number them sequentially as a means to show which is the "newest" so that we don't accidentally use an older one (with the problem) to be judged and scored. I found that there was a lot of strange conventions used in the 1st challenge submissions. Sticking to a numeric system works best as we only have to think higher = newest/best.

masonwheeler
02-05-2012, 08:55 PM
A couple bugs I've found in this:

The "Win/Loss" scoreboard actually shows wins/total games. (So if you win 4 matches and lose 1, it will say 4/5).

Related to the previous, quitting out of a match in progress increases the Loss column by 1 even though you didn't lose. And since there's no way to restart a level, trying repeatedly for a 3 star rating on a difficult map can rack up a large quantity of "losses."

The ballista turret can sometimes get stuck turning in nonsensical ways, like continually turning clockwise to track an enemy that's moving clockwise across the field of fire (around a curve) without ever actually pointing at it enough to fire. This is particularly noticeable when you have the fast-moving enemies and the turret is placed on the inside of a curve in the track. (Which is the most logical place to put it.)

Eric
03-05-2012, 10:29 AM
The "Win/Loss" scoreboard actually shows wins/total games.

That's a bit of a leftover really, I meant to replace it with trophies/achievements, but haven't found the time yet (the trophy icons are already in the sprite sheet IIRC, just not used)


like continually turning clockwise to track an enemy that's moving clockwise across the field of fire (around a curve) without ever actually pointing at it enough to fire.

That's by design actually, all towers have a turn rate, so you all placements "in range" are not equivalent in terms of aiming and rate of fire. :-)

masonwheeler
03-05-2012, 05:16 PM
That's a bit of a leftover really, I meant to replace it with trophies/achievements, but haven't found the time yet (the trophy icons are already in the sprite sheet IIRC, just not used)

Cool! Looking forward to seeing that!


That's by design actually, all towers have a turn rate, so you all placements "in range" are not equivalent in terms of aiming and rate of fire. :-)

Fair enough, but this is a problem I haven't had in other tower defense games. They generally have enough AI to realize if they can't catch a certain target and then turn in the opposite direction to focus on a new target, so that they're not rendered completely useless. Would you be able to add something like that, as an anti-frustration feature? Because the current behavior really is highly frustrating.

Eric
20-11-2012, 04:44 PM
Haven't found the time to update the game since the challenge (booh...)

Though thanks to node-webkit (https://github.com/rogerwang/node-webkit), there is now a standalone version available, grab the installer there
setup-WarTrail-0.1.3.exe (http://delphitools.info/WarTrail/setup-WarTrail-0.1.3.exe) (30 MB)

Startup times are *fast*, as ressources no longer have to be downloaded (17+ MB for WarTrail). Also it'll work just fine whatever your favourite browser is (since it won't use it).

Should be possible to make standalone versions for Linux & Mac too, if someone is interested in trying...