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[DeadPixel]

What's up TIGers?!

Working on this again.  Track progress at the live changelog and try the current version out.

Concept

So the basic idea is to take the castle levels from platformers past, and put the player in control of the other side.  The heroes are afoot, and want your delicious princess.  So, of course, your job is to crush, burn, impale, slice, stab, drown, melt, implode, explode, and bake a cake for DESTROY them.

Gameplay

The basics are as you would expect.  Heroes emerge from the far left of the screen as they enter your castle, and proceed relentlessly to the right towards the captive princess.  Platformer physics are in full effect so heroes can jump over ledges and extended traps, fall down into pits of death, etc.  You, as the player, are in control of these traps, and must use precise timing and micro-management to eliminate all heroes before they reach your princess.  

Players will have a setup phase at the beginning of each level to place traps using accumulated gold, and then a shorter period between each wave to re-position and place new traps.  Then as each wave progresses it's up to the player to track and kill the heroes by activating the traps manually.  Heroes will drop their coins which you will greedily collect and use to kill more of them.  Fun for the whole family.

If too many heroes reach your priest and kill him then they will rescue the princess and game over, man.

Traps

We already have a variety of traps ready, and are working on more to give the player a lot of variety.  The ones we currently have:

• Thwamp
• Spiker
• Lava Pool/Fireball
• Acid Pool/Acidball
• Bullet Bob + Launcher
• Hammer Mole
• Pipe Monster
• Flamethrower
• Saw Gun
• Fall-away Bridges
• Demon Minions

Art

We're doing something completely innovative within the indie community as far as our assets go.  Retro pixel art. Obvious nods to , but it fits.



Videos

• Alpha Prototype:  
  
  
• June 2010:
  
  
• Blood Splatter Effect:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Pbbapm05z8
• Pipe Monster: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o2IpmMcAKO4

Play

Comments?  Feedback?  

Thanks!  

[Dacke]

First reaction: Wow, cool stuff!
Second reaction: Oh, Xbox. I won't ever be able to play it.

[Maxim Schoemaker]

First reaction: Wow, cool stuff!
Second reaction: Oh, Xbox. I won't ever be able to play it.

I second that, but I still think this'll be awesome ^^

[DeadPixel]

First reaction: Wow, cool stuff!
Second reaction: Oh, Xbox. I won't ever be able to play it.

First:  Thanks!

Second:   If all goes ok we may release a donation-based (download, then donate if you want) Windows version.  Or I may even take the opportunity to learn flash and write a port.    We DO want as many people to be able to play it as possible, but XBLIG is a really interesting platform right now so we wanted to try it first.  Plus it's what I already know. 

[ness io kain]

First reaction: Wow, cool stuff!
Second reaction: Oh, Xbox. I won't ever be able to play it.

Exactly...

I wish you success, though. This looks to be a very snazzy game.

[Maxim Schoemaker]

First reaction: Wow, cool stuff!
Second reaction: Oh, Xbox. I won't ever be able to play it.

First:  Thanks!

Second:   If all goes ok we may release a donation-based (download, then donate if you want) Windows version.  Or I may even take the opportunity to learn flash and write a port.    We DO want as many people to be able to play it as possible, but XBLIG is a really interesting platform right now so we wanted to try it first.  Plus it's what I already know. 

If you are interested I could help you guys with the flash port, just have a look at my signature

Cheers,

Maxim

[Carrie Nation]

Expect my money over the Xbox whenever you choose to release it.

Owning one I'm actually glad about your choice to put this on a console. Seems like the kind of game that would be better enjoyed on a couch in front of a TV.

And speaking of playing on a console, have you considered throwing couch multiplayer into this? With the second player controlling the heroes? Seems like it would be fun. Especially because I get images of P1 playing as a boss and P2 playing as whatever powerful hero managed to be the only one to survive in the final room.

[DeadPixel]

2P hotseat is definitely a game mode we have in mind.  Whether that pans out as local only and/or Xbox Live remains to be seen.

[deathtotheweird]

Ah this looks fantastic.

If you do release for PC you don't have to make it donationware, you could still sell it. I know I'd buy it! Maybe even Steam would pick it up?

I'll still play it no matter what platform it comes on though.

[DeadPixel]

Thanks for all the encouragement guys!  Really helps keep you motivated. 

[DeadPixel]

Today was a busy day for me. 

Things I did:

• Implemented cooldowns across the board for traps.
• Tightened up fireball trap movement.
• Implemented a basic mini-map.
• Added some new sprite sheets and animations I hadn't gotten to yet.
• Implemented particle effects starting with blood splatters (video in OP).
• Pipe Monster fully implemented (video in OP).
• Added some non-particle sprite-based effects for things like a hero's dust trail when he kicks off running, lava splash when a fireball lands, etc.
• Implemented a visual notification that the lava pool trap is ready to fire.  We'll probably do this for all traps one way or another.
• Agonized over more musicians I've found.  Can I keep them all?  Everyone is so damn talented.
• Some more things I probably can't think of...

So ya, good day!  Really looking forward to my upcoming 9 day vacation to really knock some large parts of the game out.  I think we may be on track for an end-of-summer release.   

[Stukos]

Hi everyone, I'm drawing the pixels for this game.

Here's a recent mockup of the 'classic' style tileset:


The fireball more closely matches the colors of the lava and is a little less flat. There's also some small changes to the background tiles and the spike trap.

I have 2 more tilesets nearly completed. One is the obligatory ice world:


The other might be a spoiler so I think we're going to hold off on showing it. We're trying for around 6 or 7 tilesets in total. I'll post updates as they're completed.

There are also going to be some static background objects (candles, windows, statues, etc.) that will hopefully populate the levels.

Deadpixel Matt is shooting for an end of summer release, and he's talented enough to make it, but I don't know if I can keep up with him.

[DeadPixel]

Thought I would post this up here since it's pretty cool!  Our first bit of fan art from a Twitter follower:


 

Other than that, work continues.  Tyler is putting out some awesome looking tilesets while I continue to work on engine internals.  I'm working on expanding controls beyond ABXY to see if we can get some fun out of the analog controls on the gamepad. 

We have a collectible coin mechanic we're going to add that you can collect towards various unlockables.

We may not make end of summer, which isn't a big deal really.  I'd rather us take our time with little stress and put out a decent game than worry about artifical deadlines.

[Dozer]

This game shows a TON of promise and I hope that you put it up for pc also. I know that I would pay for it.

Good luck guys, hope this gets the attention that it deserves

[Paint by Numbers]

Wow, this looks great! I'll be in the PC-havers boat, though.

Please tell me you will have a mode where the heroes can learn from past mistakes!

[deathtotheweird]

Found this sitting on my hard drive: http://forums.tigsource.com/index.php?topic=10833.0

concept a bit different as you are not a castle but a princess guiding the player through it. Quite interesting I think.

[Yshaana]

Very cool idea and the game looks fun. It feels like a fresh new take on tower defense and its a great idea ! I will follow this with great attention!

[tim-bo-jay]

It feels like a fresh new take on tower defense and its a great idea ! I will follow this with great attention!

I second that, but also the mention of Tower Defense did make me wonder, when you start a level will you be given a selection of traps or will you be able to buy and upgrade traps and kit out the level how you feel it will work best?

I can't wait to play this dood :-D keep it up!

[DeadPixel]

Thanks for the kind words guys.

I second that, but also the mention of Tower Defense did make me wonder, when you start a level will you be given a selection of traps or will you be able to buy and upgrade traps and kit out the level how you feel it will work best?

I can't wait to play this dood :-D keep it up!

We don't have traps that you can place in mind at the moment.  We're going for more of a 'reverse-lemmings' feel than a tower defense.  The game obviously rides the line between those two though.

Found this sitting on my hard drive: http://forums.tigsource.com/index.php?topic=10833.0

concept a bit different as you are not a castle but a princess guiding the player through it. Quite interesting I think.

That's awesome allen!  Gave it a play and it was quite good, something that should be expanded on.

As for people asking for PC version, we'll see!  It's not hard to move the game between Xbox and Windows, so it would just be up the logistics of it all.  We'll see for sure!

[DeadPixel]

Hi guys,

We're running a gameplay playtest session over at the XNA Creator's Club forums (link: http://bit.ly/biEcd1).  If you're a member and have access you can download the game to your Xbox 360 to give it a test, and we'd very much appreciate your feedback on where we are currently.

For everyone else, we're probably going to get the game a bit more mature before dropping a Windows build for playtesting.  Should be sooner, rather than later, though!

Thanks,

Matt