Okay, the I've taken the redesign of the levels in another direction. Instead of realistic looking landscapes, I've made them a bit cartoony. This seems to be the preferred art for the iPhone. Maybe because of the small screen? Anyways, about half the screens are finished. Here are two of the early ones. The textures are going to change a bit yet, but the objects are pretty much set.

Haven't done much... personal life has been owning me.

I've added the dynamic mob code. This achieves the following: More memory. Endless mobs. Faster load times.

I've added the hard and endless screens to the level select. Endless will be based on the same 20 levels, but with increasing difficulties of waves. They will be exponential, not linear. Meaning that the difficulty will get to a point where it is impossible. I don't really want the game to be truly endless, as that gets boring. But rather, it will get to a point where you'll have to replay it to get past a certain wave stage. Planning ahead. Instead of just filling the board with fire, you'll have to plan for big mobs, swarms, and such at specific points.

Also, here are slightly updated screenshots:

So we all know my tile based backgrounds suck. So I've been working on that when I get bored with programming. Here are the first results. Is it worth it to re-draw all the levels? I have a library of brushes now, so it won't take too long.

Besiegement will not run under OS3.0 due to a change in the OpenAL library Apple made. It will run decently if you turn sound off in the Options menu.

I've identified the cause and am currently programming around the limitation Apple introduced.

The update was submitted last night (Wednesday, June 17). It took me three days of messing with signing certificates to get it submitted.

I'm in the middle of working on internal changes to the game to support some of the new features. The following are all the changes I have planned, both internal and external:

Remove rush delay lockout (done)
Add variable sized levels (done)
Move level data to files (done)
Change incoming display to be dynamically drawn instead of at level load time (done)
Change enemy data to be dynamically created instead of at level load time (done)
Add hard mode (done)
Remove scoring for building towers (done)
Increase scoring for rushing (done)
Change targeting to closest to exit instead of oldest on screen. (done)
Improve background graphics (10% done)
Add endless mode (50%)

Add tower targeting modes, including option for "classic" and "new defaults" (delayed?)
Add flying enemies (delayed?)
Change towers to support flying enemies (delayed?)
Add rushing button, with a "rush at next opportunity". (canceled)

Fix bug on greenskin gangs level
Fix open build spot in water on level ?
Fix tiny dragon head graphical bug

Did I miss anything?

I'll edit this post as I check things off.

Okay, my vacation and personal life are over (that is a joke). I'm back to working on the game.

Things have been very hectic. Heck, they still are! But I have promised a few things and I keep my promises.

I should have a new version available to test in a week or two.

Thanks for your patience.

BTW, if you haven't bought the game yet, I lowered the price to .99 cents this morning. The game has nearly reached the end of its life, and this is the last hurrah. I suppose greedy people would move on to another project to make money. But I did this for my love of tower defense games, and I'm not done with this game yet!

Version 1.2.1 should be appearing in the App Store update section shortly. It fixes two major problems, the Undead Party level and the Poison tower animations. There is also a slight change to the lightning effect (adds a slight glowing). As well as a change to the error message when you can't submit a high score (as requested by Apple, and the reason for the long delay).

I'm in the middle of a scheduled vacation. When I return, work will resume on the Hard mode and Endless modes. Beta testers, I'll be calling on your help once again!

Got the email from Apple. It should be available in a few hours as it propogates.

Have an awesome screenshot from the Beta test? email them to me (picticon at gmail dot com), I'll post them here, and we'll vote on the best to be included in iTunes.

Don't vote yet! We'll start voting the day after the update is released.

Here is mine:


MetaChimp:




Adam Zamora:


Brian Marsh:

Update 1.2 has been submitted. Wish me luck that I didn't screw anything up with the things I changed today:
Fixed sound problem on suspend/resume (lock switch or declined phone call)
In game options
Handler for "wandering" creeps on maze levels... I couldn't find the problem (searched high and low), but I could trap it. So game will "crash" if it does happen so no score cheating. I did try a few more safe guards to prevent it, but who knows. I can't for the life of me figure out why it happens in the first place. I did encounter it myself while running it debug mode on the phone, I saw why it was doing it, but there should be zero reason why. sigh...


Here is a run-down of all the changes, as they will be listed in the update notes:

New tower graphics
New interface graphics
Enabled zoom and pan
Added easy mode
Added restart and retry
Added several game options
Balanced towers and levels
Fixed various bugs


Last minute updates for those that really follow along:
I've turned gold interest off once the last wave starts. This prevents the interest "cheat".
I've added tower sell values to the gold bonus at the end, so no more need to sell towers for high scores.
I've re-vamped the pause menu and submit score buttons to be signs.
I've added in-game options.

Beta 1.14 is available, check the forums. If you can't access the forums, then you haven't given me a forum account name.

Edit: Skip 1.12, it is EVIL. Sorry 'bout that folks.

As posted in the forums. Enjoy!

Level difficulties are in, and briefly tested. I'm sure some adjustments will be needed. I've only gotten a few levels into hard. I'll nerf the later levels in easy mode... to make them easier in easy and possible in hard. (If that makes sense).

Another fire bug was squashed. It is now working exactly like I want it to.

Glacial speed is in.

Poison tower is done.

All that is left is re-rendering earth, and the later stages of wind. I'm also going to try and track down the maze-finding bug. If anyone has more information on how and why this happens, please let me know.

And now... on with the show!





Note: the sky and foreground will be changed for normal and hard.

Update: Beta 1.11 is available, read the forums.

Fixed major bug with Fire aoe damage.... PLEASE test fire for game balance now.
Memory Leak - DONE
wave rushing problem DONE
sell timer bar DONE
tower level indication on upgrade tab DONE
save profile more often DONE
restart option goes to correct level number DONE
fix enemy facing after resume DONE
double-time animations DONE
disable auto-dimming DONE (disabled when game running, will dim on pause)
water sound volume DONE
Re-render level select screen. *DONE*?
Fire and Wind fixes. DONE

battery indicator when paused? - NOT possible according to official Apple SDK, possibility of being rejected


Didn't make the cut:

forward/back buttons on help screen (gfx issue)
display goals in pause menu (enhance pause menu also?)
send to level select after a finished game instead of title
possibility of true classic interface without stained glass
check out greenskin gangs missing waves bug (related to restart?)
Split slime getting stuck at entrance.
Arrows to indicate entrance/exits.
Arrow on level select screen.
Graphic detail adjustments (number of bits)
Arrow tower level 6 update.
Earth tower update.
Background drawings.
restart on "game over" screen.

Read the posts in the Beta Discussions.
First post is instructions and a severe warning.
Second post is for comments about the game.

If the beta doesn't install, you might not have given me the correct device ID, or you didn't get it to me on time. Email me and I'll add you to the next round.