text:
Twitter Giveaway - RT or FAV for Your Chance to Win!
11/21/2014 by Kaboom
Go HERE to to RT or FAV the tweet.
Good luck & Happy Friday!
Posted in Community, Defense Grid 2, Windborne | Keywords: Community, DG2, Windborne
11/21/2014 by Kaboom
Posted in Community, Defense Grid 2, Windborne | Keywords: Community, DG2, Windborne
11/20/2014 by Kaboom
Posted in Defense Grid 2 | Keywords: DG2
11/18/2014 by Kaboom
Posted in Defense Grid 2 | Keywords: DG2
11/13/2014 by Kaboom
Posted in Company News, Defense Grid 2, Windborne | Keywords: DG2, Windborne
11/07/2014 by Kaboom
Posted in Defense Grid 2 | Keywords: DG2
11/07/2014 by Chad Haley
Posted in Defense Grid 2 | Keywords: DG2
11/05/2014 by Kaboom
10/31/2014 by John Daud
Posted in Defense Grid 2 | Keywords: DG2
10/29/2014 by Kaboom
Posted in Defense Grid 2 | Keywords: DG2
10/29/2014 by Kaboom
10/28/2014 by Kaboom
Posted in Defense Grid 2 | Keywords: DG2
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10/06/2014 by Nerf NOW
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Posted in Defense Grid 2 | Keywords: DG2
09/26/2014 by Kaboom
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09/23/2014 by Kaboom
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09/22/2014 by Kaboom
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Posted in Defense Grid 2 | Keywords: DG2
09/19/2014 by Kaboom
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Posted in Defense Grid 2 | Keywords: DG2
09/11/2014 by Jeff
Posted in Defense Grid 2 | Keywords: DG2
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09/09/2014 by NightBirdDS
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09/08/2014 by Kaboom
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09/02/2014 by Kaboom
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08/28/2014 by Kaboom
Posted in Defense Grid 2 | Keywords: DG2
08/27/2014 by Kaboom
08/27/2014 by Kaboom
Posted in Defense Grid 2 | Keywords: DG2
08/22/2014 by PrimeSonic
Posted in Defense Grid, Defense Grid 2 | Keywords: Defense Grid, DG2
08/21/2014 by Ravious
08/20/2014 by Kaboom
Posted in Defense Grid 2 | Keywords: DG2
08/18/2014 by Kaboom
Posted in Defense Grid 2 | Keywords: DG2
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Posted in Defense Grid 2 | Keywords: DG2
08/12/2014 by NightBirdDS
Posted in Defense Grid, Defense Grid 2 | Keywords: Defense Grid, DG2
08/11/2014 by Kaboom
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Posted in Defense Grid 2 | Keywords: DG2
07/30/2014 by Kaboom
Posted in Defense Grid 2 | Keywords: DG2
07/29/2014 by Kaboom
Posted in Defense Grid 2 | Keywords: DG2
07/28/2014 by Echo
07/25/2014 by Kaboom
I'm afraid not, I was born in Chula Vista, California. My dad was in the military, so I've lived all over the United States, but somehow ended back in Chula Vista for all of High School and College.
I understand you're an avid Twitch streamer. How did you get started and what do you enjoy streaming?
I've been interested in streaming in its many forms for years and years. In fact I used to be one of those 24 hour webcam people who just left it on at home every day during the early 2000's. Ever since game streaming started to take off in recent years I've toyed with the idea of streaming, but it was only earlier this year that I finally got a setup that I was happy with to stream on a regular basis. I stream a variety of games including DG2, Windborne, Risk of Rain, Resogun, and Dota2. I've found that I get more enjoyment out of my streams when I'm playing games that are a little more relaxed in their requirements for your concentration levels lately.
What was the longest stream you've ever done and what were you playing?
I hosted a 24 hour long stream playing Defense Grid here at Hidden Path Entertainment in honor of our DG2 Kickstarter a couple years ago. It was brutal, but I'd love to do another one someday. I was lucky to have a lot of help from our HPE team here, who helped sub me out for breaks. (www.twitch.tv/devgamer)
If you could time travel back to your childhood bedroom, what toy would you bring back with you?
I still have many of my favorite childhood toys to be honest. I have my Winnie the Pooh doll from when I was 6 years old, and I have all of my Gen 1 Transformers toys still. If I could go back in time though, I would tell my younger self to save the boxes and manuals for my games, as I'm an avid game and game system collector… I wish I kept those boxes!!
What are a few of your all-time favorite movies?
My favorite movie is "The Goonies" hands down. I live around 3 hours away from where they filmed it and visit Astoria a couple times a year! As for the rest it's a bunch of random stuff like Happiness, Baraka, Star Wars, Indiana Jones, The Secret of NIMH.
What exactly do you do on Defense Grid 2?
I'm primarily responsible for the challenge modes. Other than that, I focus on multiplayer and lend Lead Designer, John Daud, a hand wherever he needs it.
How long have you worked in gaming? What did you do before?
I've been in the game industry around 20 years now. The first game I worked on was called Fun n' Games on the Genesis as a tester. When I first got into the industry I was paying my way through junior college with a dishwashing job at a pizza place. I held both jobs for months before dropping the dishwashing job just in case it didn't work out. I guess it worked out, hehe.
What video game(s) do you think changed the industry the most in the last decade?
I can think of several games that were massively influential on the games that get made today. Off of the top of my head I would list World of Warcraft, Minecraft, and Gears of War to mention a few.
What's the most rewarding thing about making video games?
There are so many things I love about making video games! Every day brings new creative challenges and it never gets boring. I've made friends all over the globe including players and developers, and I've had my name inside of what has probably been millions upon millions of Christmas presents around the world over the past 20 years. The idea that my day to day efforts result in people having fun all over the world fills me with a sense of pride and motivate me to do my best.
Posted in Defense Grid 2 | Keywords: DG2
07/23/2014 by Kaboom
Posted in Defense Grid 2 | Keywords: DG2
07/21/2014 by Kaboom
Posted in Defense Grid 2 | Keywords: DG2
07/17/2014 by Kaboom
Posted in Defense Grid 2 | Keywords: DG2
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Posted in Defense Grid 2 | Keywords: DG2
07/15/2014 by Kaboom
07/09/2014 by Kaboom
Posted in Defense Grid 2 | Keywords: DG2
07/08/2014 by Kaboom
Posted in Defense Grid 2 | Keywords: DG2
07/02/2014 by Kaboom
Posted in Defense Grid 2 | Keywords: DG2
06/26/2014 by Kaboom
06/19/2014 by Kaboom
Posted in Defense Grid, Windborne | Keywords: Defense Grid, Windborne
06/17/2014 by Kaboom
Posted in Defense Grid 2 | Keywords: DG2
06/03/2014 by Kaboom
05/12/2014 by Kaboom
Posted in Company News | Keywords: Hidden Path
05/05/2014 by Kaboom
Posted in Defense Grid 2 | Keywords: DG2
04/14/2014 by Kaboom
Posted in Defense Grid 2 | Keywords: DG2
04/09/2014 by Kaboom
04/03/2014 by Kaboom
Posted in Defense Grid 2 | Keywords: DG2
03/26/2014 by Jeff
PAX East
Also – big news flash. For those of you attending PAX East in Boston on Sunday, April 13th, Polygon Journalist Russ Pitts and Hidden Path DG2 Executive Producer Jeff Pobst will be making a dual appearance on stage at 11am in the Condor Theatre. Jeff might talk about what it is like to have a reporter watching your every move (and mistake) while you develop a new game with no say whatsoever in what Russ writes. Meanwhile Russ might give you additional insight into that crazy cast of characters that you read about who are making the game. Is Lex Story really like that? Does John Daud really worry about the details so much? You'll also get the opportunity to ask questions, so if you want to know more about the making of Defense Grid 2, here's a great opportunity.
Now some more big news, this time on product dates!
Beta Date
As you know we had originally hoped to do a multiplayer and feature beta back in November, but due to the multiplayer engine status, some low level engine rework, and new Steam features that we are taking on, we have been delayed on doing a beta significantly.
We've kept busy working on other things while waiting for the APIs needed, so development progress has been good, but we're now happy to report that we have made progress on all beta fronts and have received most of the APIs we were looking to get from our partners at Steam. With that work now back underway again, we're expecting to begin the Defense Grid 2 beta process in either late April or early May! We're looking forward to seeing you online then.
Release Date
Also, by now you also have seen the news that we have partnered with 505 Games to release Defense Grid 2 as planned on Steam (Windows, Mac, Linux) and also now on Xbox One & PlayStation 4. This is being accomplished both by adding some additional members to the team, and by adding some additional time to the development process for the existing team.
We plan on simultaneously shipping Defense Grid 2 on all the platforms above, and to do that, we're now targeting a release in Fall 2014 which means the game release will fall outside of our original planned window of being in the first half of this year, but will not be far behind that.
Art Books
For those backers whose pledges included bound art books for the first series and the second series, we're happy to let you know that all of the hardcover art books for the first Defense Grid series have been printed, bound, and mailed out to their new owners!
Thank you so much for your generous support of the Defense Grid franchise! The DG2 art books will follow sometime after the launch of DG2 once we've had time to pull all the art for DG2 together and get it in book ready form. That process took much longer than expected on the first art book, so we'll see if we can utilize that experience to help us make the second one more quickly.
For those backers whose pledges include the pdf file of the art book that was used to print the books, your email with the link to download the large pdf file will be sent out starting today. Keep an eye out as sometimes the emails from us end up in your spam filter or elsewhere deep inside the depths of your email clients.
So that's news at this hour. We know you are waiting to play a great game, and we're working hard to get you that great game as soon as is possible. We also want it to go faster, but we know that it being fun and solid is the most important thing, and we're committed to getting you a great Defense Grid 2!
Thanks so much for your support!
The Hidden Path Team
Posted in Defense Grid 2 | Keywords: DG2
03/25/2014 by Kaboom
03/13/2014 by Kaboom
We've got all the concept art, screenshots, and community art that your heart desires now on Pinterest.
You'll find us HERE!
Posted in Company News, Defense Grid 2 | Keywords: Defense Grid
02/28/2014 by Kaboom
Nope. I'm from Caldwell Idaho
If you could time travel back to your childhood bedroom, what toy would you bring back with you?
Sam Cobra (Quick Draw)
Do you have a favorite book or comic?
Amber Series
How about a favorite band?
My favorite right now would probably be Five Finger Death Punch
What video game do you think changed the industry the most in the last decade?
What exactly do you do on the Hidden Path team?
I'm a bit of a utility guy. User Interface, Animation, Game Concepts, Marketing, Web, Particle Effects.
What is the most rewarding thing about making video games?
My son thinks its cool.
If you had to eat one thing for an entire year, what would it be?
Keywords: Hidden Path
02/26/2014 by Kaboom
02/20/2014 by Kaboom
Posted in Defense Grid 2 | Keywords: DG2
02/17/2014 by Kaboom
02/12/2014 by Kaboom
Washington native, but not Seattle. I grew up the desolate wastes of Eastern Washington.
If you could time travel back to your childhood bedroom, what toy would you bring back with you?
A board game I had called Broadsides and Boarding Parties. It was this awesome game where you ordered ships around a map until they ran into each other. Then you brought out larger scale ship models and do battle on the decks of the ships.
Do you have a favorite book or comic?
I would have to say Way of Kings by Brandon Sanderson. In the middle of re-reading it right now, in fact.
How about a favorite band?
Liquid Tension Experiment.
What video game do you think changed the industry the most in the last decade?
Probably something like Farmville or Angry Birds that really brought mobile and social media into the foreground. As far as more heavy duty platforms, I'd have to go with Minecraft. Everyone has heard of it, it has sold millions of copies, spawned an entire subculture and people still have to ask "wait.. what exactly do you do in this game"? It has really opened the door for more free-form creative adventures.
What exactly do you do on Windborne?
I do work on the programming side of things, focusing mostly on user interface and gameplay. I have also appointed myself as the team troll, a job I take very seriously.
What is the most rewarding thing about making video games?
Making video games challenges you both technically and creatively. I find that mix to be very enriching.
If Bigfoot knocked on your door, what would you do?
Well if he's knocking instead of just knocking down the door, I assume he's planning on remaining civil, so I guess I'd invite him in and see what he needs. I'd steer clear of cameras though. They clearly wig him out.
Posted in Company News | Keywords: Hidden Path
02/10/2014 by Kaboom
Posted in Defense Grid 2 | Keywords: DG2
02/07/2014 by Kaboom
Posted in Defense Grid 2 | Keywords: DG2
02/06/2014 by Kaboom
01/30/2014 by Kaboom
01/27/2014 by Kaboom
I'm not! I come from Wyoming, the City of Casper. There are about 60k people there I think, out of the 575k in Wyoming as a whole. My Husband and I have been in Seattle for about seven years now, after being in Florida for two.
If you could time travel back to your childhood bedroom, what toy would you bring back with you?
Probably the first-gen My Little Pony collection I had. I mean, I don't know which single pony I would pick, so I'm counting the collection as one toy. A Pound Puppy would come in as a close second.
What's a few of your all-time favorite movies?
The Forty Year Old Virgin, This is the End, Scrooged (for Christmas), Tropic Thunder, The Harry Potter Series, and the Kill Bill movies.
Do you have a favorite book or comic?
Maybe not a favorite, but in the past year or two I read Wild (From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail), and Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption. Those were really good. The Power of Now is a book I think everyone should read. I'm not usually into that sort of material, but it made me start to think about things in a really different way.
How about a favorite band?
What video game do you think changed the industry the most in the last decade?
This is a tough question, because I can't think of just one game that's changed the entire industry. I do think that two major things have happened in the last ten years. One, Mobile gaming has exploded. Having not played a ton of mobile games myself, the game changer in that area I would say is Angry Birds, simply because for a while it was EVERYWHERE. It has mass appeal through simple mechanics, cute graphics, easy to generate DLC, and is very accessible to any level of player. I'm sure there are other mobile games that people would argue answer the question better, but I think those guys nailed appealing to their demographic, and really showed the industry that you don't have to have insane graphics and complex gameplay to be successful.
Secondly, indie games have been on the rise for a while now. More recently I would say Minecraft had a huge effect. It managed to capture casual and hardcore gamers alike, with a combination of super basic gameplay mechanics and the ability to create crazy complex worlds. Add to that community modding, resource packs, and DLC, and you've got a true phenomenon.
What exactly do you do on Defense Grid 2?
I'm the Associate Producer, which means I do a lot of different things. At the core is scheduling, tracking, and communication both internally and with external content creators. We have a relatively small team, so I manage all disciplines along with the Leads. I'm a funnel. Outside of that is really anything that needs to be done. I work with our Executive Producer/CEO on things like submission and milestone documentation, give feedback to content creators, and even pitch in when I can with things like hooking audio and visual effects up in the game. I also sometimes talk really loud, and distract my team (or the entire office) while trying to be funny.
What is the most rewarding thing about making video games?
Finishing a project is always really rewarding, because you get to see all your hard work come to fruition. Hearing people say they love a game I worked on is amazing. What is most rewarding for me personally is that I know every day that I go into work, I will smile at least once, and love my job. Even when I'm having a crappy day and have been eyes-glazed-over staring at a spreadsheet for hours, someone will crack a joke, or I'll get an email that brightens my day. I've been lucky to have great coworkers throughout my career, and being a part of a great team with people you like is a reward every day.
Posted in Company News | Keywords: Hidden Path
01/24/2014 by Kaboom
01/23/2014 by Kaboom
01/22/2014 by Kaboom
The DG2 team has been very busy! Some major features are in progress, and it's been very exciting to see all the bits and pieces start coming together. Additions to our network play are coming along, which include Steam integration, matchmaking, and additional modes for players to choose from. The user created content tools and pipeline that players will be using is looking great, with just a little bit of work left to make the experience whole. Items and special weapons that give players a chance to have a more custom experience are also gaining momentum.
The Design team is working hard to create new levels that are fun and interesting, with mechanics and modes to enhance gameplay and offer new challenges to the player. Art has kept busy decorating the levels that design has been making, as well as creating visual effects, towers and mobs, and generally making the game look beautiful! All of the art is looking great thanks to recent tool improvements and graphics coding from the engineers.
Can you give us an update on Defense Grid 2?
Overall, Defense Grid is moving forward at a really good pace. In the short term, we are working hard to finalize the features we'd like players to be able to experience during our Beta release, and are excited to get feedback in those areas as well as for the game in general. Once we get the major features wrapped up, we can focus on tightening up level balance and visuals, as well as start bug fixing and really making the game the best it can be.
Posted in Defense Grid 2 | Keywords: DG2
01/15/2014 by Kaboom
01/03/2014 by Kaboom
Posted in Company News | Keywords: Hidden Path
12/20/2013 by Kaboom
Posted in Company News, Defense Grid | Keywords: DG2, Hidden Path
12/19/2013 by Kaboom
12/16/2013 by Kaboom
Posted in Company News | Keywords: Hidden Path
12/11/2013 by Kaboom
Posted in Defense Grid 2 | Keywords: Defense Grid
12/09/2013 by Echo
12/09/2013 by Kaboom
Posted in Defense Grid 2 | Keywords: Defense Grid, DG2
12/06/2013 by Kaboom
11/21/2013 by Echo
11/20/2013 by Kaboom
I was previously at
Microsoft Studios, but now life has taken me here! I'm super excited to be a part
of Hidden Path, and I'm very passionate about both Windborne and the Defense
Grid franchise.
I'll be helping manage the forums, our social channels, and coordinate awesome,
no... SPECTACULAR events like community game nights, live streams, and interviews.
I'm here to help you, and hopefully you can do the same for
me... because I'm struggling to get a gold medal in Defense Grid, ha!
Since some of you are probably busy previewing Windborne or protecting your
cores, I'll make this short and sweet. Here's how you can get to know me in
four convenient bullet points:
- I'm obsessed with cat/otter/panda .gifs and memes.
- I've been a gamer ever since I could pick up a controller! I even played TF2 competitively for a while.
- On the side, I'm also a big Magic: The Gathering fan and am currently working on (I know, I'm a newbie) building my 2nd deck!
- I've been attending gaming conventions and LAN parties for years now, and I love meeting other gamers.
With that being said, I can't wait to digitally meet you all and hear your gaming stories.
P.S. - Feel free to connect with me on Twitter too! (@kaptainkaboom)
Posted in Company News
11/14/2013 by Echo
11/11/2013 by michael
For those that are joining us - welcome to the Windborne Preview! Explore your island,
craft almost 100 types of blocks, and build whatever you can think of!
Thank you for joining and helping the team at Hidden Path!
Because this is an Alpha build, there's a good chance you
may lose your island periodically as we update data formats. We're very
sorry about this! You may need a pretty high end system for the Alpha
testing period but performance will be changed as we get closer to early access
and final launch allowing for a wider range of systems to play.
Hidden Path Entertainment is community driven, so your
feedback can help shape the game using the button below and you can talk to us
on Twitter or Facebook .
We are listening!
Here are our initial expectation on Frequently Asked Questions. Soon there will be a FAQ page where we can go farther:
What is Windborne?
Windborne is a social sandbox game with thousands of pieces to build and play with. You'll be able to build a civilization of friendly Jin who will help you in your endeavor, although they haven't made it to the Alpha yet. There will be dungeons to conquer, islands to explore, and combat that is completely optional.
We are updating the wiki at http://windborne.gamepedia.com right now, but here are the basics:
The mouse looks around
WASD move you around
The left mouse button lets you place blocks
The right mouse button switches to gather mode where you can pick up blocks in the world
The mouse wheel or the 1-9 keys let you select which bubble you are placing from your action bar.
Q opens your inventory
C opens your crafting book
E interacts with things in the world
There are more advanced controls, but this is all you need to start.
How do I get help?
The wiki will be populated over the next week, and you can always ask at the forums or on facebook or twitter.
What do you mean I might lose my island?
During alpha, there is a good chance you'll lose your island when we update the game formats. Right now we don't have backwards compatibility to old islands, but that's one of the things we'll put in and test during the alpha.
I'm having trouble running Windborne
Being a small team, we haven't been able to test on the wide range of machines out there. In the next couple of days, we will update the game to upload your crash to us so we can investigate what is going wrong.
We haven't put as much time into performance at the moment, so you'll need a pretty beefy system to run at a high resolution. You might try decreasing it in the launcher for now. You can still run full screen at lower resolutions.
You have to be running Steam right now or the game will crash. We will fix that in the future.
Also, check out the official forums to see if there may be workarounds for your issues.
Can I play with my friends?
10/15/2013 by Jeff
Posted in Defense Grid 2 | Keywords: DG2
09/26/2013 by trixie360
Posted in Defense Grid 2 | Keywords: CS:GO, Defense Grid, DG2
09/12/2013 by trixie360
Posted in Defense Grid 2 | Keywords: DG2
09/09/2013 by trixie360
08/29/2013 by trixie360
Posted in Defense Grid 2, Windborne | Keywords: Hidden Path
08/14/2013 by trixie360
Posted in Defense Grid 2 | Keywords: DG2
08/12/2013 by trixie360
Posted in Defense Grid 2, Windborne | Keywords: DG2
08/08/2013 by Jeff Pobst
Posted in Defense Grid 2 | Keywords: DG2
08/01/2013 by trixie360
Posted in Defense Grid | Keywords: Defense Grid
07/25/2013 by trixie360
Posted in Defense Grid | Keywords: Defense Grid
07/25/2013 by trixie360
Posted in Defense Grid | Keywords: Defense Grid
07/24/2013 by trixie360
Hello all,
I can finally start talking about some of the things we have
planned for DG2. Back in May we
discussed a few of the user voice suggestions that were in the "under review"
category. Particularly the idea of
manually controlling the targeting behavior of your towers. Just to paraphrase, the concerns
surrounding the targeting options
feature included; the micromanagement of towers taking away from the key
gameplay of DG, the implication that towers weren't innately intelligent in
their targeting behavior, and the risk of over complicating the user interface.
Our concern here at HPE is what tower behavior is occurring
in the game to cause players to want to control the towers. Our first priority is to make the towers
behave intelligently and avoid any unnecessary frustration for the player. After that is accomplished then we look at
what can make this experience even more fun.
The related concepts of tower and gameplay customization
were also popular suggestions. Early on
in the development of DG2 we had a couple of concepts that would provide a way
for the player to change the gameplay to suit their tastes. The response on the forums to similar ideas
reinforced to us the popularity of this concept. Our challenge was to find a way to include this
ability in such a way that it didn't alienate the people who wanted to play in
the traditional manner and integrate the features so that they fit the DG
fiction properly. What we've devised
are the Tower Item and Command Team features.
The Tower Items will allow the player to activate a specific
Item that affects one tower type during a mission. This will modify a particular tower's damage
or targeting behavior. For example, all
Cannon towers can have an Item active in a mission that replaces their default
ordnance with chemically tipped (damage over time) shells or shrapnel (area of
effect) ordnance. And, similar to what
has been suggested in User Voice, Inferno towers that target location instead
of targeting an alien for optimal damage to groups of aliens.
Additionally, we will also have a global gameplay modifier
in the form of the Command Team. This
will take the form of additional characters that can be brought with the player
on missions. These characters will bring
with them certain perks such as special weapons that can replace the orbital
laser, bonuses such as increased score accumulation, or special abilities such
as quicker tower build and sell speed. One of the examples of a new special weapon is the "paint target" ability
allowing the player to select a primary target for all of the towers in range
of the designated alien.
We will also be adding a new Difficulty setting to the
gameplay options. This will range from a
casual mode to a difficulty level that requires both skill and the use of Tower
Items to achieve a competitive score.
The intention of all of these new features is to allow you
to play the game the way you want to play it and compete/compare yourself, via
the leaderboards, with like-minded players. The new Leaderboards will accommodate all gameplay tastes. This means the competing schools of Juggling
and Non-juggling players can have their own unique leaderboards without the
presence of the offending party on your leaderboard. We love all of you, and we just want you to
be happy in your leaderboards!
Of course, with all of these new features, we will need to
put these ideas into practice and play test them. With your help during beta testing we can
hopefully fine tune these to perfection or, if need be, cut them loose
altogether. The DG community is going
to keep an eye on the forest while we're busy in the trees.
P.S. The Boost tower
I should mention the new Boost tower while I'm here. The idea of a blocking tower was explored
early on. It would be a cheap tower that
could be used to redirect an alien while they made their way towards their
goal. The upside: it was inexpensive to
build. The downside: it took up valuable
tower building real estate with a tower that couldn't damage the aliens
not to mention limit the line of sight for neighboring towers. Most likely a player would simply build gun
towers instead unless resources were really scarce. This would most likely make this the most
unpopular tower of the bunch. What
would make this thing more useful and fun?
A blocking tower that doesn't prevent building in that spot would
help. If we can build on top of the
thing and add bonuses to the towers placed there…now we might have
something. The Command tower is an
underutilized tower. Granted, seasoned
vets know how to use it to perfection, but casual players mostly ignore the
thing. It was decided that we could take
the attributes associated with the Command tower and make them optional
upgrades for the Boost tower. This
includes a score bonus for the occupying tower, damage output bonus for the
occupying tower, or stealth and shield disruptor. The Boost tower will also be a good counter
strategy for a new type of alien, but we'll talk about aliens in a future diary
Again, thank you, Defense Grid community! We couldn't do this without you!
- John
Want even more John, with a side of Jeff? Check out the video update!
Posted in Defense Grid 2 | Keywords: DG2
07/17/2013 by trixie360
Posted in Defense Grid | Keywords: Defense Grid
07/15/2013 by trixie360
Posted in Defense Grid | Keywords: Defense Grid
07/11/2013 by trixie360
Posted in Defense Grid | Keywords: Defense Grid
07/09/2013 by trixie360
Posted in Defense Grid 2 | Keywords: DG2
07/04/2013 by trixie360
Posted in Defense Grid | Keywords: Defense Grid
07/01/2013 by trixie360
Posted in Defense Grid 2 | Keywords: DG2
06/27/2013 by trixie360
Posted in Defense Grid | Keywords: Defense Grid
06/21/2013 by trixie360
Posted in Defense Grid | Keywords: Defense Grid
06/19/2013 by trixie360
Posted in Defense Grid | Keywords: Defense Grid
06/13/2013 by trixie360
Posted in Defense Grid | Keywords: Defense Grid
06/07/2013 by trixie360
Posted in Defense Grid | Keywords: Defense Grid
06/06/2013 by trixie360
Posted in Defense Grid | Keywords: Defense Grid
06/05/2013 by trixie360
Posted in Defense Grid 2 | Keywords: DG2
05/30/2013 by trixie360
Posted in Defense Grid | Keywords: Defense Grid
05/29/2013 by trixie360
Posted in Defense Grid | Keywords: Defense Grid
05/23/2013 by trixie360
Posted in Defense Grid | Keywords: Defense Grid
05/20/2013 by trixie360
Posted in Defense Grid | Keywords: Defense Grid
05/16/2013 by trixie360
Posted in Defense Grid 2 | Keywords: Defense Grid
05/10/2013 by trixie360
Posted in Defense Grid | Keywords: Defense Grid
05/09/2013 by trixie360
Posted in Defense Grid | Keywords: Defense Grid
05/02/2013 by trixie360
Posted in Defense Grid | Keywords: DG2
05/02/2013 by trixie360
Posted in Defense Grid | Keywords: Defense Grid
04/29/2013 by trixie360
Posted in Defense Grid | Keywords: Defense Grid
04/27/2013 by trixie360
Afterward, one of our community members requested that we verify or comment on each of the items listed for achieving the $1,000,000 Kickstarter goal. Here's the list:
$500,000 Tier -
Original Levels Remastered, Co-Op Multiplayer (online), DRM Free
$750,000 Tier -
Level editor to make custom levels that can be shared with DG community, More Multiplayer Content
$1,000,000 Tier -
Full DG 2 Sequel, New Aliens, New Towers, New Level Types, New Game Modes, New Ways to Play, 20 Mission DG2 Campaign, Fletcher, Multiplayer Modes, Aforementioned Level Editor, Multiple Platforms, Steam, DRM Free
Here's Jeff's response:
As you know, the Kickstarter paid for the $250k Tier and
that led to Containment being delivered to backers. We also said if we ever are
able to make DG2, then you'll get a free copy of the game.
Once we began conversations with the investor, we took an
approach where we were no longer going to focus on the intermediate tiers, and
focus directly on making DG2. The intermediate tiers made sense if we were
going to take more time and approach DG2 in a step by step way where we weren't
sure how much money we'd raise and we wanted to make sure there was a
deliverable for whatever part of the way we reached.
We're now off-the Kickstarter page, so to speak. The
investor is interested in making DG2 real and that's our focus. We both agreed
however, that the game would have the multiplayer features we talked about,
would have a level editor and user created content options, and would ship on
Steam for Windows, Macintosh, & Linux and that backers would get a free
copy of those versions.
There will be betas and we will be including backers to help
us with the betas. We want a community voice involved in the game to help us
make the best possible game, and we also have to recognize that we have an
investor now too who has contributed substantially and we'll need to respect
that as well.
That's where things are at the moment. Our goal right now is
to get to first playable on the new engine. We'll develop the multiplayer and
level editor features, we're working on the story and the characters and the
progression of the single player levels, we're working on the new look and feel
of the game that we're very excited about. Once we get to a place in the
development where having you play elements gets us good metrics and feedback
we'll jump right into that. Likely that's going to be several months from now.
Meanwhile, we'll share info as time goes of what is taking place and what
progress we're making.
Going back to your above list - We expect everything in the
$1m tier to be coming your way. We are not going to be focusing on the $500k
and $750k tiers on the way there.
- Jeff
Posted in Defense Grid 2 | Keywords: DG2
04/25/2013 by trixie360
DG2 is in the works and on the way. The dev team is in place and making progress every day. We're beyond excited and hope you are too. We suppose you have a few questions:
When?! When is it coming?
The first half of 2014. Yeah that's a mighty big window, and we'll narrow that as we get further along in the development process.
What platforms will it be on?
Steam, baby! For Windows, Mac, and Linux!
But what about my [insert favorite platform here]?!
We're not saying "no" to that, we're saying "we'll see." If it makes sense it could happen; for now, we're focusing on Windows, Mac, and Linux.
Is it going to be multiplayer?
Heck yeah! Co-op AND competitive modes!
I'm an OG Kickstarter backer! What does this mean for me?
First: You rock. Hard. Second: You will receive a copy of DG2 when it releases—as promised. You will also be called upon to take part in the beta testing. We will hook you up, no worries.
So I'm still special?
You're so very, very special. You get to keep your private backer forum forever. It's like the exclusive airport lounge for VIPs, without the free drinks. Sorry. We are going to open up UserVoice to all forum members on July 1 though. Until then it's your private playground so keep voting and sharing your thoughts, we are listening.
Wait! I thought we didn't raise enough Kickstarter money to make DG2. What happened?
You happened. The support and enthusiasm of the DG community got the attention of an investor who made up the funding gap. Now we've got enough money to make DG2.
Who is this awesome investor?
It's a secret for now. We'll tell that story a bit later.
Whoa. Is it Batman?
No. It isn't Batman.
Is it…?
It's not Bruce Wayne, either. Or Tony Stark.
What kind of stuff will we see in DG2?
So much stuff. A new campaign, multiple planets, freakin' MULTIPLAYER modes, user-created content support, new aliens, new towers and new characters, and the ability to create—wait for it—custom levels.
New characters? Will Fletcher be back?
Of course!
How about the new characters introduced in Defense Grid: Containment?
Yup! Cai and Simon will be back.
Can you just sum it up for me, so I don't have to read this whole post?
Sure. We got the money to make DG2. So we're making it. It's gonna rock, and you'll be able to play it in 2014 on Steam. Boom.
Posted in Defense Grid 2 | Keywords: DG2
04/18/2013 by trixie360
Posted in Defense Grid | Keywords: Defense Grid
04/11/2013 by trixie360
Posted in Defense Grid | Keywords: Defense Grid
04/08/2013 by trixie360
Posted in Defense Grid | Keywords: Defense Grid
04/04/2013 by trixie360
Posted in Defense Grid | Keywords: Defense Grid
03/28/2013 by trixie360
Posted in Defense Grid | Keywords: Defense Grid
03/21/2013 by trixie360
Posted in Defense Grid | Keywords: Defense Grid
03/14/2013 by trixie360
Posted in Defense Grid | Keywords: Defense Grid
03/12/2013 by trixie360
Posted in Defense Grid | Keywords: Defense Grid
03/07/2013 by trixie360
Posted in Defense Grid | Keywords: Defense Grid
03/07/2013 by trixie360
Posted in Age of Empires II HD | Keywords: pc
02/28/2013 by trixie360
Posted in Defense Grid | Keywords: Defense Grid
02/27/2013 by trixie360
Posted in Defense Grid | Keywords: Defense Grid
02/21/2013 by trixie360
Posted in Defense Grid | Keywords: Defense Grid
02/14/2013 by trixie360
Posted in Defense Grid | Keywords: Defense Grid
02/07/2013 by trixie360
Posted in Defense Grid | Keywords: Defense Grid
01/31/2013 by trixie360
Posted in Defense Grid | Keywords: Defense Grid
01/24/2013 by trixie360
Posted in Defense Grid | Keywords: Defense Grid
01/23/2013 by trixie360
Posted in Defense Grid | Keywords: Defense Grid
01/17/2013 by Trixie360
Posted in Defense Grid | Keywords: Defense Grid
01/16/2013 by Jeff Pobst
Posted in Defense Grid | Keywords: Defense Grid, pc
01/11/2013 by Trixie360
Posted in Defense Grid | Keywords: Defense Grid
01/11/2013 by Trixie360
Posted in Defense Grid | Keywords: Defense Grid
01/10/2013 by Trixie360
Posted in Defense Grid | Keywords: Defense Grid
01/03/2013 by Trixie360
Posted in Defense Grid | Keywords: Defense Grid
12/31/2012 by Trixie360
Posted in Defense Grid | Keywords: Defense Grid
12/20/2012 by Trixie360
Posted in Defense Grid | Keywords: Defense Grid
12/20/2012 by Trixie360
Posted in Defense Grid | Keywords: Defense Grid
12/18/2012 by Trixie360
Posted in Defense Grid | Keywords: Defense Grid
12/13/2012 by Trixie360
Posted in Defense Grid | Keywords: Defense Grid
12/12/2012 by Trixie360
Posted in Defense Grid | Keywords: Defense Grid, DG2
12/10/2012 by Trixie360
Posted in Defense Grid | Keywords: Defense Grid
12/06/2012 by Trixie360
Posted in Defense Grid | Keywords: Defense Grid
12/06/2012 by Trixie360
Posted in Defense Grid | Keywords: Defense Grid
12/03/2012 by Trixie360
Posted in Defense Grid | Keywords: Defense Grid
11/30/2012 by Trixie360
Posted in Defense Grid | Keywords: DG2
11/15/2012 by Trixie360
Posted in Defense Grid | Keywords: Defense Grid
11/14/2012 by Trixie360
Posted in Defense Grid | Keywords: Defense Grid
11/13/2012 by Trixie360
Our own Defense Grid Senior Artist (and resident Jarhead) Lex Story gives us some insight into the process of creating levels for Containment.
"Sometimes the
paper is too far to reach and too small in the scope of the moment. Sometimes
the white board provides the only canvas appropriate for something I call 'concept rants.'
This is a 'concept rant' for a level, trying desperately not to go off on a tangent about
WWII vintage aircraft strafing and bombing tactics."
Posted in Defense Grid | Keywords: Defense Grid
11/12/2012 by Trixie360
Posted in Defense Grid | Keywords: Defense Grid
11/08/2012 by Trixie360
Posted in Defense Grid | Keywords: Defense Grid
11/01/2012 by Trixie360
Posted in Defense Grid | Keywords: Defense Grid
11/01/2012 by Trixie360
"Here is a quick ZBrush sculpture I did to explore some ideas for a level in the upcoming Containment expansion. Obviously no color or details – just some rough visual ideas. I don't want to spoil any surprises, but it should be obvious we're not in Kansas anymore."
Posted in Defense Grid | Keywords: Defense Grid
10/29/2012 by Trixie360
Posted in Defense Grid | Keywords: Defense Grid
10/25/2012 by Trixie360
Posted in Defense Grid | Keywords: Defense Grid
10/22/2012 by Trixie360
Posted in Defense Grid | Keywords: DG2
10/18/2012 by Trixie360
The Juggle Master dropped the ball this week, falling from first place to third. And then along came a spider323g, creeping up to first place—appropriate for spidery October! A big "Welcome to the Top Ten" to larry.garriott and Ganjafear, who wasn't afraid to go from thirteenth to fourth place this week!
1. spider323g
2. Max Payne
3. The Juggle Master ( Sal)
4. Ganjafear
5. hirschquadrat
6. larry.garriott
7. Mien
8. AstraNine
9. sawelt
10. hanbaoluo
For full results, check out the Weekly Challenge Leaderboard.
Next up is Focal Point – Story Challenge. Good luck, Defense Gridders!
Posted in Defense Grid | Keywords: Defense Grid
10/14/2012 by Trixie360
Posted in Defense Grid | Keywords: Defense Grid
10/11/2012 by Trixie360
Posted in Defense Grid | Keywords: Defense Grid, DG2
10/03/2012 by Trixie360
Posted in Defense Grid | Keywords: Defense Grid, pc
09/19/2012 by Trixie360
Posted in Defense Grid | Keywords: DG2
07/10/2012 by Jeff Pobst
Posted in Company News, Defense Grid, Defense Grid 2 | Keywords: Defense Grid, DG2, Hidden Path, pc
06/30/2012 by Jeff Pobst
I know you haven't heard much from us in a while, and its because we've been building things for you to play and there just hasn't been too much time to talk about it. CS:GO has gone through 18 major weekly updates on the PC beta and we've learned so much with Valve, watching your metrics and studying how people play the game so we can keep working to make it better than it was before.
You know that there is a release date now and the game will be coming out August 21st, and we're busily getting the game ready for release on multiple platforms (PC, Mac, Xbox 360, and PS3), and doing everything we can to polish the game.
Meanwhile we've also been starting to let ourselves think about "the future" and what lays beyond CS:GO for our studio. We get your emails and requests asking for more Defense Grid: "I want more Defense Grid" they say, and sometimes it is simply that blunt.
We hear you, and have come up with some plans on how we might be able to accomplish that and I'll be sharing those plans with you... in a bit. I know, I know, on our facebook page I said "in 2 weeks" about 4 weeks ago, and I apologize for that statement - I thought it would be true at the time. During those two weeks, some surprises took place that caused us to incorporate those surprises into our plans, and it slowed down sharing them with you, because, well, they changed a bit - but we think for the better - so we're excited for when they'll be ready to share.
It has been a whirlwind of activity with CS:GO development and planning for the future and the last 10 weeks or so have been so packed that even as I write this on a Saturday, I'm late for my next meeting and I need to quickly wrap this up. Let me say that we so appreciate your support of the games we make and we just continually focus on how everything we do meets the bar of it being "better for the player."
Here's to fun play, hopefully you get a lot of it in your life. We'll be there to keep making it for you.
Posted in Company News, CS:GO, Defense Grid | Keywords: CS:GO, Defense Grid
04/04/2012 by Jeff Pobst
We haven't done many bundles with Defense Grid. There was the Potato Pack for the Portal 2 launch almost exactly one year ago this week. Last Fall we joined other TD games for the Indie Strategy bundle on Steam, but this week's Indie Royale Bundle is our first to offer both a Steam key for an expandable version of the game with several of the DLC and also include a version of Defense Grid: Gold without any DRM or online connection needs too.
Indie Royale has combined Defense Grid (the main game and the first five expansions: Borderlands & the four Resurgence Map packs) with Hack, Slash, Loot; Alien Zombie Megadeth, Explodemon, and Astro Tripper all together to keep our April on-sale tradition alive with their April Fools Bundle. Also, for anyone who pays more than the minimum, they get Rock: Deluxe Edition as well.
If you haven't already picked up Defense Grid, this is a great opportunity to get to know our game and also pick up a few other great ones for a ridiculously low price.
On other topics, the number of emails we're getting about making a Defense Grid sequel as our next project is almost as large as the number of people who email us asking to join the CS:GO beta (hint – there's no point in emailing us as it doesn't get you in, see http://blog.counter-strike.net/index.php/facts/ for more details on how to get in).
The requests have been rising as the months intervene since the release of the You Monster expansion and we hear you. The studio is obviously right now focused on making the best possible CS game we can make in conjunction with the folks at Valve, and not only are we updating the PC beta a lot (and I really do mean a lot), we're also working to finish the game for all the other platforms too.
After shipping CS:GO, taking one deep breath, and getting a few hours more of sleep than we have been getting, it will be on to the next things – and what will those next things be? I want to know for sure too. I will say that there are a ton of great conversations with many potential partners and lots of very good things as real possibilities.
Perhaps there will be new things in the world of Defense Grid there. Perhaps there will be brand new games that expand on games we love, perhaps there will be completely new things, there are lots of ways it can go.
As for Defense Grid, some folks have suggested with think about "going Kickstarter" to do the sequel and I will say that is an intriguing possibility. There are certain partnerships that may allow us to go even bigger than we think we can go if we do Kickstarter, but should that path not come together, maybe we'll turn to you and see which features are most important for you to fund. There are so many cool possibilities dancing around in our heads.
Once we do know our next steps after Counter-Strike, we plan on sharing as much as we can with you. You've been great and responsive to us as we update our games and adjust products that you're already playing, but we hope to expand our relationship – you know, us and… you. And with that closer relationship, expanded and all, we hope to create new fun and entertaining experiences that will delight you even more.
Posted in Defense Grid | Keywords: CS:GO, Defense Grid, Hidden Path, pc
01/13/2012 by Jeff Pobst
Happy New Year!
I wanted to get back to the blog and give you an update on the goings-on here at Hidden Path Entertainment, so here goes. Let's start with a myriad of Defense Grid news.
Defense Grid: You Monster and the full bundle (Defense Grid: The Awakening, DG: Borderlands, DG: Resurgence Map Packs, and DG: You Monster) are both available on Steam and have been very popular in the month of December and January. Thanks much for all your support! We hope you're really enjoyed the full chapter of GLaDOS coming to the world of Defense Grid that started back almost a year ago when Valve kindly approached us about joining the Portal 2 ARG.
The game has also been doing well on the Xbox 360 though it can be tough to find on the new dashboard. Go to the games marketplace and search for Defense Grid as an Xbox LIVE Arcade game and you'll see the game and the expansion content all there for you. We're also excited to be a "Deal of the Week" along with other top Tower Defense games on XBLA so for another few days you can get Defense Grid at a great deal on the Xbox 360.
Most of the folks playing the game on Xbox 360 are having the pristine gaming experience as was expected, but there have been a small group that are seeing repeating error messages and achievements that aren't awarding to them, and we've been working closely with the folks at Microsoft to find a way to solve those issues. We don't have a resolution yet, but the Microsoft folks have been helpful and we've given them a lot of information recently so we'll see if this doesn't get fixed here shortly.
Starting soon, the folks at Gamefly's Direct2Drive service will also start selling Defense Grid: You Monster and the full bundle. So that you know, this is still the Steam version of the game, but this allows you to get it from Gamefly if that's where you like to purchase your software.
In December we also did a UI revamp on Defense Grid with the folks at OnLive so that the game could support their new foray into playing the service on tablets. It's true, you can play Defense Grid on an iPad now through the OnLive streaming service, and we created a new user interface that is touch-focused and automatically appears if you play the game on the touch surface. The OnLive folks have been raving about the interface and have even stated in the press that they think this is the best way to play the game. We're happy to be supporting them and will continue to keep an eye on the tablet market and see what other things we can do for these cool devices.
Congratulations also goes out to the 30 awesome folks who were randomly chosen from all the people that did a December (or earlier) like of Defense Grid's Facebook page or Logitech's gaming page and won either a Logitech F710 wireless gamepad, a Logitech G400 gaming mouse, or a Logitech G110 gaming keyboard. We've reached out and contacted the winners on Facebook and some of the hardware is already in the mail and some of it is waiting for a response from the winners. It turns out that the "Defense Grid" page can't contact people, so I had to create a new account from me that is reaching out to folks. If you're a winner and you've been contacted, make sure to get back to us so we can send you your prize.
The Counter-Strike: Global Offensive beta is underway and we're learning a lot about the game, balance, online metrics, etc. from the beta and it's helping us make the game better each day. I'll repeat what we've said before though about joining the beta and such (because we're still getting emails from you), that this is something you want to talk with Valve about rather than contacting us, and definitely post anything about CS:GO over on the Steam forums rather than here. Everyone from Hidden Path and Valve are looking over at Steam for opinions and input and the Valve folks are the ones making the calls on the growth of the beta over time. So far, just a small set of maps and weapons have been released to the beta, but more will come over time. It has been exciting to see more and more public matches of CS:GO, the latest one being the Plantronics matches shown over at CES.
Next up, we have a small bonus coming to Defense Grid players on Steam, and we'll be talking more about that soon. Until then, thanks so much for all the great things you've been saying to your friends and colleagues about the game, we greatly appreciate it.
Posted in Company News, CS:GO, Defense Grid | Keywords: CS:GO, Defense Grid, Hidden Path, pc, Xbox
12/07/2011 by Jeff Pobst
Defense Grid: You Monster is now available on Steam and Xbox LIVE. We're excited and can't wait for you to enjoy our special guest star and a set of new maps and missions. To help celebrate, our friends over at Logitech offered to give away some great keyboards, mice, and PC gamepads to the fans of Defense Grid. Here's the story:
Play Defense Grid Your Way with Great Input from Logitech!
In conjunction with the release of Defense Grid: You Monster on Steam, Logitech and Hidden Path are giving away upgrades for your computer so you can play Defense Grid with the precision and comfort you deserve.
Simply "Like" the official Defense Grid Facebook page or "Like" the official Logitech Gaming page (or both for two chances to win!), and you'll be entered into a drawing for top Logitech input devices for your PC.
You could win one of ten G400 gaming mice, ten G110 Gaming Keyboards, or ten Wireless F710 Gamepads. Contest ends 12/31/2011.
So thanks so much to the Logitech folks. Come the new year we will be mailing out a lot of hardware to a lot of fans. Maybe we'll be sending something Logitech your way!
Posted in Defense Grid | Keywords: Defense Grid, pc, Xbox
12/02/2011 by Jeff Pobst
I'm so excited to share with you something we've been working on since the Portal 2 ARG. Last year, the folks at Valve invited us and several other indie developers to participate in launching Portal 2 early on Steam with an Alternate Reality Game that took place with GLaDOS invading each of our games as she tried to escape and launch Portal 2. It was amazing fun and we felt very fortunate to participate in the ARG.
Afterward, we proposed the idea of making this into a full expansion and the kind souls at Valve gave us the go-ahead and then helped us record new GLaDOS dialogue (in English, French & German). We developed a whole new story that continued past what was shown in the ARG and we can't wait for you to be able to play it.
Oh, the Valve folks do want me to point out that while Aperature Science has loaned GLaDOS to Defense Grid for the duration of this expansion, nothing that takes place here is part of the Portal story canon. So don't worry about making it all fit in the timeline you wikipedia entry writers. It doesn't.
On the content side of things, in the last day or so we've already released a free update on both Xbox 360 and Steam that gives your existing Defense Grid some UI updates (making it easier to see all the available challenge modes on a map and all the medals you've earned at a glance) and we threw in a few new game modes and over 30 new challenge missions so you have something to play "right now" while you wait for Wednesday to come.
A Steam order site should be appearing soon and you should also be able to buy it on xbox.com and then have it automatically download the expansion to your Xbox 360 from the web - I think that feature is pretty cool myself. I know I buy many XBLA titles that way.
This is an expansion, so you do need to own the original game in order to play You Monster, and I believe you'll see some discounts and bundle opportunities to get the main game at a special price during the launch of the You Monster expansion pack if you don't already own Defense Grid.
The expansion contains 8 new levels with a story mode and over 35 additional challenge missions and will be priced at $4.99 USD on Steam (or it's equivalent including VAT in other territories), or 400 MS points on the Xbox 360 Marketplace.
For you Xbox 360 users, remember that there is a major dashboard update coming just before this goes out, so things will look a little different as you go to find the expansion.
We look forward to you playing the latest chapter in the Defense Grid franchise.
Protect the cores! And Enjoy!
Posted in Defense Grid | Keywords: Defense Grid, Hidden Path, pc, Xbox
11/30/2011 by Jeff Pobst
Today, at 3pm Pacific time, the Counter-Strike: Global Offensive closed beta launched and thousands of folks are using their beta keys they received at PAX prime, Eurogramer Expo, or a few of the other events where the game was shown in exhibition on the Xbox 360 or PS3.
Also going live is http://www.counter-strike.net/ which is the official site for the game, and there you will find all sorts of answers to frequently asked questions that we've been hearing whether here at Hidden Path or at Valve.
A snippet:
"Today, CSGO starts its first stress test of our servers and a variety of client hardware.
This stress test contains a limited set of weapons, items, game modes, and functionality.
If you have a beta key, fire up the game. Join a match on a server. Give us feedback in the Steam forums.
Don't have a key? How do you get one? Hold tight. The stress test is currently closed as we test our server and client systems."
The #1 question asked is stated many ways, but boils down to this.
"Q) How can I get into the beta?"
The answer:
09/01/2011 by Jeff Pobst
We're back from PAX and what an amazing time it was. Thousands of people got to play Counter-Strike: Global Operations at PAX last week and according to Joystiq "Though the line to play had its naysayers, I saw no one turning away from their demo without a smile on their face. It feels ... well, it feels like Counter-Strike."
And everyone wanted to try out the game. According to Videogamer.com "On the first day of PAX 2011, a confident booth in the middle of the convention's show floor claims to boast the longest queues of the show, and it's for a downloadable game rather than a mammoth AAA title. Isn't that a bit daunting for the staff manning its 10 demo stations? Apparently not - they say it's exciting. I'm inclined to agree: excitement is the right response when the developer is Valve, and when the game in question is Counter-Strike: Global Offensive."
It was exciting. We knew we were working on a very important franchise with Valve, and we all knew that we were having a lot of fun with the new version when we played, but what none of us knew, was how you'd respond, what you'd think, and whether or not you'd want to keep playing it.
I can now report back, that people visiting PAX were as excited as we are about the game, that even when folks weren't sure if the Xbox 360 version we had for them would be their main platform or not, that shouts of delight, suspense, and victory rained down from the rafters as T's and CT's squared off on the new Dust map, and virtual bombs were both planted, defused, and detonated. It was a ton of fun to witness.
Everyone who came to PAX and played got a beta code, those going to Eurogamer will get them too. Don't fall for any of the scams that are starting to pop up out there claiming to have beta keys for you to download, purchase or earn. The only way into the beta right now is to play the game at one of these shows.
There's more to come and we look forward to bringing you more about CS:GO and working closely with Valve to make sure that the very best possible Counter-Strike works its way to you in 2012.
Posted in Company News, CS:GO | Keywords: CS:GO, Hidden Path, pc, Xbox
08/25/2011 by Jeff Pobst
It has begun. Information, interviews, and the first official trailer of Counter-Strike: Global Offensive have hit the internet this evening as PAX opens tomorrow, for the public to play and see what several in the press have been experiencing over the last day or two.
Check out
Stay connected on Twitter and follow @csgo_dev and @hiddenpathent for all the latest updates.
The doors open tomorrow at PAX at 10am, and close at 6pm. The hours are the same Saturday and Sunday. We have 10 Xbox 360s ready for a 5 vs. 5 match on Dust, all set up and ready for you to play, so come to the booth, experience an early build of the game for yourself, and leave with a code in your hand that will get you in the PC beta later this Fall.
We'll see you there.
Posted in CS:GO | Keywords: CS:GO, Hidden Path, pc, Xbox
08/18/2011 by Jeff Pobst
As you now know, Valve announced Counterstrike: Global Offensive, or CS:GO as it is also known. Our team here has been working closely with Valve for quite a while on this project and we're very excited for everyone to know about it.
Last week Valve brought in professional CSS competitive players to play the PC version and give our team feedback, and next week, the Xbox 360 version will be playable at PAX for anyone who comes to Valve's booth too. When you come to PAX or the show in London, after you play a round, you will get a code for the upcoming PC beta too.
We'll be there at PAX, watching, taking notes, and making sure that we prepare and iterate to make the best possible Counter-Strike game for you, no matter what your preferred platform is.
Also, if you didn't already know, there is an official Twitter account for the game that will have the very latest and greatest info coming out about it. Follow @csgo_dev (http://twitter.com/csgo_dev) and you'll be plugged in!
Posted in CS:GO | Keywords: CS:GO, Hidden Path, pc, Xbox
07/03/2011 by Jeff Pobst
By now you may have noticed that Steam is having their huge summer sale, and Defense Grid is a big part of it. Today, July 3rd, Defense Grid is 75% off for just the next 24 hours, but throughout the sale, Defense Grid is 50% off.
AND, for the first time ever you can get a discount on Resurgence. How much of a discount? Well, how about 100% off or FREE! But of course there is a catch.
Each day during the Steam Summer Sale, 5 or 6 games on Steam will be revealing a brand new achievement that you can earn. These achievements are in games that you may already own, or perhaps have been wanting to buy and are now on sale. All you need to do to get Resurgence for free is collect 3 of those achievements across the dozens of games participating, and then go to the prize booth and pick the Defense Grid Resurgence Map Pack from the list and it's yours.
If you already own Defense Grid, we've got help for you to get Resurgence free too. We're rolling out a new game mode and achievement today for you in an automatic update called "Out of Bullets." Five different original levels have the new Out of Bullets game modes in their challenge mode list now: Ancient Research, Out of Fuel, Barrier to Entry, Veil of Ice, and Guardian's Fall.
Out of Bullets gives you all the towers to choose from except Gun and Cannon. This gives you an opportunity to not only look to other towers for primary pathing and baseline destruction, but it also provides a fun way to try out some advanced towers on early levels - Concussion, Temporal and Meteor on Ancient Research is one of my favorites - it's so fun (and strange) to see the (almost) full tower assortment on some of these early levels.
For those of you who have played through Defense Grid's story mode, but haven't gone back to look at the challenge modes available on each level, we think you'll not only find the Out of Bullets modes a lot of fun, we think we'll open up a whole new side of the game that you may not have even known was there. Watch out - many many hours of fun are ahead.
I'm looking forward to seeing you on the Out of Bullets leaderboards, they're fresh, new, and there is a lot of opportunity there for you to show off your great Defense Grid skills early.
Posted in Defense Grid | Keywords: Defense Grid, pc
06/30/2011 by Jeff Pobst
Thank you for your passion for Defense Grid! Over the last several months and even years, we've carefully read your posts, your emails, your suggestions, your requests, and because the Defense Grid community is so active we've been able to address several of your requests in today's June 30, 2011 update on Steam.
First off, Defense Grid now supports Steam Cloud and automatically merges your existing offline profile with whatever is in the cloud too! That means that when you first run this update all your medals and unlock progress will transfer over to the new cloud profile, but it also means that if you need to play the game in offline mode in the future, it will keep that profile locally and update it to the cloud when you next connect again. If you have two different sets of medals and unlocks on two different computers, they'll now be merged - the best result is kept. Many of you have been asking for this, and it starts today. Enjoy your Defense Grid wherever you'd like, as all data for DG on Steam is now stored online.
But there is a lot more than Steam Cloud in this update as well. Recently on the forums it was pointed out that as computers have gotten faster and faster and hard drive seek times are getting shorter, that perhaps our load times are being artificially kept longer than was needed. A bit of investigation showed that this was in fact the case (on the newest and fastest computers), and so we removed any wait times associated with the splash screens and move forward when we're done loading as soon as possible - just spacebar or enter through the splash screens to get to the loading screen right away and it will progress as soon as it can.
The Xbox 360 leaderboard has for a long time been easier to navigate than the one on Steam and we've updated the Steam leaderboard to have the same filtering approach so you can quickly get to the particular leaderboard for the map and mode you want to check. It's much easier to show people your high score now.
We also went ahead and removed any "locks" on levels. As people were installing or reinstalling the game, sometimes they'd lose their progress data and get frustrated. We don't want any frustration, so in addition to Steam Cloud saves, we've removed locked levels as well. If you're learning how to play the game we recommend starting with The Awakening, and playing the levels in order, but if you get stuck on a level or just want to go back to a level from a while back and a profile ago, no worries, they're all unlocked now.
One really large request for advanced players was to have the fast forward button be a toggle rather than a hold down to fast forward. This of course can be really confusing for new players, but we found a way to have both approaches available, and in the settings screen shown above you can now decide whether to have the fast forward button only operate when being held down, or you can live dangerously and toggle fast forward on or off.
Some DG users have passionately wanted shortcut keys, and while they aren't documented in the help text, they're now in the game. The number keys 1 through 0 each represent a possible tower from Gun to Command, and if you push a number key while your cursor is over a buildable spot (and you have the needed resources), you'll see your tower build right then and there. Want to upgrade a tower? Press the 'u' key when your cursor is over an existing tower. Want to sell a tower, press shift and u to sell that tower (it is a two-key combo to make sure you don't accidentally sell that tower).
We also cleaned up all of the potatoes from the UI that were put in there as part of the Portal 2 ARG, and we fixed the voice audio in the C.H.A.S. levels such that the voice volume slider now affects those levels as it does the rest of the levels. The console remains in so you can poke around and read about some of the early DG back-story, but the account passwords have been removed and it is a lot easier to explore.
There are a couple of other popular requests that we aren't able to get to at this time, and we want you to know we looked into them carefully. We would like, and you have said you would like, both multiplayer options in the game and an editor for the levels. The scope of those changes reach into such fundamental systems of the game, that we're just not able to bring them to you in this Defense Grid product. Please know we seriously looked into it.
So, we're excited to share this update with you today. It's available now, so if you launch Steam, you should see your Defense Grid update to the latest version, and all the new features should be there.
Let us know right away on the forums if you run into any new issues. You can always use the contact form as well on the web site, but sometimes that means you're waiting on us to get to the emails, and when you use the forums, other smart DG users can jump in and respond to you, sometimes faster than we can. There also is a lot of activity on the Steam forums. Either way works, it's just a question of which method will get you a faster response.
The Steam summer camp sale has begun, and you'll notice that Defense Grid is on sale, and you can cash in your tickets for free map packs as you earn achievements in other games. Keep an eye out for more Defense Grid opportunities as the summer camp activities are unveiled each day.
Posted in Defense Grid | Keywords: Defense Grid, pc
06/25/2011 by Jeff Pobst
We're entertainers. Sure, we write software, design and build new game capabilities, draw new concept art, model 3d sculptures, texture those sculptures, design new game systems, try out different game modes, explore what is fun and what isn't fun, test to make sure it works, think about the audio presentation and how to enhance the experience, and spend a lot of time thinking about things different players may want even if other players may not, but at the end of the day, we have one goal. We want to entertain you. That's both the larger group "you" and the more personal "you."
So, it was very energizing when Valve asked us to be a part of the Portal 2 launch ARG because never before had we been able to make game content, and receive such instantaneous feedback on game systems or features that we were developing right then and then adjust what we were doing instantly to make the release a week later even better. It was a completely different entertainment experience, both for us the entertainers and for the audience.
Michael Austin, Hidden Path Entertainment's Chief Technology Officer is going to tell more about that story and the things we learned from the community at the upcoming PAX Prime Dev conference - a new conference hosted by Penny-Arcade for game developers to share information with each other that takes place right next to PAX Prime. Michael gave some initial background of that experience at the LOGIN conference here in Bellevue last month, but will be sharing much more about the experience in August.
Not only that, but we've been told that Design Director Mark Terrano will also be speaking at PAX Dev talking about all the things we've learned about Kinect over the years. It is very possible that Hidden Path Entertainment has been working on Kinect/Natal/3D cameras for gaming and Microsoft longer than anyone else. Back in Spring of 2007 when Peter Moore was running the Xbox gaming group, there was a stealth group of game folks at Microsoft who approached us and asked us to make what I understand was one of the two very first Kinect demos. Another internal group at Microsoft made the other demo. Bill Gates saw the demos, and the rest as you know is history, or actually a lot of complex history between that time and now with several people leaving the project, joining the project and changing how things turned out over the years.
Since then though, we've helped out with many Kinect projects at Microsoft. Some of it you may see, and you don't know that Hidden Path was involved, some of it you haven't seen yet. We think Kinect is very cool technology and we think about it rather differently than a lot of other people, Mainly the difference is that we think it can be a great controller for core gamers who are looking for a unique game experience. The winds are just starting to blow this way - people haven't been quite as interested in thinking about Kinect that way for the past couple of years, but things are changing, and we'll see if we get the opportunity to share some of our approaches with you. Hopefully if we do, you'll think it's really fun (we think what we have right now is a ton of fun and we can't wait to share it with "you").
It will probably be a while though before I will be able to talk more about that since the whole process of making a game with a partner who publishes or finances it requires some secrecy, iteration, and polish before the story is ready to be told - after all, a half-done story isn't as good as the fully flushed out and detailed narrative.
There have been a lot of stories going on at Hidden Path though, and I'm getting excited because as I look at the calendar, and see how things are coming together, I'm getting the impression that I'll have a few things to talk about that I still can't yet talk about, but boy do I want to.
We've been working closely with the folks at Valve for a while now. Whether it was releasing Defense Grid on Steam, updating Counterstrike for the PC last year, or working on the Portal 2 ARG with new Defense Grid content, it is always interesting, refreshing, and just a lot of fun to work with the folks over there. We'll take our cue from them if there ever is an opportunity to talk about anything new, but I can tell you that they really are as great people to work with as their products are great to play.
I can also say (can I?) that more is coming in the world of Defense Grid. Things aren't complete yet, they aren't yet locked down, but we'll be doing something fun for a large part of the community here shortly, and then have some plans for everyone down the road. There are more plans being hatched than will actually happen, so I'm not sure what will turn into final reality, but rest assured that we listen to what you say regardless of game or feature or opinion, and we work hard to try and focus on what will entertain "you" even more and make your experience a better one.
Besides all the things above that I've not really talked about there are a couple of completely new things brewing that have no basis in any game we've released before. I think at last count there are 154 different game design documents in the design share internally, and when the whole team gets involved on turning those idea seeds into fully realized experiences, something magical happens in my opinion.
I'm getting to see the early magic now. I look forward to when we can share it all with you. Sorry if this is a bit of a tease, I'm less trying to tease and more just trying to share my excitement without saying anything that will change the future (kind of like those time travel stories, where you can accidentally change everything if you take the wrong step, run into yourself, or prevent yourself from being born). I'm trying to respect the sacred time-space continuum, while also telling you cool things are around the bend.
I look forward to seeing you there.
Posted in Company News | Keywords: Defense Grid, Hidden Path
04/20/2011 by Jeff Pobst
The Valve Potato/Portal Two ARG is now complete and Portal 2 has been released. We at HPE had a blast participating and we hope those of you who already own Defense Grid or are new to the game, also had fun.
We thoroughly enjoyed working closely with a host of Indipendant Game developers including Dejobaan Games, Frictional Games, Dylan Fitterer, Gaijin Games, Lazy 8 Studios, Tripwire Interactive, Two Tribes, Team Meat, Teotl Studios, Valve and of course peripherial manufacturer Razer. This was a large cross-group project that nimbly reacted to fans, updated weekly, and worked hard to entertain you through our games with new content, puzzles, and several crazy surprises. I don't think anyone ahead of time expected to see pole climbing clue seekers and such intense and exciting IRC discussions or detailed Wiki's spring to life.
The amount of new ARG content that you could find in 123 Kick it, AaAaAA, Amnesia, AudioSurf, BIT.TRIP BEAT, Cogs, Killing Floor, Rush, Super Meat Boy, The Ball, Wonderful End of the World, Toki Tori and of course Defense Grid must have added up to several hundreds of hours of new puzzle solving, investigtation, and fun for fans and we hope finding GLaDOS in all of our games, and getting access to new Portal 2 concept art and information was a fun diversion as we all awaited the launch of Portal 2 and we able to get it to release a day early on Steam.
People have been asking if we'll remove the two new levels we have given our Steam customers now that the ARG is over, and the answer is "no", those will stay. We may be able to create more surprises in store for the future, so we'll see what we can pull off, but for now, there are two new levels for you to experience including one starring GLaDOS and ending with something unexpected happening to our friend.
Others have asked if we will be bringing these new levels to other platforms and channels such as Xbox LIVE, and for the moment, this content is unique to Steam. Where it shows up later, though may be something that can change in the future. We'll keep working on that on our end and see what happens. The world of game development is far less certain and clear than you likely expect it to be on our end. I'm sure you think we know all the answers and how it is going to turn out, and the truth is we try to make a lot of things happen, and sometimes they do!
Several of us were watching the IRC channels, and every once in a while someone would comment that "I bet the devs are watching and laughing at us." They were exactly right on the watching part, but the laughing couldn't have been further from the truth. Each of the Indie developers involved were making all sorts of content for a type of experience that was new to develop for all of us. We were scared to death that a puzzle would be way too easy and solved in seconds and not be interesting, or scared that a puzzle would be way too hard, and no one would figure it out and it would be too frustrating. Our job was to entertain, and we were always concerned that the puzzles and clues and information would not be entertaining, and fortunately it went a lot better than we feared. Thanks so much to the community of people who helped organize, document, share, and connect people together so that so many people could participate and have fun. We were honored to be interacting with you in a way we hadn't been able to do so before.
Well, it is back to "regular" work for those of us in the studio who were working on the ARG. The rest of the studio has been focused on our other projects and we can't wait to share them all with you once they're ready to talk about and we have a better idea of when they'll be coming out.
Thanks much for playing Defense Grid, and hopefully also enjoying it. We love making games for you.
Posted in Company News, Defense Grid | Keywords: Defense Grid, Hidden Path
04/15/2011 by Jeff Pobst
It would appear that the worlds of Portal 2 and Defense Grid have become intertwined and GLaDOS is at work. A new Aperture Science website has gone live and it indicates that Portal 2 may well be released early if enough people play all of the games in the Potato Pack on Steam:
Defense Grid is in there of course, as is Killing Floor, Cogs, Rush, Toki Tori, BIT.TRIP BEAT, 123 Kick It!, Audiosurf, The Wonderful End of the World, Super Meat Boy, Amnesia: The Dark Descent, AAAA!! and The Ball. All are great games, so I guess if one is going to slave to GLaDOS's purposes, at least one can have fun doing it. That's something new.
Defense Grid does have new content for you to play on Steam. There are two new levels added this month, one of them starring your favorite Portal character! There is also an old computer console (found under the "console" main menu button) that has puzzles, mysteries, and information on some of the people who worked on the Defense Grid program long long ago. Best of all we learn our AI friend's name for the first time.
Posted in Defense Grid | Keywords: Defense Grid
03/12/2011 by Jeff Pobst
Posted in Company News | Keywords: Hidden Path
05/27/2010 by Jeff Pobst
Posted in Defense Grid | Keywords: aliens, Defense Grid
05/24/2010 by Jeff Pobst
Composer Duane Decker has the music from Defense Grid up on his site for you to download for your personal use.
If you have commercial reasons to want to use the music, please contact email@example.com .
Posted in Defense Grid | Keywords: Defense Grid
03/17/2010 by Michael Austin
The gun tower was used as a baseline for all other towers in Defense Grid. Each upgrade of each tower was balanced around the level 1 gun, based on its overall utility across all situations.
Level 1 gun tower - Total Cost: 100 DPS: 10 Range: 3.50 squares
Level 2 gun tower - Total Cost: 300 DPS: 30 Range: 3.75 squares
Level 3 gun tower - Total Cost: 700 DPS: 70 Range: 4.00 squares
Originally, upgrades were 1:3:9 with the red towers being three times as powerful as amber towers, but it became too expensive to do the final upgrade (you had to wait around too long for the money), so we lowered it to 1:3:7. The first upgrade is twice the cost of the base tower, and the second is twice that cost.
It was interesting- originally I thought that upgrades needed to be more powerful since you had to save up the money to place them, but in actual playtesting this was offset by the fact that you could make extra use of a prime spot (one near a temporal tower, or one that was placed near a junction). In many tower defense games, upgrading is an easy decision- several waves in it becomes 'place-upgrade-upgrade, place-upgrade-upgrade', and it was important to us to try and find a balance where the upgrade decisions were actually meaningful and had tradeoffs.
The gun tower can shoot any alien within range, and is the best general purpose tower. Because it's so cheap and easy to put down, it's efficiency at level 1 is a little bit below average; however, by the 2nd upgrade the extra range brings it on par with the other towers. It is a front row gun- any tower in front of it limits the damage it can do, and so it should generally be placed as close to the path as possible.
The inferno tower shoots a wide cone of napalm, roasting all the aliens within. It is balanced with the gun tower if it hits between 2-3 enemies on average while it is firing, and is much more powerful when there are more, and less useful when there are less.
The inferno tower is the first tower that does partial heat damage (which means it heats up enemies so they continue to take damage over time. This does have the side effect of reporting half of the damage it does under 'laser level 1' in your stats, but trust me, it's the inferno doing it!) This makes it more effective against fast enemies (who continue to take damage after they pass through), but less effective against shields (which make an alien immune to heat while they are up).
Here are the basic stats:
Level 1 inferno tower - Total Cost: 150 - DPS: 8.5 - Range: 2.50 squares - Cone: 70 degrees
Level 2 inferno tower - Total Cost: 450 - DPS: 23 - Range: 2.50 squares - Cone: 80 degrees
Level 3 inferno tower - Total Cost: 1050 - DPS: 48 - Range: 2.50 squares - Cone: 90 degrees
The inferno targets the front enemy of the group, and any other enemies caught in its range will take equal damage. Because of their short range they are best when adjacent to the path (giving them the best cone area of affect).
Here are some good and bad inferno layouts:
Posted in Defense Grid | Keywords: Defense Grid
01/05/2010 by Michael Austin
Line of sight started out actually as more of a problem than a feature.
We didn't really think about it until an early version of our game where
the shooting-through-other-towers looked really awful. You don't really
notice it until you try to do realistic graphics, and then your brain
goes "That's wrong!"
Posted in Defense Grid | Keywords: Defense Grid
01/04/2010 by Adam Crockett
In this diary, I'll be discussing aspects of the animation process for our tower defense title, Defense Grid: The Awakening.
The visual tone of the game was set by the various artists involved.
This was done in a very collaborative environment – typical of game
development at Hidden Path. We discussed and decided how the towers and
creatures should move, and what sort of impact the animations should
In the game, the player character erects defensive towers from
predefined slots in each level. Since we wanted to preserve the
fundamental strategy of tower positioning, we didn't want to have towers
move around like characters, but we did want them to raise, lower,
attack, and scan for the next target. We also planned special idle
motions, and reload sequences, but most of the towers' animation 'zing'
is in the way they raise and lower, mechanically blossoming into death-
dealing machines of doom. As we were starting to spec out some of our
planned idles, T.J., one of the programmers, devised a procedural way
for the turrets to "scan" for the next target. I was happy enough with
the result to scratch most of the idle animations off the list. It was
much less repetitive and more convincing than a looping idle animation
created by an artist. Players will still see a standard idle here and
there, such as a rotating radar dish, but most were replaced by T.J.'s
great solution.
Accommodating the procedural motion wasn't without its challenges – it
meant re-rigging some of the towers to have yaw and pitch bones that the
programmers could control (even in instances where a tower did not yaw
or pitch!) but it was ultimately worth it, and I still love the way the
towers all look around separately, searching for their next unlucky
The aliens consist of the invading hordes intent on robbing the player
of his precious power cores. They appear in increasingly difficult waves
made up of different types of creatures with different stats. They move
intently, focused on their goal, undeterred by the slaughter into which
they march.
As models were completed, I began rigging the most complex one first --
the Juggernaut. We used 3d Studio Max's biped rig, posed as a quadruped.
After rigging and skinning were completed, I created the first walk and
death cycles to set the look and feel for our animation team. For
additional direction, I tweaked the animation timing to work
appropriately with the pacing of game play. The animation crew took it
from there.
Though we started with a more complex list that included lots of
animations, gameplay evolved such that we narrowed the list down to
basically walking and dying. Those two animations had to convey each
alien's personality. Differentiating was a difficult task. Each alien
has a couple of death animations, for variety, but the walks were pretty
standard and so presented a tougher problem. To solve it, we added
"leans" that we blended into their animations as the aliens turned
corners. That added a lot to an otherwise unremarkable animation. I
was very pleased with the way the alien animations turned out. Of
course, I'm never completely satisfied. If we had additional time and
budget, I would have liked to see the deaths have a bit more inertia,
but they definitely convey what they need to with a lot of character
from game view.
Overall, I'm really happy with the animation in Defense Grid. I think it
is a substantially better experience than what other tower defense
games have to offer. I still get giddy watching the towers unfold, and
it's always satisfying to watch a particularly tough alien finally
crumple to the ground. I hope you enjoy playing Defense Grid: The
Awakening, and thanks for reading!
Posted in Defense Grid | Keywords: aliens, Defense Grid
01/03/2010 by David Wenger
As a software engineer at HPE, I get to develop tools that enable the
team to work more productively. Improved productivity results in more
game content and a more gratifying experience for the player. On
Defense Grid: The Awakening, I worked on new tools that helped our
artists and designers develop more content so the player gets even more
from the game.
One of the concerns when developing a game is how long it takes for an
artist to be able to see their art as it would look in the game.
Artists use many different software tools to make characters and
environments come to life, but those tools usually don't know anything
about how the art will be drawn in the game. As a result, we generally
create some additional software to allow the artists to very quickly be
able to see and evaluate their content in the game engine.
Another one of the cool things I worked on was the implementation of
Rule Sets in the game engine. Rule Sets allow the designer to set up
specific ways in which a game level can be played. The more ways you
can set up a level, the more hours of game play our designers can dream
up. We might give you lots of resources with which to build up your
defenses, but then also make the enemy units stronger. Or perhaps, when
playing on a higher difficulty setting, you have to fend off the
invaders with only a limited set of tower types.
Posted in Defense Grid | Keywords: Defense Grid
01/02/2010 by John Daud
Greetings! My name is John Daud and I'm a designer at Hidden Path
Entertainment. Our latest project is a tower defense game called
Defense Grid: The Awakening. Our goal for this title was to take all of
the fun we were having playing web browser tower defense games and add
some production value to the genre through complex sound design,
gorgeous art and a compelling story.
Of course, making each level fun and unique was a critical part of my
job. I had many different variables to play with to accomplish this. One
of the cool things about tower defense game design is the ability to
"tweak the knobs" in order to adjust the game play experience: the
number of enemies attacking, the time between waves, the type and
strength of the invaders versus the types of towers at the player's
disposal, how many resources the player has at the start in order to
build those towers, the number of spaces available to build in... all of
these variables can be adjusted to subtly or radically change the
player experience. And while surviving a Defense Grid level is
certainly fun, another effect of these many variables is the desire to
replay the level in order to achieve a better score or a higher medal
value. "Did I need to build that last tower?" "What if I frontload my
defenses instead of building near my cores?" "Maybe the Inferno tower
would be more effective than the Laser in that one build spot..." "How
did that guy finish the mission with 800 more resources than me?" As a
level designer, I want to know the ideal strategy for any particular
mission, and I want to provide the player with a challenge while they
search for the perfect defense. Personally, it is great to hear about
someone waking up after playing our game the night before with an
inspiration for a better defensive strategy for some particular mission
in our game.
Posted in Defense Grid | Keywords: Defense Grid
01/01/2010 by T.J. Martin
Hi, I'm T.J. Martin, a game programmer at Hidden Path on the team that
created Defense Grid: The Awakening. We've just finished the final
polish stages of the product, and it feels great. I think we've got a
challenging, addictive game that's fun to play and beautiful to look at.
When I think back to what the key things were that allowed us to get to
this stage, I focus on two things: 1 - allowing the designers to have
the ability to efficiently experiment with design concepts, and 2 - the
excellent communication and problem solving techniques the team used.
The tower defense format provides a simple, but rigid, system of rules.
Since this system established the basic game play, we used this rule set
as a canvas to explore more subtle design ideas and play with game
balance. We wanted our designers to be able to work as freely as
possible, so we thought about content creation from the very beginning
of Defense Grid. One of my main tasks was to allow the designers to
create levels that were completely playable without any programmer or
artist intervention. The result was a level editor that actually
generated geometry for testing purposes. Only after the level design
was nailed down would the artists would go through and make it look
beautiful. Since Tower Defense is a genre that is largely about
optimization and efficiency, it was important to be able to tweak every
little detail to make every level, monster and tower as fun as possible.
We made an effort to ensure that any number or setting could be
modified by a designer without having to wait for someone to change
One of the things I like most about Hidden Path is the rapid flow of
information. We work in open environments where everyone is free to
bounce ideas around. No one hides in an office and creates features in
isolation. Any feature has probably been thought about and discussed by
multiple people from art, programming and design. This low communication
barrier also allows programmers to better empower designers. We don't
simply read a document and then make it happen. We work with the designers. If we have a question or suggestion, we can bring it to
them directly instead of waiting for an open slot on their Outlook
calendar. This lets us make sure that our game stays fun and that we all
love the final product.
Posted in Defense Grid | Keywords: Defense Grid


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text:
(Denny Medley-USA TODAY Sports)
Joel Embiid
Kansas – Freshman (Born 1994)
7'0″ 250 lbs
College Accolades:
Second Team AP All-American (2014)
Big 12 Defensive Player of the Year (2014)
Second Team All-Big 12 (2014)
Big 12 All-Defensive Team (2014)
Big 12 All-Newcomer Team (2014)
The Good:
- 7'5″ wingspan
- great athlete for his size
- very good footwork/agility from years playing soccer and volleyball
- still new to the game, so lots and lots of upside
- defensive menace due to his long arms and athleticism
- racks up plenty of steals and blocks
- efficient scorer
- has Hakeem-esque low post moves
- good at drawing fouls
- solid free throw shooter for a big man
- very good rebounder
- good passer for a center
- got better and better as his freshman year at Kansas progressed
The Bad:
- a year older than other freshman
- very inexperienced – hasn't played sport for very long
- didn't play big minutes (23.1/game) in college
- stress fracture in back made him miss the end of season
- broken foot required surgery right before the draft
- big man + injury concerns (especially to back & feet) are a red flag
- turnover concerns
- foul prone
- not very assertive on offense – doesn't take many shots
- basketball IQ not there yet due to inexperience
The Video Proof:
NBA Comparison:
Poor man's Hakeem Olajuwon, healthy Greg Oden
The Skinny:
It's never fair to compare a young, inexperienced prospect to The Dream, but that is the player who Embiid patterns his game after. While it would be foolish to expect the second coming of Hakeem – ever – Embiid is a very unique package of size, athleticism and potential. But the inexperience and a possible wonky back are definitely concerns.
For more NBA draft player profiles, visit our 2014 NBA Draft Consensus Mock Draft


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Narragansett Beer has announced the release of its latest beer in the Private Stock series � the Town Beach Imperial IPA.
Granlund cartoon: Keeping Obama at arm's length
Signing day has arrived in the NBA, though the biggest free agents aren't rushing to grab their pens. Carmelo Anthony, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh might be waiting on LeBron James — isn't everybody? — before making their decisions.
The Fourth of July holiday may be over but the fireworks continue at the Camden County Courthouse. During what could have been a routine commission meeting, a heated discussion between Presiding Commissioner Kris Franken and Associate Commissioner...
As fans get increasingly heated and worried over whether Game of Thrones author
The largest family cruise-in in Missouri will pack the Bagnell Dam Strip on select Friday nights during the summer.
Fewer people sought U.S. unemployment benefits last week, driving down the level of applications to nearly the lowest in seven years.
Riley is definitely her father's daughter on�Girl Meets World, but the sequel series is no...
July 2 to July 8
- Events Calendar


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Because I am a one man shop, output is limited to about 50 instruments a year in order to allow me to do all designing and building myself.
Please follow my links to take a shop tour and see a catalog of sample instruments. I also include pictures of some custom inlay work; some unique items that have wandered into my shop and need to move on; links to shops that carry my instruments; festivals that I will be displaying at; and other sites that I like to visit myself. For more information, and answers to any questions that you might have about my instruments, please contact me here, or call me at (402)558-9215.


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London, 13 November 2014 – Canon Europe, leader in imaging solutions, today announces the appointment of Stephen Bates as Managing Director of Canon UK and Ireland, reporting to Rokus van Iperen, President and CEO, Canon Europe, Middle East and Africa.
Go to the full article
View all Corporate News
Gina Jones
Telephone: +44 208 588 8034
Email: email@example.com
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Psychosocial Skills Training Groups
Relationship Skill Building Groups for Better Interpersonal Relationships
Sometimes people have such difficulty with personal relationships that they have problems maintaining a social support system.
Trouble managing anger and unrealistic expectations can sabotage interpersonal relationships, including those with family, friends and mental health professionals. Those who have suffered extensive childhood abuse often have problems with low self-esteem and do not relate to others in healthy, meaningful ways.
Scripps Health offers specialized groups for patients who struggle with these issues.
Highlights include:
- Group therapy with mood disorder clients
- Multidisciplinary treatment team approach
- Individualized treatment planning
- Specialized group curriculum based on four modes:
- Mindfulness
- Distress tolerance
- Emotion regulation
- Interpersonal effectiveness