This week was shorter than most, but just like a person it was bubbling with energy. The focus here in Auckland was on new game modes for SAS Zombie Assault 4. Bloons Monkey City has new (non-CT) events being developed and all the secret stuff is still a secret. In mobile land there's a certain BTD Battles non-gameplay feature that I'm excited about finally happening. BMC and SAS4 are still working on catching up to the web version so there's some sweet stuff coming.
With no releases or things to talk about I don't have a whole lot to put in this blog post. So feel free to skip to the "Questions from the Comments" section of this blog post to see the answers to most of the questions from the comment section of last week's blog post, which was short due to the fact that we had a short week last week. If you don't skip to the "Questions from the Comments" section I'm afraid you're going to have to read what can only be referred to as padding or fluff, and even then "rambling filler" is probably a better descriptor.
Questions from the Comments:
Will the equipment range for Nantoniums be changed in SAS4?
The drop ranges are pretty complex so I don't fully understand where the hassle is, but we are aware of a range issue with boxes. A fix is on the way!
Will there be a blog post that doesn't answer questions form the comments?
Yeah, probably not.
Any plans for a photo gallery in SAS4?
Nope. While cool it's unlikely to happen simply because it's so easy for players to take a screenshot.
What inspired you guys to make Bloons into a TD game?
Tower Defense games came from fairly hardcore RTS games like StarCraft. The people who play those games generally didn't crossover much with Bloons players and Stephen wanted to introduce that sort of strategy game to a whole new type of player. They weren't the first to popularise TD games but they did a pretty stellar job (and I can say that 'cause I didn't work here at the time).
Are Chris and Stephen retired?
Judging by the whip marks on my back, no. (This is a joke, please don't tell Chris. I don't want to get whipped again.)
How many developers does it take to change a light-bulb?
I think I've answered this before.
What did you guys do for Easter?
Had a bit more chocolate during the week.
How much importance does each NK game get in the general update schedule?
SAS4 and BMC have full time development. BTD5 and BTD Battles will drag one of the BMC devs away for updates when we can get the time.
Can we get an "ultra sandbox" mode for BTD5 (testing DCs, agents, multiplayer etc.)?
Nope. The value that would bring isn't worth the huge resource cost it would take to implement it. If we could snap our fingers and do it we would, so you know we think it's a cool idea.
Can the death heat maps for SAS4 be publicly available?
That depends. Setting up a site/interface to present the information takes resources. So again it's something that would be awesome but might not provide much value over just generating a bunch of images and putting them on the blog (for example).
Could we have something similar to the SAS4 heat maps for BTD5?
Nope :) See the "ultra sandbox" question.
Can we have special avatars for NK coins?
Would be cool. Nothing about the site infrastructure supports it though so not any time soon.
How much of the admin's job is work (scripting, bug fixing etc.) and how much is playing the games?
It varies wildly. For programmers probably ~3 hours a day playing depending on what part of code is getting worked on (working on the menu UI doesn't require playing too much for example). It really depends on what stage the game is in. Could be no playing at all for a week and 5 hours a day the next.
Do you go through all the comments?
Yes.
Will there be a SAS Zombie Assault 5?
We'll probably do SAS Monkey City first. SAS 5 will be a side-scroller. Then SAS 6. Skip 7 (don't want to deal with that guy) and reboot the whole series with a game called "SAS".
Super Events?
ikr?
Thanks for the questions, thanks for reading and see you next time.
Aaron
Will there ever be a free downlodable full BTD 5 with same stuff as steam?
Any news on the work on "zero damage bug" in SAS4? Some of us here (http://ninjakiwi.com/forums/205-sas-zombie-assault-4-discussion/posts/57542-sublight-not-doing-any-damage-pls-fix) are suffering quite a bit from it.
Aaron, are you a real grill gamer who plays games by holding a controller the wrong way in front of a cell phone?
@demogorgon All of us server devs feel like monkeys when things go wrong :) Here is a picture of one of us during some website downtime: http://ninjakiwifiles.com/404.png
we are waiting for the PvP game mode!!!! (SAS4)
I would like to see SAS become a full fledged 3D game on unreal Engine.
Oh my, you have told us how many game developers it takes to change a lightbulb... I could swear it was monkeys. Well, on the topic of monkeys, how do the server guys feel being called monkies? http://i.imgur.com/VSK9Iiu.jpg
i cant wait for SAS monkey city. Zombie bloons will be fun.
Aaron has five letters. 5-2=3. loominatee has 3 sides. Aaron=loominatee. How long until you think you will take over the world?
For people hoo asks:why SAS monkey city, hes just saying that it will be monkey ciity type game not the name:)