Yesterday evening Fileplanet.com accepted my hosting request for Curator Defense; between Fileplanet and two friends from the Soldiers of Fortune Posse, Curator Defense's bandwidth woes are no more. With a total of five different hosts from across the United States, downloads should be faster than ever.

We all owe a big thank-you to Fileplanet, Lightfoot, and Q~ManChu for helping the game out; it would not have been much longer before I would have been forced to shutdown the downloads section due to the explosion of hits it had two nights ago. It will be nice to rest easy once again.
22 Nov 2005 by dbh
Several people have offered to provide hosting for Curator Defense v1.3. GameJar.org, a site that specializes in linking independent games together, is the first of these hosts that I have added. You can expect another host to hit sometime on Monday. Hopefully, this will lessen the load on the primary server and keep the bandwidth usage at a normal rate.

If you would like to host Curator Defense, please send an e-mail to dbh@davidbhowe.net. There is no such thing as too much bandwidth!
19 Nov 2005 by dbh
Due to a news post on The Independent Gaming Source and BoingBoing.net, bandwidth is becoming increasingly more precious. Curator Defense was downloaded over 3000 times in the last 12 hours! Considering my host grants me 100 GB transfer per month, that puts me in a precarious situation!

If you have-- or know of someone who has-- access to file storage and lots of bandwidth, please send an e-mail to dbh@davidbhowe.net. The game needs as many mirrors as it can get a hold of right now!
18 Nov 2005 by dbh
The Independent Gaming Source has posted a news article about Curator Defense's release. Here is a direct-link to the news item once it has left the front page. The author of the article, Tim W., describes Curator Defense as "a modern day Dungeon Keeper that offers a new take on real-time strategy." He goes on to finish the article by commenting that "with some perseverance the player will be rewarded with innovative gameplay and quality to match many commercial titles."

TIGSource is a well-known voice for the "Indie" game development scene. With a clean, attractive website design and a strong, growing community, they are rapidly becoming the #1 source for Indie game news.
17 Nov 2005 by dbh
Curator Defense has reached version 1.3! This release is primarily a bug-fix release; nothing new has been added, although several game-breaking bugs have been addressed. The full list of changes can be found in the v1.3 readme.txt (viewable from the downloads page or from the shortcut folder once the game has been installed).

I will be submitting version 1.3 (assuming no bugs are found in the next day or two) this weekend to the Independent Games Festival 2006. I'd like to thank everyone who had a hand in testing this game; your work has been essential to Curator Defense's development, and the game would not be the same without everyone's support.

I also wanted to say thank you to all of the Central Washington University students who came to the presentation on Curator Defense last week in Hebeler Hall. I was pleased to see such a strong turn-out; it shows a lot about the student involvement at CWU in the Computer Science department.
11 Nov 2005 by dbh
Version 1.2 is now available for download. Unless a major bug crops up, this will be the final release of Curator Defense (at least for the near future). This release includes the following changes:
  • Enemies now die 250% slower. This does not change any gameplay. By slowing the enemy death fade-out, a difficult-to-find and rare crash bug is now fixed.

  • High Scores now sort based primarily on the "completion" factor, then the actual score.

  • Account Creator v1.2 no longer is dynamically linked to the MFC DLL. It is now statically linked.

  • Enemy paintings now work properly-- if two enemies were stunned and leaked at the exact same moment, they would not show up on the walls properly.

  • The bug involving shortcuts disappearing has been fixed.

Have fun!
25 Oct 2005 by dbh
Version 1.1 is here with a bunch of requested changes as well as a few fixes (including two crash bug fixes). The change list can be found in the readme.txt, but here is a copy of it as well:
  • Input Options Menu allows mouse sensitivity and scrolling speed to be changed.

  • Account Creator now v1.1; better interface, more sensible messages, several fixes.

  • Added "Not Enough Money" graphic to go along with the sound effect.

  • The text below wave announcement graphics is now more descriptive.

  • ESC key enabled for Main Menu (allows the user to go back one level when in an options menu).

  • Text added to opening splash screen (Loading Main Menu) so that the player knows why they are looking at the splash.

  • Shortcut Jumps (double-clicking or double-pressing) is now time-based; if you do not double-click or double-press quick enough, the camera will not focus on the selected shortcut object.

  • The Point Sprite Bug (too many being created) has been fixed. A maximum of 2500 pointSprites can be generated now.

  • Fixed an ordering typo in the Speed Turret Tool Tip.

  • Enemies no longer get stuck on the rare occasion that their hitpoints would hit "-1".

  • Splash Turrets were behaving in an odd manner whenever an item was sold. This has been fixed.

There are only two remaining issues now, both of which I hope to have fixed by the November 15th deadline for the IGF Student Showcase.
21 Oct 2005 by dbh
Version 1.0 is finally here! There are a couple of things to remember (for you lazy people who refuse to open the readme.txt):
  • Copy MP3s into the [Install Directory]Music folder for in-game music.

  • Run Account Creator before playing to setup an account to submit your high scores online.

  • Go through the in-game tutorial.

As always, you can download the latest version on the downloads page. Post any bugs you find and or comments you have in the forum please.
13 Oct 2005 by dbh
The game is nearly complete, and the private testing for the set of Release Candidates is coming to an end. I am sending RC4 out to the testers this afternoon; with a little luck, this could be the last one. The only thing I have left to fix is alt-tab resolution, which can be tricky.

I am aiming to have v1.0 out by the end of the week. In the meantime, you're welcome to visit the high score pages, which are already reflecting the submitted scores of some of the testers. Disregard the actual data-- I haven't been flushing the tables with each release (I will when v1.0 hits); it is just being used now to ensure that the data is submitted accurately.
11 Oct 2005 by dbh
Okay! What is looking to be a solid release candidate is ready for download: version 0.96 can be found on the Downloads page. This release includes several really big additions and important changes, among them:
  • Slow Signs must be activated to function (10 second cooldown), unless they have been upgraded.
  • Individual Speed Turrets can be activated to fire 2x faster (30 second cooldown).
  • You may now hold left-shift key to place additonal objects of the same type (hold left-shift when building, and you can place another).
  • Shortcuts have been added to ease micromanagement for the player. See the controls in the readme.txt or page 5 of the in-game tutorial for instructions.
  • Sound Effect for Screenshot Function

All that remains before I release the gold version (1.0) is the online highscore database interaction with the game. I hope to have this functional by the end of the weekend, so expect that soon. You can find out more information about how the system will work on the forums.

Please post any comments/bug-finds/balancing suggestions on the forums. Thank you!
30 Sep 2005 by dbh
Talk about a late-night release...

I've posted version 0.95 (getting close to gold!) for Curator Defense on the downloads page. This version is mostly a bug-fix release for several crash bugs that many players have already found. It does have several important fixes/changes (these are also listed in the readme):

  • Added Tutorial (How to Play) section: in Main Menu under Single Player.
  • Added built-in screenshot capability: Press Print-Screen; results stored in /Screenshots directory of installation.
  • Changed Speed Turrets (fire-rate is slightly slower, but they are more powerful).
  • Changed Medium and Hard difficulties: enemies now have slightly more HP.
  • Changed Bosses: bosses are now at the beginning of each wave, not the end.
  • Changed Hard Difficulty: Every wave is now led by a boss.
  • Fixed doors closing too early.
  • Fixed NonStop reset problem.
  • Fixed upgrading banister crash.

More in-depth notes on these changes can be found on the forums and in the readme.txt.

I'm mostly looking in this release to see what veteran players think of the difficulty adjustments. Let me know how it goes!
28 Sep 2005 by dbh
Precisely on schedule, Curator Defense has reached the Beta stage of development. The game is now 100% feature complete, and I believe it is in a very playable/solid state. You may find this release on the downloads page, here. The new version features the following major content additions:

  • Sound Effects for all game events.
  • In-Game Music (just add MP3 files to the /Music directory).
  • Ability to reset the current game and or return to main menu by pressing ESC.
  • NonStop game mode.
  • Complete game world (street, buildings, truck, grass, light pole, etc.).

In addition to the above content, several major bugs have been fixed. Among the more important fixes:

  • Lighting tweaked for performance.
  • Turret rotation and enemy rotation 100% fixed.
  • Several crash-bugs related to memory issues.

All that remains to reach the gold release candidate is rigorous testing for gameplay balance and bugs. I also am going to be working on an online database that will keep track of high score submissions for NonStop mode (these submissions will be automatically submitted and updated on the website in v1.0 through the internet).

Now then, get to testing and please post your thoughts/problems/bug-finds on the forums!
24 Sep 2005 by dbh
I just finished the entire sound engine this evening. Curator Defense can now be heard as well as seen in a home near you. The music selection for the game will be based on any MP3's you put in the GameFolderMusic directory. The Beta I plan to release at the end of the week will have in-game SFX and Music volume control, as well as the ability to switch to the next song being played.
17 Sep 2005 by dbh
Big news! The Alpha release for Curator Defense is ready for download! After several pre-release ('in-house' tests), I'm calling the official release v0.88. This release features:

  • 25 Enemy waves
  • 9 Defense Objects
  • 5 Upgrades
  • Main and Quick Menu
  • Enemy Health Bars and Damage Status
  • A *whole* lot more.

You can find the mostly-complete list of changes on the forums. For now, go grab it on the downloads page! I need folks to let me know what they think... especially balance-wise, so please post your thoughts on the forums after playing. Thanks!

Note: All pages on the site have been updated to reflect the additions in the Alpha.
11 Sep 2005 by dbh
I've been working like a madman the last several days, and I think the game is really starting to shine. All that's left to hit Alpha is 15 more enemies and the Ghost Detector. Let's see if I can list off the major changes I've put in since the last update...

  • Enemy Health Bars
  • Enemy Status Icons
  • Defense: Speed Turret
  • Defense: Sharp Banisters
  • Defense: The Other Venus
  • Leak Paintings
  • Randomized (Spread) Attack Values
  • Bosses every 5 waves

A more in-depth description of these additions can be found on the forums, here. You can also read about many of the above changes in their appropriate sections on the website. I've updated the Defenses page as well as the Gameplay page.
07 Sep 2005 by dbh
I've added 5 new waves of enemies to CD. I've updated the enemies page to reflect this change. The game now also has ghost enemies-- a ghost wave is a wave of enemies that are invisible to the player. The only way to detect (and attack) these enemies is with a Ghost Detector (coming soon). In addition to ghosts, every 5 waves has a boss that is twice the size and twice as strong. For the first ten waves, that means the Brick Stacks and the Essence of Cows both have a boss with them. The screens page has a new shot of the Essence of Cows with the boss.

I've also made several minor tweaks and a few bug-fixes (one of two game-crashes has been fixed).

I'll be releasing the next version in the Pre-Alpha phase probably sometime next week.
03 Sep 2005 by dbh
Curator Defense has finally reached the Pre-Alpha stage! It's actually close to Alpha, but I'm calling this release the Pre-Alpha. It's been 5 months in the making, and all of the hard work is finally starting to show.

Please keep in mind that this release is just a Pre-Alpha. It has bugs. It does crash from time to time. It may have memory leaks. It is not optimized for every PC. There are no options or configuration changes yet. There may be balance issues.

Nonetheless, it is a lot of fun, and I hope you enjoy it! I've uploaded the version 0.61 today for download-- go give it a shot! Please post your comments, thoughts, suggestions, and any bugs you come across in the proper forum (link at left).
31 Aug 2005 by dbh