Hi,

Well, we're now at step two in the quest to bring more downloadable content to the players of Defense Grid.  Our first step was to update the Xbox 360 version of the game so that it could receive downloadable content.  We also fixed some login and balance issues in that update. 

Step two is to get the same DLC function into the Steam version of the game on PC, fix some balance and leaderboard issues in the game and release the DG: Borderland levels free to Steam users as they have already been free for Xbox 360 users. 

Part of the Steam leaderboard change is that we're now going to be using Steam's official leaderboards.  They didn't exist when we first released Defense Grid on Steam.  The good news is that we expect much better performance than the leaderboard server we were using, but the mixed good-bad news is that the leaderboards are getting reset as we move to the new system.  This means previous high-scores will be lost, but on the good side, that also means that there are many open spots on the board waiting for your new high scores as well.  This happens as soon as the new update goes out.

There was a small glitch in our release yesterday on Steam, so the update was pulled back, and hopefully will be out later today or possibly tomorrow (Ed Note: The update has gone live just before 6pm Pacific on 3/3/10).

That should give Defense Grid players on both Steam and Xbox 360 the full Awakening campaign, and the short but challenging Borderlands campaign at no extra cost.  Not to mention all the new challenge modes that Borderlands brings to itself and the Awakening.

Step 3 will be the release of 8 new maps each with several challenge modes that haven't been seen before simultaneously released to both Xbox 360 and Steam PC players.  We call this campaign Defense Grid: Resurgence and it is going through testing now. 

DG: R likely will be released sometime in April based on our estimate of time for testing and certification on the two platforms.  As soon as I have a solid date on Resurgence, I will let you know.  We're going to release Resurgence a little differently and there will be a cost to buy these extra levels, so I'll update you more about that as we get closer.

For now, know that Resurgence is on its way, we're working to make sure it meets or exceeds our previous quality bar, and in the meantime Steam users will get the Borderlands levels that previously were exclusive to Xbox 360.

If you purchased Defense Grid for PC at retail, I recommend you use your Steam key included in the box to access Steam, download the game, and get the free Borderlands updated content. 

If you're a Greenhouse player of Defense Grid, we're looking at ways to get you additional content too, but it is going to take a bit longer.  Thanks much for your patience.

Let us know your thoughts and reactions.  We're excited to share more content with you.  Defend the cores!

Jeff

Does the haunting melody run through your mind at night.? Fill your days with all of the music that was made for Defense Grid including clips that didn't make it into the final game!

Composer Duane Decker has the music from Defense Grid up on his site for you to download for your personal use. 

http://www.duanedecker.com/DG_Soundtrack.html 

If you have commercial reasons to want to use the music, please contact info@hiddenpath.com .

Enjoy!

Jeff

Don't forget to check out all of the team developer diaries that give you some of the behind the scenes details on the making of Defense Grid: The Awakening.

There are entries available from:

Game Programmer T.J. Martin,

Designer John Daud,

Sr. Software Engineer Dave Wenger,

and Animation Director Adam Crockett.

Enjoy!

We finally are ready to release maps for all of the Defense Grid missions to work out your strategies on:

All maps available as a .zip file (5MB)

Chapter 1 - Awakening

The Awakening (Spolier)

Assessing the Threat (Spolier)

Ancient Research (Spolier)

Chapter 2 - Fire from Heaven

The Long Descent (Spolier)

Out of Fuel (Spolier)

Fire Control (Spolier)

Barrier to Entry (Spolier)

Focal Point (Spolier)

Chapter 3 - History Lesson

Flight Plan (Spolier)

Veil of Ice (Spolier)

Cold Storage (Spolier)

Guardian's Fall (Spolier)

Chapter 4 - Desperate Struggle

Center of Power (Spolier)

Standing Orders (Spolier)

Crossed Signals (Spolier)

Containment (Spolier)

Chapter 5 - Last Stand

Turnabout (Spolier)

Waste Disposal (Spolier)

Lockdown (Spolier)

Last Stand (Spolier)

Waste Disposal and Last Stand are probably the hardest levels in the game. Anyone want to post their strategies? Here's some maps to help. I am not including a solution, but if you haven't seen these maps yet, it may be a bit of a spoiler.

Last Stand Map (Spolier)

Waste Disposal Map (Spoiler)

(I'm cheating a bit and copying partially from a post I made on the steam forums at http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=487 )

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!"

We started out with 15 towers, I think, and the line of sight constraint really helped us tune them down. We tried to pick a subset of the towers such that each one was different and unique, and could be the best tower in a specific situation. I like, for instance, how line of sight affects the cannon-gun tradeoff. Guns need line of sight to be effective, since they are shooting constantly and any down time is bad. Since cannons are on a long cooldown, they can shoot the instant line of sight is available, and it actually doesn't hurt them that much. It leads to a natural "back row"-"front row" thing.

I grew to love it when I realized what a difference it makes for tower placement- when you have to consider your future plans for areas, there's a new depth of strategy. Suddenly in that clump of 4 towers right by two paths, they aren't all equal- there's a reason to pick, and the trade-offs are different for each tower. It was definitely a case where a problem turned into (what I think is) really fun gameplay!

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:

Bad- infernos really should be next to the path - this one is not very efficient.

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Good- this one gets a good spread, but it's still angled relative to the path, so it doesn't get all the aliens it could.

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Best - this inferno will be aligned along the path a majority of the time. Note the position relative to the path of the aliens. Because it always targets the front, it will be stretched out along the path, making it maximally effective.

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.

Next: The inferno tower

Dave Wenger talks about the asset pipeline created for Defense Grid on the Team page- hope you enjoy!

Jeff

The Team page now has a second developer diary from game designer John Daud.  Enjoy!