McAllister Studios is a team that came together from a group of friends that wanted to make something fun and have fun making it. On the side, a lot of us play Rougelikes or Tower Defense games, so we decided to create a Tower Defense that has a feeling of both. The name of the project is The Last Bastion of Mana.
The Team:
- Matthew M. - Programmer
- Justin P. - Artist
- Slim V. - Musician/Writer
Day 0:
The Team began brainstorming ideas and landed on the idea of a Tower Defense game. Focusing on the theme of "Free", all of the towers and walls would be free to place by the player and you can place any amount (that the grid size would allow), of each of the structures, but instead of a cost there would be a consequence. As buildings were placed, destroyed, and the timer went on, the power of the walls and towers would decrease (like a Morale system).
Different tower types and enemies were also brainstormed, but I will keep these secret for now until they get implemented (or let you know what had to be cut). There also be a way to replenish Morale based on a point system on enemies killed.
Day 1:
Programmer
The programmer looked at C# in Unity for approximately 7 hours. After blankly staring at the screen and watching some Code Monkey Tutorials (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCFK6NCbuCIVzA6Yj1G_ZqCg <- Amazing Resource btw) code magically appeared on the screen and he was able to implement a grid system on a Neon Green Background . The grid system wasn't anything special, until some more magical power was allocated to typing and numbers could be changed on the grid based on mouse clicks. Once values could be assigned based on button presses, the next step was to have a game object be spawned or deleted on a left click or right click. One training montage later and a head shaped hole in the wall due to changing a value before deleting an object, walls could be placed and deleted on everything except for restricted tiles.
The next trial that the hero had to overcome was to implement enemies. "The Swarm" was implemented with a basic path-finding AI that always made them move in a vector towards the center object. A reset timer that limits the amount of enemy spawns and when they spawn was also implemented. Once these were implemented, the programmer lied to himself and said that he wouldn't open Unity until the next day.
After eating some meatloaf, the programmer implemented a enemy attack box on the enemy object as well as the morale system for wall placement.
Artist
The artist worked in some adobe programs that the programmer forgot, but one of them kept on lagging so lets assume that one was Photoshop. Originally, he focused on pixel art, but decided to focus on his own art style and decide on a theme for the game. One of the themes the team brainstormed was "the human body", where the towers were white blood cells and the walls were cell walls. Below is an image of what the base tower could look like.
Music Producer
The musician was a bit busy, but was able to put together two pretty sick beats. (Can't find a way to post them here but trust me, they were good)
Day 2:
Programmer
The programmer was able to implement a basic tower AI and placement system, as well as add a way to increase the morale system based on enemy kills. A test build to check balance of enemies and towers was distributed to the testers. The programmer also lied to himself again and proceeded to fix a couple of bugs that were pointed out.
Artist/Music Producer
Probably something amazing (the programmer is writing this and has no idea about anything artsy, if it wasn't apparent by now)
Day 3:
Programmer
The programmer spent a majority of his day cleaning then had to drive for two hours. Aside from random input to the team, nothing was accomplished on the programming end.
Artist
The artist is the best ever and made a piece that reminded the team of the good old flash days. The team deliberated and decided on a Medieval vs Future theme, and the artist made this masterpiece: 
Musician
The musician has been looking at different programs foe music creation and is currently trying to decide which one suits his style the best (and doesn’t break the bank)
Day 4:
Programmer
The programmer had one of the longest days of his life, and managed to make it to his flight and safely make it to his destination. After dealing with the personal stuff for the day, he spent the evening implementing the start screen, as well as the background and a custom cursor into the game. A more detailed discussion took place about the theme of the game, and some of the UI objects were changed to be updated to the new theme.
Artist
The artist put together a graphic for the background as well as a graphic for a cursor object.
Musician
The musician found a program that he liked and is working on making some funky fresh beats.
Day 5:
The Team was able to work on each of their things and stuff. More title screen things were added. Balance changes were made for the game (so you couldn't cheese it and make towers stronger than they should have been). Bellow is a video showcase all that has been implemented so far.
Day 6-8:
A bundle of progress was made on everyone's end. It was a bit of a blur. We looked at things then they happened or didn't.
Day 9:
The Team put together a build to be showcased during the mid-jam play testing. The Tower and Enemy targeting AI was modified, and a new tower type (fountains) were added. The animations for the air tower attack and the water healing were also implemented. There were other things implemented, which can be seen and play tested at the following link (any and all feedback is welcome and will help us improve our game :) ): https://floormatt6400.itch.io/thelastbastionofmana
Day 10-14:
These days were a blur. So many things happened and so many things got done, that we forgot to make a daily log for... but you can still see the changes is our latest update! (which should be the final build before the end of the game jam). Thank you for everyone who has helped us till this point, and everyone who played our game! We hope to continue development on the game and provide more content for the people that want it!