Games Defend the Highlands World Tour (Now in Early Access)

Now available on Steam Early Access - store.steampowered.com/app/527320/

Steam Page - store.steampowered.com/app/527320/
kiltedcamel.com/blog/
facebook.com/defendthehighlands

Alfredo has been deeply disturbed of late, hearing stories of Scotsmen around the world who are unable to find haggis in their local supermarkets. Something must be done. So he assembles an army of Scotsmen to come with him around the world, constructing Haggis factories in every corner of the globe. He is joined by the mad Scientist, Mac McMac, whose latest inventions – the Bagpipe Airship and the Kilt-Lift-O-Matic – will be vital tools in their mission.

The Scotsmen begin their journey by crossing the pond to France, where they plan to build haggis factories on the field of Agincourt, at the Eiffel Tower, in the ruins of the Chateau de Ponce, and in the French Alps. They soon realise that the locals aren't so keen on having Haggis factories built in their countries, and that they will have to fight off waves of angry stereotypes if they want the factories to stand.

The game will feature:

• 6 Countries (France, Italy, Egypt, Australia, Japan and the USA)
• 24 levels
• 24 enemies
• 6 bosses
• 7 hero characters (Alfredo, plus one who joins the Scotsmen in each country)
• 12 towers (6 Scottish towers, and 6 foreign towers)

The game plays like a combination of RTS and Tower Defence gameplay (anyone who's played the first game will know what I mean). Essentially, you command Scotsmen by selecting them and right clicking, and you construct towers by clicking the tower's build button and then clicking on the level where you want to place it.

The core game mechanics are:

• Constructing a haggis factory: In the beginning of each level, the player will start with a bunch of scaffolding air-dropped from the Bagpipe Airship. They will have to assign Scotsmen to construct the haggis factory. The more Scotsmen working on it, the faster it goes up.
  
  
• Defending the haggis factory: The enemies will be constantly attacking as the player tries to build the haggis factory. Also, once the factory is built, the enemies will stop attacking for a few minutes, before unleashing a huge, last ditch attack to destroy it.
  
  
• Constructing towers: The player will have to construct defensive towers using money they earn by defeating enemies. The towers also have to be manned by Scotsmen in order to function.
  
  
• Recruiting more Scotsmen: The player has an unlimited supply of Scotsmen in the Bagpipe Airship. Unfortunately they can only get them down one at a time, using the Kilt-Lift-O-Matic, a machine that blows air upwards so that Scotsmen can parachute down using the updraught in their kilts. The more Scotsmen the player assigns to operate the Kilt-Lift-O-Matic, the faster they will be able to get reinforcements.
  
  
• Farming Oats: Each map contains six oat fields. Each oat field the player holds will provide a set amount of porridge per minute. Each Scotsman on the field consumes a set amount of porridge per minute. The player has to keep a positive porridge balance, or the Scotsmen will begin to desert.
  
  
• Purchasing upgrades: At the end of each level, the player will be awarded an amount of money based on their performance, as well as any unspent money left from the level. They can use this to unlock Scottish towers (as opposed to foreign towers, which are unlocked at set points in the game), and upgrade the stats of their Scotsmen and existing towers.

That's about it for this blog post. I'll be aiming to post a new one every weekend, highlighting the work I've been doing on the game that week. I hope to see you next time.

PS: I also post this blog on my website - kiltedcamel.com/blog/
and on Facebook - facebook.com/defendthehighlands

Edit: Here's some lovely pictures

 

Good day to you all. It's time I introduced you to the stars of the game. The Scotsmen:



Scotsmen are the core unit in the game. They fight, build, harvest oats, operate towers and the Kilt-Lift-O-Matic, and willingly lay down their lives to defend their right to construct haggis factories in foreign countries without permission from the local authorities.

I've made the four models so far, but I'll probably do more for some extra variety (and if anyone has any suggestions for additional Scotsman models, I'd love to hear them). The model types will all function the same in game, so the differences will be purely aesthetic. When you recruit a new Scotsman the game will randomly pick which model to use.

Scotsmen fight by throwing bowls of porridge, and fighting with their fists against enemies that come too close. They can use cover to protect themselves from enemy projectiles. Their fighting skills are average all round, but they become much more specialise when they are assigned to operate a tower. For example, when operating the Golf Clubs tower, they can hit a golf ball very far and accurately, but not as rapidly as they can throw porridge bowls. The Fondue hose one the other hand has a shorter range, but absolutely slaughters any enemies that get close.

 

The player's goal in each level is to build this: The Haggis Factory


Any Scotsman can be assigned to construct the Haggis Factory, and the more Scotsmen are working on it, the faster it will go up, although the relationship is not linear, so you get diminishing returns for each additional Scotsman. You can have up to 12 Scotsmen building at once.

The Haggis Factory is present at the start of the level as a bunch of Scaffolding.


As it becomes more complete, the model will gradually change, until the Scaffolding is gone, and the completed factory is fully constructed.

As the player builds the factory, enemies will try and sabotage the construction by attacking it, and the Scotsmen building and defending it. Once the Haggis Factory is up, the enemy will fall back for a few minutes, before launching a final assault. If the player keeps the factory standing until the assault is defeated, they win the level.

As well as being crucial to winning the level, the haggis factory has plenty of good, elevated cover positions along the roof railings, and the only way up is a narrow staircase. This makes it a great stronghold to fall back to when the fight gets desperate (provided you've stockpiled enough porridge, since there are no farms on the factory )

 

The French were bound to oppose the construction of Haggis factories in their country. With their proud culinary heritage, they simply could not stand to have foodstuffs not containing frogs or snails manufactured under their very noses.

The first enemies the player encounters in the game are the Frenchman and French Woman.


The French man charges at the Scotsmen, wielding an oversized baguette. He is fast, and attacks rapidly. Fortunately, he is quite weak, and a baguette can only do so much damage, but they can easily overwhelm the Scotsmen with numbers.


The French Woman is quite slow (Moving via a seductive walk). However, unlike the French man, she can attack at range, using her cigarette holder as a blowgun to fire cigarettes at the Scotsmen. This is quite damaging, but fortunately, she can't attack very fast, and will quickly perish under a hail of porridge.

There will be another two enemies the player encounters in France, as well as the French Boss, Napoleon Bonaparte, which I'll cover another time.

 

The first level in the game (which is a tutorial level) takes place on the field of Agincourt, where the French suffered one of their worst defeats during the hundred years war, and where they are soon to suffer their first defeat at the hands of the Scots.

The tutorial introduces the player to farming, building, recruiting, using cover and towers, and tactics.



Agincourt is a simple map, which gives the player plenty of advantages while they learn how to play. The player begins on the high ground, surrounded by the remnants of the English defenses from the battle, providing them with good defenses to begin with. The player can either stay within the defenses, allowing themselves to hold three of the six oat fields, or they can advance forward in order to hold all six, at the expense of not having as much cover.

The battlefield is flanked by wooded hills, so that the enemy can only attack head on by crossing the large, open field, where they can be easily picked off at range.

The player gains access to the oat bag barricade, porridge cannon and golf clubs as they progress through the tutorial, and they will also encounter the first two enemies, the French woman who attacks by firing cigarettes from her cigarette holder like a blowgun, and the Frenchman, who wields a baguette.

 

Looks great! It's the kind of environment it'd be fun to go lucid dreaming in--with tons of DC's (or, NPCs : P) running around below. (since you'd be flying, of course)

Also really like how you have multiple defense sites set up, with some being optional to defend. Adds more 'grand strategy' type decisions into the map, IMO. (I've never liked games that don't have at least a few things you can strategize about (i.e. considering and simulating the effects of the various options long down the road) before the match even starts)

 

Good day haggis fans.

The porridge cannon is one of three towers the player gains access to in the tutorial level. Players of the first game will be familiar with the porridge cannon. There are twelve towers in World Tour, which are broken into two categories: Scottish towers, which are from the original game, and Foreign Towers, which are new towers that the Scotsmen steal from the lands they vanquish. The Scottish towers can be unlocked at any point in the game using money the player has earned playing the levels (with the exception of the Towers that the player begins with). The foreign towers become available at specific points during the game.


The porridge cannon fires a scattergun blast of hot porridge. The closer the enemy is, the more of the porridge is likely to hit them, so the more damage it can do. It is also perfect for firing at groups of enemies where it can damage multiple foes in one shot.

Technology has progressed since the first game, with the cannon now having an automatic reloading mechanism, consisting of a drum of industrial grade porridge suspended over a hatch in the barrel. After each shot, the hatch automatically opens, and the drum empties a measured amount of porridge into the chamber.


The porridge cannon is heavy, and slow to rotate to face new targets. It is therefore most suited to defending narrow areas, rather than a wide field. The porridge cannon can fire further than a Scotsman can throw, but it does less damage the further away the target is. It also provides less cover than Scotsmen can achieve using cover objects in the level, or some of the other towers. It is particularly vulnerable to attacks from the left because of the users firing position. A wise Scotsman will have to take these things into account when placing their porridge cannons.

 

This is campy and probably mildly offensive, but in a harmless way, and I can't wait to see more.

 

Hi!

I read your posts and went through the game's Steam page. I can't say I'm interested in the idea of this game, but for the sake of the fact that you posted here, I'll try to give you at least some constructive feedback.

Graphics: I don't know if you adjusted something along the way since it was less noticeable in the latest picture, but: I think your detailed environment does not match the artstyle of the characters. I'm not sure if it's your goal, but the characters seem a bit cartoony to me, maybe changing the terrain textures and trees make them feel more like a match. Also the particle effects in your Steam videos could use some work. They are quite visibly just simple Unity particle clouds. However those effects in your pictures look way better.

Steam: the videos don't really show any gameplay and for what I've seen 8€ is simply too much. Actually it would help a lot if you posted some gameplay here because at the moment we can only help you with your game idea and your artistic content.

Hope this helps, keep developing

 

Hey Jaakaapi,

Thanks for your response. I think I may have confused you a bit The steam page you would have looked at was for the original Defend the Highlands, which is already released. This blog is for the sequel, Defend the Highlands World Tour, which is in the early stages of development. I'll certainly be posting some gameplay here once I'm far enough into development as to have a playable level to demonstrate.

 

Okay, my bad

 

Hello Scotsmen (and other people).

The famous Alfredo returns to lead the Scots to war once again. Not content with a simple life of serving whisky, while Scotsmen around the world suffer in a state of chronic haggis deprivation, Alfredo has taken up the broken bottle and porridge bowl once more, to fight for what he believes in.


Though he has aged since the last game, the years have not dimmed Alfredo's fighting spirit. Unusually however, they have made him better looking (if I do say so myself) Here's a before and after picture to give you an idea.


Although I've got a lot more characters to make for this game, I intend to put more effort into each one, since the character modelling was one of the common criticisms of the first game. (Notice the painstaking work of drawing individual body hairs ) Critiques are welcome of course.

Alfredo is the first of 7 hero characters in the game, and the only one the player has from the beginning of the game. Like in the first game, Alfredo must survive each level, making his protection one of the players' highest priorities. He is a good all-round fighter, using whisky bottles as a weapon for throwing, and smashing over enemies' heads.

Unlike in the previous games, hero characters is World Tour can use towers, making them more versatile than before. Of course, with their superior combat abilities, the player will have to decide when it's worth having them use towers instead of their own attacks.

 

One of the most requested features for Defend the Highlands was multiplayer. I'd decided at the beginning of that project, in the interest of keeping my goals realistic, to only do single player. For Defend the Highlands World Tour however, I've decided to make my first foray into the world of multiplayer programming.

World Tour will have two multiplayer game modes, co-op and vs. In co-op, the players each have a separate group of Scotsmen (distinguished by kilt color). They share resources, and can use each others towers, but cannot control each others Scotsmen. As in a single player game, the goal is to construct the haggis factory and defend it from the waves of enemies.

In Vs. mode, one player will take control of the Scotsmen, while the other will take control of the enemies. The player controlling the Scotsmen will start with a large amount of money and Scotsmen, and a completed haggis factory. They will get a short head start to set up their defences. The player playing as the enemy will have a gradual income of “recruitment points” as well as earning extra recruitment points for defeating Scotsmen. They can recruit whatever enemies they like at any of the enemy spawn zones, and control them the same way as they'd control their Scotsmen in single player. Their goal is to defeat the Scotsmen in as short a time as possible. After they have defeated them, the players switch roles. This goes on for as many rounds as the players chose when configuring the game. At the end, the player who cumulatively held out for the longest amount of time when playing as the Scotsmen wins.


Setting up the multiplayer system has been quite a wrestle so far, but this week I've managed to get it running error free for the first time. I've had to devise a way of keeping the bandwidth requirements reasonable, without having to scale back the gameplay, which allows hundreds of units, and hundreds more physics based projectiles in play at once. The normal way of handling this in strategy games is to use a lockstep simulation, where only the players inputs are sent over the network, relying on the deterministic nature of the game to ensure that each player's instance of the game will remain in sync when given the exact same inputs. Unfortunately, Unity's physics system is non-deterministic. In my research I've not been able to find anyone who's succeeded in implementing a lockstep simulation in unity (although many have tried).

I've managed to come up with a solution that in my calculations should keep the bandwidth requirement below 256 Kbit/sec.

• One player will be authoritative (the master), running the AI, damage system, commands etc. The other player's simulation (the client) simply provides a visual representation of the game, and relays input to the master (there will only be 2 players per game)
  
  
• Each simulation will keep a register of all units. 10X per second, the master will send the position of all units in the register to the client. Because the register is an exact copy, only the positions need to be sent, without reference to the unit. The client can rely on the order of the received positions being the same as the order of the units in the register, to know which unit each position refers to. The client then uses interpolation to smooth unit movement.
  
  
• Positions will be sent as 2 short (16 bit) integers, representing the X and Z co-ordinate of the unit. The gameplay area will be 256x 256 metres. Because a short integer has 65, 535 possible values, this allows the position to be represented in increments of approximately 4mm. The Y co-ordinate doesn’t need to be sent, as it can be calculated on the client by raycasting to find the ground. These optimisations mean each position sync takes only 32 bits, as opposed to 96 bits if using plain Vector3s.
  
  
• Unit rotations will not be sent, but calculated on the client based on a unit's movement direction and target. Because the rotations don't have a significant effect on gameplay, it doesn't matter if they aren't exact.
  
  
• Commands such as launching a projectile or applying damage will only be initiated by the master.
  
  
• When a projectile is launched, the master will send the launch location and velocity to the client. The client can then mirror the projectile's simulation without needing to constantly send the projectile's position. To get around the non-determinism of Unity's physics, the projectile will not apply damage on the client. Instead, when it collides on the master, the damage message will be sent to the client. This way if the physics simulation differs on the client, it will be purely a visual difference, and won't desync the game.
  
  
• When the client gives a unit a command, the command will be sent to the master to execute.
  
  
• The register of units will allow up to 256 units. This limitation allows units to be referenced over the network with an 8-bit integer (byte), instead of a standard 32 bit int.
  

The system is working well so far. The main problems I've encountered so far have been the result of the unit registers becoming out of sync, resulting in the wrong units getting the wrong positions and commands, or commands not finding a unit to apply to. After days of work, I've managed to eliminate all of the registry desyncs in the current build. I can now run a playable co-op multiplayer game without errors, which has been a huge relief. Here's hoping I can keep it that way.

PS: Sorry for the long, boring, technical post. Pretty pictures of Joan of Arc next week

PPS: I'm using Photon Unity Networking

 

"Viva la Scotland", as the traditional French saying goes.

Joan of Arc is the first foreign hero to join the Scotsmen's cause. After seeing how the Scots defeated the hated English, she vows to aid the Scotsmen to bring their superior culture to the world, even if it means going up against the modern French people.

She joins the Scotsmen in the second level, Eiffel Tower, when the French unreasonably object to the plan to build a haggis factory in front of their country's most iconic building.


Joan of Arc's sword gives her high melee damage, and her armour means she has the highest health of all the game's hero characters. However, her knife throwing ranged attack is not as effective, with shorter range than the rest of the heroes. This makes her best suited to close quarters fighting and holding the front line against melee enemies, similar to the role William Wallace played in the first game.

 

Among other things, this week I've been doing some work on the UI. It's an area that could have done with some improvement in the previous game, so I'm keen to get some feedback to make sure I get it right this time around.



It's still a work in progress as you can see. The empty bar at the top will show a completion meter for the haggis factory construction (while it's being constructed), and a percentage enemies killed meter during the enemy's final assault. I haven't got the minimap system built yet either, so the minimap shown is just a dummy one from the previous game.

I'd like some feedback on how it's looking so far in terms of the colour scheme, layout etc. Also, do you think it looks Scottish enough? I've gone for the Scottish unicorn and lion rampant heraldry, and the Celtic knotwork panel borders as you can see. I tried putting a subtle tartan overlay on the panels, but it looks too noisy. If anyone can think of some other ways to throw some Scottish flavour in without making the interface look too busy, I'd love to hear them.

Thanks.

 

This game looks pretty awesome! Quite impressive work, perhaps a gameplay vid soon?

Keep it up though!

 

Thanks. It shouldn't be too long now until the game's ready for a gameplay video.

 

Updated the UI based on feedback from the website. Any other suggestions?

 

This is F***ing hilarious.

 

Bet you can't guess where the inspiration for these enemies comes from

As the Scotsmen make their way deeper into France, they encounter some of its medieval inhabitants. The Knight and the Monk make their first appearance in Level 3, Le Chateau De Ponce, and old abandoned French castle.



The French knight charges in, wielding insults along with their sword (as everyone knows French knights do). They are difficult to kill, but not the fastest enemy, and quite expensive, so you shouldn't have to deal with them in the same number as the cheaper enemies.



The monk moves slowly, preoccupied with hitting themselves in the head with planks of wood. They are therefore quite easy to dispatch before they get close enough to do any damage. However, if they do manage to get into range, they unleash a rapid fire barrage of holy crosses, which they throw in an arc, enabling them to easily hit units behind cover (Imagine a Christian hammer bro).

 

In Defend the Highlands World Tour, the Scotsmen gain access to a new foreign tower in every country they visit. In France, they unlock the first foreign tower, the Fondue Hose.



The Fondue hose is essentially a fire hose that has been converted to spray delicious, but blisteringly hot melted cheese over nearby enemies. It can sustain a constant stream, enabling it to continuously take down enemies, and is particularly deadly against tight groups of enemies. Against melee attackers, it is the most powerful tower in the game.

However, it is very expensive, and is out-ranged by nearly all ranged enemies, and because it provides no cover, the user is extremely vulnerable. To be used effectively, it should be placed in a sheltered spot that requires enemies to get very close before they can attack it.

Because of its great power, but great weaknesses, the fondue hose is a tower that requires plenty of forethought to use effectively.

 

Good morning, I hope everyone's porridge was just right.

It's been a bit of a tedious week, fixing and improving little bits here and there. I spent a lot of time troubleshooting a bug where the pathfinding system would suddenly stop working mid game. It turns out that one of the towers, the Oat bag Barricade was, on construction, adding itself twice to the list of towers that enemies use for choosing their target. When the tower gets destroyed, it removes itself from this list, but because it was in there twice, it would only remove one instance of itself. The AI units would as a result target the tower that was still in the list, but not on the map, immediately realise it didn't exist, return to their idle state, only to target the non-existent tower again. Each time a unit enters its idle state, it updates the pathfinding graph so that other units would path around them, but because the bug meant that units were constantly entering and exiting the idle state every frame, the pathfinding thread got overwhelmed with more graph updates than it could handle. I have to say, I'm quite relieved to have that one solved.

Anywho, let me tell you about the Oat bag Barricade and the Golf Clubs.



The oat bag barricade, unlike the other towers, doesn't provide any additional offensive capabilities. Instead it functions the same as cover that you might find in the level, with the difference that it can be placed wherever you like, and that it can be destroyed. The oat bag barricade is more effective as cover than most cover you'll find in the levels, because it is taller. It has room for two Scotsmen, and can be placed more cheaply than any of the other towers. They can also be useful for walling off areas to direct enemies to take more dangerous routes.



The golf clubs serve the same role as they did in the first game, sniping enemies from long distance before they get close enough to attack. They fire further and more accurately than any other tower in the game. However, they provide no cover for the user, and find it harder to hit faster moving targets. They do have a decent fire rate, thanks to the automatic golf ball dispenser, and have an average cost.

 

After their victory atAgincourt, the Scotsmen head for the French capital to establish their next haggis factory. And where better than right in front of the Eiffel tower. What possible objection could the French have to that?



They do object however, and the surrounding parklands soon become a site of oat fuelled carnage, as porridge bowls and breadsticks replace words.



Unlike in the first level, the Scotsmen will face attacks from two sides. Enemies will spawn in the bushes along the South end of the map, and on the bridge and the two road exits on the north of the map. To the North are two oat fields, on either side of the Eiffel tower. They will be the hardest to hold because of their openness, so the player will need to choose when its worth trying to hold a wider front, and when its better to sacrifice these two fields in order to funnel all the enemies coming from the north into a narrow killing zone between the tower and factory.

There are four fields to the south of the factory. The inner two will be the easiest to hold, being in the easily defended area between the factory and the pool. The outer two will require a bit more work to defend, being closer to the enemy spawn zones and more open.

There are some cars on the road which provide good cover for the Scotsmen, which are well placed to Defend from enemies coming from the North, until the player has enough men to push forward to capture the Northern oat fields. There are also some park benches which provide cover for Scotsmen defending the four closer oat fields, although the cover they provide is somewhat mediocre, so the player will want to build some better defences there once they have the money.

 

The Chateau De Ponce is an old, historic castle in the middle of the French countryside, and more importantly, the planned location of the third Haggis Factory.



It features two layers of walls on all sides but the North. All of the walls are accessible, for Scotsmen to rain porridge down from the battlements. Two oat fields are contained within the inner wall, two are within the outer wall, and another two are outside, making for a three tiered defence. If the player gets into trouble, they can withdraw into a safer tier, provided that they can afford to sacrifice the oat fields in the current tier.



Enemies spawn from all sides of the map, while the player starts in the centre. The cliffs surrounding the castle help the player by keeping the enemy's approach confined somewhat, and the walls help this further.



There are five ways into the outer wall of the castle; three gates, and two siege towers which enemies can climb. There are only two ways into the inner walls; the front gate, and a narrow plank of wood that the Scotsmen have set up as a makeshift bridge to give them access from the roof of the Haggis Factory onto the walls. These narrow entrance ways make perfect spots for the player to place the recently unlocked Fondue Hoses. However, they will have to be careful of Monks, who make their debut in this level, as their devastating holy-cross-toss is just able to out-range the Fondue Hose.

 

The final level of each country the Scotsmen visit has a boss character they have to defeat, in order to progress to the next country. Boss characters enter the level at the beginning of the final assault phase (which occurs shortly after the player finishes constructing the haggis factory). Bosses have much higher stats than regular enemies, so eliminating them should be the player's main priority.



For France, the boss is Napoleon Bonaparte. His revolver is virtually one-shot-kill, making him deadly against Scotsmen who aren't in cover. He can fire a lot further than a Scotsman can throw, so the player will have to either use long ranged towers such as the golf clubs or haggis catapult, or move their Scotsmen forward to attack him. He is less effective in melee, fighting with a sword, but because of his deadly ranged attack, it would be ill-advised to charge out into the open to engage him in melee.

 

The fourth, and final French level takes place in the French Alps. I had originally planned the fourth level to take place in the French Rivierra, but decided that the alps made more sense as a place to encounter the boss Character, Napoleon, and the snowy environment makes for a nice change of scenery.



The player begins nestled safely in a mountain pass, but they will have to venture out in order to capture more oat fields. The map features some close quarters areas that are hemmed in by mountains, but a fairly open centre, featuring a lake.



The plateau in the North-East of the map contains 3 of the 6 oat fields, but will be difficult to defend from enemies on the ridge above, and approaching from the North and South. By pulling back from the plateau, the player will force most of the enemies into a narrow killing zone in order to reach the factory, but at a large cost to their porridge income.

Once the player successfully builds and defends this final French haggis factory, they will be able to move on the next country, Italy.

 

Ehhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh (Italian speaking pose)

The Scots arrive in the canal city of Venice for their first encounter with the Italians. Here they will face two new enemies, the spicy-meat-a-ball throwing Italian chef, and the gladiator, whose shield protects him from frontal ranged attacks (more details next time). They will also encounter the first instance in the game of enemies riding boats.



While on boats, enemies will only be able to use ranged attacks against the Scotsmen, and will have nowhere to run and hide, making it a perfect opportunity to pick them off. The boats will travel to set locations, where the enemies will disembark.



In Venice, the player starts on an island with two oat fields. Two bridges connect the island to the rest of the map, and there is one landing site where enemy boats can land on the island. The other four oat fields are scattered throughout the rest of the map, in locations of varying difficulty to access and defend. The player will have to strategically defend the five landing zones as much as possible, and use the bridges as choke points when enemies do manage to establish themselves on the land.



The map provides some cover in the form of parked cars, and crates and barrels outside shops, although these will likely be of more use to the enemy than the Scotsmen. The long, straight approach of the boats along the canals provides great opportunity to pick off enemies with golf clubs, and having multiple enemies crammed into each boat will make area effect weapons like the porridge cannon and haggis catapult highly effective.

 

It wouldn't be Italy without someone to cook the pasta or pizza or ravioli or lasagne etc. That's why the first enemy the Scotsmen encounter when they enter Italy is the chef.


The chef carries a pot full of spicy meat-a-balls to throw at the Scotsmen. They fire five meatballs in one shot, allowing them to damage several Scotsmen if they are too closely grouped. However, they can't throw as far as a Scotsman, and are slow to average in speed. They have high health for a ranged unit.

The Scotsmen also encounter gladiators throughout Italy. (Because the game takes place in all time periods at once for some reason). They are especially common in level 6 – Colosseum.


Gladiators are uniquely resistant to frontal ranged attacks because of their shield. Any projectiles that hit it bounce off harmlessly. It doesn't provide protection against exploding projectiles however, and it does slow them down somewhat, making them very vulnerable to the haggis catapult. They can do considerable damage in melee, so killing them before they reach your Scotsmen should be a high priority.

 

As they travel further into Italy, the Scotsmen come across one of the world's most famous ancient landmarks – the Roman Colosseum. How could they not build a haggis factory there. Here they add a new hero character to their party, Julius Caesar (who I'll cover in the next post).



The player starts in the middle of the Colosseum, where they are sitting ducks against enemies on the higher levels. Also, only two of the oat fields are on the arena floor, so the player will need to move quickly to establish a foothold on the upper levels. There are nine entrances from which enemies spawn, so the Scotsmen will find themselves under assault from all sides. Fortunately, the uppermost levels on either side of the Colosseum have an oat field each, and no entrances, so the player can easily barricade some Scotsmen up there to hold them. The two oat fields on the second highest level will be the most difficult to hold. The newly unlocked Italian tower, the plumber pipe, will be vital in transporting Scotsmen quickly from the arena floor to the upper levels without having to go through enemy controlled areas (more on that another time).



I haven't quite finished with this level yet. I think it could do with some extra colour variation, which I'll add once I've done the light-mapping by manually painting some extra color onto the lightmap, and perhaps adding some more decals. Any suggestions are welcome as well.

 

The model looks very much like a sandy plaster, maybe adding some sandstone bricks to it?

I like it though! Keep it up!

 

Cheers Raven, I think you're right, I'll try adding a sandstone brick texture to the walls.

 

Julius Caesar finds himself facing off against a gladiator rebellion one day at the Roman Colosseum. By an extraordinary coincidence, at that very moment, an airship full of Scotsmen arrives with the intention of building a haggis factory in the Colosseum. Caesar agrees to aid the Scotsmen in their mission, if they help him defeat the uprising. And that is how the Scotsmen acquire their third hero character during their World Tour. True story.



Julius Caesar is an expert in ranged skirmishes with enemy ranged units, as his shield protects him from enemy projectiles, and he can throw his javelin further and more accurately than regular Scotsmen can throw their porridge bowls. In melee he is less effective than Alfredo or Joan of Arc, but can still hold his own, fighting with a short sword. The best strategy is to put him somewhere that he has protection from melee combat, while still being in the thick of the projectile combat.

 

So, I had been planning on showing the Italian tower, the plumber pipes today. The plumber pipes were essentially Mario pipes that let you instantly transport Scotsmen between distant parts of the map. For obvious reasons, I've been a little unsure of this tower, and while Flappy Bird may have gotten away with it, I really don't want to risk getting in copyright trouble. So I've decided to replace the plumber pipes with the “Pasta Portal,” which essentially does the same thing. I haven't made it yet though, so instead, this week I'll be showing off two of the towers making a return from the previous game: the Haggis Catapult and the Turnip Turret.



The haggis catapult throws exploding haggis over a long range, enabling you to decimate the enemy before they can reach your other units. The projectiles do splash damage, making it perfect for taking out groups of enemies (and incidentally, making it the only long range counter to the gladiator, whose shield effectively protects him from all other attacks apart from Fondue Hose, Whisky Bar and melee attacks). The splash damage also nullifies the benefits of any cover enemies are using.

On the downside, it has a low rate of fire, and its weight makes it very slow to rotate to face new targets, making it less effective for defending a wide front than its other long ranged cousin, the golf clubs. It also has a minimum range, and provides no cover, so it will quickly fall to ranged and melee units alike if not supported with other defences



The turnip turret is the pinnacle of technology in the Scottish arsenal. Its high rate of fire and ability to rotate quickly enable it to defend a large area from approaching melee enemies. It can fire further than Scotsmen, and most enemies, although its accuracy makes it less effective against more distant enemies, particular those in cover.

It is however, the most expensive tower, and with its low hit-points, it is something of a glass cannon. While it provides decent cover from the front, a lucky shot, or a hit from the side can easily take out the operator, enabling melee units to close in and destroy it very quickly. The player will need to make sure it is placed in a defensible position, and back it up with nearby Scotsmen to take over if the operator is killed. Placing it near a fondue hose or whisky bar will help protect it from melee units when it is not manned.

 

The third Italian level takes place in the walled gardens of Vatican city. As the Scotsmen descend from the sky, the Vatican panics at the possibility that the Scotsmen might discover their darkest secrets. So they send out an army of nuns, backed by hired mafia gangsters (more on these enemies later).



While the gardens may at first appear quite open, the player's starting position is actually quite defensible. The fenced cemetery to the left of the starting position has only a narrow gate through which enemies can access the haggis factory. One oat field is inside the cemetery, tempting the player to enter it, where they will be more easily accessed by the enemy. To the front of the starting location is a hedge labyrinth, containing one oat field, also providing a good choke point. To the right is a retaining wall from which the player can take long shots at approaching enemies.


(Blue x's represents oat fields. Red areas represent enemy spawn zones)

In the north-west corner of the map is a pond, with a waterfall. The positions to either side of the waterfall are perfect for enemies to snipe any farmers on the nearby oat field, making it the most difficult farm to hold. And to the North-east is a forest from which enemies emerge. This area is quite open, making it difficult to defend.

Now, to the new enemies introduced in this level.



The nun is the weakest enemy in the game. However, they are also by far the cheapest, enabling the enemy to quickly swarm you with huge numbers of them. They are slow, and their attack (hitting with a ruler) does little damage. Like any melee enemy though, they can still take out unguarded towers with ease, so they can't be fully ignored.



The mafia is the first gun wielding enemy the player will encounter. They carry a pistol that fires fairly rapidly, but requires reloading every 6 shots. They are slow moving (being sneaky and all) and have mediocre accuracy. Their guns do out-range a Scotsman's porridge throw, so they can be dangerous if you don't have any longer range towers. Like all gun units, they are poor against units in cover, since they don't have a firing trajectory that can arc over cover objects. They make up for this with their high attack strength, making them deadly against uncovered Scotsmen, and any towers that don't provide cover, such as the fondue hose.

 

Note: I had already posted this on the new forum, but since that's been taken down, I'm reposting it here.



As their final act before leaving Italy, Alfredo decrees that the Scotsmen must construct a haggis factory upon Mt. Vesuvius. The fact that it happens to be erupting at the moment is of no consequence.



More than most levels, Mt Vesuvius lends itself to the strategic use of elevation. The cliffs help to restrict enemy movement, and Scotsmen and towers will be able to get a good range bonus against enemies below. The summit in particular is high enough that a turnip turret placed there can fire at enemies almost anywhere on the map. It also has an oat field right next to the lava pool.

The main enemy spawn area is quite close to the player's starting position, but enemies coming from there will have to take a long, circuitous route around the narrow trails on either side of the mountain, while the player is free to take pot shots at them.

On the other side of the map are two caves from which enemies also emerge. These are closer to several of the oat fields, so they will pose a greater threat than the other spawn zone.



Being the last Italian level, Mt. Vesuvius also features the Italian Boss, Mussolini. Mussolini carries a deadly submachinegun, that can decimate anything that isn't well covered, including most towers. The player had better keep a strong front line of oat bag barricades to hold him off, while longer ranged towers fire at him from a safe distance.

 

Note: I had already posted this on the new forum, but since that's been taken down, I'm reposting it here.

Having spent days without a fight as they crossed the Mediterranean, the Scotsmen finally arrive in Northern Egypt, at the Nile Delta. The fertile land makes it a perfect spot to grow oats and sheep lungs to produce haggis with, so they disembark to construct their first haggis factory.



The delta is a swampy area, with many islands separated by water. Traversable shallows link some of the islands, providing good defensive positions, and there are plenty of rocks and fallen logs to use as cover. Broadly, the level is set out in a V-shape, with the enemies starting at the top, and the player at the bottom. The further forward the player advances, the more oat fields they will be able to harvest, but the wider front they will have to defend, and the less time they'll get to pick off newly spawned enemies with long ranged weapons before they reach the player's line. The level introduces the Egyptian slave, and Egyptian God. The Egyptian slave is a cheap melee unit that sits between the Frenchman and the Nun in cost, speed and combat abilities, while the Egyptian god is an elite ranged unit that fires a bow and arrow with good range and accuracy. More on these in a future post.



I've also spent some time this week working on splash effects. When units walk through shallow water, or a projectile lands in water, a particle and sound effect play, which I think really adds to the immersion. I've also sourced some more sound effects, so the battles are starting to take on that chaotic atmosphere that I'm after.

 

The first two enemies the Scotsmen encounter in Egypt are the Egyptian slave, and the Egyptian god. Thought they may come from the same time period, they have vastly different combat abilities.



The Egyptian slave goes into battle completely unarmed, relying solely on hand to hand combat. While quite fast moving, they are easy to defeat in melee one on one. However, being cheap, the enemy can send a lot of them into battle quickly, so they can easily overwhelm you with numbers. Because of their low health, they can generally be defeated before they get close enough to attack, simply using your Scotsmen's default porridge bowl throwing attack.

The Egyptian god is almost the complete opposite of the slave. While the slave is a cheap cannon fodder unit, the god is an expensive, elite unit, combining a very long range with high health and strong attack. Their main weakness is their speed (they have to walk like an Egyptian after all), making them easy targets for golf tees and haggis catapults, which are the only towers that can shoot further than them. They are also quite accurate, making them an effective counter to front line towers such as the porridge cannon or fondue hose. Oatbag barricades on the front line, coupled with golf tees or haggis catapults placed further back are the best way to defeat them with minimal casualties.

PS: In case anyone's interested, I also post this blog on kiltedcamel.com/blog and on facebook.com/defendthehighlands

 

So I know I still haven't done the Italian tower yet (I need to have pasta for dinner sometime so I can photograph the pasta portal texture), but I'll press on and talk about the Egyptian tower today regardless. The Egyptian tower is the Magic Carpet, an ingenious way of giving your Scotsmen an edge over enemies.



When a Scotsman steps onto a magic carpet, it ascends into the air, where thanks to the elevation, the rider will receive a range and attack boost (and enemies will need to get closer to be able to hit them too). The height also makes it easier to hit enemies in cover, since the porridge bowl can be thrown over the cover object. The rider is also completely inaccessible to enemy melee units, letting them get on with the job of throwing porridge unfettered.

The catch is that the rider is an open target to longer ranged enemies, such as the Egyptian God, so you'll need to make sure you have other towers capable of taking them out before they can knock the Scotsman off his carpet.

At only $25 each, the Magic Carpet is the cheapest tower available, but if used effectively, can be well worth the cost.

 

After having conquered the Nile Delta, the Scotsmen push ahead with their Egyptian campaign, launching an assault on the capital, Cairo.



The Scotsmen have set up their haggis factory in a market square close by the Nile River. The starting area contains two oat fields, and has only two narrow entrances, making a good inner defensive area to fall back to if things go bad. To the north is one oat field on the riverbank, where enemies will arrive by boat. It is a wide front to defend, but enemies in boats are easy targets. The other three oat fields are along a street to the south. On the West end of the street is an area of parkland, and on the East is a narrow alleyway, both of which contain enemy spawn zones at their far ends.



I've also been making a few changes to the basic game mechanics lately. The mechanic of constructing the factory had been bothering me for a while. It essentially meant that each level could go for an unlimited amount of time if the player chose not to work on the factory, which led to the player being able to stockpile ridiculous amounts of money and spam heaps of powerful towers. The only way to answer this was to have the enemy keep coming faster and faster, which of course leads to lag once you get hundreds of units on screen at once. So I'm eliminating that mechanic, going back to a system more like the first game, where the enemy would get a certain number of recruitment points to use in each level, with the player having to hold out until they've defeated all the enemies. The back story will now be that Alfredo is travelling to where Scottish expatriates have already constructed haggis factories, which the locals are determined to tear down.

 

Hmmm, I liked the idea of them building factories anew under the noses of the locals. Perhaps you could still have them be built in-game, but have it be an uncontrolled/automatic building that occurs with a few 'puppet' scotsmen characters?

Perhaps you could even let the user still control the build speed--but just require that there's always at least a certain number of workers on it.

In my opinion, that game mechanic of rushing in to some country's sacred place and scotsmanizing it is a pretty major part of the humor. (and it makes the descriptions more colorful)

 

An automated build process could work I suppose. I'm not exactly sure whether it would really add anything to the game if it's purely a visual thing, but I'll give it a shot and see how it feels.

 

Ho, bonnie wee lads and lasses, it's a special blog post today, because I'm sharing with you the first ever footage of Defend the Highlands World Tour.

 

As the Scotsmen blaze their way across Egypt, the Egyptians realize that they must find another way to repel the invasion. So using dark ancient sorcery, they bring their ancient dead back to life, leaving the Scotsmen to fight a horde of undead mummies. To make matters worse, bands of desert tribesmen have ridden their camels to the Egyptians' aid. These are two enemies not to take lightly.



Already having died once, the mummy is incredibly difficult to kill a second time. They have the highest health of any non-boss character, and are powerful attackers. But they are also one of the slowest enemies, and not cheap either. Their massive health enables them to soak up a lot of damage, drawing fire away from lighter enemies. They can be effectively defeated with the fondue hose or a point blank blast of the porridge cannon, or with the haggis catapult. Other weapons will take a lot longer to bring them down.



Desert tribesmen combine speed with a rapid fire attack, making them extremely deadly. They can easily close in on unguarded farmers or vulnerable towers and take them out with their AK-47. Against anything not well covered they can win hands down. However, their shots aren't very accurate, and the direct trajectory of gun weapons make them ineffective against units in cover. They are also a large target, making them easy to hit even with inaccurate weapons. This is one enemy where a plain old Scotsman behind a barricade is an effective counter.

 

So, something a bit different this week. I've been doing a lot of work on the menus lately, so I'd like to show you (and hopefully get feedback on) the upgrade and skirmish menus, as they are in their current W.I.P state.



The upgrade menu is displayed after each level in the campaign. Here the player can upgrade the stats of their Scotsmen and towers. Since there's more stuff than in the original game, I've organised it into tabs for each item. Clicking the tab of the item you want to view available upgrades for brings that tab to the front, as you would expect.

One of the things people mentioned about the upgrade screen in the original game was that it would be nice to see the actual values of the stats, rather than just an indicator of what level they're at, which is why I've decided to display those stats over the upgrade bar, as well as an indicator of how much the next upgrade level will improve the stats next to the upgrade button.

The blue part of the upgrade bars indicates what level the stat was at already from previous upgrades. The green part represents upgrades purchased in the current session. Any upgrades purchased in the current session can be removed by right clicking the upgrade button, or all of them can be reset by clicking the reset button in the top left hand corner. However, upgrades that have previously been purchased (the blue bars) cannot be reset, so think hard about which upgrades you'd like to purchase before clicking the “Next” button.

On the right is a list of towers that can be unlocked. Some are not available until a certain point in the game, so have their icons hidden by a lock icon. Others are available for purchase, and have the cost displayed next to them. Clicking the padlock button unlocks them. The blue open padlocks indicate towers that have been unlocked previously, and green open padlocks represent tower that have been unlocked in the current session. You can change your mind about any towers you've unlocked in the current session by right clicking the green padlock, or clicking the reset button.

Instead of upgrade points, this time I'm using money for the upgrade menu. All money earned (whether it was spent or not) in the previous level is added to the money available for purchasing upgrades. Any money left over will be rolled over until the next time the player visits the upgrade screen. Using money instead of upgrade points enables me to make more powerful upgrades more expensive, and make it cost more for each successive upgrade on a single stat, which will encourage balanced upgrading rather than maxing out certain stats while leaving others on level one. Oh and another thing, the money indicator in the top right corner is just temporary. Haven't made a graphic for that yet.



The options down the left side of the skirmish menu are much the same as those in the first game. The only addition there is the “Game Type” option. This will give the option of a standard game, or the new “Last Stand” mode where the player begins with a heap of Scotsmen, porridge and money, and a few minutes at the start to get their defences set up. However, they will be unable to recruit additional Scotsmen, so they will have to hold out with what they've got and try to outlast the enemy.

On the right is a picture of the currently selected map, and a short description, to make it easier for the player to decide which map to play on.

The bottom panel is where the player can choose which towers, heroes and enemies should be available in the match. Clicking on any of the icons toggles between it being enabled, or disabled (indicated by turning red). The towers are organized into tabs for Scottish towers, and Foreign towers. The enemies are organized into six tabs, one for each country. As well as the regular enemies, the player can enable bosses as well.

For both screens I'm going to put an overlay of spilt whisky and porridge stains on the tab panels, since they look un-Scottishly clean at the moment. I'm still tossing up whether to use different background images for each menu or not. My current intention is to have an animation where all the current menu stuff scrolls off the top of the screen while the next menu is loading, and then have that scroll into place from the bottom of the screen. This would hide the scene loading and make it more seamless, but I'm not sure if people might think its a bit cheap using the same background for all the menus. Opinions on this and anything else are very welcome.

 

They look alot better, I felt the old menu was alot less intuitive, things like a map preview and dropdowns are great ways to help the player and save space!

Great work so far! This game looks really great!

 

Looking great! One issue is that the text might be a bit hard to read on the wooden background.

 

Thanks for the comments guys. I think you're right virror, I might try white text with a black outline instead.

 

Valley of Kings is the third Egyptian map. The Scotsmen barricade themselves inside the ancient Temple of Hatshepsut, where a haggis factory has recently been completed. Angry at having their ancient tomb defiled, the Egyptians launch a vicious assault, joined by the mummy and desert tribesman, who make their debut in this level.



The player starts in a very good position, with only one narrow doorway giving the enemies access to the inside of the temple. Beyond that is a single ramp leading to the upper level, which will be a very effective defensive point. However, only two oat fields are accessible from here. To gain the second two, the player will have to move onto the second level. The second level is still reasonably defensible, although it has three access points (the middle ramp, a stairway on the right, and the encroaching sand dune on the left). The final two oat fields are on the ground to the right of the temple, and will be more difficult to defend.

 

Been there, its a really cool experience : D

 

In the South of Egypt, at the head of the Nile River lies the Aswan Dam. Constructed in 1902, it is essential for Egypt's economy, generating electricity, and allowing the flooding of the river to be controlled. Of course, Scotsmen have a divine right build haggis factories where they please, so none of this means anything.

In addition to this blog post, you can see a gameplay video taking place on this map at -

In this map, the player starts on the high ground in the South-west corner. Enemies can approach either through the marshy area below the dam wall, or across the causeway. To capture the three oat fields in the swamp, the player will have to navigate and protect the islands and shallows. Two aoat fields are near the haggis factory, providing a good fall-back position, and the final oat field is across the causeway.

Also, it would seem I've been remiss in neglecting to introduce the Egyptian hero character, Cleopatra, Queen of the Nile.



Fighting with a bow in ancient Egyptian style, Cleopatra provides some much needed long range fire, able to shoot the furthest of all the hero characters. In melee she fights with a dagger, although she should be kept away from prolonged combat, as she also has the lowest hit points of all the hero characters.