Lupis Labs

Version 2.3.2 Released!

2011-10-30T19:24:00.000-07:00

Version 2.3.2 has been released. The release contains the following fixes:

New Features:
- Added Flare unlock disable until mine is purchased.
Bug Fixes:
- Improved sound stability on Galaxy S2.

Enjoy!

Version 2.3.0 Released

2011-09-12T20:21:00.000-07:00

Version 2.3.0 Has Been Released:

New Features:

Added "Sky Tower" Level - in the FREE version too
Added new unlockable tower: "Flare"
Added new achievements

Bug Fixes:

Work around to save progress better on some phones

Enjoy!

Verssion 2.2.0 Released

2011-05-30T21:58:00.000-07:00

Version 2.20 has been released!

New Features:
- New Mixer Map "E", features randomized fixed path levels
- Added French, Japanese, and German languages
- Final score window is displayed longer

Bug Fixes:
- Progress save avoids overwriting backup file if progress is lost or reset
- Text formatting fixes for smaller displays

Enjoy!

Verssion 2.1.0 Released

2011-04-13T22:36:00.000-07:00

- Fixed survivor mode bug, introduced in 2.0.9, where survivor mode was no longer a challenge
- Fixed progress save corruption that can happen in rare cases on certain devices.
- Bumped up maximum allowed health before a corrupt save is suspected.

Version 2.0.9 Released

2011-04-11T21:39:00.001-07:00

Fixes:
- Fix 16-bit backgrounds options
- Fix Survival mode bug where last level may not be 100
- Fix crash when selling a tower
- Limit max reward cost to 2,000,000,000

Enjoy!

Version 2.0.8 Released

2011-04-04T20:44:00.000-07:00

Version 2.0.8 of Robo Defense has been released:

Fixes:
- Improved Upgrade Dialog rendering on smaller and larger screens
- Fixed score rollover issue that can occur when reward points/level get high enough

Enjoy!

Version 2.0.7 Released

2011-03-30T08:57:00.000-07:00

Version 2.0.7 has been released.

New Features:
- New Level: "The Roadway"
- Special game unlock for those that finish survivor mode!
- Hardware acceleration enabled on Xoom - the performance improvement is significant!

Enjoy!

Version 2.0.4 Released

2011-03-07T22:45:00.000-08:00

Features:
- Two new reward unlockables
- Added option for "classic" background graphics
- Added option to view draw performance during pause, for options tuning
- Added option to lower game FPS for extended battery life
- Added option for 16-bit background, which fixes Galaxy S "stutter" problems

Fixes:
- Fixed bug in Chain Smoker achievement

Enjoy!

Version 2.0.3 Released

2011-03-03T00:27:00.000-08:00

Fixes:

- Improved memory usage
- Force disable image dithering. For users of 2.0.2, let us know if this looks better on your phone than before (most phones will look the same). Depending on feedback, we'll revert the setting or make it an option.

Version 2.0.2 Released

2011-03-01T21:57:00.001-08:00

Version 2.0.2 has been released:

- Tweaked the basic level graphics to lower saturation on some phone models
- Game now disables HD mode if a crash is detected (work-around for Desire, San Francisco crashes). The fix applies on the next game start.

Enjoy!

Robo Defense 2.0.1 Mini FAQ

2011-02-28T22:35:00.000-08:00

Q:

The game is crashing. How do I fix it?

A:

This is affecting a small number of phone models (e.g. HTC Desire). We are collecting crash data and are hoping to have fixes out soon. Version 2.0.1 fixes 3 crash situations but it's not verified that the Desire crashes have been resolved.

---

Q:

I prefer the old graphics. Can you change them back?

A:

The original graphics were developed for 480x320 displays. The newest displays have a 1280x800 resolution with higher resolutions expected soon. Higher resolution graphics are needed to support these new devices.

We are working on changes:

- Some phones can't display the graphics at full resolution, due to memory limits. Update 2.0.1 contains a new option to better "upscale" the graphics, at a moderate performance cost. This behaviour is the same technique that versions <= 1.4.1 used to display on high resolution devices.

- We have discovered that the color profiles between devices vary widely enough be an issue. Some phone models have their brightness/contrast profiles set extremely high, and this is indeed making the graphics look saturated. We are experimenting with graphics tweaks and experimental filters to try and balance things between various models. It's been a challenge, thus far, which is why no related changes made the 2.0.1 update. 2.0.2 should contain the first iteration.

I you feel the changes above are not addressing your concern, please send us an email at lupislabs@gmail.com with details. Please be specific about what you don't like. Also, include your phone model and firmware level.

---

Q:

I am seeing performance issues. How do I fix them?

A:

- We are aware of performance issues on some revisions of the Samsung Galaxy S. The current "fix" is to disable "High Resolution Graphics" in the options menu. We are actively experimenting for a better fix.

- Some phone models lack the GPU resources to render the game "scaled out". Playing fully zoomed-in will give the best performance on any device.

- Disabling "Bitmap Filtering" in the options menu may improve rendering performance at the expense of image quality.

---

Q:

I don't like the larger tower buttons. Can you make them small again?

A:

Agreed. Made smaller in 2.0.1.

Version 2.0.1 Released

2011-02-28T22:34:00.000-08:00

2.0.1:
- Fixed a few crash bugs
- Added options menu to level select
- Added bitmap filtering option, for better image quality on some phones (e.g. X10)
- Reduced size of tower buttons

Expect a 2.0.2 with more improvements/fixes soon.

Version 2.0.0 Released

2011-02-27T14:05:00.000-08:00

After a long BETA cycle to ensure maximum phone compatibility, we are happy to release version 2.0.0 of Robo Defense. This version includes the following enhancements:

- Full support for tablets
- Support for smaller screens sizes
- Zoom Slider
- Added Move to SD support (firmware >= 2.2)
- New Game Mode: "Survival Mode"
- Added commas to numbers
- Onscreen battery meter
- New reward unlockables!
- 15 new achievements
- Improved Visuals

Version 1.4.0 Released

2011-01-14T11:15:00.000-08:00

Version 1.4.0 of Robo Defense (free and full) has been released.

This release improves the visuals of bullet and fire animations. It also adds the ability to "type" in the difficulty level for those who are really playing at high levels!

We have more updates in progress, but they are not quite ready yet. Thank you for your support!

Version 1.3.0 Released

2010-06-28T21:35:00.000-07:00

Version 1.3.0 of Robo Defense (free and full) has been released.

This release adds a new "dropper unit" which is available at difficulty levels 10 and higher.

The release also fixes a crash bug that can occur if you drag a unit off the bottom right corner. The Titan unit's health has also been increased.

Enjoy!

Problems With Game Save After Udating to 1.2.0?

2009-11-01T09:51:00.000-08:00

Several users have reported having problems saving after upgrading their game to 1.2.0. If you fall in this group, please read below:

An uninstall/reinstall of the game is reported by others to fix the issue.

Uninstalling/reinstalling will not cause your progress to be lost, provided that you have an SD card installed. You can verify the backup file, robo_defense_full.bak, is present on the SD card for extra caution.

Uninstalling/reinstalling will not charge again you for the game - the purchase is tied to your user id.

We think that the issue may be a side-effect of turning off copy-protection for the full version of the game in 1.2.0. We have wanted to do this for a while because it reduces the download size and makes the game compatible with more phones. The market tools have historically not allowed protection to be disabled; recently they changed the tool to allow it. We don't plan on turning copy-protection on again (ever) so this should be a one-time issue.

Version 1.2.0 Released

2009-10-28T22:04:00.000-07:00

Version 1.2.0 of Robo Defense has been released. This version adds support for newer phone models with higher-resolution screens.

Also fixed is a bug where a game could report "> 500 Events" and stop.

Version 1.1.2 Released

2009-09-16T21:06:00.000-07:00

Version 1.1.2 has been released. This version adds a new "Boss" character (try to find him!) and an associated achievement. There are also a couple of minor bug fixes.

Enjoy!

Robo Defense Availability

2009-09-16T17:09:00.000-07:00

There have been several questions regarding the availability of the full version of Robo Defense. Hopefully this post will answer some of those questions. We apologize for the delay in posting this information. We wanted to make sure our facts were accurate and that we were addressing most of the issues people might have when trying to locate Robo Defense.

Robo Defense is available on the Android Market for $2.99 USD. Currently it is the only place that Robo Defense is available for purchase and download. If you do not have access to Robo Defense through the Market, we apologize. We have been, and still are evaluating other distribution methods, but have not yet found anything that would be sufficiently secure and reliable for payments, update distributions, etc. We will not distribute Robo Defense by email.

That said, the following circumstances will prevent you from being able to locate the full version of Robo Defense on the Market.

1. Your country does not yet support paid apps - The following countries currently have paid applications available to them on the Android Market:

Austria
France
Germany
Italy
Netherlands
Spain
United Kingdom
United States

Google claims to be working on adding additional countries, but we have not been able to locate any information indicating the progress of this work.

2. Your firmware version is not at least version 1.1 - Most people will have their firmware updated automatically and are likely at version 1.5 by now, but you can verify this in the "Settings -> About Phone" menu on your phone.

3. You have a developer phone (or equivalent) - The full version of Robo Defense is copy protected. Devloper phones, or any ulocked phone that the market tags as a developer phone, can not see copy protected apps on the market. Copy protection can not be disabled on an app once released to the market as copy protected, so Robo Defense will remain copy protected. We will evaluate the need for copy protection on future apps. (Note: The Samsung Galaxy experienced a firmware update that made all phones look like developer phones and thus, unable to see copy protected apps. We have not been able to verify if this has been corrected yet.)

4. Your payment method does not support US dollars - Maestro cards in paticular have had issues purchasing US apps, but we have not been able to verify if the issue prevents users from seeing these apps on the Market, or if the issue occurs only at checkout.

If none of the circumstances above apply to you, you should be able to find the full version of Robo Defense on the Market. If you still can not locate it, try modifying your search. Strangley, we have had several reports from people that could not locate it when searching for "Robo Defense", but found the game after searching for "Lupis", "Robo", or "Defense".

Happy defending!

Version 1.1.1 Released

2009-07-14T21:54:00.000-07:00

I realized today that, in version 1.1.0, the FREE and FULL versions use the same filename for the SD card backup and that this opens up the potential for bad things to happen if you have both versions installed and happen to switch between the two (e.g. the backup could restore to the wrong version and wipe out progress).

This small update gives the free and full SD backup files unique names.

Version 1.1.0 Released

2009-07-13T20:20:00.001-07:00

Version 1.1.0 has been released

This version saves a backup of your progress to your SD card (if present). This feature gives you the ability to keep your progress if you need to reset the phone or get a new phone.

Also included are some bug fixes:

- "New Game" menu fixed when in fast-forward mode
- Corrected misspelling in "Fast Lane" achievement

Version 1.0.6 Released

2009-06-30T08:34:00.001-07:00

This is a bug-fix release.

Version 1.0.0 added a "prevent screen lock" feature. As coded, this feature could cause crashes when exiting the game. This update should correct the issue.

Robo Defense Instructions!

2009-06-29T18:38:00.000-07:00

These have been a long time coming. Sorry to those of you who do not have a lot of experience with tower defense games and would have benefited by these much sooner. More details on towers and enemies are forthcoming!

Robo Defense Instructions:

Basics

Robots are trying to get from one side of the map to another, and it's your job to stop them by building and upgrading some defense towers. There is always at least one entrance, and there is always an exit directly accross from each entrance. The robots will always exit directly accross from where they entered. Should a robot reach the exit, you can assume that it does something terrible, because it reduces your health by 1. Your health is that little number inside the heart near the top of the screen.

Stay off my lawn!

Details

To start a game, tap "New Game" from the main menu and choose a level. In the full version There are several maps to choose from. The basic level is the easiest, and each map after that gets increasingly harder, with the exception of the VR Training level. From this selection screen, you can also pick a difficulty level. There is no maximum difficulty level. Each time you complete a difficult level ending in 0, you will gain access to the 10 difficulty levels that follow. Be warned that in order to have a prayer on higher difficulty levels, you must upgrade your stats (more on that later).

Since this game uses open maps, you can place the towers wherever you want, as long as there is nothing currently occupying that space and the robots still have a path to the exit. If you want to create a straight shot gauntlet of death, go for it. If you want to make them walk a little, that's an option too. Part of the fun is trying different tower configurations that punish the 9 different kinds robots appropriately, so that they can't escape.

He doesn't like you

Controls

The three basic towers can be placed by dragging a tower from its icon onto the play field and releasing it onto an open square. Once a tower has been placed, tap it, and it can be sold or upgraded into different kinds of towers or more powerful versions of the current tower. To close the upgrade window, simply tap anywhere outside of it. There are 9 different types of towers with varying degrees of upgrades. Be sure to experiment to discover which types of towers and tower layouts work best against the various enemies.

At the bottom of the play screen are two red buttons that you can go through a whole game without touching, but they are useful nonetheless. The first is the pause button. When you press this, the action stops and you can scroll around to see what's happening around the map and admire the killer visuals. You cannot place towers while paused, because that's just not very sporting. The second button is a fast forward button it will make time go three times as fast so that you don't have to wait for robots to walk to their doom. To restore normal time, simply hit the play button that appears.

If the situation looks dire, that's because it is

Sweet Rewards

You'll notice that when you destroy a robot, you get two things, cash and points. Cash is displayed above your health and can be used to buy additional towers or upgrade current ones. Points, however can be used from the main menu to purchase permanent upgrades that will apply to all future games. Even if you lose a game, you can have the consolation that the points you earned will make you more powerful for the next game! Keep in mind that you will get bonuses for playing higher difficulties and completing rounds without letting robots through. If you are having trouble completing a level, try earning some more points for upgrades. If you are a master tower defense player, maybe you want to challenge yourself by completing as high a difficulty level as you can with minimum upgrades.

You may have noticed an achievement section accesible from the main menu. From here you can view all of the various acheivements that are available to earn while playing. You'll know when you unlock an acheivement as a congratulatory message will tell you so. You will also get some sweet, sweet bonus points added to that game's score! Each acheivement will also add to the bonus of every game you play. Acheivements can be great ways to challenge yourself to try new strategies and really learn the game.

Whoa, a lot of work to do

Tips

- Plan ahead. Remember that you can pause at any time to survey the situation and decide what you are going to do next.

- There is no penalty for losing a game. Playing a throw away game to figure out the strengths and weakness of different towers and tower configurations can be a very useful method for becoming a stronger player.

- Even if you think you've found the perfect tower layout for a given map, keep trying new ones. It keeps the game fresh and you might find something that works even better.

- The longer you can keep a robot on the screen, the more damage you can do to it. There are more ways than one to accomplish this.

- When deciding which towers to upgrade, spend money on the towers that robots will spend the most time around.

- If you spend all of your money trying to defend against ground units, air units will ruin your day.

- In the VR Training level, the number of entrances and exits are determined by the letter at the beginning of the code you are asked to enter. The remaining four digits of the code will create a unique set of obstacles, meaning that there are 40,000 possible layouts. If you played this level with fast forward on, 12 hours a day, every day, it would still take you over 5 years to play all of the combinations. When you can't decide what level you want to play, this is a good place to start. If you find a combination that you feel creates an especially sick level, feel free to share that code with others so that they can try it.

VR Level B0639, in case you were wondering

Version 1.0.5 Released

2009-06-26T00:37:00.001-07:00

This version adds range display for towers. If you don't like the display, you can turn it off in the options menu for old behavior.

A couple of bugs were also fixed:

- If you have the upgrade dialog open for a "loaded" teleport/mine tower. The dialog will now refresh if the tower happens to fire.

- There is a long-standing logic bug that will not allow you to place towers if those towers blocked onscreen enemies from reaching an exit they are not targeting anyway. Now you can place towers that completely block enemies from these exits.

Version 1.0.0 Released

2009-06-21T21:48:00.000-07:00

Version 1.0.0 is released to the marketplace.

This version adds two new unlockable towers:

- The mine tower creates a large explosion. Multiple mines will chain together for more damage
- The teleport tower instantly transports an enemy back to entrance for another run through your towers.

Both towers types allow the enemy to walk over them. Both tower types also need to be reloaded each time they fire.

Other changes include a "prevent screen sleep from activating" option, and a new end-of-game bonus that rewards points for unspent money.

Version 0.9.1 Released

2009-06-10T21:32:00.000-07:00

This version fixes two bugs.

The first is an "Events > 500" error that can occur if you play the game on very high difficulty settings. Basically too much is going on and the game engine is asserting that its being overstressed. We now disable rocket smoke when events go over 400, which should clear the issue. Those playing at very high difficulty levels, please let us know if you still see issues!

The second rewords the newly-added option "Leave fast forward between levels" to "Disable fast forward between levels". The original wording can be interpreted as intended and the as the opposite; sorry about that!

Version 0.9.0 Released

2009-06-07T15:11:00.000-07:00

This version has a new map for the full version (VR Traning). This map is special in that you get to enter a code which determines the map layout; where entrances, exits and obstacles are located. There are 40,000 codes total!

Changes that effect both version include a new in-game options menu where you can toggle sound and fast-forward behavior.

Enjoy!

Version 0.8.0 Released

2009-05-30T17:01:00.000-07:00

This version has a new map, "The Courtyard", in the full version of the game. Also improved "back button" handling in the menu for all versions.

Enjoy!

Updates Coming Soon

2009-05-29T11:22:00.000-07:00

I thought I would update you on some of the changes we are working on. Depending on how testing goes, these changes may be rolled out as a single release or as a few. We expect to release the update in a few days...

The next few releases will contain:

- A new level for the full version. This level is the most challenging yet. I've been having a lot of fun playing the prototype and am excited to get it to you.
- New achievements to go with the new level
- A new in-game options menu. This menu will let you toggle the following while playing the game:
  + Sound
  + Whether the game leaves fast forward mode at the end of each level
  + Whether the game leaves fast forward mode if you lose health

Further out, you can expect additional levels and some "boss units". We'll release the new content as we finish it :)

Version 0.7.5 Released

2009-05-25T13:05:00.000-07:00

This new release adds 13 new achievements, most of them map-specific.

Other changes include:

- Better 'back' button handling on the phone
- Slight balancing tweaks (made the anti-air towers a bit stronger)

Version 0.7.1 Released

2009-05-23T16:31:00.000-07:00

This version adds automatic backup of your progress (rewards/achievements). The backup is made each time you go to the title. If you progress gets lost for some reason, the backup will automatically be used to restore the progress. Like most backup systems, this means that you may lose a little bit of progress if the backup has to be used, but not all of it.

Note that the backup does not protect your data if you uninstall the game. It mainly prevents data loss if the phone is forced to kill the game while its in the middle of saving progress (due to low power, etc).

Robo Defense Screenshots

2009-05-23T13:11:00.001-07:00

Here are some screenshots of the game. Enjoy!

Version 0.7.0 Released

2009-05-22T00:05:00.000-07:00

Version 0.7.0 is a bug-fix release that fixes several critical bugs (and a minor one)

Bugs fixed:

- Fixed "force close" bug that would trigger if an enemy is killed at same time it reaches the exit.
- Fixed "Internal Error: 500 Enemies" error that would trigger the game was interrupted/restarted a lot
- Changed save logic so that, if the game force closes for some reason, you will no longer lose your last save.
- Tweaked drawing routine for better stability on a heavily loaded phone
- Fixed bug where volume control would change ringer volume if a sound was not actively playing

Download Issues

2009-05-21T15:53:00.000-07:00

For those that are having issues downloading the game, we'd like to share some pointers that we found:

http://multiplefacets.com/corporateblog/2009/03/10/android-market-problems/

Please note that we do not run the download service so advice is the best we can offer (unfortunately).

If anyone has additional tips, feel free to comment.

Full Version Released

2009-05-19T21:48:00.000-07:00

We have just released the full version of Robo Defense for $2.99.

We sincerely hope you enjoy it. The full version contains all of the features of the FREE one (of course) plus the following:

- 2 new, more challenging, maps.
- Unlimited upgrades
- Unlimited difficulty levels
- Ability to unlock all achievements

We will continue to enhance both the free and full versions over the next few months. Thank you for your support!

Remember, if you would like your rewards and achievement data to copy from the free version to the full one, please make sure that you are updated to v0.6.0 of the free version (or higher) before installing the full one. You also need to run the updated free version at least once (going to the title screen, then exiting is fine) See our last post for what to do if you accidentally start the full version before updating.

(We'll try and get some screenshots posted here soon)

Version 0.6.0 Released

2009-05-17T17:30:00.000-07:00

This version adds support for transferring rewards and achievements from the FREE to the full version the first time the full version is run.

For this to work, version 0.6.0 or higher of the free version must be installed and run at least once before installing the full version. This step is required because older versions of the free version didn't allow the save data to be shared.

Note: the full version is not released as I write this but upgrading your free version now to >= 0.6.0 will ensure you are ready.

If you happen to install the full version before updating the free one:

- Uninstall the full version (main menu -> settings -> applications -> manage applications -> Robo Defense -> uninstall)
- Install/run the latest free version
- reinstall the full version

and the rewards/achievements should transfer.

Notes on the full version

2009-05-17T10:23:00.000-07:00

Here is a quick full-version FAQ:

When will the full version be released?

We hope to have an initial version ready in a day or two. We'll keep you posted on the status from this page.

How much will the full version cost?

We have not decided on a final cost yet, but are thinking around $3.99

What does the full version add?

These are the enhancements for the first release:

- 2 new maps
- Unlimited reward upgrades
- Unlimited difficulty levels
- The ability to get achievements like "Score 1,000,000 points in one game". These achievements are not technically locked in the free version, but the difficulty level cap makes them inaccessible.

We are also planning several additional maps, unlockable tower types, new enemy types, and new unlockable achievements; all free for full version owners, of course.

Will my rewards/upgrades transfer from the free version to the full one?

Yes, provided that you are running v0.6.0 or higher of the free version

Version 0.5.2 Released

2009-05-17T10:20:00.000-07:00

Version 0.5.2 contains the following changes:

- Fixed Internal error that looks similar to this "Internal Error: 102 > 100 Enemies"
- Centered health bar on larger units

Version 0.5.1 Released

2009-05-17T10:15:00.000-07:00

Version 0.5.1 contains the following changes:

- Fixed "force close" issue that would occur if you received a call, opened the case, or had a similar event occur during a game
- Balance change: Made the Jets slightly slower and weaker

Robo Defense FREE now available!!

2009-05-13T18:32:00.000-07:00

After many months of very hard work, Robo Defense FREE is now available on Android Market. The abstract will tell you most of what you need to know:

Robo Defense is the ultimate portable tower defense experience. Featuring open maps to allow countless strategies, upgradeable towers, permanent stat upgrades, a revolutionary achievement system, smooth frame-rates, and some pretty sweet graphics. The free version features 1 map with 11 difficulty levels.

The full version will feature additional maps and a lot more difficulty levels. We hope to release it in about a week or two.

As we were not first to market with a tower defense game, most people will get the gist of how to play. Basically, robots are trying to get from one side of the map to another, and it's your job to stop them by building and upgrading some defense towers.

More info to come...