Feature Friday: Troy Daniels

Starting in June I’m going to do a feature post about a different person and what’s going on in their life. Today’s feature is about Troy Daniels. Yes, he’s my boyfriend, but he also just released a few android apps, so I figured he would be the perfect guinea pig.

Feature Friday: Troy Daniels

What is your name? Troy Daniels

What do you do for a living? Tax systems. I implement friggin’ tax systems for the government, and it’s way more interesting than you think. I love it.

What are your hobbies? Used to be way into Photography but as of the last couple years it’s been game development.

What made you stop being quite so interested in photography? I wasted all my time on this game.

What got you interested in developing a game? I just wanted to make a game man.  I came across a piece of software called Unity and it seemed pretty easy.  2 years later I’ve got a game.

What is the name of your game? Wizards Alley – because all the other suggestions people hated.

Wizards Alley

What other names did you consider? The only one I can remember is Onslaught of the Destroyer.

What is the game about? It’s about love, conquest, drama, success and fortune.  Oh and It’s a tower defense game.  Creeps march around a path and you try to pulverize them using knights, dragons, druids and wizards.

Why did you decide on that type? I like tower defense games.  They’re relaxing.  All you have to do is stop the creeps.  Also I thought it would be easy to code for…also I was wrong about that.

How long did it take you to get the game completed? 2 friggin years of coding after work and on weekends.

Did you do all of the coding yourself?  Um…yes…er…mostly.  I bought some code because I got sick of trouble shooting my code.  Buying code means the developer will make it work for me. But, overall, I did about 90% of it.

Did you think about it for a long time before starting developing or did you come up with the game one day and get started right away? Nope, I developed it on the fly because it was just a hobby.  Didn’t even think it would make it to the light of day.  In fact the original project name was “tests” because I was testing some assets I purchased.

Wizards Alley

Have you designed any other games? Lots…or parts of them.  The scope was too large and I’m just one man so they got trashed.  I do have a couple of fantastic apps on the android app store though, one turns your phone into a coaster (oooooooh) and the other generates fantastic insults.

What is it that makes Wizards Alley better than other tower defense games? I’ve played some pretty fantastic tower defense games.  If you’re a fan of the genre you never really say one is better than the other.  Some just have elements that get you addicted.  Mine has the standard players, splash towers (damage multiple enemies), slow towers, range towers but now I’ve got friggin’ Wizards.  The user gets to choose what type of magic the wizards use by placing a combination of gems on them.  Additionally most tower defense games have pretty boring creeps.  Mine are adorable and beyond that they all do something slightly different.  Some are just strong or fast but some breath fire, teleport, heal themselves, or are just plain mean.  They also follow random paths, so not only is strategy a factor, so is luck.

What tips can you give about your game to help someone who has never played a tower defense game before?  Always look for maximum coverage.  Towers always cover a radius, so if the path loops around a spot and you place a tower there you’ll get maximum damage per second.  Beyond that, upgrade your towers as fast as you can.  Usually an upgraded tower is more valuable than two of the base towers.

How do you feel now that you’ve launched Wizards Alley? Not as stressed but still stressed.  Most of the reviews are positive but someone gave me a one star review.  It hurts inside and they didn’t tell me why.  How can I do whatever they want if they don’t leave a review?

Are you glad you made the game? Yep. It was one of my bucket list items and I’m pretty sure I’ve lost more money than I’ll make, but I’m glad I made the game.

Is the end result what you thought it would be? I think it turned out better than what I thought it would be. It looks really good, all the assets came together quite nice and it just looks shiny.

Wizards Alley

Do you have plans to make any more games in the future? Depends.  I have some thoughts but I don’t have the time.

Where to find Troy’s games:

Where to find Troy:

Check out the trailer for Wizards Alley

20 Replies to “Feature Friday: Troy Daniels”

  1. Tanya Lara

    A taxman that develops games! What a combination. 🙂 Looks like a fun game. Great game name, though Onslaught of the Destroyers ain’t so bad either.

    Reply
  2. Michele

    That is actually very interesting. No, I do not play that type of game-but I find it intriguing that you work with tax code during working hours and then work on games in your free time.

    Reply
    • Erin Post author

      I didn’t play this type of game (or any, really) before he asked me to test it out for him. It’s actually pretty fun. And I agree about it being intriguing that his relaxation from writing tax software code is to write android game code. You’d think he’d pick something less stressful. lol

      Reply
  3. lpayoute

    Always good to do something you have passion for. Love he’s mindset: ” I’m pretty sure I’ve lost more money than I’ll make, but I’m glad I made the game”

    Reply
  4. Heather

    That’s cool, making apps and games! What a neat profession! I don’t even know how people learn how to make the games and apps, I guess there’s a special school for that. Better left to the computer whizs.

    Reply
  5. Tiany

    Very neat, I have four boys that would love this type of game. I can only imagine how time consuming it must be to create something like this. Great interview.

    Reply

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