Daily Dev Update: Campaigns, Roads, and a Cleaner Level Browser - October 26, 2025

Period: October 26, 2025 Total Commits: 52

Hey — here’s what we’ve been working on. Today’s update pulls the single‑player campaign experience together with sequential progression, a roads system that constrains pathing, a redesigned level browser, and a lot of fixes around placement, pathfinding, and UI. It’s playable, it’s cleaner, and it’s getting there.

What’s New

• Campaign progression

  • We added a proper campaign flow: levels are grouped, you play them in order, and progress is tracked between missions. Victory screens now show a Next Level button (final level shows a clear completion state). Defeat gives you a straight Restart option.
  • Campaign cards now summarize difficulty and tags, and expanded views list included levels with estimated time.

• Level browser redesign

  • The browser moved to a split‑pane layout: scrollable list on the left, details on the right. It auto‑selects the first entry and uses a compact difficulty dropdown.
  • You can import custom maps directly from files. Validated maps launch immediately into a “custom” play route.
  • We also cleaned up main menu visuals and added small square icon buttons for Discord, Twitter, Bluesky, and Reddit for quick hops to community spaces.

  [screenshot: split‑pane level browser with campaign details at c06e1fd]

• TowerStorm Map files (.tsm)

  • Maps now use the .tsm extension (TowerStorm Map). The format is the same JSON structure, just a clearer, game‑specific extension.
  • The browser, loader, and file pickers prefer .tsm. The manifest remains JSON since it’s the index.

• Roads and constrained pathing

  • Campaign maps can include roads. When roads exist, minions are restricted to them (plus spawns and enemy castles). This gives level designers tight control over route design and pacing.
  • Roads auto‑connect and render with correct sprites based on neighbors. They also connect cleanly to castles and spawn areas.
  • Towers can’t be placed on roads.

  [screenshot: minions following connected road tiles into a castle at 3b5534a]

• Variable map sizes (centered on the fixed background)

  • Campaign maps can be smaller than the full board. We center them on the fixed 31x17 background and mask unused areas so the active playfield is clear.
  • Spawns, castles, roads, and grid lines all respect the offset and bounds.

• Unit selection per mission

  • Campaign levels can present a unit selection modal. Maps specify which towers/minions are available; the modal respects “none”, “some”, or “all” as intended.
  • This supports mission‑specific loadouts and early‑game teaching moments.

• Visual feedback upgrades

  • The tower placement preview now shows the actual tower icon, tinted for validity (green/yellow/orange/red) instead of a simple box. It’s cached and grid‑snapped for clarity.

  [screenshot: tinted tower icon placement preview near a road at 3de8c1e]

• New VFX for droid deaths

  • Added an orange/red death explosion effect to droid‑type minions with a synced 0.5s fade. Health bars hide immediately on death to reduce clutter.

  [screenshot: droid death explosion effect in combat at 98a1076]

• Level editor quality‑of‑life

  • New top toolbar for select/force/delete tools; right‑click deselect to jump back to wave settings.
  • Auto‑save/auto‑load via localStorage; Open from file with modal errors; Save/Test Map flows with validation; filenames use the map name and .tsm extension.
  • Adjustable map dimensions and spawn area width with an accurate, centered grid view.
  • Optional per‑castle health (1–1000) for mission tuning.

What Got Fixed

• Placement, bounds, and gold checks

  • Placement previews now reflect the live simulation gold instead of a cached value; indicators correctly show yellow for low gold and red on roads.
  • Campaign bounds are enforced, so you can’t place outside the actual map area.
  • Fixed a missing player team init that suppressed all placement previews in campaign.
  • Adjacency and spawn indicators now query the grid (not static data), so custom castle positions and variable map sizes behave correctly.

• Pathing and roads

  • Roads properly connect to castles and update sprites; a bug from converting already‑integer castle positions was removed.
  • We corrected init order so castles update before roads, avoiding spawn blocks and ensuring complete flow fields.
  • Towers pre‑placed from waves now update the grid and trigger path recalculation so minions don’t walk through occupied tiles.
  • Path‑blocking validation uses campaign‑specific castles/spawn centers, fixing edge cases on offset maps.

• Offsets, spawns, and visuals

  • Map offset rounding switched to whole tiles to avoid half‑tile drift; extra tiles bias to bottom/right consistently.
  • Spawn areas position correctly on smaller maps with offsets.
  • The tower preview replaces the old box sprite entirely and tints correctly across all validity states.

• Audio and UI polish

  • Victory/defeat sounds no longer double‑play; they hand off cleanly to music and respect volume settings.
  • Campaign HUD hides the opposing team panel and focuses the layout for single‑side play.

Under the Hood

• Campaign map schema and validation

  • We built a robust validation layer: strict typing, resource limits, sanitization, and bounds checks. It’s used consistently for browser imports, editor saves, and test mode.
  • Metadata moved into individual level files; the manifest now indexes campaigns and difficulty theme info. This removes duplication and creates a single source of truth.

• Serialization and editor pipeline

  • One serializer path feeds localStorage, file saves, and test mode. Wave 0 cleanly separates economy (initial state) from entities.
  • The file picker prefers .tsm and validation runs before import/play. Errors surface in a modal instead of alerts.

• Game loop and pathfinding

  • Campaign runs on a requestAnimationFrame loop with delta time for smooth updates and clearer timing. Wave countdowns are visible in the HUD.
  • Pathfinding APIs now consume unified castle info, reducing inconsistencies between systems and making recalculations more reliable.

Known rough edges we’ve been watching

• Custom maps mixing tight road corridors and unusual spawn widths can still expose odd path choices. If you see minions bail off a road, send us the .tsm.
• Placement color states depend on live sim gold; if you spot a mismatch, include a clip and your map so we can reproduce.

Thanks to everyone poking at campaign maps and sharing screenshots. The roads system + unit selection has already surfaced some fun mission designs. Keep the feedback coming, especially on placement edge cases and road layouts.