Dota 2: Heroes Clash

First of all, I'd like to say: Happy New Year 2015! *put a new year new me quote stuff here*
On this first month of the year, I'd like to introduce another of my fanmade total conversion project, Dota 2: Heroes Clash. It is a fast-paced, fanmade Battle Arena themed map featured with heroes from popular Dota 2 franchise.

Due to 8 MB multiplayer size limitation, I plan to create a separated version of this project in the future: Multiplayer Version and Full Version, Full Version will have more contents, heroes and especially alternate costume sets which player can choose. Having characters various alternate costume has been my personal excitement for developing this kind of moba adaptation project, therefore full version is created for non-multiplayer size purpose. Along with my League of Legends: Arena, I plan to develop both of these project until I could include at least around 30-40 available characters.

Sven available costume sets

With this Dota 2 conversion release, there is a chance that I plan to complete, the previously unfinished version from my Dota 2: Open Role Playing Game which abandoned since like around 2 years ago.

Rylai and Lina

Features Preview
"There is already HQ Dota 2 conversion called war dota or something, what making this different?" This isn't a total .mpq project but a single, playable map for wc3. Therefore the size wouldn't be reach hundred MB or even GB and due to the genre is being a battle arena, all levelable passive abilities from the original Dota concept will be revised into active version, but that doesn't mean all heroes doen't have passive at all, each heroes have their own unlevelable passive.

Killing Spree, Dominating, Wicked Sick, and so on! One of the iconic feature from Dota is a kill chain notification, therefore I include this feature here as well along with it's own announcer voice clip. There is also more than 60 items with it's own icon from the original Dota 2 to costumize your hero and made them stronger along the way. The iconic creeps, Roshan the Immortal is also featured in the game as both the game powerful boss, as well as secret playable character you can unlock.

In-Game Preview 001

In-Game Preview 002

In-Game Preview 003

In-Game Preview 004

Download Version 1.5
Latest version 1.5 released on August, 5th 2015 featuring Mogul Khan, the Axe. Including gameplay, bugs and typos fix, as well as some heroes rebalance. Full changelog listed in-game.

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Latest Release Date: August 5th, 2015

Current Map Size: 6,4 MB

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What I Did Right and Wrong in 2014

We are now rolling along into the wonderful new year of 2015, but over the past few weeks, I've taken many a moment to reflect - from the standpoint of an author - on what happened to me over the previous 12 months.  Needless to say, I had highs and lows; there were things I [like to think I] did well and things I did poorly.  Hopefully, the next twelve months will see me doing many more of the former and far less of the latter, but for now it's helpful for me to put them on the scales and see how they balance.

Things Done Right

1)  I think the main thing I did right is that I continued to write and publish.  You'll hear all the time about how most people who want to write a book will never start; most who start writing a book will never finish; most who finish a book will never publish...and so on. Thus, I'm happy that I kept advancing the ball in that regard.  

2)  I sold more books (and, by extension, made more money) than I did in 2013.  Of course, in 2013, I was just getting started and didn't have my fiction out there until around May of that year.  Still, although it's not truly an apples-to-apples comparison, I can't help but view this as a step in the right direction.  (To be honest, though, I don't know how accurate it is to claim stats like book sales as something I "did," unless you look at it from a marketing/promotion point of view).

3)  I came up with lots of new ideas for books (many of which I actually started writing).  I even published the first novel, Terminus, in a new series.  I feel blessed that it has been well-received by readers and I look forward to getting the next book in the series published.

Things Done Poorly

1)  The first thing on this list is an easy one to pinpoint: I only published two books in 2014.  Two!  I actually posted very recently about how our ability to write and publish quickly is a major strength for indies, so this is completely at odds with my personal philosophy.  However, it is something that I definitely intend to remedy.

2)  The two books that I finished in 2014 were published roughly seven months apart.  Frankly speaking, that's simply too large of a break between books for an indie author. Unless you are selling massively (as opposed to modestly, like myself), it's just too easy for readers to forget about you, even if they are huge fans. That's why my preference is to publish books no more than four months apart, although publishing a new one every 2-3 months would be far better.  (If you need proof of how important it is to publish regularly, you need look no further than my sales.  Before I published Terminus in November, my monthly sales were the lowest they had been since I began in 2013.)

3)  I didn't publish a novel in my most popular series, Kid Sensation, which can almost be considered heresy.  I had sincerely hoped to have the next book done back in November, but I had some other things come up that left me with little time to write, if I'm being honest.  Still,  a successful series is a rarity, so continuing to expand on that achievement is imperative.

Of course, there were lots of other things that can be lumped into the category of right or wrong for the year, but these are probably the primary contributors to any successes or shortcomings I experienced.  Naturally, I intend to continue embracing the positive practices while eliminating the negative.  With a little luck, the 2015 "right" list will be far longer than the "wrong" one.

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