I can update this thread with the news that I have one graphics artist working with me now; his signature on this forum is FlyingBeerman. But he has said that he probably won't finish everything himself, so we would gladly accept more help on the graphics front.

He has been working on a logo and a new title screen and is currently working on improving the menus of the game. But if someone for example would be interested in doing new sprites for the soldiers and their means of transportation, and perhaps some animations for those, then their help would be warmly welcomed.

So I write this post to declare that FlyingBeerman is now helping me with the graphics for the game. He has started with doing the logo and a new title screen and some work with the menus.

Here is his new title screen:



A warm welcome to FlyingBeerman!

The move/attack/counterattack function is finished and basically works. And I've completed the End Turn function, except for some details.

So I'm very near the point where I would release a simple demo in which both teams play on a single computer (i.e. no networking).

Does anybody have any tips about good and cheap web hosting for this javascript game?

Slow progress on the movement/attack/counterattack function.

Planning to make the territory borders look like this, in order to show more clearly what is the inside and what is the outside:

OK, things are coming together, I believe. Will finish the move/attack/counterattack function tomorrow.

Here is a screenshot of selecting the cannon for movement/attack, this time in an environment which I believe is a bit more typical of what would be the typical board, maybe a bit too simplistic even.



The problem is that since the cannon and a few other units destruct the terrain, it is useful with them to be able to attack squares that have no enemy units on them but are empty, and this also means that you can both move to and attack some squares, which makes it a bit cluttered. But I grayed out the attack crosshairs on those empty squares.

This screenshot is so visually cluttered, it's really hard to have any idea of what's happening.  There's lines, units, ground types and colors scattered everywhere and it's difficult to distinguish anything.

I think you really need to go back to the drawing board on the visuals for this game.  Come up with something simpler that works and looks better.

Yes this is tough criticism but I don't think anyone would play it with visuals like that.

I think part of the clutter comes from it being a randomized board which I'm using to test things out. I hope so, anyway. Still, there might be news on the graphics front, but I guess that's not official yet. I will come back to you about this.

Working on the counter attack function. Changed the circles to wheels:

Still working on the combined attack and move function. This will take a little bit longer than I thought.

Still working on the movement function.

Today I've written a detailed instructions document (in HTML format) for the game. Which reads like legalese rather than fun. And I've started to work on the movement function.

I changed the "forest" pattern. It looks less hallucinogenic now.

Hi I am the programmer and music composer, and currently also maker of the amateurish programmer art of the game Battle in a Box.

Here is a screen-shot of the current art of the game (from the board editor):



As you can see there is a special 2 1/2D perspective of the game engine which locks down the artistic possibilities a bit: you have to create soldiers and background elements while sticking to this perspective.

See more about this on the devlog page: http://forums.tigsource.com/index.php?topic=19145.0 .

It is also the case that the soldier tiles need to work in several versions: with and without light or heavy armour, and standing/sitting on different means of transportation, since the unit creation function of the game lets you create any combination of those. Or else you would get a combinatorial explosion of tiles (currently 15 unit types, 3 armour types and 5 transportation types, and 2 team colors).

So does this all look completely boring to you or do you get inspired by these constraints? If the latter, please contact me!

There is sort of an early business plan for the game (I plan to sell the board editor as an add-on), but no details. If the game should make money then you will of course be in on the deal...

I think "Battle in a box" is a more memorable name.  Although googling "Battle in a box" does come up with a result for some random Transformers toy.

Anyway, it looks like a cool concept for a turn based game.  Are you planning on getting better art for it?

Yes, it's the Transformers toy that I'm worried about. But google (for me, at least) turns up this thread as the first search result, so maybe it's not that bad.

Well, I'm aware of the need for better art, but I won't be able to do that much improvements personally, but will need the help of someone more knowledgeable in artistry.

Maybe a problem for finding a willing artist is that the game engine has kind of locked the UI perspective, and that the units should be combinable independently with armours and means of transportations, unless someone wants to create a huge number of tiles. Which kind of limits artistical freedom.
 
The only graphics improvements that are planned so far (to be done by myself before version 1.0) are getting a better forest surface, and making the guys sit on the horses instead of standing balancing on them (even my old father complained about this).

* So far done today: fixed so that scrolling with the mouse wheel works.


I'm thinking about changing the name to "Buildable Battle Box" or "Warfare in a Box" or something like that, in order to make it even more googleable. What do you think?

Now you can finally choose a board when the game starts. A small but important improvement!