[Campaign]

Campaign

I'm working hard on the single player campaign/story mode, which is fun. The story mode guides the player through all the games exciting features one at a time, trying not to bore or overwhelm. Its a balancing act. Each of the 50+ levels is a new challenge, introducing a new kind of battle, target, weapon or environment. Levels at the start will be very easy to complete and unlock the next one, but achieving the full three star rating will be more of a challenge and will require multiple attempts.



Starting in a quiet backwater, war soon threatens the Mammoths:
The first sector of 12 levels will be as part of the Mammoth Deep Space Mining Corp, a rough bunch of mammoths who spend their time in the planar asteroid fields on the edge of the galaxy. These missions will gently introduce the most important aspects of the game, although they are not training missions, there is a separate mammoth school sector for the tutorial. All the mining missions will be on 2D maps and feature one mammoth ship to control and simpler weapons. The first couple of missions are tag and crack work; tag selected asteroids with markers and crack them with mining explosives. After not long bandit mammoths present a problem that needs resolving and a more sinister plot is discovered, war is likely to result.

When war does break out, things get tricky fast:
The war missions are more demanding, with multiple ships to a squad, tactics become more important and the introduction of fully 3D levels adds another dimension to the game-play (obviously). Further types of environment keep things changing, as do escort and convoy attack missions and rocket turrets and bases. Its here we first meet the deadly cruisers, large armoured ships that can fire two shots per turn.

The war extends to other nations:
With blue and yellow mammoths dragged into the conflict, the missions become highly tactical affairs as three or four teams fight together. The war will only be won if suitable alliances can be formed and then one by one the enemy nations defeated. Ending in a suitable boss-style battle, this should feel like a significant achievement.

Mammoth Games:
Following the wars the nations of mammoth decided to hold gladiatorial games to resolve disputes, preventing further conflict. These games are an excuse for pure dual style battles, played over multiple rounds with scoring within the story mode. Expect each level to be harder than the last and the final battles to be extremely tough just to win, let alone score a top rating.

It is too hard, yeah.

Part of the problem is the FOV / real estate partitioning. You've got this huge star - which is quite nicely done btw - but it takes up 60% + of the playspace. Trying to keep track of orbits and everything the view focused in on this superlarge object is super hard.
Another suggestion would be trails of your previous shot and movement? Maybe even interactive trails, highlight and stuff? It's more complex with the two ships to watch.
I also couldn't seem to tell a ship to actually move, it just sort of sat where it was and kept firing at empty space.

And, there seems, uh...
... so that happened.

It looks very neat, though!

Great feedback. Thanks for that. I don't know whats going on in that screenshot, it looks like the game stopped cleaning up old graphics objects, I've not seen it do that myself... hummm.... I don't suppose you remember what you did to cause it?

Ship movement, ok, good feedback, you need to set the movement speed (power slider) and even then they move very very slowly - I might add something to show the movement better, they have to move slow or the game is even harder! I'll experiment with different movement controls.

So the star in the middle - there are other level configurations, with larger/smaller planets/stars positioned in different places, some feel more confined than others. I'll update the demo to include a wider range of levels so I can see which feel better.

Good suggestion on the trails of previous shots. It does that a bit - they are shown when you aim, but I could make it more obvious and useful.

Again thanks for the feedback.
 

psheff - thanks, I'm pleased with how it's looking. Now I'm working on the campaign, I should soon be able to show some of the campaign ships and structures...

Thanks for your comments. The game is difficult, and your comments are inline with what others have said. I'm in the process of making some improvements to the interface and changing the demo to first include a simpler flat 2D level before the much harder 3D levels. I'm also starting the coding for the campaign/story missions and I'm making the introduction to 3D levels nice and gentle. If I get it right, the feeling of accomplishment of successful hitting a target in a 3D gravity field will be immense.

Layout engine

Until now, the levels of Mammoth Gravity Battles have been laid out fairly simplistically, usually placing planets at random and maybe a star or gas giant at the center. I want the capability to layout with more control and structure, especially for the various campaign levels where I want each location to feel different and present a new challenge to the player. That's the plan anyway. So the new layout engine is shaping up; it can generate the shapes and structures and importantly set-up realistic gravitational motion. Using this, I can populate levels with interesting shapes such as asteroid belts or planetary rings and set them orbiting. I've been pushing the many body gravitational simulation to its limits – its likely some of these more complex scenarios with hundreds of asteroids won't be achievable on mobile, but if my little laptop can manage them, most PCs should be fine. I've got some plans to make the many body gravitational simulation less demanding on the processor, so I might be able to achieve more in the future.



An example of the more advanced layout: A star surrounded by an asteroid belt makes for an interesting battleground. The asteroids orbit under the gravity of the star.

Yeah, no sound yet, but clearly there will be sound effects.

I hear what you are saying about the difficulty aiming, that is my main worry. I tried adding ghost lines showing the previous shot but it may not be enough. I previously play-tested controlling the aim with icons from the "map" view, and it was not successful, but I will think about ways to make the aiming easier.

You guessed the spread out icons is for Mobile, but I want the game to work on PC as-well, so I could re-position them for PC, nice suggestion.

Thanks for your useful feedback, much appreciated.

So this week I am working on the layout engine. For the most part sectors have been placing planets and ships completely at random, but I want to include more structure than that. I also need to control placing of the various campaign levels very tightly. If I get this right, the layouts will always be playable and fun, but remain varied. I'll post more specific details in a future update.

Mammoth Gravity Battles

Mammoth gravity battles is a turn based strategy/artillery game for multiple platforms being developed using Unity. As with the classic Gravity Wars, you aim the shots choosing the direction and power of the projectile. The difficulty and fun comes from the chaotic gravity of the stars, planets, asteroids, moons and black holes in each sector. Uniquely Mammoth Gravity Battles fires all projectiles simultaneously, so you can shoot down other bullets with yours!

Currently being developed, for release in 2013 on Android, iPhone, iPad, Blackberry, Windows Phone 8, Windows PC, Windows 8 RT, Ouya, Mac and Linux.

Key Features

• Four Player Battles
• 16 different weapons - Pistols, Rockets, Frag Grenades, Tripple Cannon ...
• Single player campaign with varied missions
• Destructible planets

Gameplay video: http://youtu.be/XIbKvThTjyw

Try an early demo on the website: www.mammothgravitybattles.com
Or visit our facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/MammothGravityBattles
Or on IndieDB http://www.indiedb.com/games/mammoth-gravity-battles

Screenshot from current build of Mammoth Gravity Battles showing a mammoth-ship taking a shot with the pistol. You can see the ghost trails of previous shots, which should help you aim.

Mammoth Gravity Battles on Facebook
Mammoth Gravity Battles on IndieDB

[Feedback wanted for Mammoth Gravity Battles]

Feedback wanted for Mammoth Gravity Battles

Please go to our website, and you will be able to play the game, I would really like some feedback. I am specifically interested in how intuitive you find the controls and how difficult you find it, as I'm worried many will find it too hard. The final game will have a more gentle introduction with simpler 2D levels preceding a fully 3D mission like this.

Website with Game Demo

Description:

Mammoth gravity battles is a turn based strategy/artillery game similar to games like Death Star Battles and Gravity Wars. You aim the shots from your mammoth ships and watch as they fly in all three dimensions pulled by the chaotic gravity of the stars, planets, asteroids, moons and black holes in each sector. Currently being developed, for release in 2013 on Android, iPhone, iPad, Blackberry, Windows Phone 8, Windows PC, Windows 8 RT, Ouya, Mac and Linux.





Gameplay video: http://youtu.be/XIbKvThTjyw


As I said, please take a look and post any feedback.

Hi,

I am a software developer who works in financial software (boring I hear you cry), I am spending my free time working on an indie game, using the Unity engine. My game is called Mammoth Gravity Battles www.mammothgravitybattles.com and should be finished soon, but I'll write more about it on another thread.

Ian