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[kavs]

Time for me to finish a game for once in my life. I'm going to make a 2D strategy game for 2 players, based heavily around unit combat cycles and controlling the map. It'll be controlled by one button. I'll do 4P or online play if I have the time at the end!

Day1 lunchbreak mockup!


V0.28 Screenshot


Current build (V0.31) can be played here:
http://kavs.ca/versus/

Older Builds:
V0.28 : V0.26 : V0.21 : V0.14 : V0.09

Notes about current build:
This is the final build for the compo, seeing as it's midnight. I didn't work on it for about a month, and I've just scrambled to get a few more features in. Now I'm sad that I didn't spend the last month working on it as the game... well, there isn't a lot to it. I'd have loved to add more strategy through tech trees, different units, or different paths.. but I dropped the ball. I'm just happy I technically have a 'finished' game for a compo, for once. :3

Changelog from Version 0.28 - 0.31 (A full development changelog can be found here)

Code:

-Cut out a lot of UI options I never got around to. :3
-Added spawn bars! And feedback for for HP and capture income amounts.
-Changed up some blood stuff.

[Development Time: 2 hours]

Let me know if you have any feedback, questions, or concerns. I'd love to hear your thoughts!  

[Inanimate]

• line/push strategy game.

Excuse my lack of knowledge, but what is that?

[kavs]

Excuse my lack of knowledge, but what is that?

I wouldn't call it a lack of knowledge as I'm not quite sure what the gametype is called itself, but basically...

• Each player has a base/castle/fort.
• At set intervals, players can chose to send units toward the other player.
• The NPCs cannot be explicitly controlled, but rather run toward the enemy until they meet an enemy unit and they will start combat.
  
• The victorious units will press onward toward the enemy base, capturing resource nodes and such all along the way.
• The game ends when the other player's fort is destroyed (or some other victory yet to be conceived )

So basically, it's line because they just run in a line toward the enemy base (or down multiple lines if the map is laid out as such), and it's push because units will be meeting eachother in each lane and slowly pushing the 'front line' toward either fort.

Hope that makes sense; my vague description above doesn't help much. :D

[ChevyRay]

That overall game mechanic is actually a pretty good one to work with in this theme, I hope there are a few games like that in this compo! I'd like to see what kinda competitiveness people come up with

GOOD LUCK KAVS! FlashPunk represent, yo <3

[Hangedman]

Kind of like double-ended tower defense. 

[kavs]

Did a mockup over lunchbreak to help show what this is gunna be about... adding to the top, too. <o/

2 bases, 2 teams, an array of units to choose, and then capture points along the path to encourage attacking. each flag will give extra resources to spawn tougher dudes!

combat will be a bit random, as well, to allow for crazy hero runs and cool moments in battle (underdog victories and such).

[ChevyRay]

Ahaha glorious mockup. Looks fun already!

[Inanimate]

Oh my god it is adorable

I hope the game actually looks like that.

[Tycho Brahe]

Looks pretty fun! They'res a ton of similar games online like this, but I don't think theres one with m/p out there.
What kind of range of units are you planning? I'm not to familiar with the genre, but are you going for a rock/paper/scissors vibe, or strengths based, or something more complex?

[ChevyRay]

Yeah I wouldn't worry about existing games, just flesh yours out and make it balanced and fun, and it'll stand out no probs

[kavs]

Looks pretty fun! They'res a ton of similar games online like this, but I don't think theres one with m/p out there.
What kind of range of units are you planning? I'm not to familiar with the genre, but are you going for a rock/paper/scissors vibe, or strengths based, or something more complex?

I'm not sure how I'm going to do range units just yet; I might keep it just melee until I get a basic game fleshed out. I'm not sure how much control I'm going to give the player yet. If archers or mages just ran into swordsmen to their deaths, I'm sure the player would be pretty pissed. :D

At this point, if I were to add them in I'd make archers a weak ranged damage dealer, and I'd probably make mages more a utility unit that affects attack speeds, movement speeds, paralyzes units, etc. I'm going to stick with melee only for now though.

The spawning system I'm thinking about using goes something like this. You gain money every X seconds. The money you take in is based off of your base fort income and a small amount for each control point you own. (Ex. 100 for the fort, 20 for each point). At any given moment, the player can press the 'Spawn' key on the keyboard (Space?) and as long as they hold it down, it'll continue to consume resources. When the player releases the spawn key, a unit will emerge from the fort. It's attributes (and potentially class) will be determined by how many resources were poured into the unit.

So the player can save for a massive, powerful unit. Or they can opt to send out 3 or 4 little ones for the same cost. The powerful unit would dominate 1 or 2 of the little ones, but if all 4 were to engage the powerful unit at the same time he would become overwhelmed and likely fall to the weaker units. Slightly randomized combat will help this problem out a bit as well (dodge chances, critical hits, slight damage variations).

TLDR Summary: It'll likely be melee-only for now, but that's just a matter of scope. If I have time I'd love to add range units. I don't want to make it rock-paper-scissors, but rather watching your units go toe-to-toe with another and not being able to 100% know the outcome of the pending fight.

[Tycho Brahe]

Oops, badly worded question. I meant, what kinds of melee units/ variation of units are you planning? Sorry for being so confusing.

[kavs]

Oops, badly worded question. I meant, what kinds of melee units/ variation of units are you planning? Sorry for being so confusing.

I'm thinking having 4 tiers of unit for each type. For melees, this could involve different equipment potentially, or passive abilities for each one. Maybe something like this:

• Tier1: Swordsman (Fast attack, close range, low armor)
• Tier2: Spearman (Medium attack, long range, low armor)
• Tier3: Knight (Medium attack, close range, heavy armor, includes shield so they can block)
• Tier4: Axeman (Slow attack, close range, medium armor, Axe does splash damage for stacks of units)

I'd like to add upgrade options at the fort, like 100 resources for +1 weapons or +1 armor. I'm not sure exactly how I'll diversify the units just yet, but these questions are helping me define it. :D Maybe tiers of units will unlock over time ingame? Say at 30 seconds tier2 is unlocked, 60 seconds teir3 is unlocked, and tier4 at 120 seconds?

[Pirate]

oooh Kavs. I <3 this. Good to see you're bringing this idea to life now 

[PleasingFungus]

That looks pretty cool!

I think the genre is called "sidescrolling RTS" (though I guess yours won't scroll?) - the most mainstream release was Swords & Soldiers. You're obviously taking a very different approach to the genre than it, though.

Best of luck!

[rivon]

It's 2D DotA without heroes as I look at it...

[kavs]

Alright, original post updated to include my first released 'build' (if you can call it that). It isn't much for now and is more of a gameflow shell, but I wanted to post it just to prove I'm working on stuff and to motivate myself. I'm going to track my changes in a .txt and record everything until the project is done, as well as track my development time. I'll show everyone what I'm attempting to work on for my next builds, too.

Also, I'm struggling with picking a name. I started off with Lanes of Pain, then moved to Fortifight, and now I'm at Battle Lanes. Fortifight is a good name but it doesn't quite fit the game I'm creating here. Battle Lanes is much more descriptive, but I don't feel it flows quite well enough. So, if you have an idea and I like it, I'll make it the name and add you to the credits! Woo! (Also I will love you forever) EDIT: How about Battle Line or Battle Lines? Since if I go with stickmen it'll be a bit of a play on words. OHOSOCLEVER.  

oooh Kavs. I <3 this. Good to see you're bringing this idea to life now  

Thanks Pirate! :D Hopefully I actually finish it this time...

That looks pretty cool!

I think the genre is called "sidescrolling RTS" (though I guess yours won't scroll?) - the most mainstream release was Swords & Soldiers. You're obviously taking a very different approach to the genre than it, though.

Best of luck!

Thanks for the definition! I've updated my thread title to better reflect that as I love that description. I've heard of Swords and Soldiers but I haven't yet played it. Oh, and your assumption that it won't scroll is correct. I want to focus on having the local multiplayer be a lot of fun and I had a hard time imagining how I'd do that with scrolling. Maybe if I ever get online working I'll see if I can implement something like that on larger maps over online.

It's 2D DotA without heroes as I look at it...

I think by having the focus more on map control and unit composition it varies greatly from something like DOTA. I promise it'll be more than simple creep wars.   The goal is to create an epic battle filled with emergent combat goodness.

[Inanimate]

The title keeps changing... I think I'm getting dizzy! 


Also, this game looks really fun. I love oryx' little charming characters, too <3

[Pirate]

I can't wait to see them fight!!

[davidp]

whoooa, this looks awesome, great idea

can't wait to see more