play a rugged-ass demo here:https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/11806970/horse_bow_spear/HSB3_pc.htmlOr get an .exe here
http://www.indiedb.com/games/war-party/downloads/combatpuzzle-demonstration-for-war-partyI started this game just under a week ago and here's where I am with it. All the content and script is my own work, and the SDK being used is MMF 2.
will put it out for pc/droid/ios.
In a single sentence, I would call it "turn based tetris in a mount & blade costume." This might sound almost derogatory. It's not the best game ever, just a personal goal.
I don't know if the name's taken. I found some totally unrelated board game, i think it should be ok. Someone let me know if there's something I overlooked.
Anyway, it's a puzzle/strategy game with a simple branching meta-campaign composed of randomised encounters.
It is a turn based, abstracted war game. The armies are comprised of three unit types: horse, spear, and bow. Each turn, you move all your men forward one space (if they are able) and the enemy then moves theirs forward one. This is called an "advance" rather than a "move."
Soldiers of opposing sides advance until they meet, at which point they have a simple "scissors, paper, rock" style battle. Spear beats horse, horse beats bow, bow beats spear.
If they win, they eradicate the enemy and move into the space left behind by him.
If two units of the same type meet, they are locked in a stalemate.
To break a stalemate you need to switch the "stuck" unit out to the side with another friendly unit.
Which is an important point: each turn, you get two "moves." (not "advances".) That is, two chances to shift units to the left or right. They can swap with a friendly, or move into an empty space. They cannot swap positions with an enemy, attack sideways, or sidestep off the game board.
You win the game by either depleting the enemy forces or destroying each "column" of their fortifications in their rear.
There are also powerups. There is "rally" which gives you 4 moves instead of 2 for the turn in which you used the powerup - "charge" which gives you two consecutive advances (without the option to take moves in-between) "catapult" which allows you to, after one turn, eradicate four adjacent selected spaces with a bombardment and "spies" which will warn you when the enemy is about to charge or use a catapult.
The enemies only rearrange their ranks in a minority of cases (for example, when moving into a blank space would break a stalemate, or put them in line with one of your wall segments to destroy it)
Yes, the game isn't totally symmetrical. I want it to play something between a puzzle and a strategy game. If the enemy reorganised itself too much, strategies that run multiple turns would be nullified by what is essentially an RNG.
This is how the game board looks.
The metagame:
When not involved in battles, the player can advance over an endless worldmap made of many tiling terrain cards which shuffle. I then place randomised settlements on the map. The player can approach each one, and is then confronted by a simple "A or B" choice. Usually this will be a choice in favour of "glory" (the points of the game) or "money/units/powerups" which are more of an investment to gain glory from fights later (or to keep yourself from being slaughtered)
If the player loses all their men in a fight, they start again in a new "world" and their high score is recorded. It's intended as a bus trip or coffee break game.
FAQ:
Can you move units backwards or forwards?
No. The implications of not being able to move units back and forth are that stalemates can be "insta-broken" whenever they are encountered. Right now, if you advance in a spearhead through enemy lines, chances are you will get surrounded, stalemated, and it will be impossible to advance that file of men until you bring up the rest of the line.
Special units?
Possibly. For now I want the game to be fully functional with just the basic play style though. Less for me to mess up.
Multiplayer?
Probably not. I'm not a programmer, i'm just doing my best.
I hope you like my work so far. Feedback would be good!
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