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[Osteel]

No one seems to bother when one realistic looking graphic looks like another realistic looking graphic.

Well, realistic graphics are meant to look the same: realistic. I think the concern is when the art is stylized in a specific way in which this game is clearly cloning, such as the evergreens and the perspective of the sky scrapers, etc.

But I agree, the mountains are definitely a step in the right direction (and they're really pretty!) in making this feel a bit more unique. Good luck with your project.

[Sanojian]

First in-game screenshot!

We have decided to de-prioritize touchscreen controls because it was making the game cumbersome to play.  We are still working out the gameplay and are somewhat torn between two ideas:

• 1. Spend money to build units and control them all of them
• 2. Control only a few starting super units.  The rest are AI controlled peons that spawn automatically.

[Sanojian]

First gameplay preview of a tank attack on the enemy HQ.

Still lots to do in this game but we are making slow, steady progress.

[Sanojian]

A smaller map for testing the peon (grunt) AI.

We played our first multi-player match using WebRTC.  I lost 

[TheChaoticGood]

I have to agree it looks to much like Advanced wars. It's good to be inspired by a game, but always be careful of copying a game. Take some time to develop your own unique art style, even if it's only somewhat different.

Other than that, I'm impressed that you built a game on html 5.

[Sanojian]

We are working to distinguish the artwork from AW but meanwhile development continues using the graphics we have.  Here are some of the changes for the future:

terrain

leaders

mountains

units

[RujiK]

Wow. I really liked the original graphics but those look even better.

[Sanojian]

Green assaulting a city belonging to team black.

[Sam B.]

Hey everyone, I know its been a while since I posted here personally but I see Sanojian has been keeping you all up to date. I typically post a lot on our twitter, and sometimes on the blog if there's a lot to talk about.

I wanted to ask those who were skeptical at first if they still feel like the game looks too much like an AW clone. Attached is the most recent screenshot of the game, and a shot from AW.

[Polyflare]

I wanted to ask those who were skeptical at first if they still feel like the game looks too much like an AW clone. Attached is the most recent screenshot of the game, and a shot from AW.

The new style is definitely far more acceptable than the old one! One remaining issue that I see is the design of capture points as the perspective on the buildings is an iconic part of the AW visual style. The flag you showed on Twitter might be good enough to mitigate that issue.

Another issue is the design of mechanical units. When I view them by themselves I immediately think that they are from AW even if they are not pixel-perfect copies. I'm not sure what can be done about it though as there's only so much you can do with small sprites. Maybe the colour scheme could be modified or maybe different lighting? It could also just be the bobbing animation that is the issue.

[87]

Hi Guys,

I never played AW, but I looked at a few screenshots... the new style of the tiles and the new mountains is now very different from AW. The issue is the units that still look a bit identical. Regardless of that I don't really see a huge issue with that... Game is looking pretty neat

Is this going to be for desktops as well, or only for mobile platforms?

[Sam B.]

the design of capture points as the perspective on the buildings is an iconic part of the AW visual style. The flag you showed on Twitter might be good enough to mitigate that issue.

I had that exact same thought, so I started to make flag capture points. The city tiles I added also made cities as a capture point redundant and like you said, its iconic to AW.

the design of mechanical units. [...] I'm not sure what can be done about it though as there's only so much you can do with small sprites. Maybe the colour scheme could be modified or maybe different lighting? It could also just be the bobbing animation that is the issue.

I see what you mean I just don't have a  hard answer to give either. I've been redrawing any ones that look too close but there's only so much you can do. Take this mobile missile launcher for example:



Its a real thing not just unique to AW, but should I not have one just because they have one? So I try to draw it differently. The colorscheme thing, could I just not have a blue team or red team? It seems absurd to remove a team color entirely just to avoid comparisons to AW.

It's like 'AW doesn't own the blue team color, it doesn't own sprites that are 16x16, it doesn't own missile cars, but when you put it all together, you get AW.'

As for the bobbing animation that was more of a cheat by myself to cut work since I have so much art on my plate and the only artist. Getting more artists isn't an option The 1-2-1-2 can be used for idle if it animates slowly, and walking if it animates quickly, and 1-3 is the firing animation.

[Sanojian]

Development continues to chug along.  New units and changes to the AI and graphics, mostly.

They are using mortars now?!

[TopherPirkl]

Yeah, I don't want to beat a dead horse here, but I tend to take a look at the last page of a devlog before going back to the top and reading through the whole thing, and from that last screenshot I immediately assumed you were actually using AW sprites as placeholders until you got original sprites in. I get that they're not identical, but there's no way of knowing that without looking at them side by side. I don't think tweaking the art style is going to get you further away from that criticism, especially when it comes to the unit sprites. I'd recommend you overhaul the sprites entirely, try to go for a unique style that doesn't draw so directly from AW. The map style is looking progressively better though!

[Sanojian]

Development continues at a slow pace.  Working on a demo, but in the meantime here is a gameplay trailer. 





I am the programmer for this project, but I also work full-time so it is becoming obvious that development is moving too slowly.  If anyone wants to join the development team and has experience with HTML5 and especially Phaser.io please send me a PM.

[gimymblert]

The design stuff to do is to change the tree, they are too iconic, then altering the unit style would help too

[SousaVilla]

I was going to say the same thing. There's a lot of things you could with to the trees to make it look different. Right now you can hardly tell the difference.

Gameplay seems really cool.

[Sanojian]

Progress is still being made on this game.  Here is the latest addition, parabola attack by artillery.

[Sanojian]

We have started an internal alpha for the game.  Here is some footage.

[Narrowisms]

Woah! This looks really cool. Good luck finishing this. Hope a mac version can be made