Hm... I've been working on several projects for a while (most in the same day) but I think it's time I take a break from making games lol. I put out The Zodiac Chase, Northbound and St. Egelle as fillers but the motivation is gone
On another note I'm very busy promoting a remastered version of my game Andoran Skye. (If that counts as working on a project)
Been playing "Gemfire" recently, and basically just copied the combat system from that (if you imagine the boardgame "Risk", but with tactical battles, you're pretty much there). It's mostly working, apart from terrain obstacles and a few tweaks to the damage formula.
The first picture is a screenshot of how it looks right now (all graphics are placeholder) - the second picture is how it could look if I were to reuse some old graphics of mine. I may yet change the setting to something more modern - replace archers with artillery, cavalry with tanks, etc.
Just like in "Gemfire", each army's basic troops are divided into 4 equal parts - 2 units of infantry (can build barriers), 1 of archers (ranged attackers) and 1 of cavalry (fast moving). In addition, each army may recruit 1 mercenary unit (various special abilities), and the defender may deploy 1 unit of peasant militia.
I have nothing to show. I've downloaded several versions of Blender (the 3D modeling tool) over the past couple of years but never even unzipped them. It's unbelievable how lazy I am and how fast time passes. I just wake up, browse a couple of sites on the Internet, and it's already time for bed again.
Discarded pizza boxes are an indispensable source of cheese.
Originally Posted by siven @Sketchy i really like the look of that engine. is something like that difficult to design?
Yes and no...
There's a fair amount of code (about 90 events so far), but none of it's particularly "advanced" - so it's not difficult, but it will take quite abit of time and effort.
You can have a look at the source .mfa if you're interested: http://1drv.ms/1sTEcEg
(any feedback on the gameplay would be appreciated)
With a game like "Advance Wars" or "Fire Emblem", by far the most complicated part (aside from the AI) is the movement system.
The movement system in "Gemfire" is much simpler because there's no pathfinding involved (units are moved one square at a time) and the movement cost is the same for all terrains.
If I really wanted to make the game as good as it could possibly be, I'd probably be doing things differently - most likely making the tactical component similar to the mobile game "Ancient Empires II" (basically Advance Wars with a fantasy setting, but none of the RPG elements found in Fire Emblem). I'll be going abroad for 5 months pretty soon though, so I'm not going to start anything too big.
The biggest headaches so far have been handling mouse click events when I have several overlapping objects (causing a chain reaction of unexpected events), and collision checking (due to the bug in MMF2 with multiple moving objects). I think I've fixed it now though
@Sketchy
After looking through the MFA im actually quite impressed with how simple(ish) this is. are you planning on changing the sprites for the character blocks to look like what they are or are you just gonna leave them how they are right now? either way it looks really good and stable from what i can tell.
[Game design makes my brain feel like its gonna explode.]
@Sketchy
After looking through the MFA im actually quite impressed with how simple(ish) this is. are you planning on changing the sprites for the character blocks to look like what they are or are you just gonna leave them how they are right now? either way it looks really good and stable from what i can tell.
[Game design makes my brain feel like its gonna explode.]
Originally Posted by Sketchy I've moved onto something else again...
Been playing "Gemfire" recently, and basically just copied the combat system from that (if you imagine the boardgame "Risk", but with tactical battles, you're pretty much there). It's mostly working, apart from terrain obstacles and a few tweaks to the damage formula.
The first picture is a screenshot of how it looks right now (all graphics are placeholder) - the second picture is how it could look if I were to reuse some old graphics of mine. I may yet change the setting to something more modern - replace archers with artillery, cavalry with tanks, etc.
Just like in "Gemfire", each army's basic troops are divided into 4 equal parts - 2 units of infantry (can build barriers), 1 of archers (ranged attackers) and 1 of cavalry (fast moving). In addition, each army may recruit 1 mercenary unit (various special abilities), and the defender may deploy 1 unit of peasant militia.
GEMFIRE!!! Somebody else knows what that is!
Wow, I played the crap outta' that on the SNES and haven't thought about it since.
You going to have giant monsters in it for the 5th unit?
P.S: Looks great, Sketchy!
--
"Del Duio has received 0 trophies. Click here to see them all."
"To be a true ninja you must first pick the most stealthy of our assorted combat suits. Might I suggest the bright neon orange?"
DXF Games, coming next: Hasslevania 2- This Space for Rent!
Originally Posted by siven @Sketchy
After looking through the MFA im actually quite impressed with how simple(ish) this is. are you planning on changing the sprites for the character blocks to look like what they are or are you just gonna leave them how they are right now? either way it looks really good and stable from what i can tell.
The dude is a genius when it comes to this stuff. I'm not even joking.
He helped me with the grid movement for Equin The Lantern and came up with a program that can convert excel files to MMF2 arrays the game can later use for the base maps. When you look at the code, it's not nearly as complex as you might imagine BUT no way in the world I could come up with the same thing and have it work so well. Very cool cat.
--
"Del Duio has received 0 trophies. Click here to see them all."
"To be a true ninja you must first pick the most stealthy of our assorted combat suits. Might I suggest the bright neon orange?"
DXF Games, coming next: Hasslevania 2- This Space for Rent!
Swarm striker now with voxel engine, after a successful Kickstarter.
A kickstarter? wow i'm surprised. We really have moved on from the days where people expected games like Eternal Daughter for free.
It's kind of cool that we can make money from our hobby, isn.t it?
Originally Posted by siven @Sketchy i really like the look of that engine. is something like that difficult to design?
Yes and no...
There's a fair amount of code (about 90 events so far), but none of it's particularly "advanced" - so it's not difficult, but it will take quite abit of time and effort.
You can have a look at the source .mfa if you're interested: http://1drv.ms/1sTEcEg
(any feedback on the gameplay would be appreciated)
With a game like "Advance Wars" or "Fire Emblem", by far the most complicated part (aside from the AI) is the movement system.
The movement system in "Gemfire" is much simpler because there's no pathfinding involved (units are moved one square at a time) and the movement cost is the same for all terrains.
If I really wanted to make the game as good as it could possibly be, I'd probably be doing things differently - most likely making the tactical component similar to the mobile game "Ancient Empires II" (basically Advance Wars with a fantasy setting, but none of the RPG elements found in Fire Emblem). I'll be going abroad for 5 months pretty soon though, so I'm not going to start anything too big.
The biggest headaches so far have been handling mouse click events when I have several overlapping objects (causing a chain reaction of unexpected events), and collision checking (due to the bug in MMF2 with multiple moving objects). I think I've fixed it now though
@ AndyUK - Just to be clear, I did not make that game. It's an old mobile phone game that I mentioned in that post.
@ Del Duio / Siven - Thanks Not sure if I'll do proper unit sprites, or what they'll look like if I do - it's an awful lot of work. I haven't actually even decided on the fantasy setting yet. I could just as easily go with a setting like WW2 or present day - just replace knights with infantry, cavalry with tanks, archers with artillery, and the various 5th units with Katyushas / fighters / bombers / heavy tanks / jeeps / etc.
I'm fairly new to Gemfire. I don't really like the overworld / political part of the game - it just seems needlessly complicated. What I do like are the battles - very simple, but still with plenty of scope for tactics.
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Edited by Sketchy
