Posts Tagged strategy
Trudy’s Mechanicals
Posted by The Management in design, projects on January 17, 2011
Over at Incubator Games I am currently working on a title called Trudy’s Mechanicals.
A partial cast of Trudy's Mechanicals.
Trudy’s Mechanicals is a “tactics” game set in a Steampunk universe, and we’ve been plugging away at it for a little while now. Since I’ve yet to announce it on my blog, I figured the new year would be as good a time as any.
In an effort to create some extra exposure for the game, I’ve also decided to start cross-posting my articles from the Incubator website. First up is a design overview of Trudy’s Mechanicals entitled “Planning a Tactics Game”.
Tactical games are something of a sub-genre that’s a bit difficult to nail down. Plenty of Tactics games have been released over the years — on both PCs and consoles — with many similarities and differences.
Despite a loose definition, a common thread among them is a focus on turn-based battles between individual units. These conflicts usually take place on wholly isolated maps and center on moment-to-moment maneuvers rather than the long-term goals of strategy games.
Our whole team has always enjoyed these titles, but none of us have worked on them in the past. As a result, we had to do some research before diving into production on Trudy’s Mechanicals.
A Tactics Ogre remake was recently announced for the PSP; the original still stands as a pioneer among console Tactics games.
We played a bunch of the most notable entries that fall under the Tactics banner, and took some high-level notes on “the good” and “the bad” of each title. Here are the highlights of those lists:
The Good
- Units possess unique abilities and physical attributes that provide various combat options.
- Maps are varied aesthetically and can grant passive modifiers, e.g., it’s harder to move through mountainous areas, troops can hide from long-range attacks behind buildings, etc.
- Units tend to grow stronger as the game progresses, creating a steady stream of rewards while modifying how the battles play out.
- Bonuses for side/back attacks and elevation are intuitive and fun to exploit.
- Where available, fog of war creates a strong need to explore the map while facilitating ambushes and other tactics.
- Outsmarting the AI by utilizing all of the above factors is extremely satisfying and a key component of the genre’s appeal.
The Bad
- Controls rarely accommodate for the most common use case, e.g., it often takes as many actions to use an antidote (rare) as it does to launch an attack (common).
- Terrain is usually static and non-interactive, e.g., it’s not possible to blow up bridges or set forests on fire.
- Movement and attack ranges can only be checked for one unit at a time, creating a lot of busy work where the player needs to cycle through all the enemies in order to pick the optimal location for his own unit.
- Attack animations — especially when presented via separate screen cinematics — are quite lengthy and devoid of any interaction.
- Unit types and abilities are often duplicated from game to game. For example, in a fantasy-themed title it’s common to have a melee warrior, a long-range archer, a spearman with an extended reach, a mage that casts destructive spells, and a generic healer. This approach makes many of the games feel too derivative while missing the chance to introduce possible new tactics.
- Conflicting variables make it hard to predict battle results, e.g., rock-paper-scissors unit weaknesses are combined with terrain modifiers, facing directions, weather, time of day, zodiac sign, faction allegiance, etc. As a result, some games feature an attack preview that informs the user of the likely outcome. This works well enough, but presents another manual check and input-step that interrupts the overall flow.
Running around in Shining Force as Zylo the Werewolf without any terrain penalties was great fun.
As an iPad game, we’re aiming to make Trudy’s Mechanicals as quick and accessible as possible. Using this goal as a filter, we paired down the above points to what we considered appropriate for our own title:
Our Takeaway
- The most common actions should only take one touch/swipe to execute. For example, tapping a valid enemy should make the current unit approach it as close as necessary in order to attack (preferably from the side or back if possible).
- Visual indicators should be provided for range (which enemies are in the current unit’s range, and which enemies can also attack that unit), health, “elemental” weaknesses, and any other metrics necessary to plan the optimal course of action.
- Fog of war might be an interesting concept, but it’s not very intuitive and should be avoided alongside any other potentially confusing mechanics such as terrain modifiers that contradict facing/elevation bonuses.
- Usable and destructible map objects should be sprinkled throughout the levels in order to add extra combat options and make the world feel less static.
- Unit levels and inventories should not be implemented in order to avoid extra micromanagement and potential multiplayer issues. To compensate for the removal of the leveling-up reward stream, each successful mission should provide the player with a permanent upgrade such as a new recruitable unit or the ability to use more in-level objects.
- Attacks should take place on the same screen and appear quick and vicious in execution. In order to achieve this, an attack’s kinetic impact and visual effects should by styled after action games instead of abstract strategy titles.
Laser Squad Nemesis was one of the first games to feature a deep planning segment that culminated in all units executing their commands simultaneously.
Of course there were also numerous other considerations: Should the maps be 2D or 3D? Should movement be grid-based or more organic? Should randomization elements be added to extend replay value?
Eventually a lot of these questions answered themselves, but a solid mission statement really helped to lay down the groundwork and guide future design decisions.
For more concept art, design talk, programming approaches, etc., head on over to our website.
Heroes of Might & Magic II Bits
Posted by The Management in art, games on December 7, 2009
It’s difficult listing all the notable parts of HoMM II as it’s a game that hearkens back to a design philosophy that’s rarely found these days: depth through complexity. It’s also not considered the best entry in the series — that vote usually goes to HoMM III — but that’s partly why I wanted to give the second game a quick overview.
The bits:
- HoMM II is a turn-based strategy game with 6 distinct factions. Each faction has its own town/castle type with a unique set of structures. Most of these serve the same purpose, namely purchasing creatures, but some buildings are unique to each faction.
Virtually every corner of every map is filled with lush scenery and useful hotspots.
- Gold and 6 different resources (wood, ore, mercury, sulfur, gems and crystals) are necessary to purchase and upgrade the various buildings and creatures.
- Heroes are recruited in towns/castles and are required to explore the overworld map and lead creatures into battle. Each hero starts off with a handful of creatures and the specializations of his faction, e.g., barbarians begin with a high attack rating and the pathfinding skill.
- Heroes can gain levels increasing their 4 basic stats, equip artifacts, learn magic spells, gain temporary bonuses and learn and master passive skills. Some of these can carry over through the game’s campaign(s), but even on small maps all these elements provide a steady stream of upgrades.
- Overworld maps contain a fog-of-war mechanic, come in a variety of sizes, and include an absolute plethora of objects. Some of these are purely aesthetic or used as collidable scenery, but others are integral to the gameplay.
There are collectible goods (artifacts and resources), single-use locations (witch’s huts that teach passive skills and tombs that can be plundered), mines (gold/mineral dispensers that provide a set amount of goods in each turn), multi-use locations (teleporters and marketplaces where minerals can be traded), reusable locations (wells that refill magic points and special hotspots that grant a boost to luck/morale for the next battle), and re-fillable locations (creature recruitment centers and mills that can provide random resources every 7 turns).
On top of these, terrain types also affect hero movement, and special-purpose locations such as password-protected gateways serve additional gameplay functions. All these objects provide an incentive for the player to explore as much land as possible, but — and maybe more importantly — also give him something to do in the areas he has already conquered.
- Obelisks that are scattered around the maps reveal a piece of a jigsaw puzzle. Once fully exposed, this image shows the location of a secret and powerful artifact that can be dug out from the ground.
- Every 7 turns, towns/castles and creature dispensers get new recruits. However, once in a while a plague will strike and no new recruits will become available (worse yet, creatures that were previously available but were not purchased will shrink in numbers). Conversely, specific creatures can randomly experience a growth spurt. Whenever this happens, their base recruitment numbers will double, and stacks of these creatures will randomly appear on the overworld map.
- As a CD-based game, HoMM II includes a CD-Audio soundtrack, with an option to use a midi one. A third alternative also exists which uses the CD-Audio with operatic vocals layered on top, giving the game a very distinct score.
Those bone dragons are going down!
- The actual combat of HoMM II is also turn based, with each creature taking its turn based on its speed statistic. The heroes don’t attack directly (aside from casting spells), but their statistics are also appended to those of the creatures, effectively boosting their performance. A lot of the creatures also have unique abilities such as infinite counterattacks, recharging hit points, a chance to cancel magical attacks, etc. Unlike the sequels, HoMM II doesn’t clearly inform the player of these abilities and it takes a lot of practice to get familiar with them.
- Magic plays a crucial part in the overall gameplay, both in combat and on the overworld map. Being able to scout ahead and teleport around the playing field, or boosting your strongest units while damaging entrenched archers, is vital to the player’s success.
The branching paths of the main campaign.
Ah, the Necromancer's castle. One of my favourite tactics is to send out a scout with expert necromancy and a group of missile-throwing liches, and watch the defeated armies rise up as my new skeleton minions.
HoMM II has a very steep learning curve that’s practically unimaginable these days, but in many ways it’s this barrier and that makes it such an entertaining title. It might not be impeccably balanced for competitive play, but the sheer amount of variables that must be juggled at any given moment create an experience where the player is constantly adapting and strategizing.
With each move, an overabundance of options need to be weighed; immediate tactics have to be balanced with long term plans. The economy, map control, build orders, hero progression, proper use of units, etc., are all vital to coming out on the winning side, and each turn is different from the last.
The micromanagement of HoMM II gives Civilization a run for its money, but the upside to all these elements is that the game is practically filled with “emergent” gameplay. Creating map chokepoints, playing keepaway with AI heroes, slowly wearing down the opposition through superior use of resources, etc., all fall into a metagame that’s not immediately obvious — or even consciously designed — but one that’s created simply as a result of having so many ingredients in the pot.
It’s a methodology that’s largely avoided these days, but its end results are unique and very addictive.
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About
Hi, my name’s Radek Koncewicz, and I'm the Creative Lead of Incubator Games, a small development studio I started with a few former coworkers.
I think a lot about videogames, and when I find the time, I post those thoughts here on this blog.
