Xavier V Lafont

As color-coding the terrain was confusing due to lighter and darker shades, I decided to make some basic graphics for the terrain so that it would be easier to distinguish between different terrain types. Here they are in all their glory!

I made a sizeable effort to optimize the speed so that I can start working on the 2-computer networked version. I increased the speed by approximately 20%… from 9 FPS to 11 FPS when drawing the most things possible. Not great, but it was still an interesting exercise to refactor code from one class to another in an effort to make drawing faster.

I’ve been busy with some other things for the past week or so, but now I’ll be getting back to working on this strategy game!

New batch of screenshots! I’ve made lots of changes to the prototype, especially after playtesting it with one of my friends. Some of the changes:

• Units are now represented by icons instead of a circle with their letter
• The Scout, a new unit, has great movement and range of vision, useful for gathering information on your opponent’s units. They are quite weak, however, so don’t leave them exposed to attack.
• When changing turns between players, there is a transition screen so that player information is hidden. So players can switch seats or hand the computer to each other or however they’re playing.
• The map can now zoom in and out, with everything scaling up and down as it should.
• The minimap updates according to what the player can see, and where units are, as well as what part of the map the player can currently see. The player can click on the minimap to center the screen somewhere in it. If the player moves the mouse near the edge of the map, it scrolls as well.
• The info boxes on terrain and units can show less detail, in order to give more space for the main view.
• The attack preview has been re-redesigned, following a redesign based on my friend’s feedback. Another friend saw it and said there was a small chance of misunderstanding it, so I changed it. It takes up a lot of space, but I think it’s clearest like this…
• The custom mouse changes color to show whose turn it is.

Those are more technical changes, based partly on feedback from playtesting and on conventions of strategy games (minimap, scrolling, etc). There are some intended gameplay changes, including the scout which has already been implemented.

The main one is moving away from the “one move per turn” idea and towards allowing players multiple moves per turn. I had originally thought that the chess-like idea would be interesting enough, but my playtester said she would like to do more in a turn. It also led to only one unit fighting at a time, of course – the other units would still be behind, since there was no way to move them all forward at a time.

There are two possible solutions to this. In the simpler one, each player gets 3 commands per turn to issue to any combination of their units, for example attack with one unit and move two others closer to support it in the next turn. In the more complex one, each player gets 12 command points per turn. Movement of any unit to any hex costs 1 command point, while attacking costs 3 command points. This would enable a player to move, for example, a group of units together in the same turn. I’m leaning towards this latter idea because it creates more possibility space for the player.

I’m trying to figure out how to make a standalone of the prototype in order to make it available to play, but I’m having some difficulty. I recently switched to Processing in Eclipse, which doesn’t have the nice simple exporter that the Processing IDE has. Must figure out some solution!

Work continues on the war strategy game! Had a programming problem yesterday, but a friend helped me out. I was terribly frustrated so I ended up working on other aspects of the game in the meantime… But now it’s all fixed!

I’ve added fog of war, which obstructs vision. The UI layout has changed as well, and it’s still in the works. I added some sketchy unit images that I made way back when I thought of the concept. Also the entire attack calculations are implemented, including range and damage.

Next is to have some effects for the attacks. Also the player should be able to enter their own custom movement path: a unit which moves through fog may encounter an enemy unit. If they were planning on moving through that hex, then the unit loses its attack. If the player has a guess as to where an enemy unit might be, they should be able to move within attack range and attack it, or circumvent it.

Last week I defended my thesis with my two thesis buddies, and we all did great! So for now at least, I am done with formal education. It’s a bit of a funny feeling, but it’s also nice to have so much free time.

Which means, of course, that I started making a new game prototype. It’s a war strategy game, based on games like Advance Wars and Civilization V. The setup of the game is meant to be like Battleship: two players sitting and facing each other, with their laptops back-to-back, so they cannot see the other’s screen but they can see the other’s face. I’m hoping for moments of “What, where did that… You!!! I will decimate you!!”

I’ve been working on two prototypes for this idea. One is a physical prototype: a paper map where two players will sit and pit their little Lego units against each other. The other is a digital prototype, for figuring out hex-based terrrain, movement, simple pathfinding, and things like that. Screenshots of the digital prototype: