So here's the game. It's a strategy game similar in some ways to tactical RPG's like Final Fantasy Tactics or Fallout Tactics. To be honest though, I haven't played either of the games I just mentioned. This game is very much it's own.
RPG stat leveling? No.
Complex inventory management? No.
Interesting story? Only if you though Mario was deep.
Rich characters? Nope.
Strategy? Hell yes!
Players control a company of mercenaries, fighting at various battle stages. At each battle players select a number of their company to fight. Players unlock additional characters if they complete certain side objectives at each battle stage. During battle, characters take turns performing actions, with the eventual goal of eliminating the opposition.
That description could easily describe most SRPG's, so here's where this game differs:
- Characters do not level up, the focus is on the who you bring to battle, not which warrior has the biggest ax.
- Combat is very streamlined. You don't dig through a deep menu tree to cast a spell. This isn't move-attack, move-attack, move-attack, what a character does each turn varies wildly. Your tactical choices will have immediate rammifications, and tactics will have to change often if you are to survive.
- It is turn based, and there is no hard time limit, but it feels fast paced. Combat doesn't feel repetitive, and you have to adjust your strategy every time the AI moves. Some characters will be unlocked for beating stages in a certain amount of time.
- You won't be fighting monsters, and you won't be facing dumb hordes. Enemy teams will almost entirely consist of characters you can recruit. Battles will predominantly be rather fair.
- Tactics are king. The system is simple to learn, but there is a lot of depth in the mix of characters. (I will attempt to explain why the system is so good in future posts, it's hard to talk abstractly about it)
- The AI really shines. In my own tests, the AI doesn't usually win a perfectly fair fight against me, but it is always close. I would have lost a number more if I hadn't have gone first. The AI often suprises me, and has taught me a thing or two about my own creations.
Before each battle, you'll choose who you want to fight for you. Each stage will have a cap on how many may enter from your company. This is where all the strategy comes in. Do you bring in a healer and some muscle? Do you go with a team of fast ranged units and try to out manuver the enemy and whittle their numbers with superior use of the terrain? Do you focus on disabling though status effects and cleaning up with a fragile hard hitter? This isn't a decision you make once - every battle will be very different. There might be three different rounds, and you might well win easily round one, but strugle on the remaining rounds. Not every battle will have the same scale either. Most will range from 3-6 combatants, but the plan is to have a few epic battles (20+) later in the game.
Multiplayer is a large component as well. No plans for online multiplayer, but four players (with or without a mix of AI players) will be able to face off on a number of battlefields of various sizes.
The art style is unique. A picture is worth a thousand words, so:
I don't have a good name for it, so for now, I'll just call it Pixel Tactics. It's growing on me as a name, we'll see. I'm creating it for release on Xbox Indie Games using XNA. Hopefully I'll be at point I can release by Christmas, provided I don't get majorly distracted along the way.
To give you a sense of where I am in development (and myself a log) heres a list.
Done:
Combat system and battle engine
AI
Upcoming work:
Map editor (this isn't going in the game, but I'll take this any day over editing maps by hand)
Adding more terrain and some arenas (creating the art assets is the big time sink here)
Character selection
Challenges (these will be quick playable stand alone battles with preset parties)
Future development:
Main menu/title screen
Multiplayer
World map (probably the last thing I do)
More characters (5 are fleshed out for demo, the plan is more than 50, but I'd like to fit in some additional beyond that)
Character balancing
Battle animations (This is a time sink if ever there was one)
More sound effects
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