Calculated Conflicts

Description:

Calculated Conflicts is a simple tactics game played with the mouse.

The idea for this game was to create a tactical turn based game in a similar vein to games such as Fire Emblem or XCOM. Though this game is much simpler compared to those titles, it was still quite a challenge implementing the map and the movement grid. 

The biggest challenges of creating this game involved working on the camera control as well as structuring the player / enemy turns in code. One goal I had in mind was to make the game feel easy to understand and pick up for the player, so having the camera snap to characters was a must for me.

As for playtest feedback, there was a common issue where players did not know where their units or the enemy units were located. This issue was resolved by adding camera features. By adding a zoom out feature on the scroll wheel, players are given complete view of the map. Furthermore, more camera snaps were added during the player's turn to help them find their units rather than them manually having to find them. Lastly, the camera movement was smoothed out in the final build using an easing function. In addition to the camera changes, grid outlines on the map were added to give players a better idea of the space between units.

Besides camera related feedback, there was also a common issue of how the original level design was too simple and did not require much thought from the player, since it was essentially just two bridges with an enemy on each bridge. This has been considered for the final level design in which the player is outnumbered but has a positional advantage over the enemy.

Overall, this game was very enjoyable to create. Despite being turn based, Tactics Games have quite a number of components to them, so there was a valuable learning experience from developing the grid, battle system, and enemy AI. If I had more time to expand on this game, I would love to add a more fully featured battle system, with miss chances, attack statistics, and a matchup preview. Furthermore, I would love to have made more unit types, such as knights or archers, which would have varying movement/attack/defense values.

Playtest Notes (Need Github Access)

Known Bugs / Issues:

Camera may go out of bounds and cause the game to be unplayable (it seems to be fixed now?). For the best experience, download the YYZ file and build the game in Game Maker.