Monday, October 26, 2009
Future Improvements
We are thinking to add scoring features. Score calculation can be based on total turns used in a single day, total supplies used and total number of units left when the game finish. This will add a value to the game in a sense that the players can enjoy playing it again for a better score even though they’ve beaten all the levels in the game. More levels, more units with different abilities and more items for various purposes are also possible future extensions of this current design.
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Music and Sound Effects
Overview
Since we have limited time and budget, we can’t effort to create our own background music and sound effects. So we use some of the songs from movies, existing games and sound effect CDs. For background music we’ll use five different music for main-menu, in-game, level-ending, game-over and all-levels-victory. Below is the list of albums that we’ll reference.
Reference Sound Albums
• 300 Original Sound tracks(OST)
• Eragon Movie OST
• Final Fantasy games OST
• 6000SFX Sound effect CD
• Sony Picture Sound Effect Series
read more “Music and Sound Effects”
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Since we have limited time and budget, we can’t effort to create our own background music and sound effects. So we use some of the songs from movies, existing games and sound effect CDs. For background music we’ll use five different music for main-menu, in-game, level-ending, game-over and all-levels-victory. Below is the list of albums that we’ll reference.
Reference Sound Albums
• 300 Original Sound tracks(OST)
• Eragon Movie OST
• Final Fantasy games OST
• 6000SFX Sound effect CD
• Sony Picture Sound Effect Series
User Interface
Overview
There’ll be main menu screen, in-game screen, pause screen, game over screen and victory screen.
Main Menu UI
The main menu will have three buttons. “Play”, “Credits” and “Exit”. We used to have a “Tutorial” button in previous versions. But we removed it as we don’t have time to include one tutorial game-play mode.
In-Game UI
The main menu will have three buttons. “Play”, “Credits” and “Exit”. We used to have a “Tutorial” button in previous versions. But we removed it as we don’t have time to include one tutorial game-play mode.
Pause Screen UI
This screen will be displayed when the user clicks “Menu” button during a game-play session.
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There’ll be main menu screen, in-game screen, pause screen, game over screen and victory screen.
Main Menu UI
The main menu will have three buttons. “Play”, “Credits” and “Exit”. We used to have a “Tutorial” button in previous versions. But we removed it as we don’t have time to include one tutorial game-play mode.
In-Game UI
The main menu will have three buttons. “Play”, “Credits” and “Exit”. We used to have a “Tutorial” button in previous versions. But we removed it as we don’t have time to include one tutorial game-play mode.
Pause Screen UI
This screen will be displayed when the user clicks “Menu” button during a game-play session.
About the units
Overview
We’ll have three human units, three types of barricade, three types of zombie and one health kit item to heal/recover some HP to a unit. A health kit item will cost 1 AP and 100 supplies to buy and will be able to recover 40 HP for a specific unit. Three human units are:
Spartan
Began military training at the age of seven, Spartans were trained to encourage discipline and physical toughness and to emphasize the importance of the Spartan state.
100/100 HP
120/120 Attack
100/100 Defense
Hoplite
Hoplites are brave men who fought in broad daylight using sharp weapons such as spears, double-edged swords and shields. Hoplites combated hand-to-hand and had no pre-planned war strategy. They relied on their personal war skills and those of the fellow soldiers.
100/100 HP
80/80 Attack
50/50 Defense
Cost - 1 AP, 300 Supplies
Toxotai
Toxotais are archers. The Greek archers armed with short Greek bow and a short sword. They also carried a little pelte shield.
100/100 HP
50/50 Attack
50/50 Defense
Cost - 1 AP, 250 Supplies
Barricades
Wall of Corpses
A simple barrier built entirely out of dead bodies using blood as mortar
200/200HP
Requires 1 AP to build
Dirt Wall
A wall of dirt and soil thrown up to form a barrier
300/300HP
Requires 2 APs to build
Stone Wall
A wall build out of rocks and stones found on the surrounding terrain
400/400HP
Requires 3 APs to build
Zombie Units
Undead Fodder
They are raised with black arts from the battlefields. These undead swell the Persian host to over half a million. They serve their Persian overlords with mindless obedience.
100/100 HP
50/50 Attack
50/50 Defense
Drops 10 gold
Armored Dead
Armored dead are equipped with full armor and act as the spear head of the main army, often breaking the morale of lesser men before them.
100/100 HP
80/80 Attack
100/100 Defense
Drops 20 gold
Stembler
The Persians witches placed a potion on dead elites, effectively turning them into demonic infantry serving the Persian Empire.
200/200 HP
120/120 Attack
200/200 Defense
Drops 50 gold
read more “About the units”
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We’ll have three human units, three types of barricade, three types of zombie and one health kit item to heal/recover some HP to a unit. A health kit item will cost 1 AP and 100 supplies to buy and will be able to recover 40 HP for a specific unit. Three human units are:
Spartan
Began military training at the age of seven, Spartans were trained to encourage discipline and physical toughness and to emphasize the importance of the Spartan state.
100/100 HP
120/120 Attack
100/100 Defense
Hoplite
Hoplites are brave men who fought in broad daylight using sharp weapons such as spears, double-edged swords and shields. Hoplites combated hand-to-hand and had no pre-planned war strategy. They relied on their personal war skills and those of the fellow soldiers.
100/100 HP
80/80 Attack
50/50 Defense
Cost - 1 AP, 300 Supplies
Toxotai
Toxotais are archers. The Greek archers armed with short Greek bow and a short sword. They also carried a little pelte shield.
100/100 HP
50/50 Attack
50/50 Defense
Cost - 1 AP, 250 Supplies
Barricades
Wall of Corpses
A simple barrier built entirely out of dead bodies using blood as mortar
200/200HP
Requires 1 AP to build
Dirt Wall
A wall of dirt and soil thrown up to form a barrier
300/300HP
Requires 2 APs to build
Stone Wall
A wall build out of rocks and stones found on the surrounding terrain
400/400HP
Requires 3 APs to build
Zombie Units
Undead Fodder
They are raised with black arts from the battlefields. These undead swell the Persian host to over half a million. They serve their Persian overlords with mindless obedience.
100/100 HP
50/50 Attack
50/50 Defense
Drops 10 gold
Armored Dead
Armored dead are equipped with full armor and act as the spear head of the main army, often breaking the morale of lesser men before them.
100/100 HP
80/80 Attack
100/100 Defense
Drops 20 gold
Stembler
The Persians witches placed a potion on dead elites, effectively turning them into demonic infantry serving the Persian Empire.
200/200 HP
120/120 Attack
200/200 Defense
Drops 50 gold
Why create this game! - A pitch for Spartans vs. Zombies
Because strategy games are cool and we love to play them. It is easy at the beginning but you have to be a good strategic to win the game as it will be tougher and tougher as time goes by. Nowadays grid based tower defense games are very popular. Not just on PC they even have it online, multiplayer and also on mobile devices such as iPhone, Android and on small gaming device such as Wii and PSP. There are real-time tower defense games and turn-based strategy games, but not the turn-based tower defense games (well, at least we know of). So we’ll try to fill that gap and we hope there is a great chance of market success if we continue developing it after the project assignment phase.
read more “Why create this game! - A pitch for Spartans vs. Zombies”
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Game-play features
You’ll control the Spartan hero units and two types of mercenary unit that will slay the army of zombies. Each level will be counted as one day and there’ll be seven days total to play. At the start of the game, you will have default of 3 Spartan units (each with 100HP which we considered as 100 Spartans and so of total 300 Spartans).
You’ve six action points (APs) to spend at each turn and an initial supply of 1000. You can use them to:
- move a unit (1 AP)
- attack a zombie (1 AP)
- build barricades (cost AP depends on which barricade you build)
- buy mercenary units (AP cost and supply cost depends on mercenary unit)
- heal units (1 AP + 100 Supply to heal 40 HP to a unit)
You’ll collect certain amount of supply whenever you kill a zombie and left-over supply when you’ve finished one day of game-play.
Once you’ve used all of your APs or you clicked “End Turn” button you turn will be ended and the zombies will process their turn. Zombie AI will be pretty simple with only two rules to follow:
1) advance if the tile ahead is free
2) attack if the tile ahead is enemy or barricade
Combat
Fighting will occur when any face of the Infantry square touches an enemy. Only way to block movement of enemy is to be directly in front of their movement or having a barrier. Each time a unit takes damage, its HP, Attack and Defense will drop proportionally. E.g. maxAtt = (maxAtt / maxHP) * currentHP
Win & Lose
Once the player has killed all the zombies in one day, the current day will be ended and you’ll be able to proceed to next day. The upcoming days will come with more and tougher zombie units. If you can survive all the seven days you win.
If the zombies kill all the Spartans and the mercenary units the player have bought or if they reach to second row of Spartans side, the player lose the game and will have to start from the day 1.
What’s different?
We base this game on tower defense (TD) game type but we change the basic concepts. First we let the units to freely move around on the map. Those units can attack enemy units as in TD but in TD, it is very rare for the enemy to attack back the player as their objective is to reach the goal as fast as they can. So we change the objective of enemy units. They are either to defeat all the player units or to move forward and pass through battle field.
read more “Game-play features”
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You’ve six action points (APs) to spend at each turn and an initial supply of 1000. You can use them to:
- move a unit (1 AP)
- attack a zombie (1 AP)
- build barricades (cost AP depends on which barricade you build)
- buy mercenary units (AP cost and supply cost depends on mercenary unit)
- heal units (1 AP + 100 Supply to heal 40 HP to a unit)
You’ll collect certain amount of supply whenever you kill a zombie and left-over supply when you’ve finished one day of game-play.
Once you’ve used all of your APs or you clicked “End Turn” button you turn will be ended and the zombies will process their turn. Zombie AI will be pretty simple with only two rules to follow:
1) advance if the tile ahead is free
2) attack if the tile ahead is enemy or barricade
Combat
Fighting will occur when any face of the Infantry square touches an enemy. Only way to block movement of enemy is to be directly in front of their movement or having a barrier. Each time a unit takes damage, its HP, Attack and Defense will drop proportionally. E.g. maxAtt = (maxAtt / maxHP) * currentHP
Win & Lose
Once the player has killed all the zombies in one day, the current day will be ended and you’ll be able to proceed to next day. The upcoming days will come with more and tougher zombie units. If you can survive all the seven days you win.
If the zombies kill all the Spartans and the mercenary units the player have bought or if they reach to second row of Spartans side, the player lose the game and will have to start from the day 1.
What’s different?
We base this game on tower defense (TD) game type but we change the basic concepts. First we let the units to freely move around on the map. Those units can attack enemy units as in TD but in TD, it is very rare for the enemy to attack back the player as their objective is to reach the goal as fast as they can. So we change the objective of enemy units. They are either to defeat all the player units or to move forward and pass through battle field.
Game Overview
Inspirations
300 Movie
Our game theme and story was firstly inspired by “300” movie. This movie is about an epic battle between the Persian Empire Army led by Kind Xerex I and the allied forces of Greek Cities. The Greece side had about 7,000 warriors where the Persian Empire believed to have millions. King Leonidas and his army of 300 Sparta tried to stand the attack of Persian Emperor at Thermopylae which they believed was the only gate the Persians could get through. The movie is very good and we were inspired by the way Sparta brave warriors fought. So we decided to use them as the hero units of our game.
Lord of the ring (Return of the king)
I am sure that everybody will remember the final movie of LOTR series. In the movie, there is a part where Aragon go and meet with fallen worriers (an army of death who promised to serve the people when fighting with darkness but fail to serve and cursed to became ghosts). The idea of zombie army came from this part. We thought what if the Persian Army faced by Sparta in Battle of Thermopylae was not built with human warriors but summoned dead zombies instead. And we realized that could be a cool IP to implement in our own game. Of course our zombies are not green and see through as we model it ourselves to get a new type of zombie.
Tower Defense Games
The basic game play idea came from frozen throne campaign maps. Tower Defense games. The concept is, there will be list of enemies that crawl up using certain track to the destination area. The user has to stop the enemies by using towers that fire up certain spells and attacks. So we change the idea a bit. Unlike the real-time tower defense games, we’ll make a turn-based tower defense game which we believe is easier to implement. We let the player forces to freely move around and battle with AI enemies.
Background Story
480BC
Thermopylae
The game will be set in 480 BC, Thermopylae. The era during the Persian Empire was trying to conquer all parts of Greece and Sparta. Only a small allied force of roughly 7000 men marched to block the pass. As the allied force looked upon the Persian host, they realized that the Persians used black arts to summon undead to boost its army strength. It was a host of Persians Zombies!
Objective
A tile based tactics strategy game about Spartans and Persian Zombie Army (PZA). The basic objective is to prevent the PZA from killing all your troops or pushing through your lines.
Using limited set of resources, the player will have to survive seven days of PZA attack. And also the player must make sure that they slay all the enemies and prevent them from passing through the battle field and going into your side.
read more “Game Overview”
Read More!
300 Movie
Our game theme and story was firstly inspired by “300” movie. This movie is about an epic battle between the Persian Empire Army led by Kind Xerex I and the allied forces of Greek Cities. The Greece side had about 7,000 warriors where the Persian Empire believed to have millions. King Leonidas and his army of 300 Sparta tried to stand the attack of Persian Emperor at Thermopylae which they believed was the only gate the Persians could get through. The movie is very good and we were inspired by the way Sparta brave warriors fought. So we decided to use them as the hero units of our game.
Lord of the ring (Return of the king)
I am sure that everybody will remember the final movie of LOTR series. In the movie, there is a part where Aragon go and meet with fallen worriers (an army of death who promised to serve the people when fighting with darkness but fail to serve and cursed to became ghosts). The idea of zombie army came from this part. We thought what if the Persian Army faced by Sparta in Battle of Thermopylae was not built with human warriors but summoned dead zombies instead. And we realized that could be a cool IP to implement in our own game. Of course our zombies are not green and see through as we model it ourselves to get a new type of zombie.
Tower Defense Games
The basic game play idea came from frozen throne campaign maps. Tower Defense games. The concept is, there will be list of enemies that crawl up using certain track to the destination area. The user has to stop the enemies by using towers that fire up certain spells and attacks. So we change the idea a bit. Unlike the real-time tower defense games, we’ll make a turn-based tower defense game which we believe is easier to implement. We let the player forces to freely move around and battle with AI enemies.
Background Story
480BC
Thermopylae
The game will be set in 480 BC, Thermopylae. The era during the Persian Empire was trying to conquer all parts of Greece and Sparta. Only a small allied force of roughly 7000 men marched to block the pass. As the allied force looked upon the Persian host, they realized that the Persians used black arts to summon undead to boost its army strength. It was a host of Persians Zombies!
Objective
A tile based tactics strategy game about Spartans and Persian Zombie Army (PZA). The basic objective is to prevent the PZA from killing all your troops or pushing through your lines.
Using limited set of resources, the player will have to survive seven days of PZA attack. And also the player must make sure that they slay all the enemies and prevent them from passing through the battle field and going into your side.
Game Design Document History
Though we've so many things to tell you about this project, we don't have much time to post them as today is the last day to upload the GDD on web. Here's a brief history of those GDD we've released and description of this final GDD.
Version 0.1
The original design document features several units and different abilities. Including hoplites, Toxotais, Phalanx each with different movement patterns and attack ranges.
Version 0.2
The second version includes designs on UI elements and game-play features. We removed the Phalanx unit and also made the movement pattern and attack range same for all the units after realizing that all those features are not possible to implement in time and so we had to cut the craps. Now the only different features in units are their HP, attack and defense values.
Version 1.0
This is the final GDD of our project assignment. This version includes all the features we’re going to implement into our game. We cut all the features which cannot be done in time and will try to tweak the mechanic values to make the game more challenging.
This final version of GDD can be downloaded here.
read more “Game Design Document History”
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Version 0.1
The original design document features several units and different abilities. Including hoplites, Toxotais, Phalanx each with different movement patterns and attack ranges.
Version 0.2
The second version includes designs on UI elements and game-play features. We removed the Phalanx unit and also made the movement pattern and attack range same for all the units after realizing that all those features are not possible to implement in time and so we had to cut the craps. Now the only different features in units are their HP, attack and defense values.
Version 1.0
This is the final GDD of our project assignment. This version includes all the features we’re going to implement into our game. We cut all the features which cannot be done in time and will try to tweak the mechanic values to make the game more challenging.
This final version of GDD can be downloaded here.
Friday, October 23, 2009
Introducing Team Members
We've currently 8 members in our team. We all are from Myanmar/Burma.
My name is Aung Sithu Kyaw and I'm the team lead of Mahar Studios. I've been in the game industry for over a year (though I started learning game programming about 6 years ago).
Mr. Wathan is a math geek and also good at Maya. He's currently the art lead in our team.
The other members and their respective roles are as follow:
Mr. Kyi Maw Han - Scripting, GFXs
Mr. Maung Ko Oo - GFXs, Research
Mr. Thant Thura Myo - Game Design, Documentation, Scripting
Mr. Ye Aung - GFXs, Scripting
Ms. May Phyo Lin - GFXs, Scripting
Ms. Kay Thwet Soe Lwin - GFXs, Scripting
The above list is just to address the specific role of each team member. Actually, we all involve in every discussion about the project. The successful completion of every project depends heavily on the contributions of all the members in the team.
We'll tell you what we've been working on in past few weeks sooner.
Cheers
read more “Introducing Team Members”
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My name is Aung Sithu Kyaw and I'm the team lead of Mahar Studios. I've been in the game industry for over a year (though I started learning game programming about 6 years ago).
Mr. Wathan is a math geek and also good at Maya. He's currently the art lead in our team.
The other members and their respective roles are as follow:
Mr. Kyi Maw Han - Scripting, GFXs
Mr. Maung Ko Oo - GFXs, Research
Mr. Thant Thura Myo - Game Design, Documentation, Scripting
Mr. Ye Aung - GFXs, Scripting
Ms. May Phyo Lin - GFXs, Scripting
Ms. Kay Thwet Soe Lwin - GFXs, Scripting
The above list is just to address the specific role of each team member. Actually, we all involve in every discussion about the project. The successful completion of every project depends heavily on the contributions of all the members in the team.
We'll tell you what we've been working on in past few weeks sooner.
Cheers
Thursday, September 17, 2009
Kick Off
This blog will be served as the development diary of our game design project assignment. For now we can't tell you much about the complete idea what its gonna be. But it'll be a turn-based strategy game featuring different units, abilities and multiplayer game play.
This blog will be updated as we have progress. Please be sure to come back and check out.
Thanks
read more “Kick Off”
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This blog will be updated as we have progress. Please be sure to come back and check out.
Thanks
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