My attention has been diverted from the development of this game temporarily, but I fully intend to continue at a later point in time. In the meantime, please visit my latest project, a free online strategy gaming portal. Here you can play almost every strategy game on the internet. Well, that is the goal of the site I should say.
To my faithful few: another project demanded and continues to demand my attention currently, which is unfortunate. We won’t let that stop our continued development of TGO. It is just a bit of a small snag. TGO will move forward, and you can expect to see an update soon concerning the first unit born for the game in a few weeks. While not blogging about it, the knight has been slowly created in Blender and will be viewable here soon. Being the first unit, a greater amount of time is going into him due to initial setting of common unit integration that all other units will share as well. It is very exciting, because soon you will be able to see not only a unit for the game but a screenshot of the first generated map. More to come!
Grassy Grid Square
With many thanks for several of the Unity 3d features, a grid square has been born. The mesh for this was going to be created in Blender, and then added into Unity, but the Unity primitive cube gets the job done quite nicely. You cannot modify the UV mapping of Unity primitives to my knowledge, but having every side look the same should be acceptable for now. We can always create a better square down the road if necessary. The goal right now is to get a working version of the game out as quickly as possible for you to play and all of us to enjoy. I have several great textures that can be used to make different types of squares, like: grass, rock, and path to start off with.
Think of each square type as a different type of terrain that units have to walk on. Each type has a different movement cost associated with it. Currently, grass costs 14 points per square to walk on. Paths cost 12 points. Rock costs 16 points.
Just a quick note – the game server is up and running! As it is an early version of the server, consider it in beta, but at least it is running. And to show you proof that it is working, I posted a very early version of the game that connects to it to allow you to create a game account, go to the army builder, and create your first army.
That’s right, the excitement never ends around here. Still don’t believe me? Head on over to the game page to see it in action.
Have you ever thought about playing with a 3d modeling program, but don’t have any extra cash to invest in one? Or maybe you just would like to see what one of the most powerful yet free ones on the market is like? Give Blender a try, you won’t be disappointed. Blender is a 3d modeling open source application that can be used on Windows, Mac, and Linux. It can animate, texturize, even provide you with a standalone game engine without ever leaving this simple yet power packed app. Blender happens to import into Unity 3D seamlessly, making it an easy choice for developing our simple characters and terrain. Join me on our journey into Blender.
Expect to see a gallery come up soon, because we are going to have images to show you as it progresses. Finally, right? You get to see what this game is going to look like. Won’t that be nice!
Final Fantasy Tactics is a wonderful turn-based strategy game. It has been a huge motivator for Tactics Game Online. Several components of FFT can be found in TGO. The square based battlefield, the character classes, and several of the character attributes have made influential marks. Quite simply put, Tactics Game Online is a Final Fantasy Tactics equivalent with simplification, online gameplay, and multiplayer opportunites integrated into it. We take the best of the best and try to make it reachable for all.
TGO in MonoDevelop
There it is, MonoDevelop. Recently ported over to the Mac, this bad boy does it all. Syntax highlighting, code completion, indentation, and on and on the list goes. It even has contextual code completion, a feature you don’t see in many code editors. This is light-years beyond what I was working in before, a simple code editor called Smulton. There will be a short learning curve with this I am sure, but it will be worth it. The game server should be finished up by the end of this week, and then work can begin on the client side game programming.
The same approach as with the server will be done on the client, a revamp of Legendary Kingdom Tactics with many features cut out that added significant complexity to the game without a worthwhile trade off. The client development timeline is approximately 6 weeks currently.
Well, the game server is coming along nicely. It is about 50% written, with approximately 1 week of development time remaining.
Its time to reveal some information on our first two characters in TGO, the knight and the brute. The interaction between these two tactical characters is going to be interesting. The brute is just like he sounds, one of the stronger blunt attacking units. He is a barbarian type, preferring to worry less about taking 3 arrows in his chest and more about how quickly he can slash that pesky fly. Sometimes, the best way to take out those flies is with a cannon, right? It doesn’t hurt to be thorough, and this guy will definitely make sure to put a quick end to his threats. Strategies for the brute involve a strong offense, softening up higher defense units, or quickly finishing off low defense ones.
The knight lives to serve his companions, by offering his shield and even his own body if necessary to protect them. He detests evil, especially deceptive units, which we may see in the near future (wink). Knights are tough to knock down, due to their high defense, making them excellent tanks. Don’t be fooled though, they pack a good punch as well. Maybe not as strong as brutes, but they can hold their own against more than one enemy if necessary.
Another important decision that was made this week was how these characters influence your ability to customize them. Each character has a starting attribute set. Each of these attributes can be increased or decreased from their starting values. Each character is also one of three types: melee, ranged, or support. As you may guess, both our knight and brute are melee units. Since these units cannot shoot, they cannot increase range, or splash for that matter. Only ranged and support units can modify these attributes. A huge benefit of the melee units is there higher values of strength, defense, and speed. This makes them your main damage dealers, as well as damage takers. Not only are starting attribute values determined by each character, but their maximum values are too.
Its time to share with you more of the strategy behind this strategy game. What will make Tactics Game Online different from other strategy games is its emphasis on simplicity and returning to a root winning combination of classic turn-based tactics coupled with a modernized 3d battlefield environment. How can you go wrong with that?
Another key unique ingredient is TGO’s focus on multiplayer online gaming. It paves the way for others to come onboard regardless of what gaming console, PC operating system, or even browser specifics he or she uses. TGO will run embedded in your web browser, whether its a Mac or PC, whether its Internet Explorer, Firefox, or Safari.
Finally, TGO combines deep army building customization with simplicity and a short learning curve, creating a game that has much depth. The goal is to give you the greatest ability to adjust your army to any strategy you desire, and make your mastery time of the game as short as possible. Soon, you will see, TGO accomplishes this very well.