Hello again and welcome back to the front! I am still Cattan and this is still The Cycle Of War: Trench Assault
It's been a week already and much progress was made. I'm happy to say that the game is technically playable from start to finish! Of course it's not yet finished at all: The UI is still basic, sound implementation is only just starting and some of the core features are still missing ; but a player can press the start button, play the game and eventually reach the point where the game says "Game over: You win" or "Game over: You lose". That's a big step! Today I'm going to talk a little bit about graphics, sound design, planned features and game design. Without further delay, let me put on my graphics designer hat...
Graphics
You may remember from the previous log that I was considering keeping my little circles. Well you may be please to know I decided to commit to this and even double down: I've added little soldiers holding the ladders and crewing the different weapons at their disposal.
The mighty BLUE army stands ready to assault the puny RED trenches.
I must admit once I added those tiny circles, my heart said this was the right choice. I can't help but find them cute, with their rifles that can hold more bullets than they have polygons. I had considered giving them hats and make the two factions look more distinct but ended up deciding against it for reasons I will discus at the end of this log.
Sound Design
Sounds in general have yet to be implemented, though the design part of it is mostly done. The original intent was to have a military march play throughout the assault phase, with some battle sounds happening here and there (soldiers dying, guns reloading, mortars, etc...). That march will be none other than a royalty free version of When Johnny Comes Marching Home. If you don't know it, it is very upbeat and says, in a nutshell, that everyone will be happy when a soldier called Johnny comes back home after the war. Of course it may feel less uplifting when combined with the sound of agonising little circles but that's just life.
Outside of the assault phase, the game will simply have a low rumbling of drums to give an atmosphere of "war" without occupying the soundscape too much: I personally dislike over prevalence of music.
Features Review
Over the course of iterating and testing, a few things have changed and a few have improved. Ladders now have a small random area where they can spawn soldiers. It's not much but it does scatter them a little more and makes the battlefield look more alive since it isn't just a few perfect lines of soldiers advancing together but more of a charging mob. Machineguns have seen their firing arc reduced and, as a trade-off, a new type of defending unit was added: The sentries. They are normal soldiers with rifles in the trench and shoot much slower, but over a much larger angle than the machine guns.
Mortars are still in the process of being added, the way they will work is that the amount of mortars on the field will give the player (or the computer) a number of "shells" that can be freely used with the mouse during the assault phase; these can be used to destroy barbed wires or stun defenders for a time. Of course the player's little circles are not immune to their own artillery but, once again, that's just life.
With the speed at which I am working, I am confident everything will be done and functional a day or two before the deadline. Here's hoping!
Game Design
I have honestly surprised myself earlier today when I noticed I was actually playing the game for the sake of playing rather than testing. While very bare-bones and repetitive, the game is fun. I caught myself rooting for the little circles and watching the bullets fly by them; I was trying to guess who was going to get hit when. The crux of it, I believe, is that I have made a fairly elaborate game of chance: There is a predictable randomness to the pattern of the guns firing and the soldiers advancing and it is fun to try and piece it together. Though maybe that's just my Asperger speaking.
Still, when the machineguns reload and a push finally looks like it's coming together, I watch with baited breath as I count the seconds before the gun starts firing again. I am really interested to see how using the mortars to stun the guns even longer would affect this, and I believe it will make it more exciting.
Now I should also address a few other things: As I mentioned earlier, I have decided not to make the factions distinct, and you may have caught me making light of the suffering of the poor little circles. That is linked to what I want this game to express: A ridiculous parody of war. I would like to portray an entirely senseless conflict with no better justification than an over-the-top "we are good and they are bad" rhetoric. That is of course a tall order for a small game like this, but I hope it can feel apparent to players once the game is complete.
That's all for today. Thank you for reading and stay tuned for more news from the front!