DuelCamp - Work in Progress - update: LOGO

[Xavier]

Finally a perfect time to start this thread!

Name: DuelCamp
Genre: That's a very good question...
Theme: light-hearted fantasy
Gameplay: text-based with iconic graphics

Summary:

Travel across the world and create your army from
captured creatures. Build a strong force and battle
against other Duelers for glory and fame.

Time:

It's an action based game. Each player has some action
points to use. They regenerate. The regeneration rate
is thought to give each player ability to play for about
10-30 minutes each day.

That is one of my goals, so the game doesn't take 3 hours
a day to play it effectively.

World:

The known world is small. Just a few towns, currently 1 but
I want to make at least 5. Each town with its own surroundings.
From each town you can explore different locations, if you
have them marked on your map of course.

Locations vary in type of creatures you can find there. Some
are easy, some are hard, some consist of coastal creatures, some
are inhabited by swamp or desert creatures, and so on.

Exploration:

You can explore a location you already know or you can attempt to
find a new location.

You pay some AP to proceed to an encounter. Currently each encounter
is a creature you spotted. From there you can fight with it, creatures
drop some gold when defeated. You can also proceed to the next encounter
or you can try to cast a capture spell. The more mana points you use
the better the chance of capturing a creature. Some creatures, such
as bandits, cannot be controlled.

Exploration ends if you decide to go back to town, don't have enough AP
or are defeated in fight (lost your HP).

Town:

In each town you can visit a healer or a priest to restore your HP and MP.
Also each town has got its own arena.

Arena:

The higher your level, the more creatures you can control at once.

If you decide you're ready to battle with others you can visit an arena.
There, your army will battle with another player's army to the death. Players
have got ranking points or fame as you wish. The system is designed so
that even new players have a decent chance to become the best. It's all
about ratios and fighting with challenging opponents.

Currently the order of fighting creatures is random. I wish to change it
to player selected to add a strategic aspect to the fight as well.

Development:

Almost all core features are working. If I manage to complete all core
features I'll release the alpha version. I count on your support in this
WIP thread as well as in the early stages of DuelCamp's online existence.

I'm going to post first screenshots and talk a little about graphics soon.

I'm eager to answer all your questions and comments.

Thanks,
Xavier

[Chris]

In short Heroes of M&M but without owning towns and resources collection. I would say it's RPG with a bit of strategy.

Rounds, score, victory condition (if any)? These highly influence what kind of game it is.

"The known world is small" - very good choice.

"The more mana points you use the better the chance of capturing a creature." - Pokemon Sorry, could not resist. But the consept is OK.

Add artifacts, these would fit here.

Something fells wrong to me with this design, do not know what... Maybe that you have armies and don't use them for anything (you just treat them like items in RPG)? I don't know...

I was thinking about something a bit similar once. But the key concept was that you rally troops (in a very RPGish way you described) and then use them at the very end to overthrow the "someone". Like the old IronLord ( http://www.lemon64.com/?mainurl=http%3A//www.lemon64.com/reviews/view.php%3Fid%3D492 ).

[Xavier]

In short Heroes of M&M but without owning towns and resources collection. I would say it's RPG with a bit of strategy.

It's more like Pokemon in a HoMM world if you want to use
this terminology. I like to think it's just unique.

Rounds, score, victory condition (if any)? These highly influence what kind of game it is.

It's an ongoing game, no rounds, no victory conditions.
There're rankings, global and for each town separately.

"The more mana points you use the better the chance of capturing a creature." - Pokemon Sorry, could not resist. But the consept is OK.

Don't be sorry. Back in the days I've player Pokemon
a lot and I like this game. It surely had some influence
on my current design.

Add artifacts, these would fit here.

I've plans for items too. Not only items for players but
also upgrades for creatures.

Something fells wrong to me with this design, do not know what... Maybe that you have armies and don't use them for anything (you just treat them like items in RPG)? I don't know...

Well, you do! They fight for you in the arenas. That's
the whole point to collect the strongest creatures you
can find.

Maybe the lack of interaction is lacking and this feels
wrong. I've clans in the future development plans and
few cool ideas for them. I really hope to implement them
but with my current more-than-full-time job it's becoming
harder and harder.

I attach my current logo. There're some creatures there too.
Those icons I use come from the greatest TomeTik tiles library
and are free to use. http://pousse.rapiere.free.fr/tome/

[Chris]

It's an ongoing game, no rounds, no victory conditions.
There're rankings, global and for each town separately.

I wonder why so many new games are like this. Rounds/eras/ages give immense game design advantages...

Add artifacts, these would fit here.

I've plans for items too. Not only items for players but
also upgrades for creatures.

Not exactly. I thougt about HoMM style artifacts. Very rare things that affect your domain globally (nut just one unit), like "purse of gold".

Those icons I use come from the greatest TomeTik tiles library
and are free to use.

Gervais made them available for commercial purposes!? Sweet! I got licence from him more than 10 years ago but it was for 100% non profit only The only disadvantage is that nowadays 32x32 tiles are very very small on modern displays...


Pokemon + HoMM sounds good. How far you plan to go with economy part (mines, resources, towns)?

[Xavier]

It's an ongoing game, no rounds, no victory conditions.
There're rankings, global and for each town separately.

I wonder why so many new games are like this. Rounds/eras/ages give immense game design advantages...

You made me think for about two weeks with this little sentence. I'm not sure exactly
what advantages do you refer to but I can imagine a few. I think that I can use a final
objective - something like "capture a legendary phoenix" - as an ultimate quest that
ends current round. And the one who capture it is the winner.

Could you elaborate on this point a little bit more?

Pokemon + HoMM sounds good. How far you plan to go with economy part (mines, resources, towns)?

I try to make my first production as simple as possible therefore no
economy as you think of it. I plan to add a marketplace for selling
or buying captured monsters but that's it.

My full-time job consume most of my dev time so the process is getting longer and longer.
However my motivation is still very high and I really want to release my first browser game.
Its also because of this community that I've been able to create it and I really look forward
to your comments and replies.

[jannesiera]

I think that I can use a final
objective - something like "capture a legendary phoenix" - as an ultimate quest that
ends current round. And the one who capture it is the winner.

I don't really think this is a very good idea. You want more players to feel like the winner. For example: for many the progress they made in compared to the previous round, in other words, how much higher they ended in the rankings, is an important "winning" factor. When you set such a definite end goal it will take away a part of that feeling. Not all of it, but a little bit of every player is enough to make a difference .

You shouldn't choose an end goal for the sake of it, but choose it for your players. Design your game the way it works, either in rounds or otherwise ongoing, and if an "end goal" isn't a very important aspect of your design, let your players decide what they want afterwards.

[Chris]

It's an ongoing game, no rounds, no victory conditions.
There're rankings, global and for each town separately.

I wonder why so many new games are like this. Rounds/eras/ages give immense game design advantages...

You made me think for about two weeks with this little sentence. I'm not sure exactly
what advantages do you refer to but I can imagine a few. I think that I can use a final
objective - something like "capture a legendary phoenix" - as an ultimate quest that
ends current round. And the one who capture it is the winner.

Could you elaborate on this point a little bit more?

You coded 30 different upgrades. During each round only random 15 upgrades are available. Game round last 1 week (7 days).  Player can acquire 1 upgrade per day (7 total from 15 available).

Math question: how many years will take players to explore all possible routes? What is the statistical chance for 2 rounds to have identical setting (replayability)?

If it was persistent game you would run out of content within 1 month and there would be no agonizing decisions at all regarding choice of upgrades.


Not to mention ease of testing and balancing...