Command, Bombard, Reinforce...
That is your role as the field commander in No Man's Land. Command and lead your soldiers, bombard enemy positions, and reinforce your army using captured supplies. Be wary of the enemies' advance all the same, though. You can find the code repository here.
THE DELIVERABLES:
The game needed to deliver three main playing principles:
-
as the narrative progresses, the complexity and stakes of the game should increase
-
once the player has completed their turn, the computer AI should respond accordingly to give every action and decision an immediate consequence
-
clear winning conditions that when met, the game will end.
​
Every system needed to contribute toward these deliverables, and this project piqued my interest in the makeup of reactive systems and reactive programming. Every action and decision needed an immediate consequence.
1
The images above are notes on the playing grid, resembling the theatre of war on the Western Front.
11
THE MECHANICS:
The mechanics of the game were methodically planned using Miro.
I chose a turn-based strategy playing framework, mainly to test my programming skills, but also to create a responsive and reactive playing environment.
​
With the game taking inspiration from the First World War, I wanted the experience to feel visceral and for the player to feel pressure. Speeding up the time to decide tactics and strategies also increased the frequency of interactions between the mechanics themselves.
MOVEMENT - Troops were defined by three things; faction, local position, and unit type. Local position is a 2D vector based on the playing grid, unique to each unit. Faction and unit types were enums assigned to different units, based on their type and team. Instead of having tailored scripts for each unit, I used polymorphism and inheritance to set up a base class that housed the linked list of the 'available moves' each unit type could perform. Later, I added all units to a list data structure to keep track of how many soldiers each team had.
​
ATTACK - Using a similar technique for finding the local position of units, I indexed the playing grid using a ray cast from the mouse. A number of checks would take place:
-
Is there a unit on the chosen tile?​
-
If yes, kill the unit and remove them from the unit list.
-
If not, nothing happens.
In line with military tactics from the time, the player could order an artillery bombardment using supplies.
​
REINFORCE - Using the indexing tool once more, I randomly arranged a set number of supplies to spawn (at run-time) in No Man's Land. The player could then use the movement mechanics to guide units to these areas, capturing them. Supplies are a form of expenditure in the game, where the player can choose to reinforce the army with fresh units instead of attacking the enemy. Supplies can be used for both to make the player employ strategic thinking.
111
THE GAMEPLAY:
No Man's Land is intended to be a visceral, thought-provoking, high-intensity playing experience that takes micro-elements from historical warfare and platforms them in an immersive environment. To ensure I meet the deliverables of the game, and realise my long-term vision, I have crafted the systems based on these 3 principles of gameplay:
I
I
I
RISK
TIME
ACT
Risk is the first pillar of gameplay because the further in No Man's Land you traverse, the more game-changing situations you can find yourself in.
Time is a constant in No Man's Land, limiting the time which a player can make their move.
But also, keeping a record of occupying Point's of Interest too.
Facta, non verba. A failure to act is a failure to react. The game, and enemy team, will progress regardless of whether you make an action or not.
Below is a technical showcase of the game in it's first iteration, for my dissertation at University. Currently, I am re-working this title; using tools and techniques I have learned at industrial placements and work experience. Road-map will be posted soon.
I have included the block-out for the environment (featuring models) to show my conceptual thinking. If you want to only view game play, skip to 02:46
1v
ROADMAP:
This is the roadmap for the development of No Man's Land, I am looking at an 18-month time scale to get the game (at least) towards public demo-testing through Steam, with all functional features implemented and bespoke assets. I will host a series of closed testing sessions in this timeframe, keeping a log of feedback and responding through the game itself. Due to working commitments, I've extended the time-frame of each agile process, but up-to-date developer logs can be found in the next section.
CLOSED ALPHA
COMING SOON
DEC '24
DEC '25
v
DEVELOPER LOGS:
