T.E.S.L.A. - 'sneak (ugly) peview' demo available

[Matti]

TESLA

Trade - Expansion - Strategy - Lottery - Auctions

This game started as an experiment some days ago. I just wanted to see if I'm able to make something tile-based... and it worked just fine. After fiddling around some more I decided to make a game of this. Just a little game, to kill some time..

It's partly inspired by the old amiga game "Traders". The game is turn-based and divided in several phases, where the four players do different things.

I could complete the game within 1-2 weeks, but I have to study a lot (which is also a reason for not uploading a demo of Anarchy on Mars yet, btw). I think I'll be able to release a finished version in October though.



1. Build phase:
- Take free land, get resources and build stuff.

2. Attack phase:
- Recruit units and attack/bombard/plunder the enemy

3. Trade phase:
- Sell resources for gold or vice versa

4. Lottery phase:
- Win some gold!

5. Auction phase:
- Purchase low priced extra troops before your enemies do

6. Balance sheet
- Take a look at how good you are compared to the other players

(7. Random events)



- 800x600, 32-bit

- 4 different kind of tiles

- 9 different buildings

- 5 different units + missiles

- 4 resources



Almost fully playable game available here (but with unfinished graphics, missing things and lacking AI):

http://www.webfilehost.com/?mode=viewupload&id=3130405

(download button is at the bottom right of the page)



Screenies (Quite a few sprites are still placeholders):

[bicilotti]

Awesome! Will there be AI?

[Matti]

Ah, I forgot to mention that: There already is AI. Right now, the 3 opponents are computer-controlled but I'll maybe add a hotseat-function for multiplayer purposes. I'm not sure yet, cause it could be a bit annyoing since the players would have to look away when it's not their turn. Or maybe I make it a team game: Two humans against two AIs... I'll see what I can do.

I also forgot to mention that the fights will be real-time action, with detailed sprites like those in the GUI. I just don't have a screeshot of that yet..

[Vince Twelve]

Cool!  This looks groovy!

I remember playing Clue on the NES a long time ago, and each player would have to look away when someone was looking through their Clue Cards.  It was really annoying.  Eventually, we decided to just play the board game and sold the cartridge.  Co-op multiplayer would be fun though!

[Dualnames]

It's cool to see you're going through the strategy genre as well...

I find this effort really cool and the name is .."inspired", nothing to do with electricity though..

[Matti]

@ Vince:

Thanks. Never played Clue on PC (or NES), but many other games annoyed me when you had to look away in multiplayer mode.

@ Dual:

Thanks. Together with my third project (signature), which hasn't got a thread yet, I think I've touched around 5 genres, but not the adventure genre yet. Oh, about the name: It was clear right from the beginning that there won't be any story and that the game itself wouldn't make too much sense. So I just wrote down game-related words to see if I can use a cool abbreviation, and I thought TESLA is short & catchy, so I took it.

[Technocrat]

Oooh, interesting...I'm going to have to see if there are any features I can steal for the strategy I'm doing as well...

[Matti]

I did much for the game over the last three days and the game is now almost fully playable. Several sprites are still placeholders, some GUIs are a bit messed up and the fight is very simple and without animations yet, though. Also, the enemy AI still needs a lot of work, the lottery phase is missing and only one (of approximately 10) random events occure.

The enemy AI is the biggest problem I encountered. Though it's easy to let the AI build stuff and manage its finances, it's very hard to let them use their "brain" when taking land. As a human player you have the privilege to plan your moves and conquer a good deal of the map. But giving the enemys some more resources at the beginning as well as making the AIs preferably attacking the best player brings enough balance into the game.

I changed and added screenshots in my first post, but keep in mind that the graphics are incomplete - and in case of the war scene - not really more than sketches, just to make the game playable. But they will give you an idea of what the game will look like.

I will upload a little "tech-demo" in a few days. As I said it's almost fully playable since today, but there are some glitches, some missing things and some bugs I want to get rid of before uploading something.

@ Technocrat:

There isn't much strategy in my game (despite it being mentioned in the title), so I'm afraid there isn't much to steal from.

Edit:

Well, my first one-hour experience was quite varied (me being the red player). Also, the alternative meaning of the A in TESLA is "Aliens":

[Matti]

Okay, well.

On the one hand, the progress is going on smoothly and the game is almost fully playable, but on the other hand, I'm getting really tired of it. There's so much to redo, fiddle around and change and blah... so I take a break and will go on in afew weeks or so. I've playtested the game too much and some bugs gave me headaches....

So, the point is:

1. I guess I'll have it ready at the end of october or smomething like that.

2. Nevertheless I uploaded a 'sneak preview'-demo in case you're interested. I did make a short manual with everything neccessary in it (I hope) that you should check out before playing. Also note that you somehow spoil the fun when you're plaing it now, because there are rough unfinished graphics, the GUIs are yet to be redone and the fight is very lame and almost without animation. Also, the enemy AI lacks in severeal places.

So, check it out if you want but I suggest you don't play it for too long, cause otherwise you won't have much fun when it's finished..

Link (let me know if it doesn't work, my connection sucks):

http://www.webfilehost.com/?mode=viewupload&id=3130405

[Jim Reed]

Checked it out.

Dead players still auction, and the game is pretty slow to win. Maybe if we could attack more tiles in the same turn, it would speed up the game a bit.

Ah, and the lottery is killing me =D

[arj0n]

It took me some time to find the download button on that hosting page...
It thought the download button did belong to the Google Add and therefor shouldn't be the actual button I was looking for but it doesn't belong to that Add.

So:
It's the most down-right button on the page called "Click here to download".

[Wonkyth]

Yeah, it had me a little lost.

I've downloaded the game, but I'm practising Anti-Aliasing at the moment.....

[Matti]

@ Jim Reed:

Haven't played so long that a player doesn't exist anymore. The thing is that the goal is not to destroy all other players. In fact, right now, there isn't a goal or ending at all, but later it will be a certain time period and/or amount of points.

But thanks for mentioning though, cause I can imagine that I would've forgotten the fact that a player can be kicked out of the game.

@ Arjon + Wonkyth:

Sorry for not mentioning the download button, it is indeed a bit confusing.

[arj0n]

Just a small thing:
When clicking the Question button will bring up the option menu.
This option menu is shown behind the "in game action menu" at
the right but maybe should be shown in front of everything...

[Jim Reed]

Oh, yes, and when terrorists destroy a building/plain floods etc., the player is told that it happened, but not where exactly. That imo brings the game down, forcing the player to search for it, thus wasting time that he should be playing the game.

Colour coding the tiles would make strategic thinking a bit more easy.

Ah yes, I had 5 SAM sites, but a missle destroyed one. How's that possible if a SAM gives 20% destroy missle probability?

Overall, the game has good potential, and I'm looking to play the finished version.

[Matti]

@ Arjon. True, but the GUIs that come with the standard template are obsolete and will be replaced by some options in the balance sheet room.

Oh, yes, and when terrorists destroy a building/plain floods etc., the player is told that it happened, but not where exactly. That imo brings the game down, forcing the player to search for it, thus wasting time that he should be playing the game.

True, of course this will be visible in the finished version. Also, there will be more events.

Colour coding the tiles would make strategic thinking a bit more easy.

What do you mean with color coding?

Ah yes, I had 5 SAM sites, but a missle destroyed one. How's that possible if a SAM gives 20% destroy missle probability?

Strange. I'll look into it. On the other hand I AM going to make a maximum of ~90 % or something, but I didn't do that yet so something must go wrong.

Edit: Ha, just realized that FLAK is the german version for SAM, sorry for possible confusion in the manual.

Overall, the game has good potential, and I'm looking to play the finished version.

Unfortunately, the finished game won't be too different, except from AI-improvement, finished graphics and some extras. But as I said, this began as an experiment and now that I know what I can do (e.g. with tiles) I certainly will start a more elaborate strategy (or similar) game someday.