Hi there,
Forest strike is a 2D round-based strategy game in pixel-art style featuring animals as characters.
This Blog entry is a collection of my previous Dev Blogs and I wrote on my page and provides a small overview over the project and the current status.
Enjoy! :)
Project Idea
Forest strike is a 2D round-based strategy game in pixel-art style featuring animals as characters.
Each round is divided into multiple phases, such as:
- Pre Phase
- Dice Phase
- Move Phase
- Action Phase
- Post Phase
Pre phase is resetting and initializing needed variables each round.
After the pre phase (which is handled within a single step), the dice phase randomly picks the number of steps you can move.
Now, after we got the number, we finally will be able to move the characters. Moving the characters is limited to an amount of steps (dice phase). During the Move Phase, you can move your characters and use items, such as the simple bomb.
Items are split into two groups: "active" and "passive". Active items will be shown in the inventory and can be used during the Move Phase, while passive ones will influence different values of the game.
The active items are not handled instantly, they get a sequence number and will be handled in the next phase, the Action Phase. If there are items placed (like a bomb), the action phase handles every item sequentially (by their sequence number). This way, the game provides a great variety regarding building your own strategy.
Lastly, the Post Phase checks some stuff and jumps to the Pre Phase.
Technology
The game is running in Game Maker 2 in order to deploy the game to multiple platforms. Additionally, I really love working with Game Maker, because of its simple, yet powerful, UI and features. The software I use to draw the resources is Aesprite. Also, I am learning how to use Pyxel Edit to create awesome tilesets.
Regarding platforms, I want to cover at least Windows, Linux and Mac. Eventually, a mobile export will be done as well with slight modifications.
Currently, no music or sound is included in the game. In future, I will compose a few tracks in Cubase with a few external VSTs (depending on the genre). I'll keep you up to date as soon as I have a few tracks.
Creating sounds has never been one of my strengths, so I’ll have to buy a bundle or hire a composer. Eventually, I’ll try creating a few sounds on my own.
Explosions!!!
Basically, that's what the game is about. As mentioned before, you can place any number of bombs during the Move phase. They will be handled in the Action phase, so be sure to place your character on a safe block when finishing the Move phase.
Mouse dragging
Not all the tiles are visible at the same time. In order to navigate through the map, you can now use the mouse and drag the camera around. You're going to use this feature in greater maps in order to navigate your characters and get an overview.
Inventory
The inventory icon is on the left upper side of the screen. It is only shown, if a character is selected. All active items you obtain will be listed here. The bomb is the only item, which is always shown.
The cursor sprite changes if an item is selected. In this case, I chose the bomb, so the sprite changes to a hand holding a bomb. The item can only be placed on red fields. The red fields depend on the item selected.
Number roll
Here is a GIF of the random number roll at each round. It represents the number of steps you can walk with your characters. If you gather "Step+" items, a info will be shown within the number roll.
That's it for this update. Be sure to follow Forest Strike in order to stay up2date.
Thank you for reading! :D
As always, if you have questions or any kind of feedback feel free to post a comment or contact me directly.