Gameplay
My idea is to make this a turned-based multiplayer strategy game with advancement ideas. Below are the most up-to-date thoughts on how the game will work.
Turn-based
- No real-time. Players move in succession.
- All moves are captured and executed at round end, which is when all players have moved.
Multiplayer
- No single player mode.
- To spread adoption as wide as possible, it needs to be as EASY as possible to invite new players and to start games with existing ones.
Advancement
- Should be a well thought-out advancement strategy.
- Every victory earns you XP. You get more XP from beating higher ranked opponents.
- Capturing unique planets in a game earns you xp.
- Get enough XP to unlock a new level, which adds a new technique/element to the game.
- When you play against another player, the game will be played at the min level of all players.
- Players can pay to unlock levels if they choose. Maybe don't allow people to buy into the upper-most levels?
- Bonus XP for achievements
1.0 - Targeted Features
- XP/rank system
- Dynamic XP based upon opponent rank
- Gain XP per victory and per planet taken
- Levels system and selection with UI on game creation - Different galaxies are opened for each group of ranks that you reach
- Small world - 1-5
- Large world - 5-10
- Speed ability planet - 10-15
- Defense ability planet - 16-20
- Attack ability planet - 21-25
- Block regen ability planet - 26-30
- Multiple home worlds - 31-35
- Hold or harvest - 36-40
- Leaderboards
- Global ranking formula
- Friends rank?
- Social Leaderboard
- Coins for playing
- XX of free coins for every day you login
- Special coin planets appear in 2% of games?
- Random daily/hourly specials on coin purchases?
- In-app payment system for coins and ad-removal
- Display ads to remove time spent on countdown to new coins
- Social - Invite through:
- Facebook
- Google+
- Post to twitter
- Admin UI
- Join screen redo - Basic player matching system
- Game screen enhancements
- New ship selection dialog with slider to select # of ships
- Move bar - Show all moves in progress, with touch to highlight move on screen
- Show users battle results on round end
- Security
- Heroku scaling? How many users do we expect to fit on a node.
- Graceful error handling
- iOS?
- Tutorial
- Application configuration
1.1 - Targeted Features
- Additional level types
- Asteroid belt world
- Black hole (dynamic speed) world
- Achievements
- First Blood - Play your first game
- Comeback King - Come back from being so far behind in a game to win it
- Win x games games (Can be multiple, 5,10,30 etc)
- Play x games games
- Speed Demon - Win a game while holding a speed ability
- Win a game by holding ALL planets
- Win a game in under x amount of time
- David vs Goliath - Beat an opponent of a higher rank
- Sounds (and music?)
Heroku
API
Versions
V0.01
- Basic Game setup.
- Ability to create a new game.
- Ability to join an existing game.
- Ability to make a move within a game.
V0.02
- Ranking concept introduced.
- Notification system.
- Multiple levels to play.
V0.03
- Graphics improved
- Animation for moves
- Remove second player advantage
- Display Moves in progress
- Allow update/delete of current moves
V0.04
- Simultaneous moves in a round
- Animation for attacks
- Drag for move buttons
- Select a move to show from and to planet
- New slider based move dialog
- Level select screen
- Matching system for new games
- Performance improvments for rendering
- Introduction of scene 2D for menu systems
- Now working out attack/defence multipliers before applying moves