Documentation + User Guide

List of differences from concept document

The game I initially envisioned is almost identical to the game I’ve created. Naturally I still need to spend way more time perfecting this project before I fully complete my initial vision, however I am still proud of what I’ve been able to achieve in the allocated time. The main cuts from the concept document due to time constraints are listed below. 

CPU mode -  For myself, the overall scope of this game was larger than was manageable in the allocated time frame. Past Jes very much overestimated our abilities. The scope of the project had to be reduced. One of the largest cuts was the removal of CPU mode. Coding AI for this style of game would be incredibly time consuming as I would need to learn how to make this work as well as implementing. Around Week 12 of the project, I decided to cut this to allow for focus on co-op play and refining the game loop. Admittedly this game would be stronger if it could be played solo but I thought prioritising refining the flow of the game was more important.

Coin Buy System for build – Ultimately this was cut as it seemed only necessary for preventing game breaking strategy. Incorporating a coin buy system doesn’t add too much to the strategy system and in some cases could detract from the experience. It had the potential to restrict the flow of creativity for new players.  slightly increases the barrier of entry for casual gamers as it is another element of consideration when building your army. I am yet to find a game breaking strategy… Hopefully people don’t find broken strategies if so this would be a good thing to implement in future.

Story – Even at the time of making the concept document, past Jes realised it would be ambitious to finish everything and have time to implement a story mode. In the initial game brief, I half-heartedly put in the blueprints for a story segment. I really didn’t think id have time to implement it and that was a very correct assessment. This would be one of the first things I’d implement if I’d had more time with this project. This would add a lot of character to the game and serve as both an interactive tutorial as well as a story mode.

Small Changes –

*Shield – Can sacrifice this unit to prevent an ally unit from being killed.

*Soldier – Hidden Ability: Upon reaching other side of board, can sacrifice piece to damage enemy king

*Oracle – sacrifice this unit, player can use two abilities this turn.

Summary of tester feedback 

The feedback I received in week 12 prompted a shift of focus in the last few weeks of the project. I was ready to move onto implementing the AI and working on sound design however the feedback brought to my attention a lot of flaws with the game. When watching players, I could see that information was not easily found and navigating UI’s was clunky and unintuitive. This was also reflected in the game feedback I received. Ultimately, I made the decision it was more important for these aspects to be refined and the feedback to be addressed than incorporating the AI and doing extensive sound design.

In the game feedback I received some great suggestions on how to alleviate some of these issues. I delve more deeply into the process of acting on this feedback in my week 5 devlog. The feedback was directly responsible for these changes.

1. The book/information panel automatically updates itself depending on the situation

• as the player clicks on a unit, information for the unit is immediately presented
• As a player activates an ability, information for that ability is brought up

“Get rid of the info/X button… just autoshow the info….”

“it did feel like I needed to click through every unit before getting started.”

“maybe switch to the info for a piece when it is clicked, rather than the info button”

“Annoying to click through a menu”

“It was easy to to get the information but the UI made it a little clunky - needing to select the info tab instead of it just being visible when a unit is clicked on made it take more steps than it perhaps should.”

“I clicked the ability button and it didn't seem to do anything”

“The descriptions were hard to get to but were very informative once found”

2.  Movement information no longer needs to be read. Instead, valid moves are highlighted when unit is selected

“A little too much text and not enough pictures”

“show possible movement on screen when movement is selected”

“I think it would really benefit from highlighting on the squares to show what moves are possible for the selected piece.”

“I didn't want to read all that text - I would love if you could see the allowed squares to move to when you click the move button maybe”

“Could do with some sort of highlight to show where a unit can move on the board”

3. Game introduction shown on book/ information panel upon starting

“maybe just have a start menu on the parchment at the beginning”

4. UI no longer needs to be closed by clicking x. Instead clicking anywhere off the UI closes it

From visual inspection, I could see that having to manually close the UI every time was clunky and broke the player’s flow.

Implementation of all of the above drastically changed the feel and playability of this game. Information is conveyed to the player much more naturally and controls are much more intuitive. It takes significantly less clicks to get the same information as before.  

List Of Assets 

Units

This accounts for the majority of the assets as there are 12 unique units all with two colour variants. These are the pieces which are used to play the game. The 12 units have unique abilities and movestyles.

UIs

The UI’s allow the player to activate certain events. When a unit is selected a UI is instantiated attached to that unit. Within the UI there are two main options, ability and move. Clicking either of these prompts the selected unit to do to enter that phase.

Unit information Books

These are canvas which contain information on each unit. This includes movement, ability data and flavour text. All 12 unique units have a corresponding infobook. The corresponding info book is instantiated when a unit is selected.

Art Assets

All created by me using aseprite

Fonts

Fontleroy Brown - https://www.dafont.com/fontleroy-brown.font

Victorian Parlor - https://www.dafont.com/victorian-parlor.font

Optimus Princeps - https://www.dafont.com/optimusprinceps.font

Louis George Cafe - https://www.dafont.com/louis-george-caf.font

Sound Effects

https://freesoundstock.com/products/chess-sound-effects

SoundTrack

Ascent – Composed by me (today haha lol)

User Guide

Game title - Ascent

Gameplay - This game is a two-player army builder/chess style strategy game.

Controls -  Click on stuff. Can press space to complete turn.

Game Objective – Land three successful strikes on the enemy king

Build Phase – In this phase, each player builds their army from the unique units that are available. Find information on a unit by pressing on it.

Battle Phase – Players take turns in a chess style strategy showdown. Each turn a player must move a piece. A player may also use one ability every turn.

Abilities – Players may use one ability every turn if they choose to and are able. Unit abilities can be used unlimited times. Some abilities are always active and don’t need to be triggered. ie Scholar, Lover, Shield