Devlogs
Updated from Beta1 to v1.0
As this is my first attempt at a strategy game, there were a lot of very good remarks after the intial release, most of which I tried to address with this update.
The biggest changes concern the UI. The one in the initial release left much to be desired, and there was almost no oversight over what was happening on the board. I tried to aim for an experience, where a player can maybe even understand it, while playing it without having read the "How to" first.
- Edge colors representing the three powers were changed to be more distinctive (I didn't have this in the inital release, because I thaught they were to gaudy looking, but as it is more adding to confusion than to beauty that was a bad decision in hindsight). The total power stats of the two players are now tinted accordingly.
- Those colors are now also visible when the pieces get previewed on the board. (Initially I did not show them, as I wanted to add the challenge of spatial thinking. But that was just a tad to much).
- On top of the color codes for the power and edge-types, I added Icons to the board. All alliances, conflicts and other border constellations
are now signaled through them. This adds greatly to the oversight of the board and engages much more if the board gets crowded with war pieces.
- Created an "Instructions-Field" on the bottom of the screen, that always tells the player what is going on and what is expected of him.
- Added some subtle particle effects around the players stat-boxes and made their title pulsating, to make it more clear whose turn it is.
- Added less subtle particle effects behind the button that finishes the rounds. As it pops up and isn't always there, players didn't spot it right away.
- Added more fields for mouse-over-informations. If the player now is in doubt, he can always get more in-depth-information by hovering over war pieces, borders, etc.
- Animations now show if money has been added to, or was deducted from your vault.
- A lot of minor tweaks to the graphics.
Less changes in numbers but definetly just as influential as the UI changes happened to the Gameplay.
- Added a completly new mechanic: When the players are finished setting their pieces on the board, they can now strenghten their tiles by spending money from their vault. This should add to the player feeling in control. Especially as it is possible for a player to back himself into a corner, where he can't place any tiles anymore. Now he isn't a lame duck anymore when that happens.
- Added an AI. It's not a good one, to be honest. I've never done that before. But now the game can also be played as a single-player game.
I also expanded the "How to play" screen, to better explain the mechanics of the game.
And that was it. Hope you have fun with it. Feedback is always welcome!