Universal [devlog] SUPERPUNK Tactics - Asyncronous / PvP / Turn by Turn / Tactical-RPG

[liva]

Hi ! We are working on a mobile game called SUPERPUNK Tactics. The game development started with a couple of ideas for a "Final Fantasy Tactics but online and PvP". We have been working on the game on and off for almost a year now.

https://imgur.com/pZHHKgB

SUPERPUNK Tactics is an Asynchronous, Turn-based and Player versus Player Tactical-RPG composed of 3 factions. Join one of them, gather your party and get back to the roots of great Tactical RPG.

- Manipulate the environment: Warm up an oily crate to make it burn. Push it near your opponent and burn his team. Pull an enemy on water and electrify him to make him stunned or poison his units to turn his heals into self-damage. Master more than 20 status effects and even more combos to overcome your many foes.
- Design the ultimate team: Unlock powerful new talents and weapons with endless interaction and combinations.
- Perfect Your Strategy: Build your own battlefield and take combat and tactical decision to new levels.

https://imgur.com/NNZieus

At the moment the game is playable. However, few functionality are missing or still a bit buggy and it does not yet look as silky smooth as we would like it to be but the alpha is already running and we have a lot of fun at each testflight sessions.

This is a first from series of posts where we will share information about the game and about the process of making it.

Cheers!

 

[liva]

https://imgur.com/eL7ma0m

Status Effects play a huge role in many games, and when it comes to it, Path of Exile is my go-to inspiration. They are absolutely essential in how your character attacks or defends and they can mix to create interesting synergies and provide worlds of variation in combat style. One thing I’ve found always fun was the use of the « elemental proliferation » support gem to make the status effects spread to targets unaffected by the initial hit, so entire screens may burn or freeze. It was just awesome.

https://imgur.com/NNZieus

What we did for SUPERPUNK Tactics, which is wayyyyy more slow paced, is a system where the board has a turn between each players where it will try to spread status that are spreadable.

There are a huge variety of different types of effects that effect the player characters or enemies. These effects can be a huge factor in any fight, and can work for or against you. Knowing what these effects can do and how they interact with one another is extremely important.

Cheers!

 

[liva]

Success in SUPERPUNK Tactics demands smart use of everything on the board. Push enemies into each other or into the environment to damage them. Move them into positions where their line of fire won’t cause damage. Move your units behind obstacles to keep them hidden from the opponent sigh. Push and pull enemy units into water, fire, oil and other tiles with status effect and exploit their new weakness.

Or maybe do it the other way around ?

Warm up an oily crate to make it burn and then push it near your opponent and burn his team ? Or maybe pull wet enemies near and electrified obstacle to stun them all ? The possibilities are huge

https://imgur.com/OzCjtzb

 

[liva]

BattleMap Editor

This may be just me, but I have been seeing more and more games with crafting systems added to them. Many think they add another layer of depth to the game, but I am just not sure about that. Crafting is awesome when it’s central to the gameplay of the game, as in UO, Minecraft, or Eve Online. For loot-drop based games like WoW it just feels unnecessarily bolted on.

For many months we thought about it, we wanted to give you some tool to create something unique, and we like the idea of strategy being a part of your inventory, but we would prefer other ways to incorporate this than crafting.

That is why we added a BattleMap Editor.

https://imgur.com/iwACnTH

It’s a neat way of giving the player choice and control over something crucial, tactical possibilities. In SUPERPUNK Tactics you can attack, destroy, push and interact in many ways the terrain and his layout. Giving you a battlefield where you can build things and plan your tactics is extremely satisfying. Every battle would be different from the last one, something truly exciting for the opponent, and because the terrain is symmetrical totally fair.

https://imgur.com/mgg0VOP

Combined with status effects (Burning, Infected…), I cant imagine the possibilities but I know this is gonna be awesome.

Cheers

 

[liva]

This week, we have been working on Status effects.

Poison, stun, confusion, fear, sleep, death…Status effects are greats, they can add variety on top of existing base mechanics and lend the mathematics of combat in some games a great deal of depth and emergent complexity without making the game harder to learn or play. An RPG is never complete without Status Effects. From the simplest damage-over-time effect to the impactful 5 turns until instant death to something wacky like turning your folks into sheep, Status Effects can be tackled in many ways by the developer and it sure does impact the gameplay for their respective players.

https://imgur.com/VfTHtXi

But they are a tricky beasts. Some games make them so trivial they can be ignored, others make them so debilitating that getting one means you may as well quit and reload your last save. There is a sweet spot in the middle, but getting there takes work. And If we can integrate them in such a way that they feel like they join up seamlessly with the base mechanics, I think that will help reduce the feeling that you need to track yet another thing.

Take poison for example, some games make poison so weak that it ends up being the equivalent of 1-2 hits from weak enemies over several turns. Conversely, some games make poison ridiculously strong. Not quite to the point of 25% HP per turn, but occasionally not far off it. It’s often either too much or too little, and rarely does anyone hit that sweet spot in the middle…so let’s fix this by having ramped-up damage, like the Agony skill in World of Warcraft. Poison starts out small, but each turn gets a little bit stronger. That means you can afford to ignore it for, a couple of turns, but after that it starts getting deadly to the point where you need to deal with it. Having this mechanic means the player will soon learn they have a bit of grace where they can get things done without worry, but the longer they leave it there, the greater a risk they’re taking.

We cant talk Status Effects without talking about Immune System. That one’s easy: make the target immune to the last status they cured from for few turns. That way you can spend few turns without having to worry about more poison.

https://imgur.com/4ij0vam

And as of right now, there are a little bit more than 20 Status Effects in SUPERPUNK Tactics.

• Rested – Character Recuperation gain +10
• Distracted – Character can’t use REACTIVE SKILLS (Parade, Counter-Attack, Evade…)
• Disarmed – Character can’t use ACTIVE SKILL (Attack, Charge, Lightning…)
• Shattered – « Weapon Triangle » set to disadvantaging (+20 Damage received) even if same color
• Stunned – Character can’t play this turn. This status can’t be broken by damage.
• Blinded – Character can’t see.
• Rooted – Character can’t move (movement based skills break the root). This status is broken by any damage.
• Crippled – Character can’t move and cant use movement skill (charge, dodge…)
• Frightened – Character run away in fear. This status is broken by any damage.
• Decaying – Character is hurt by Recuperation.
• Sleeping – Character cannot move or use skills. This status is broken by any damage.
• Mad – Maddened characters will attack those nearest them, regardless of alignment.
• Ruptured – Double cost of movement.
• Wet – 20% more vulnerable to Electric and Ice attacks. If Shocked while Wet, become Stunned. If Chilled while Wet, become Frozen.
• Shocked – 20% more vulnerable to Electric attacks. Getting Wet or Shocked again while already Shocked will make the character Stunned.
• Frozen – Character is Frozen and Immun to everything but cant play.
• Chilled – 20% more vulnerable to Cold attacks. Character can be Frozen as a result of being Chilled while already Chilled.
• Infected – Contagious, spread to nearby players/enemies – Character deals -30% damage
• Hot – 20% more vulnerable to Heat attacks. Getting Hot again while already Hot will make the character Burning.
• Oily – Character can be Burning as a result of being Hot.
• Burning – Damage Over Turns, but Character is immun to Frozen, Wet and Chill.
• Immun – Character is immun to every negative status effects

Each one of them was carefully selected, because as with everything in game design, we think it’s important to tie all the little bits and pieces together in the battle system. A thing should be added only if it adds something to the gameplay. If a status effect doesn’t add a new way to play or a change in player behavior, then it’s just fluff and should be left out.

We are working hard to make them easily visually recognizable, but is it too much? What does too many different types of status effects look like? I dont want to make the player feel like the game is bloated because it contained too many effects, items, etc