Brainfold

I’m starting to write about the game design for Artillery Brawl on this blog instead of keeping it in my head and my private wiki. As opposed to Red Nebula, whose concept is wide open, a “playground” of sorts, the vision I have for Artillery Brawl is very focused, and I have already dismissed several gameplay ideas that simply don’t fit that vision. To start with, here’s the concept for the game.

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Artillery Brawl is a remake of my first real game, Arty, and a tribute to Artillery Duel, Scorched Earth and other games of the classic artillery genre. Two or more players, with one or more artillery units each, battle to gain victory by destroying each other or reaching some other victory condition depending on the rules.

Core features

• OpenGL-accelerated 2D graphics
• Realistic physics simulation
• Procedural levels
• Real-time gameplay paused during turns
• Damage model not based on hitpoints
• Multiple game modes with different rules
• Shopping system to buy and customize units
• Hotseat multiplayer on one computer

Everything else is extra, but the above features are central to the vision.

World

The game world is a 2D terrain always viewed from the side and bounded on each side. No unit or other entity may cross the bounds; for example, artillery shells crossing the bounds are silently eliminated. To help with this, there is a “buffer zone” on each side, where no units are placed at the beginning of the game. Scale is at the unit level, with no higher level organization or lower-level detail.

Gameplay

A game consists of a number of rounds. Before a game, the players agree on a set of rules, including ending conditions for each round and the game, and how money is gained. A round might end when only one player has units left, or after a time limit. A game might end after a set number of rounds, or when only one player has money left. Before each round, the players may buy new units and customize existing units at a shop screen with their money.

Each round has a continuous timeline. When it’s not anyone’s turn, time advances in real time. Time is paused during turns, and continues again when the turn is finished. During a turn, a player may give orders to their units, but units only act between turns. A player may start a turn any time they want by pausing the game, or automatically when a unit has finished its current orders.

Style

The style of the game is semi-realistic; not terribly serious, but not “casual” either.

• Units and other equipment will be loosely based on real equivalents
• Units and other entities are affected by physics simulation, but some gameplay elements might take liberties with this
• The world is larger than usual in the genre, though not realistic; we don’t want units to be kilometers apart
• The damage model is not based on hitpoints as usual, but will be simple

Tags: Artillery Brawl, game design