MiniLD #44compo

Schaak!

by srd

Overall★★★★★★★★★★3.32

Fun★★★★★★★★★★2.86

Innovation★★★★★★★★★★3.86

Theme★★★★★★★★★★3.71

Graphics★★★★★★★★★★2.77

Audio★★★★★★★★★★2.13

Humor★★★★★★★★★★2.67

Mood★★★★★★★★★★3.31

Coolness★★★★★★★★★★55%

Schaak
======

Public repository: https://github.com/essarrdee/Schaak

Chess-based 7 Day RTS game with local multiplayer.
Written in 168 hours.
Start time: 21:00, Monday 22/07/2013
End time: 21:00, Monday 29/07/2013

Design: SRD. Contributions from Chris Heyes, Derrick Creamer, Michal Walczak.
Code: SRD. Contribution from Michal Walczak.
Art: SRD.
Makefile: Michal Walczak.
SFML: Laurent Gomila.

========== Capture the enemy King! ==========
============ Protect your King! =============

Controls:
Arrow keys/WASD to scroll.
Mouse to window edge to scroll.
Scroll to zoom.
Space to pause.
Tab to switch control between black and white.
Be nice and share the mouse/keyboard (or plug in two!).
Current control has green cover squares, enemy has magenta.
Left-click drag to select pieces.
Right-click drag to set destination area.
Click piece symbols to select all pieces of that type.
Control-click piece symbols to restrict the current selection to pieces of that type.
Delete sacrifices any selected pawns for money.

Upgrades:
Click the "Speed" and "Block" buttons to spend money on upgrades
Each upgrade costs 10*(level*level+1) money, and increases that stat's level by 1. That means the cumulative cost of upgrading a stat is cubic.

AI:
Click the AI buttons to switch between different AI modes for your units.

AI 1 (default) is *survive* (prioritise survival)
AI 2 is *evade* (don't walk into enemy cover, but take exchanges)
AI 3 is *advance* (walk into enemy cover if there is friendly cover or a piece to capture)
AI 4 is *kamikaze* (ignore enemy threats, go to destination and take any opportunity to capture a piece)
Block starts at 0% for all pieces and goes up 1% each time.
Speed starts at 30,40,50, or 60 and goes up by 1 each time.
This is an updated non-7dRTS version that displays these values on screen :)

Windows users:
Download from
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/6433222/Schaak-7dRTS.zip (strict 7dRTS version)
or
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/6433222/Schaak.zip (potential updates)

Linux/OSX users:
Clone github repository https://github.com/essarrdee/Schaak
make && make info && make clean && make run
requires SFML 2.0 and c++11-compatible compiler (preferably g++)
http://sfml-dev.org/download/sfml/2.0/

Comments18

Magnus31 Jul 2013, 09:34

Whoa. This game is so crazy oh god. I love the approach.

klianc0931 Jul 2013, 18:09

Omg, this is a great idea. I really wish there was a real multiplayer mode, that would be awesome. But it's already pretty funny.

Bloodyaugust31 Jul 2013, 18:25

Wow. This is quite nearly identical to our submission for the last LD... XD

srdauthor31 Jul 2013, 18:48

I found the design doc... is there a download?

Lashiz12131 Jul 2013, 20:04

Needs MP!!!

James Daniello & Nicolas Ickovic1 Aug 2013, 02:02

I tried multiple times, but the game is not intuitive. I have no idea what is going on here.

srdauthor1 Aug 2013, 04:03

Which parts were difficult to understand? Have you played chess? Did you read the readme?

srdauthor1 Aug 2013, 09:03

I've updated the game with some minor changes:
* Added timer/Kframe counter.
* Added text to upgrade/AI buttons.
* Pieces spawn on their King's side of the board, decreasing risk of unintentional win.
* Movement speed cut by 50%.
* Spawn rate cut by 33%.

The whole thing should be a lot more comprehensible now. It can be downloaded from
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/6433222/Schaak.zip (this is not the strict 7dRTS version at the top of the page)

vincepascoe2 Aug 2013, 09:26

really interesting... would be funny with game pad/mouse suport or some thing... I made an early mistake that lost me the game sending my kings attacking! in another game imrressive what enough knights can do! wish it was online multiplayer..

phi2 Aug 2013, 09:29

Literally amazing. At first I had no idea what I had to do. I kind of get it now, but I'm just overwhelmed by all the stuff going on at once.

Great work!

jonbro2 Aug 2013, 12:14

this is pretty impressive! It didn't feel like I was in too much control, but I suppose that is the nature of the simulation. a really interesting method of CA though, and a cool idea for an rts. I wonder if it would support more than two players as well?

srdauthor2 Aug 2013, 13:57

Thanks! The system is in principle compatible with more than two players, though some of the future developments I had in mind would have to be altered. Looking at the feedback, I'll have to make network play the development priority.

Did you try giving orders with the mouse? The pieces take your orders pretty seriously, even if you don't control their production.

AVataRR3 Aug 2013, 01:32

This is awesome! This is the direction I want the genre to take - into actual strategy! I love you set policies instead of controlling individual units! Unfortunately, I live alone now, so I had to play with myself :( So I don't get a full appreciation of how much fun this can be.

I have a problem with user feedback though, where I don't see my unit's vital stats. But it seems you're aware of this. I played the strict 7dRTS version for fairness in my ratings... I'll try the new version now though!

Please keep going with this!!

Orava4 Aug 2013, 02:57

Love throwing two massive armies at each other.

Definitely needs further expanding, you've got something here.

Bloodyaugust5 Aug 2013, 17:14

@SRD: Not anything playable. We're planning on completing it at some point, but we'll see if that actually happens. I wasn't accusing you of anything, just noticing that we seem to have both come to the conclusion that RTS-Chess which focuses on the control mechanic is a good game idea. :)

srdauthor5 Aug 2013, 18:30

Sorry for the misunderstanding! Great minds etc. etc.

donan5 Aug 2013, 21:52

Wow, this is an awesome idea for strategy. I find it too big for myself to play it for long xD, but its really good.

Halleflux9 Aug 2013, 20:35

This concept has huge potential. A few things I would recommend: Reduce the size of the board and have fewer pieces (Or have an option to play on a smaller grid). This would allow for quicker games where you can properly get your group together without have 50-100 extra pieces spawn. Multiplayer as well would be excellent, makes it so people don't have to share the same comp to play together. Apart from that, just smooth everything out a bit more, change a few things, and come up with a few more ideas to make the game fun and interesting. Great job!