General description
This is a real time strategy PvP game. Players have to conquer most of the available space on the map within the limited time. The mechanics are inspired by Clash Royale and Warcraft: the players drag and drop buildings on the map that will produce units automatically. Unlike Clash Royale, the players can drop their buildings anywhere on the map. Moreover, harvesting wood / ressources is necessary to win the battle. Within that limited time, the players have to balance their buidlings between harvesting and fighting cards.
If a player clearly dominates the field, he will win the battle even before the end of the timer.
Meta gameplay / strategy
Players unlock multiple buildings through the gacha. Like in Clash Royale, the player has a deck of 8 cards and 4 of them are usable at the same time.
The variety / randomness comes from the level design: maps are procedurally generated so each battle is different. Since the players can drop cards anywhere on the map, they don’t get an advantage from it.
A special commander unit gives a passive power to the units: it helps to put more variety in the strategy thinking.
Meta design / monetization
The game relies on a classic gatcha game mechanic for buildings and for special units.
The progression is a proposition for a new hybrid system: a hard currency will be used to get new cards and to accelerate timers, while getting some xp for some troops can be done with rewarded ads.
Progression and tuning
The global progression takes the ladder mechanics from Clash Royale and the settings evolves for the player to see the progression of its game.
Tuning this kind of game requires taking into account lots of variables: the cost of the evolution, the rarity of the cards, the frequency of the rarity, the xp needed to evolve the cards… I made a tool for a previous game to take that into consideration. Using player personas/behaviors help to get the first balancing values. Of course, this is a draft and it needs to get fine tuned during the soft launch process.
Prototype and pixel art
I decided to go pixel art for the prototype. It is still under development but already features:
– Melee units, ranged units, flying units and mutiple sized units
– Spells like fireball, poison and summoning units
– Harvesting units for wood/mana
– A mana bar
– A card collection screen to handle decks
– A domination bar showing the progress and the outcome of the battle, with each unit and building earning points depending on their size
– An A-star pathfinding and avoidance based on a 2D physics based engine