219 replies to this topic

[B-ZaR]

Links
Project wiki
SVN repository
My devblog (just started, not much content yet)
Virtualbox server image
Screenshots

Description
Wars is an online turn-based multiplayer war strategy game. The objective of the game is to gain control of the game area by destroying the opponents' units and preventing them from building more. Basically it's a bit like advance wars in a browser.

Status
We (myself and the other author, zar [handles not related]), have been working on this game slowly for some time. It's already very much playable, but there's no public server. We have a small test server (with some players from these forums as well), but we have to keep the server secret because my internet connection (2M upstream) can't handle too many clients without browsing slowing to a crawl. The reason we haven't asked around for hosting is because there's still a memory leak in one of the (external) components which we want to get rid of first.

The graphics are placeholders, or at least are not intended as the default theme. Once we get a theme system running, we'd love some contributions , but I'll get back to that when the time comes.

Trying it out
The easiest way to try Wars is to download the virtualbox image above. Hook the virtual machine to a network with DHCP and you should have a server running. The server might crash after several days (if you run it for that long) due to the memory leak, but a reboot fixes it. The project wiki front page has a bit more information on the VM image.

The virtual machine image is also useful if you want to to set up your own server, as it contains all the necessary configurations. The project wiki front page also has some setup instructions. I wouldn't recommend that yet though. Yes, the memory leak again.

Once you have a server up and running, point your browser toward it and you should see a login screen. It's all smooth from there.

Future
We'll keep on developing, albeit slowly. We both have jobs and other stuff to do, but try to squeeze in a little time for this project from time to time. I'll add stuff I've done to my devblog when I find time.

[foxblock]

Looking and sounding good - I never played Advance Wars (yeah I know, big failure ), but I heard it one of the best GBA titles and very addicting, so this should be fun, too.

Also with the in-browser and turn-based strategy approach, could this be turned into a browser game with one turn lasting 15min-1hour for example, so one can play it without sitting through one match in one go or even being connected to the server all the time? Because that would be awesome for the Pandora and we could schedule some forum matches with participants all over the world.

Anyway, keep it up

foxblock out

[B-ZaR]

Also with the in-browser and turn-based strategy approach, could this be turned into a browser game with one turn lasting 15min-1hour for example, so one can play it without sitting through one match in one go or even being connected to the server all the time? Because that would be awesome for the Pandora and we could schedule some forum matches with participants all over the world.

Yes, the game can be played either in "real time" with all players playing their turns immediately after one another, or at a slower pace. We've played several games with four players and max 24h turns. The game optionally sends an email when your turn is up.

[IsaacKuo]

The wars-four-plus map bears a similarity to the world map of Juuni Kokki.

[B-ZaR]

The wars-four-plus map bears a similarity to the world map of Juuni Kokki.

So it seems . Any similarity is, however, coincidental.

[MarkoeZ]

I'm one of the playtesters, and i can confirm the game is in a pretty solid and very enjoyable state already. And the graphics are good enough for me.
Now if i get a bit better i can take on B-Zar again. Our first game took very few turns, quick lesson

Keep it up, and Cheers!

[foxblock]

Yes, the game can be played either in "real time" with all players playing their turns immediately after one another, or at a slower pace. We've played several games with four players and max 24h turns. The game optionally sends an email when your turn is up.

Ah, that is clever - great!

[doublebeta]

The game optionally sends an email when your turn is up.

LOLZ.

Apparently chess has been played over mail before, like, historically .

Really nice job there - good work! Looks very polished (well maybe minus the gfx but you said they're placeholders. Not bad, but, also as you said, they don't fit in well, hey.).

[B-ZaR]

Apparently chess has been played over mail before, like, historically .

Heh, the game is a bit chess-y, but I meant notifications, not play-by-email. Just to be clear

Really nice job there - good work! Looks very polished (well maybe minus the gfx but you said they're placeholders. Not bad, but, also as you said, they don't fit in well, hey.).

Thanks! I'd like to point out though, referring to that other thread you posted to, that this game is made possible by HTML5

[B-ZaR]

Okay, theming support is almost done! It just needs some testing and deployment considerations before I can commit the code and update both our test server and the VM server image. If someone here would like to create a theme, you can start already by redrawing images from here. The spritesheet image can be generated automatically with a script, so you'll just have to redraw the individual images. All of the images are 48x48px. If youre willing to share your theme under a permissive non-commercial license (we'll license the code under GPLv3), I can add your themes to the official repository (provided that they look nice, of course ). All submitters will of course also get access to our secret test server to see their graphics in action .

EDIT: forgot to mention: the background image is currently not themable, because it is set in the CSS file, which is not dynamically generated.

[skeezix]

You tried it on a Panda yet? I remember logging in a few months ago, and it was very impressive, but I didn't try it on a Pandora at the time (Wifi didn't work, but it does now.)

I am still kicking myself over my decision.. my game is a native client, because I want to do some OpenGL business and WebGL is unusable still; but damn, turn based games should _so_ be css/js/html these days, but I'm tearing myself up on the fence.. do or don't But for you, seems perfect!

jeff

[B-ZaR]

I don't have a pandora yet, but I have two people testing the game who do. The game runs playably on N900, so I guess it should run on a pandora as well.

Yeah, I'm kicking myself over a couple of early design decisions as well . I see some refactoring in my future. But that's how it typically goes with iterative development.

[MarkoeZ]

Yeah, I'm kicking myself over a couple of early design decisions as well . I see some refactoring in my future. But that's how it typically goes with iterative development.

I lolled at this. i had to google iterative development, but apparently that's what i'm doing as well. Implementing a new function of Panjoust, having to change code written januari this year, and saying to myself: "What the fuck was i thinking?" (or drinking ; ). It being my first big project does not really help either

But it will be one of the first things i'll test on my Pandora once i have it back again.

Cheers!

[B-ZaR]

Status update: darn minecraft and smaller projects.

Theme support is basically ready, still needs some code cleanup before commit.

EDIT: MarkoeZ: yeah that's par for the course if you haven't quite figured out what you want to do (which counts for most of my projects, at least) . This project has gotten many features I never would have thought it would. Most of those features are suggestions of the test players. Great ideas, but often require a lot of work

[B-ZaR]

Took a while but I finally got around to finishing theming support for Wars. The support is not entirely complete, as some assets such as the background image are not yet themable, but the important bits, such as the game graphics can now be easily customized.

Blog post

[B-ZaR]

First version of my "Pixel" theme for wars. I'm not a pixel artist by any strecth, but wanted to give it a go. All graphics are drawn in mt-paint in half resolution and then pixel doubled to correct size. Ideas, crits and comments are welcome .



EDIT: Oh, and just to mention, I've been following many threads considering pixel art on this and the other forum and read some of the tutorials. I tried selouting (selective outlining) before settling on black outlines because the units didn't stand out from some of the terrain tiles. Especially having a unit on a tile you own looked really confusing. Is there a pixel art trick for situations like this?

EDIT: Short blog post

[sebt3]

I'm not a pixel artist by any strecth, butand wanted to give it a go.

fixed that for ya

[B-ZaR]

fixed that for ya

Thanks

[bosbeetle]

It looks very nice however the numbers are not that visible in the yellow team, especially on the soldiers in the mountains (maybe change the yellow or do something with the numbers, I think all black numbers might work)

[B-ZaR]

It looks very nice however the numbers are not that visible in the yellow team, especially on the soldiers in the mountains (maybe change the yellow or do something with the numbers, I think all black numbers might work)

Hmm, the "7" (the number you're probably referring to) might be a bit too thin to stand out. All black numbers don't work well on dark backgrounds, so I settled on outlined light ones, which should be visible on any background. But you're right, the numbers are one part that definitely need work. Another is the different artilleries, which are too alike. You can see all three of them (light/medium/heavy) near the top of the screenshot.