Smoke Screen
A strategic digital 2-player board game
Hello!
I was looking forward to the 2nd alakajam, even though I knew I needed to spend most of my Sunday elsewhere.
Anyway, long story short: I made a board game on Friday evening and spent Saturday trying to make it an online 2-player web-game. I didn't quite finish it, but I will keep working on it. For now, all you can do is play vs a stupid AI - although I haven't made the end-screens yet so it's all a bit opaque unfortunately.
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Rules:
Each player has 5 unique units with different attack power and health. They are:
The Peasant. 1 attack power, 1 health
The Swordsman. 2 attack power, 2 health
The Knight. 3 attack power, 3 health
The Pikeman. 3 attack power, 1 health
The Shieldman. 1 attack power, 2 health
The undeployed units are hidden from view.
The 2 players decides randomly who goes first.
The board has three lanes - left, right and centre. The units are played one by one (with players taking turns) into one of these lanes. The units are placed at the back of each lane's queue - you can't put a unit in front of one already deployed.
Each players has 2 Smoke Screens that he can put on top of the unit when it is played. That means the unit is disguised, but still placed on the board.
Once both players' sets of units are placed on the board, resolve combat:
Say each player put a Knight in the central line. Each Knight will strike each other, dealing 3 damage. They both die and are removed.
In the left line, player 1 put a Swordsman, but player 2 played a Peasant. The Swordsman deals 2 damage to the Peasant, and recieves 1 damage in return. However, he is still alive and is now a 2/1 unit. The Peasant dies. Let's say there was a 2nd unit behind the Peasant, for example the Shieldman. He will now challenge the Swordsman. The Shieldman recieves 2 damage, but deals 1 damage to the Swordsman - enough for them both to die.
In the right lane, only player 1 placed a unit, for example the Peasant. This unit will now move all the way across the board and deal his damage to the other player. Any unit still alive with no challengers will deal damage to the opposite player.
Players start with 10 health. The first to die loses. Note that for each round, each unit will only deal damage to the player once.
If both players are still alive after combat, start a new round, but record the current health on a piece of paper. It's now the other player's turn to go first.
The aim of the game is to kill your opponents' units - but have a bit of health left, so they can also damage the other player. For example, if you have a Knight vs a Swordsman, the Knight will kill the Swordsman and still have 1 health. He can then deal 3 damage to the other player! (unless there is another challenger waiting for him in the lane)
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Feedback/comments welcome! The physical board game mock-up uses miniatures (the ones in the digital game!) and some plastic cylinders to hide the Smoke Screened units.
Many thanks to Tijn for stepping in and creating some awesome music.
Please note this is a work in progress. I am fully aware that the castle (for example) is literally half-drawn :S
I am working on a 2-player online version so you can play against your friends. It will also resolve the combat for you and start a new round (if necessary) and have win-screens and everything else! Watch this space…
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Instructions: Drag a unit from the top right corner into the desired lane. Optionally choose to hide the unit in a Smoke Screen.
Comments (6)
Oooh, this sounds very interesting. Reminds me of Stratego. Unlimited potential for bluffing and tricksing.
Instead of cryptic numbers like 3/1 you could maybe write "Attack 3\nDefense 1" or "A3 D1" for short, or use icons. Also it would make more sense intuitively to drag in your units from the bottom, rather than the top right.
And yeah, the AI seems daft as hell. Though making a decent one might be tricky.
Games will be really short though (just 5 moves generally). Did you think about ways to extend it to more battles, with deeper strategies?
Maybe a unit that can capture an enemy piece and deploy it in your own army in the next round? That would make the Knight more vulnerable, especially if this capturer is in a smoke screen.
Maybe you could also add the ability to remove an already placed smoke screen if you decide it's more important elsewhere, of course at the cost of giving a subtle clue to your opponent. But then you'd always cloak the first two units you place, of course… the possibilities!
The rules seem legit! Too bad the build isn't quite playable yet.
I wonder if asymmetry would work here. Android: Netrunner, for instance, has intriquing hidden information mechanics, while both players are doing their own thing. Different units for attacker and defender?
Symmetry is easier to design and balance of course.
I placed the figurines but then nothing happened. I tried clicking on everything but nothing seems to work. Am I missing something?