My Advance Wars Game

[Geuben]

So I decided it was probably time to make a thread for currently in production game.

It is essentially an Advance Wars clone, programmed in Fenix, but with extras and improvements (I hope ). I actually started programming this particular game early last year, but lost a lot of motivation when progressing further would have required me to draw a lot of sprites (not my strong point). Since Pixitu showed an interest and knocked up a few sprites I've rediscovered my enthusiasm for the project. Another reason may also be because I should be revising for exams and I’d rather be doing something else .

First things first, a few screenshots to whet you appetite:

Screenshot 1 – showing a few of the units and capturable buildings.

Screenshot 2 – showing the selected units possible movement area and the path to be taken (pathfinding implemented)

Screenshot 3 – showing the selected units possible attack area.

A collection of units, scenery and other random sprites (note some are likely to change slightly).

Features
Implemented so far:

Unit selection
Unit movement
Pathfinding
Capturable buildings (giving income per turn once captured)
Fighting! , although not shown this has been implemented but is still using the old sprites, which in all fairness are rubbish.
Terrain advantages/disadvantages

Main things left to implement:

Unit stats, e.g. fuel, ammo etc
Standard units
Bases
Transports
AI
Sprites and animations, lots of them!

Future Plans

Once these things have been implemented the game will be pretty close to AW aside from the missions etc. However I have plans for quite a few extra units and ideas that aren’t in AW (well not the original anyway, haven’t played the others). Some of them are:

Snipers
Elite Commando Units
Medics
Aircraft Carriers
Blimps (think Kirov from RA2)
Paratroopers
Base defences – Tesla Coils etc
Mobile Wall Builders
And any other ideas I have

I’ve also been building a map editor alongside the game, so there should be no shortage of maps to play.

Implementing the rest of the features shouldn’t be too difficult, Once I have time to devote solely to the game I should be able to get thru most of the remaining programming fairly quickly, leaving just AI to implement. A PvP version of the game will most likely be released at this stage to allow for play testing etc with hopefully a later release including AI and missions.

Once the Pandora is released and Fenix is ported, I will defiantly be porting this game over, however at the moment I’m not sure whether to simply port it and scale the graphics to fit the Pandora screen, or redo some of the game to take advantage of the bigger screen and higher res.

I hope this satisfies the curiosity of some people who heard about the project in Pixitu’s thread and I’d love to hear you ideas and possible criticisms on the work so far. I’ll try my best to keep you updated on progress regularly.

Geuben

 

[Alt Scythe]

Yay!

 

[plopperz]

Looking good!
I'll definatly d/l when released

 

[Tobriand]

An Advance Wars clone has been one of those bizarre black hole in the software library of the GP2x - I believe there were three for the GP32, and yet none were brought over by their respective authors.

Best of luck in bringing this to fruition .

 

[PoisonedV]

Looks awesome- oh and for some reason, I love the way the buildings look. This will be pretty damn skippy.

 

[sbock]

Very interesting project with really nice features. I'm looking forward to it.

Regards,
Stephan

 

[Pixitu]

With so much interest in the project generated, I'm going to have another go and re-do the human and base defense sprites - I only did the floor, buildings and tanks so far.

You know, I'm too eager to see the thing in action. The moment I see a version playable against the CPU, I'll activate my SCO Power and do a nice set of COs, complete with dialogue (if so desired), and some spiffy effects

Keep up the good work!
I think today I'll do a few more sprites for you

 

[doc5avage]

With so much interest in the project generated, I'm going to have another go and re-do the human and base defense sprites - I only did the floor, buildings and tanks so far.

You know, I'm too eager to see the thing in action. The moment I see a version playable against the CPU, I'll activate my SCO Power and do a nice set of COs, complete with dialogue (if so desired), and some spiffy effects

Keep up the good work!
I think today I'll do a few more sprites for you

Sweet!

 

[fishybawb]

This sounds/looks fantastic, nice work guys

 

[Geuben]

With so much interest in the project generated, I'm going to have another go and re-do the human and base defense sprites - I only did the floor, buildings and tanks so far.

You know, I'm too eager to see the thing in action. The moment I see a version playable against the CPU, I'll activate my SCO Power and do a nice set of COs, complete with dialogue (if so desired), and some spiffy effects

Keep up the good work!
I think today I'll do a few more sprites for you

. Yeah the soliders are a little 'flat' hence why I said they were likley to change. I only showed that bunch of sprites so that there was more to show off, it's hard to show what the code can do right now. Glad to see your still interested, I just wish I didn't have exams for the next 3 weeksish, I just want to work on this all the time.

 

[fusion_power]

HI!
The Screens are looking very good, I can imagine how the game will "feel". Because of you I played Advance Wars again since a long break. I hope for Missions and the cool Ranking System in your game to.

I like the drawing Style of the Sprites, very clear and good to see. The Grass could have a slightly indication of tiles-seperation like the original AW games have and the HQ should be MUCH bigger but these are Details. Your plan for additional Units and features sounds good, Base-Defense is a great idea so the mobile units can do other jobs.
But before adding more Unit types make sure, tha balancing of the standard ones is good enough for playing. less is more sometimes.
I hope, the EDITOR will be a in-game one like the superb Advance Wars Map Editor, very good usability. On the GBA you could save only 3 maps and there was no real Export function afaik. I'm sure onto the GP2X we no longer have these Limitations so we can hope to have a good bunch of User Maps.

 

[Geuben]

HI!
The Screens are looking very good, I can imagine how the game will "feel". Because of you I played Advance Wars again since a long break. I hope for Missions and the cool Ranking System in your game to.

I like the drawing Style of the Sprites, very clear and good to see. The Grass could have a slightly indication of tiles-seperation like the original AW games have and the HQ should be MUCH bigger but these are Details. Your plan for additional Units and features sounds good, Base-Defense is a great idea so the mobile units can do other jobs.
But before adding more Unit types make sure, tha balancing of the standard ones is good enough for playing. less is more sometimes.
I hope, the EDITOR will be a in-game one like the superb Advance Wars Map Editor, very good usability. On the GBA you could save only 3 maps and there was no real Export function afaik. I'm sure onto the GP2X we no longer have these Limitations so we can hope to have a good bunch of User Maps.

Thanks for your input. The sprites are subject to change, so the HQ will probably be different. There will be a lot of play testing to make sure that the game is balanced and fun to play.

As for the map editor, the current on is a seperate program and is a bit behind the game (more important to work on the game than the map editor). but it can easily be incorporated into the final game. At the moment it allows placement of all the scenery tiles and saving/loading of maps (possibly an unlimited number, can't remember off-hand), the maps are saved as simple text files so they are easily exported.

Im not sure about missions yet, I want to put them in but will have to think of some kind of story to base the missions around probably, and the ranking system, although ive played AW a fair bit i never really took note of the ranking system so will probably need some community input on how this should be done.

I really want to do some work on it right now, but instead I have to revise for my DSP exam on wednesday.

 

[fusion_power]

Uh, good luck with your exam. I have free time but I can't code...the world is hard but unfair.
Missions are not that important and the ranking is just a motivation to beat a mission as good as possible (S-rank). Good Maps for "free play" are more important and much easier to do than complex missions. That's why I like to see 1:1 ballanced maps and a good AI, I only play alone onto my GP2X. I could play against me in 2-Player mode but it is boring to win and loose always at the same time . :lol:
Cool, that a ingame Editor is possible. You could use the controlls of the AW Editor 1:1, they are matching perfect for the GP2X.

AND it is very good to use the WHOLE SCREEN for your game. GBA Games with GPSP onto the GP2X screen are a little bit small because of the tiny GBA Resoulution.

Oh, here is one of my equal balanced 2-Player custom Maps from AW2. I'm using 'em to see the AI fight (me starting onto green position and then surrender - AI continues fight) or have a quick Match against a opponent. Nothing special but usable and tested, maybe you can need this Map layout for your Game? (magnifier recommended :lol: )

 

[Pixitu]

As I said, I went over the units a bit.
I think the soldier units needed a bit of a makeover to fit in the style of the game.

Here's a zoomed in version (300 %) to save some strain on your eyes

I strayed away a lot from AW, and I seriously recommend you do the same, Geuben. That'll save you problems in the long run...

I'm just gonna lean back now and watch your progress. Hope the AI works out well.

See ya,

Pix

 

[Geuben]

Sweet sprites

I was just about to post a small update actually.

Have implemented the damage report thing that comes up when you target a unit, and the top bar which shows the game time, turn count and player score, don't worry, that will look much prettier in the end, just need a quick graphic to use for now. The bar moves to the bottom when you move the cursor towards the top of the screen

Geuben

 

[Pixitu]

Good job, it's really important to have the bar change position when needed.

This is progressing rather nicely, keep up the good work! I'm rooting for you to create a good AI. After your exam

A question re: the graphics - do you think it's possible to have the units visibly move along the path you choose for them, like in AW? I think this gives the game a lot of feel and fluidity. Also, it's highly important to have the unit follow the path in FOW, where there can be ambushes.

 

[Geuben]

I don't quite understand what you mean. If you mean animate the units as they move, then definatly, i planned to do that all along.

 

[Pixitu]

I don't quite understand what you mean. If you mean animate the units as they move, then definatly, i planned to do that all along.

Yes, that's exactly what I meant. They should visibly run/drive along the movement arrow so the eyes can follow the unit up to the encounter.

Speaking of which, I suggest for the close-ups you could use the revamped sprites zoomed up (300 %?) as placeholders. It'll look already quite decent (retro-style pixel art, yay) and motivate you, and you can always replace them later. I guess the zoomed-in units are a pretty thankless job (who watches the AW fights anyway?) and don't really need to take priority.

 

[Geuben]

I'll be animating the unit movement as soon as I get round to drawing the animations for moving left, up and down (left can be mirrored for right). As you probably saw, I scaled up my original sprites for the fights, Ill do that for now, but i had some cool ideas for fight animations...although as you say, who really watchs the fights

 

[fusion_power]

As I said, I went over the units a bit.
I think the soldier units needed a bit of a makeover to fit in the style of the game.

Here's a zoomed in version (300 %) to save some strain on your eyes

I strayed away a lot from AW, and I seriously recommend you do the same, Geuben. That'll save you problems in the long run...

I'm just gonna lean back now and watch your progress. Hope the AI works out well.

See ya,

Pix

Wow, you've got talent. Very nice Pixel Art, looks even better than the AW Soldiers. Maybe I learn these Pixel Skills in some years hard practice. ^^
Uh, this one with the Knife, is this a "John J Rambo Unit"? Would be to funny :lol: Imagine to get this Unit and it kills a whole enemy Army with just a Knife and a Bow. Or even worse you have to fight against him with your Army... B)
I imagine the Medic could push the Soldier HP above 10, something that never was possible in the AW Series.

The bar moves to the bottom when you move the cursor towards the top of the screen

I like this Feature from AW. The Status Bars never is in the way becasue they move away from the cursor.

although as you say, who really watchs the fights

Yupp, I only play AW with complete deactivated Battle Animations (The Cut/scenes and the Building capturing)
I like fast fights so such Animations slow down the Gameplay. But of course they are fun to watch (jumping onto buildings until they are flat and captured :lol: ) and I've seen 'em all. A good Bonus for the game but not that important. Maybe it is more easy to spend the free time for good in-fight animations of sprites instead of seperate Battle Cut scenes. I can imagine this would save a big ammount of time.