Game Development, Sprint 2

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In this sprint we have made leaps in both the user interface and meta progression, while making tweaks in the tech and visual side of Frontier.

Let’s take a look!

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User Interface - HUD & Main Menu (In Progress)

‍We thoroughly researched different game UIs and compiled references in order to build an ideal one for Frontier. The goal is to have everything needed for the player to interact with the game during gameplay, while making it simple and easy to use.

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The current version of the HUD will include the following elements:

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Mini-map

‍This UI element will represent the map in a minimized version, where the player can see how many platforms they have claimed, what is the position of their units and the visible units from the enemy player.

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Unit Details

‍This UI element will show information about selected units:

• When a single unit is selected, the player will have complete information about that unit’s rank, stats, health and skills.
• When more than one unit is selected, the player will see here a list of the selected units, and will only see their health and rank.
• Each individual unit selected can potentially show a skill button, this needs to be taken into account for space distribution.

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Unit Production

‍This element will show the player the type of units they are able to produce. These buttons will be available or unavailable depending if the player has enough energy to trigger them or not.

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Flash Blocks

‍This element will show the player's chosen flash blocks. Depending of the current energy the player has, they will appear as available or unavailable. Uses:The player can trigger flash blocks by clicking on any of the buttons, provided they are available, and then clicking anywhere applicable (depending on each flash block) in the map.

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Glitch Block

‍This element will show the glitch block status, whether it is available to trigger or not. Once available for use, the player can click on the button to trigger the ultimate ability.

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Energy

‍This element will show how many energy containers the player has and how many of them are filled. It will also show the containers that are currently locked, based on the maximum amount of containers that the player can have.

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Meta - Player Progression (In Progress)

Player progression will happen gradually by earning XP from playing matches. Player progression documentation is now completed with details about maximum levels and rewards unlocked per level:

• Gained XP for wins/loss for ranked and unranked modes are defined.
• Defined maximum levels for player profile and adjusting the difficulty curve for number of wins required as players level up.
• Structure for increasing rewards as per player progression is defined.

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Meta - Unit Type Upgrade (In Progress)

Unit type upgrade has been documented with its requirements for upgrades and how these affect units stats:

• Player can upgrade unit types from Novice to Master and 5 more upgrades.
• Each of these upgrades give a boost to units’ base stats.
• Currently we have defined a total of 7 upgrades and relative changes into base stats of the unit types in general.
• We are currently reviewing what stats could be connected to meta and what could be levelled up in-game.

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Tech Update

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Frontier game configuration screen has been improved with additional features:

• Choosing your region
• Windowed/Full screen
• Performance settings

Significant improvements have been made on crucial game mechanics:

• Added new unit spawning methods in-game
• Ambush mechanic has been tweaked, so ambushing units are not able to see enemy player’s ambushing units
• Terrain elevation system has now been built. The MVP version of Frontier will include two levels of elevation in the map. However, we now have the capabilities to introduce additional elevations in future versions
• Unit cover system has been significantly improved, so that multiple selected units can move into cover positions with one click instead of moving units one by one
• Unit path following AI tweaked, so units do not stray from the original path anymore

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And that’s a wrap for this sprint!

Please note that this is a short recap of an outdated sprint, due to our website rebuild.

As we are now resuming the Game Dev Articles, we have a lot of updates up our sleeves —stay tuned for the Monthly Sync, coming to you very soon!

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