Astral Dominion - an idea for TCG Chess mix game

Talk about game designs and what goes behind designing games.
Post Reply
User avatar
Reliique
Posts: 37
Joined: Thu Feb 07, 2013 9:39 am

Astral Dominion - an idea for TCG Chess mix game

Post by Reliique »

Hello guys!

Been lurking and posting for some time, mainly about MMORPG stuff, but now I'm pretty sure its way too enourmous project.

So I've been rehashing old ideas and mixing new ones and came up with something original in my opinion.
Its a mobile game for iPhone/Android/Tablets that is influenced by many elements of famous 4X games + TCG.
Unity as engine. Fantasy and Sci-fi mix (but no no to big guns). Set in alternative human history setting.

Evolution of world wide technologies (think Civilization research), guilds, diplomacy and trading between players, politics (a voting based system), outposts to harvest resources and expand territories. Something like a mix of Master of Magic with persistent world and all basic elements of grand strategy games. Wrapped up around with collectible tradeable cards.

TCG element of the game involves card lvl up, evolution, attaching equipment etc. Also there will be an extensive customization of player Citadel with appropriate upgrade cards.

Players can also find special history cards. These are educational as each cards tells a story from our real life history events. For example " Siege of Tripoli 1551".
People can collect them and they count as collectibles + source for achievements. In lore they represent wandering hollow dreams of human past and future.

Game world will be divided into sectors and sectors can be easily instanced from each other. This way its possible to build near to infinite "zones".
Every player gets their floating island/planet and a Citadel on a startup. Only one Citadel can be built.

Hexagon world map where players take turns and move their units(cards). Each battle is stored on the server for max. ~2 days. Obviously most of combat will be done while both players are online, but if you have to go or phone call distract you, the battle will be saved and you can continue it later. After 5min of inactivity your units will start to get debuffs, so this motivates players to finish each turns inside ~30min. In the end if you do not take your turn for long enough - you will be automatically defeated. Imagine travelling a far distance with your unit just to lose by being inactive.. This system needs to be tested, balanced and improved but I hope you get my point.

Combat itself is a mix of Glinski's Hexagonal Chess and a card game. Every piece is replaced with card.

For example:

King - Hero
Queen - Wizard?
Pawn - Warrior
Rook - Artillery/Mech/Big monster
Knight - Cavalry
Bishop - Flying units, for example Dragon

Rules of chess apply, so for example. Cavalry can only move as "L" in chess. To win the battle you have to check mate the king.
After attack unit is back at starting position unless enemy piece is defeated.

Image
Image

This also expand possibilites for guild wars or 1v1v1, as that kind of chess game model supports 3 players.
Similar chess based project for CIV: http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=385563

Researching in-game is split into two categories:

1. Personal technologies that player research for their dominion
2. World Wide technologies that and allow all players in the world to benefit from new technologies
All technologies take real life time to complete

At the end of the topic I've attached a illustration of the world concept and one unit. Unit was drawn by one guy that helped me.
Note that unit is what I see as a Fantasy/Sci-fi mix and way to get that kind of card is research. Mixing futuristic armors and mechs with Fantasy setting.
I'm not much of an artist myself, but well familiar with Photoshop.

I will mention a list of games that somehow contributed to this idea and that have some elements "borrowed/inspired" me to try my creating own game:
Master of Magic, Heroes of Might and Magic, Fantasy General, Age of Wonders, Imperialism, Blood Bowl, Warhammer, Magic The Gathering, Etherlords, Civilization, Master of Orion, UFO, Chess. I also play MTG in real-life, played Pokemon in school, have collection of Blood bowl team and bunch of Warhammer 40k, Necromunda, Warhammer miniatures.

Why I'm posting this here? Well first of all im not really recruting anyone YET to art/code, I just want to hear your opinion about this and maybe find someone who is interested in this kind of project.

- I want to ask if there is similar games on the market already, cause I've haven't been able to find one??
- Does this sound technically posible to you?
- How hard is to code chess based combat?
- If someone is really intersted to help me develop this further - let me know

ps. this is pretty rought concept and might look a bit messy. I promise to work on that.
pss. Lore is also set, but its all in Russian as im writing design document in Russian and English.
Last edited by Reliique on Thu Dec 05, 2013 9:28 am, edited 7 times in total.
User avatar
Xaos
Posts: 946
Joined: Wed Jan 11, 2012 4:01 am

Re: Astral Dominion - an idea for TCG Chess mix game

Post by Xaos »

Reminds me exactly of a game I used to have, but I can't remeber the name it was a board game I can't recall the name, however. it also was a fantasy game that used hex movement and had cards and the whole 9 yards. your game seems a bit much for a mobile phone though, at least without cutting away some stuff.
User avatar
Reliique
Posts: 37
Joined: Thu Feb 07, 2013 9:39 am

Re: Astral Dominion - an idea for TCG Chess mix game

Post by Reliique »

If you ever get that name, let me know, thank you ))

If its too much for mobile, how about tablets?
User avatar
Jackolantern
Posts: 10893
Joined: Wed Jul 01, 2009 11:00 pm

Re: Astral Dominion - an idea for TCG Chess mix game

Post by Jackolantern »

Sounds very cool! I think it is doable on mobile phones as long as the interface is really well thought out ;)
The indelible lord of tl;dr
User avatar
Xaos
Posts: 946
Joined: Wed Jan 11, 2012 4:01 am

Re: Astral Dominion - an idea for TCG Chess mix game

Post by Xaos »

Heroscape! I'm not sure of the exact resemblances, but a quick google search can probably tell you ;)
User avatar
Reliique
Posts: 37
Joined: Thu Feb 07, 2013 9:39 am

Re: Astral Dominion - an idea for TCG Chess mix game

Post by Reliique »

Xaos wrote:Heroscape! I'm not sure of the exact resemblances, but a quick google search can probably tell you ;)
Thank you Xaos, found it! 8-) Reminds indeed, but still its not about chess, Heroscape uses hexagons, d20 dice and have cards for units. Anyway this will give me some ideas and inspiration.
I will try to get a coder to produce a working prototype and test out how it plays. For now I have to test on paper board with paper pieces :D
Post Reply

Return to “Game Design”