Shifumi Battle [BETA release]

Lell · May 17, 2014, 2:35am

Hi all! Today I’m pleased to announce the release of my first game, Shifumi Battle.

Shifumi Battle is a turn-based strategic game that aims to the ambitious target of getting a place between the classics of the strategic games. Yes, it is a hard and long way, but who doesn’t start, will never arrive. The game dynamics are designed to provide always different and unpredictable games, but with the possibility of accurate strategic planning of the battle, thanks to the absolute absence of factors of randomness. The rules are very simple and consistent, so everybody could start playing it easily. All supported by a modern graphic with 3D battlefield and animated units with graphic effects. See the trailer on youtube by the link below.

Currently the game is a Beta version, with the dynamics of the game working properly, and therefore perfectly playable, but with the possibility of refining the game rules, and with a wide margin of development on the side of graphic and usability, as well as other marginal functionalities.

See the website for some screenshot of the game: http://www.shifumibattle.com

I’m creating the game with Blender and Unity free. I also use Photoshop and Inkscape for the 2D graphic. I will post some tutorials soon about its creation.

                                    <img src="/uploads/default/original/4X/c/4/f/c4f180e1d99cb86798b660ed617c0ef4153ea66e.jpg" width="690" height="432"><br/>          <img src="/uploads/default/original/4X/6/4/3/643f16d003a185b69b404b4e08e0c34d8bef695d.JPG" width="690" height="410"><br/>

This is how I created the splash screen with a render made in Blender Internal and some Photoshop matte painting.

http://www.shifumibattle.com/images/splash_screen_creation_process.gif

The game is available for browser (Unity Web Player needed), for PC (just download the package and run the .exe) and for Android tablets (download the .apk from the site). Please let me now if it doesn’t work on your system, providing me your software and hardware configuration. On the site you find the game manual, but in the game there are also some tips that lead you through the game phases.

At the moment you have to play against a human player on the same device (or try something like TeamViewer to play with someone online) because the AI is not developed yet. Its development is one of the targets of the crowdfunding I will organize soon. Another target is the development of an online environment where players from all around the world could play together, with scores and global ranking.

Don’t hesitate to give me any feedback about the graphic, the GUI and the rules of the game. I’m sure it has lot of space for improvement.

If you like the game and want to help me completing it, just like the facebook page!

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Shifumi-Battle/771884269512883

Thankyou very much!

Lell · May 17, 2014, 2:37am

Some other screens from the game

Attachments

Lell · May 17, 2014, 2:38am

The units in Blender

cam.dudes · May 17, 2014, 7:49am

RIVETS? RIVETS! Noooo… Tanks ditched those like 60ish years ago. Oh well, still very cool low poly vehicles.

Lucrecious · May 17, 2014, 8:12am

Looks pretty cool.

However, this is a Blender Game Engine forum, not a Unity forum.

I’ve tried it out, some feedback,

No music kills the “action”
I didn’t know what was the difference between vehicles; I don’t know how they’re balanced. For example, why would I place a helicopter instead of a tank or a truck?

That’s basically it, good luck!

Lell · May 18, 2014, 10:13am

Hi all! A version with music is now uploaded for WebPlayer and PC. The music was already produced, but I had problems adding it to the game.

RIVETS? RIVETS! Noooo… Tanks ditched those like 60ish years ago. Oh well, still very cool low poly vehicles.

eheheh! you are right. They are not really modern. A thing to fix!

@linkxgl: did you read the game manual? If yes, then there’s a problem in it. Instead, please read it to know every aspect of the game. Let me know.

For moderators: please move the topic in the right section if this is wrong. I was uncertain about it. Thanks!

And remember to like the page!

Lell · June 1, 2014, 9:40am

Hi! I published a tutorial about the game creation. You find it on the home page of the game site.

If you find it useful just share it and like the page! Bye!

Marc_Clint_Dion · June 9, 2014, 2:28am

It looks pretty slick. I’m glad this was tweeted by BlenderNation(I think that’s who it was)
anyways…

No big deal but,
I did notice after it was mentioned that this thread is posted under->

Maybe if you find the sketch-book area and start one of those then, if you like, you can use the ‘report’ button (which looks like a small exclamation point) to ‘report’ yourself. When you click on that button, a message field will pop up that will go straight the moderator’s inbox(s).
Now you can explain that you posted in the wrong area and ask that this thread be moved to the appropriate place. Several moderators that I’ve encountered seem like they would be happy to do so, and they will also likely send you a message letting you know that it was moved and also where to find it afterwards.

Well, anyways, keep up the good work, it looks really good. Your low-poly modeling and texturing is very skilled. Even without normal mapping you seem to have a gift for capturing depth and silhouette with very little geometry. I’m impressed.

Lell · July 8, 2014, 11:13am

Hi! I see your comment now. Let me undestand… I have to open a topic in the sketchbook area and report it to moderatos to tell them that I would like to move this topic in the right place? Do I understand right?
By the way, thank you for your appreciation about the units!

Anyway, I write to annunce that, as promised, the second part of the tutorial for Blender and Unity is available on the site.

I also want to annunce that the crowdfunding campaign for the Shifumi Battle Artificial Intelligence development is started. Developing the AI for this game is extremelly important to make it playable by many people. If they have somebody to play with (the computer in this case), they can learn the rules very quickly, and so more people are ready to play with other real people. Also, with this money I’ll complete the game adding some new features, improving the UI, adding new units and maps and so on.

Please donate, or at least spread the word, so people who are interested could donate. This is really important for me! Please do your best. The target is not that high, so also a single euro could make the difference! Here’s the link.

Thankyou for all your help! Bye, Lell.

EDIT: Sorry, I forget to mention that the A.I will not be developed by me, but by some specialized developers, and this is the reason for I started the crowdfunding campaign. I’m not able to develop such a complex thing. Otherwise I would have developed it without asking for anything.

EDIT 2: Oh, I also forget to tell you that the beta version for mobile devices is avaliable on the Google Play Store, so you can install it on you phone or tablet without having troubles with external apk.

AllanOcelot · July 9, 2014, 1:00am

You want 4k from people on the internet when you have no previous game releases?
Games built to this standard in Blender come and go all the time, people loose their interest (usually because life gets in the way).

I would HIGHLY recommend you stop the whole crowdsourcing thing now, if you carry on with this game and get everything polished - models, maps sizes, multiplayer, than consider asking for crowdsourcing. If you launch a crowdsourcing platform now youll only ruin your chances of funding a successful one in future.

This game has alot of promise, and I am not trying to offend, I’m trying to help you out.
Focus on the models and gameplay for now and engine the development.

Kheetor · July 9, 2014, 1:31am

If you aren’t smart enough to program AI for such a game then I don’t believe you’re smart enough to design and balance the game mechanics either.

Lell · July 9, 2014, 3:56am

I never studied programming at school or professional courses, and all I did until now was by learning on internet with tutorials, documentations and practice. So I’m already satisfied with the work I made. Maybe you think that the game is simple, but it is not. There are a lot of possible moves every turn, so developing the AI is not that simple. And it isn’t a matter of being smart or not. I just miss the programming basis, so I don’t know where to start when comes to develop an AI. Making units move and animate them is a much simplier thing to me.

You want 4k from people on the internet when you have no previous game releases?
Games built to this standard in Blender come and go all the time, people loose their interest (usually because life gets in the way).

I would HIGHLY recommend you stop the whole crowdsourcing thing now, if you carry on with this game and get everything polished - models, maps sizes, multiplayer, than consider asking for crowdsourcing. If you launch a crowdsourcing platform now youll only ruin your chances of funding a successful one in future.

This game has alot of promise, and I am not trying to offend, I’m trying to help you out.
Focus on the models and gameplay for now and engine the development.

Well, I published the beta, but almost nobody told me advices or comments, or told they tried it, so I supposed that the missing of an AI was a problem, becouse people would like to be able to play as soon as they download the game. But if there is nobody there that could play with them, the game try doesn’t mean nothing. So with an AI the player could start to try it immediately. That’s why I give the most priority on AI development. But I’m not able to do that, so I have to pay somebody that does that work professionally. While he does the work, I’ll complete the game on the other aspects and publish a version 1 of it, with a free lite version.
Also, I can’t push the detail too high at the moment, becouse it must be playable on mobile devices. In future I could develop different versions with different quality, but this is not the phase to do this.

So I don’t think it is a bad strategy to collect some money now. It also give me a feedback about people appreciation of the project. If you like my project, why didn’t you press like on the facebook page, for example? I asked for it from the beginning. It doesn’t cost a thing! If you don’t press that “like”, I think that nobody likes it, so it’s better that I don’t spend my time working on a thing that nobody likes.
If everybody think that they like the project, but nobody tell me, how could I know it?

Kheetor · July 9, 2014, 6:52am

For a strategy game it is imperative that the developer can analyze the moves you can make. You adjust the various stats and balance of different units in the game. As a game developer you must be able to understand the system you created well enough to code rudimentary AI so that people can playtest the idea. Otherwise people will think you created the system randomly and without consideration which can’t be fun to play. You don’t develop a puzzle game that you yourself don’t know the solution to.

And also, if you can’t get any playtesting for a game that you shove out there that means people don’t want to spend 5 minutes of their time for the project. That means that your kickstarter project won’t get people to spend their time getting to know the project and furthermore they aren’t going to spend their money on it.

Lack of feedback and likes…dude, the market has spoken. There’s no room for kickstarter attempt. You go for kickstarter when people already LIKE your project. You can’t get free money for something that could be fun and interesting AFTER it gets the money to make it fun and interesting.

If you still believe in the project you must continue on it to improve it. I don’t think it’s about playtesting and AI alone, lots of things will make games more appealing to masses like Allan also outlined. And do try to program the AI (however rudimentary…) as well because you know it will still improve your chances.

Kheetor · July 9, 2014, 7:07am

And look. How anyone can make a some AI for strategy games:

Level A:
-AI chooses a random move from all possible moves <- I’m sure you can make it. It’s better than nothing. Then advance below as far as you can.

Level B:
-AI analyzes the moves and chooses the best move from all possible moves

Level C:
-if x > random chance the AI chooses the best move, otherwise AI chooses a random move

Level D:
-AI sorts the moves in order of superiority, then randomizes X that is weighted according to player chosen difficulty level and chooses the X:th best move.

…
…
…

Level X:
-AI analyzes player patterns and preferences during the game for example calculating how much player over/undervalues his pieces and simulates his move options X turns ahead considering the most likely player moves, plus everything described in level D system

Lell · July 9, 2014, 10:27am

I think you are assuming too many things to be true.
You assume I can’t imagine all the reasoning behind the AI development, but this is not true and isn’t what I said. Imaging the reasoning steps needed to reach the move to do is a thing, and I’m able to do so. I also already thinked a way to simulate the behavior of a player and give it to another player to simulate a play against him. But translating this in code is a different matter.

You assume I defined the rules randomly, but it is wrong. This game started as a board game, and I started playing against friends on a map drawn on a piece of paper with risiko pieces. Afters several games the rules were almost completly defined, and while I developed the videogame version I finished to define them. I still have doubts about a pair of things, but nothing so relevant.

And I also remember you that the crowdfunding is not charity. You give me money, I give you the reward, and only if the target is reached. Many games developed with crowdfunding doesn’t even have a playable beta. In my case instead the beta is ready, and represent the game complete in its concept; you just have to find somebody to play with. So the fun is already measurable. A game you play now against a human won’t be different from a game you will play when the game is finished.

And I also say that the above post was the first public annuncement of the campaign, so it is normal that just a few people saw it before. So it’s a bit early to say that it’s a failure.

I’m also aware that this isn’t a viral kind of game. This isn’t angry birds. This has the little market of those people who like old-style turn-based strategy games. So that’s why it is important to spread the word: to find out those people, expecially if it doesn’t cost you nothing.

Kheetor · July 9, 2014, 10:54am

It’s not about what I assume, it’s what people in general assume based on what you’ve told about the project. It’s nothing personal and I’m only trying to help you understand how you’ve made your situation look to the outside. Don’t fight me, fight the impression you’ve made. Include what you said about the history of rules, board game, AI plans etc in your future game pitches / kickstart project / recruitment posts and so on so that people won’t get the wrong idea.

But in addition to that, as someone who has a better insight to game development, I still don’t see how someone is able to put so much together in game development software but can’t manage something as simple as the A, B or C options I outlined in their own game…