Fleet Calamity

Good news every body!

I haven't died nor have a fallen off the of the face of the planet. In fact, I've been very busy. Lately I have been going full force on a game that I'm creating with a group of friends. The games working title is called Fleet Calamity.

You can visit the blog here: http://fleetcalamity.blogspot.com/

To document my progress and tell people how its going I created a blog for your viewing and reading pleasure. Go check it out some time!

The game is basically battle ships meets Magic the gathering. Currently its more of a board game than a video game, but as we make improvements and work out details it will make its transition to the digital medium.

Please share it with your friends and family. Also, if you'd like to help out I am looking for programmers and 2d and 3d artists right now. I also am looking for testers. Next testing session will be 1/18/14. That is a Saturday.

Food and drink will be provided at the testing parties.

So please go check it out. I'm extremely excited for it and can't wait to see how you all like it.

Take care

First steps of Fleet Calamity

This blog is documenting my progress as I make my first game. I have a bunch of help from friends and family and I'll list them as this blog goes on so you know what they contribute and how we go about things.

First off, what is this game?

Well its a computer game where Battleship meets Magic the Gathering.

Sound cool? Well I hope so, cuz I certainly think so.

A quick overview of game play:

Each player starts with four Flotilla; Two battleships, one civilian ship and one resource ship. These ships hold your vessels, which are basically creature cards from Magic.

Your goal is to destroy the opponents Flotilla using your vessels, traps and upgrades. But first you must seek out your opponent by moving about the hex grid.

As it stands a turn looks like this:

1. Draw cards or warp. Warping allows the player to move to any point on the map, not just an adjacent hex.

2. Draw until you have 7 cards in your hand.

3. Discard to gain resources.

4. Play vessels, upgrades and/or traps.

5. Move. This move can only be to an adjacent hex, no further.

There are no resource cards. Instead, to gain resources you must discard. Discarding one card gains you one resource. Two cards gain you two resources and so on and so forth.

So what do we have done?

Well the basic game play is fairly solid. We have created a tangible prototype with temporary cards made of card stock and a play area made of  unused pizza boxes.

We have a bunch of cards for Humans and Machines set up too. We are focusing on these two factions and making sure the game works properly before expanding out to the other aliens. We are starting to play test with people not associated with the game and soon, once we feel we have a pretty solid game on our hands, I’ll be searching for investors to help fund our need for programmers.

My friend Matt Oberdalhoff has been helping me develop this game and really tweaking the finer points to make sure its easy to understand, fun to play and quick to get into. He’s helped a ton on keeping me on track and making sure I don’t add too much fat, especially in this early stage.

I myself am Matthew Hagen. I started developing this game about a year ago while in school. I picked away at it as I learned the ropes of game design while working at a game studio locally. I really am excited to present this game to you all and I hope you are all happy to keep checking in as I update this blog.

As I progress I’ll keep this blog updated. It may be slow in the beginning as more non visual stuff is being developed, but it will pick up more as art is produced, and programming magic is cast!

Take care!

P.s.

Blogger didn't like me adding pictures to this post, so next post will be featuring that.

Art of Fleet Calamity

 Well that was a brief overview of the game. Lets get to some art!

Above is a Manipulator. These aliens are the oldest of all the four races. Manipulators are special in that they don’t rely so much on vessels to fight the war, but instead use upgrades and traps more than anything.

 Here we have the other alien race, the Outsiders. These creatures are brutal, taking over the bodies of their prey and using them against their own people. The image shows one Outsider taking over a human body.

Lastly, for the 2d art, we have a human. The humans are unique in that they can rank up. When ranked they may grow stronger and gain new abilities.

All the art above was created by the talented Alonzo Canto. You can see more of his awesome art at http://alonzocanto.blogspot.com/

Go check him out. You will be happy you did!

Lets move onto Flotilla

Above is a work in progress of the human flotilla. These models will be used to represent your flotilla as you move about the battle field.

Next we have the Machines battleship flotilla. The Machines are the last of the four fleets battling for survival. Machines scavenge parts of their fallen to rebuild and improve those still in the fray.

Finally we have the Machines resource ship.

All the models are still being worked on so what you are seeing are all work in progresses. The Machine battleship is the furthest along, at least for now. We may decided to go a different direction with it, or add more stuff, but right now we are thinking of just giving it a texture and calling it good. There is plenty of other work to be done instead of lingering on this one piece.