Project 137: Star Commander

After coming to the end of my previous game project, I wanted to work on something slightly different. I had an idea for an extensive and complicated game, which would no doubt take a long time to reach any kind of releasable state. Instead of jumping straight into a huge project like this, I decide to start with a simple but feature complete version of the game, and add elements over time in the form of “milestones”, with each milestone being a fully playable game in itself.

Star Commander will be a Sci-Fi themed squad-based tactical wargame. The play style will be somewhat similiar to the old X-Com games, although the first iteration of the game will be real time. I have not decided yet if the final version will be real time or turn-based. I intend to simulate realistic factors such as psychology (soldiers may panic, become stressed, etc) resource management (players may run out of ammo in the field, and require resupply) and advanced squad-based tactics and cooperation between players.

The final game will have single player, multiplayer, and multiplayer coop modes.  I intend to allow for large-scale campaigns in both single player and multiplayer modes, where players will be able to slowly achieve strategic objectives through fighting many tactical missions. There will also be options for more casual play.

Milestone 1 will be contain primarily the Movement and Combat system, Multiplayer play and general game concept. This version will be simple, but should also be fun to play. It will feature an in game chat, 3-5 online dedicated servers featuring different maps, a small number of different types of weapons, and a promotion and rewards based system to encourage cooperation and tactics during play.

I used to play a free game called “Chain of Command”, which was also a simple squad based online game. It seems to be gone now, but it was relatively successful at one time, so, simple games can work. Especially if they are added to and improved over time. It is a lot easier to do this, than try to embark on a huge project all at once with limited resources.

I expect to have a working prototype of this project done fairly quickly, and hopefully get something uploaded in a few months. MS1 will probably be mostly multiplayer, with a singple player tutorial, and possibly some support for AI Players.

I will then build on this, adding more features in stages.