CoHack - An Open Source Turn-Based Strategy Game

Not sure if there's anyone interested in this, but one of my favorite Shockwave games as a kid was Spybotics: The Nightfall Incident. You can see a video of how the game plays here:

I really like the overall concept of this type of game and would like to expand on the mechanics.

I'm currently working on creating a basic gameplay prototype. You can download the current progress here:

BoardGame.capx

You can also run a live version of the current development version here: CoHackTest

Features for the aspiring C2 Developer to take from:

• Notification system that moves from one side of the screen to the other based on touch input
• Turn-based system based on a game state machine
• Random grid generation script developed by

  Yann

Player and computer spawning at designated spawn positions

Maximum board movement path determination and highlighting based on a recursive function developed by vee41

Attack highlighting that ignores board gaps (ranged attacks are not reduced due to missing board spots)

All art and sound assets in this project are also royalty free for anyone to use!

I'd like to go ahead and bump this in case anyone is interested in collaborating.

The .capx file is updated and includes the current iteration of code. Compared to my first big project, I've tried my best to follow better C2 coding practices:

<img src="http://i.imgur.com/gntN8pu.png" border="0" />

Here's a screenshot of the project progress so far:

<img src="http://i.imgur.com/Taoc6BA.png" border="0" />

Special thanks so far to Yann, who developed the random grid generation script used to generate the levels.

Kyatric please move this to the Your Creations forum whenever you have time.

The .capx has been updated once again for anyone who is interested in seeing it. Currently I'm working on creating a basic gameplay prototype. Compared to the last update, there is now both player spawning and computer spawning.

I wasn't happy with the previous game UI so I've modified it and created a permanent UI in this version. I think in the long run this will work much better, but there are some things to change/add. Right now I'm not sure how many UI sections there needs to be, but I'll figure that out over time.

<img src="http://i.imgur.com/HkOKfH0.png" border="0" />

<img src="http://i.imgur.com/Ra3DZ9t.png" border="0" />

<img src="http://i.imgur.com/EHNwWdf.png" border="0" />

<img src="http://i.imgur.com/DghVtZU.png" border="0" />

I'm currently working with an artist and composer to create the media for the prototype. When that happens, I will start including a license file to indicate which parts of the project are open source (basically the events and setup) and which parts are not (the media).

First set of graphics are now incorporated. What are people's thoughts about the style?

<img src="http://i.imgur.com/Hkgy1QV.png" border="0">

<img src="http://i.imgur.com/4buVvy4.png" border="0">

<img src="http://i.imgur.com/XA11e4H.png" border="0">

<img src="http://i.imgur.com/LoQVcxA.png" border="0">

You can also test it live: CoHackTest

Nice work Excal. I will love to help, but This seems too advanced for my Construct 2 knowledge. Hope you find someone who can help you.

Been watching, been waiting and Wow! Amazing what some kick ass graphics do.

I just started with C2 so don't know how much help I can be, but I will be watching this mature into the game you envision.

very cool - I like turnbased stuff - I will be following your efforts

—, if you're new to C2, you can still download the .capx and look through it if you want to figure out how to implement something, such as a notification box, highlighting, etc.

I'm also currently working with an audio composer to flesh out the music and sounds. I learned from my first project that graphics + sounds can create an atmosphere that can turn even the most terrible or un-innovative game into something people will enjoy playing.

Thanks to vee41, we now have movement indication on the board! The hard work is still yet to come, as I want the movement itself to look sequential (programs will move one square at a time to the destination instead of magically appearing there), but that's something to work on for this coming week.

<img src="http://i.imgur.com/NCSmuVF.png" border="0" />

Also, program highlighting during the player turn is kind of broken, but I'm hoping to have that resolved soon as well :)

Excal Looking great! The only issue I can see from a board layout point of view is that since each side is random, it may give one team and advantage or disadvantage based on the layout. Any though to generating half as much tiles, then mirroring that to make the other side of the board so both sides are asymmetrical? That may make the gameplay a bit more even for both sides. Though as this is a single player game I guess that is not as much of an issue...

—

Right now my goal is to develop a working game prototype. I intend to pre-create levels later on to address that issue :)

Well, it's been two weeks of haggling and trying to implement 'pathfound' movement before I've decided to scrap the feature and instead only allow the player to move a program to an adjacent space. This should give the player more control and also avoid the issue of a suboptimal path being taken whenever two or more paths are possible.

<img src="http://i.imgur.com/k9k3m80.jpg" border="0" />

<img src="http://i.imgur.com/s4d2dnK.jpg" border="0" />

The next goal is to implement spawning of program 'body parts'. Basically, programs will occupy multiple spaces on the game board. Each part is part of the program's health - deleting all the parts of a program 'deletes' it. This will allow for some interesting programs to be implemented later on, such as bloatware (a 'wall' program whose main job is to occupy spaces on the game board).

Still working on body part spawning, but another milestone in the creation of a working prototype has been completed: UI graphics!

<img src="http://i.imgur.com/U08sFEe.jpg" border="0" />

<img src="http://i.imgur.com/WXNONb3.jpg" border="0" />

A devlog that discusses this project: http://www.exeneva.com/2013/08/cohack-a-reimagination-of-spybot-the-nightfall-incident/

A good read for anyone wondering what the inspiration is and whatnot.

Coming along nicely. I experienced player movement issues myself in my own board game. Question, why not just have token move to position on touch. I tried various options myself (I use dice to determine number of movements) and have for the time being surrendered to token moving straight to destination. The whole token gliding to target is nice, but time consuming, and I couldn't get it just right.

Will see how you handle it and learn by your example.