I’ve taken a long break from game development. The past few months I’ve been job searching and studying for interviews.

After a recent interview, I’ve decided to take a break and work on my projects again.

(I decided to create a new game instead of working on Space Intruders because I’ve already done everything I wanted to do — set up the architecture and the game. Any further work would be game design: balancing, level design, card/weapon/player/enemy ideas, etc. It did not interest me so I decided not to continue).

MageCraft

This is a game I played about ten years ago on the Starcraft 2 Arcade (a large list of custom maps and games created using the Starcraft 2 map editor).

Setup

There are 2-10(?) players in an arena. The view is isometric (top down) and every player controls one unit, their mage. Outside of the arena is lava — you take increasing amounts of damage when you’re in the lava until you leave or die.

Initially, the players are positioned in a circle around the center of the arena. Play starts after a few seconds.

Gameplay

You control your character by right clicking to move and aiming with the mouse (like League of Legends or Starcraft 2). Abilities are cast using hotkeys (in the game, QWER ASD for offensive and defensive respectively).

Players initially have a basic fireball spell but acquire more spells throughout various rounds. Being hit by a spell typically damages you and pushes you away.

The arena gradually shrinks over the course of one round, making it much easier for players to push enemies into the lava.

You win a round when you are the last one standing. Between rounds, players can buy or upgrade abilities.

You win the game when you’ve won x number of rounds.

Thoughts and Goals for the Project

I have a few goals:

  1. Get comfortable using third party applications and services
    1. I realized that many real-world applications are simply hobbling together outside applications together. This is something that I need more work on as a developer
  2. Actually publish this game
    1. I think this game has potential and would be great if it gets published to Steam. Whether it kicks off is another question