FORGE - Card game project

[zkajo]

Team name:
Catachan Team

Project name:
FORGE

Brief description:
Forge is an interesting and unique card game. Due to little need for special effects, advanced graphics and game engine the project is very realistic and has large chances of being completed, at least on a single player scale.
Each race has it's own unique magic spells and commands, units and abilities.

Target aim:
Freeware at start. If the project gets further possibility of introducing extra cards for players to buy online (like many browser games).


Technology:
ActionScript3, PHP (Not going to add photoshop ^^)

Talents needed:
PHP programmer
Needs to be able to communicate the game between flash and PHP elements. Also, he will be responsible for the online communication compatibility.

AS3 programmer
His/Her job will be to make the game come true. Simple as, the guy who writes all the constants and variables, and who… does the job

Graphic Designer (concept artist)
His/Her job will be to draw the card images which reflect creatures, armies and different items, as well as any other graphical content.

Compensation:
If project remains freeware, no money will come from it. However, if people will become interested in additional cards and expansions and project will earn some money, then members will be rewarded.


Team at the moment:
Ambient (me) – Graphic Design, site developer and game developer (mechanics)
Grave – Advanced Action Script programmer, quite famous in polish community for his great AS2 tutorial
(if anyone is interested: http://www.sendspace.com/file/3fqnxg)

Communiation:
If you are interested, please e-mail me at:
catachan@hotmail.com
or chat on msn: zkajota@hotmail.com
or write a private message





Today I have worked on the first design of the back of the cards.
Here are the first two ideas:


They are not great, and there is a lot of room for improvement. I just want to show you the work is being done

[Zerovirus]

Hmm. Let's see, do you have the rules or an outline of the rules for us, besides just the card back?

[pauxlo]

Brief description:
Forge is an interesting and unique card game. Due to little need for special effects, advanced graphics and game engine the project is very realistic and has large chances of being completed, at least on a single player scale.
Each race has it's own unique magic spells and commands, units and abilities.

This does not really say much about what the game is about: you have races, cards and magic spells.

[zkajo]

Ok, ok... let me write some more


The game uses point system for every action. The player who looses all of his points, looses the game. Every action, charge, assault, card exchange etc. costs you a minor amount of points.
Game can be played by 1-4 players, in team battles, or deathmatch type games. The game is turn based, and each turn consist of the following phases:


1) Camp – Players can equip their units and form ranks, such as Shieldwall etc. which gives them extra bonuses. This is the tactical phase, where players choose to set their army defensively, offensively or boos their troops up a bit.
2) Magic and Commands – Here players can cast magical spells on their own or the enemy troops if they have the right cards and fulfill certain requirements (such as the right hero)
3) Shooting – In this phase the ranged type units (which I will talk about later) can shoot at the enemy.
4) Assault – In this phase players attack each other, using their more standard troops and resolve the fight.
5) Morale – Minor phase where players check their units’ morale. It’s not important if casualties were minor.
6) Card grab – here players take the cards from the pile if they have used up cards in their hands, or exchange cards which they do not like for the random ones.

Before each phase begins, players both roll a die to see who is the attacker, and who is a defender in this turn. Only attacker can assault (however, defender can still shoot).

Although it seems like a lot, the game is actually pretty quick going. Each turn is quite simple in its rules.

There are many specific card types, however, we divide them into two main categories (piles).

1) Fate cards – Those cards can be drawn at random from a separate pile. They can either be disastrous, neutral or lucky for us to draw. They may include things such as “Gods’ blessing” which makes our units receive certain bonuses for the turn. However, they can also have negative effects. For example, a disease might struck our army and wipe it out partially, or at least deteriorate our soldiers’ will to fight.
2) Game cards – Those cards are either the troops, spells or items which can be drawn. They do not have any major random effects, but are essentially a part of our unique army. For example units which only belong to a certain faction.

Sub-types of troops.
Each troop has it’s own type. There are 5 types of troops:

1) Frontline troops – those troops are the main ones who fight in our army. They tend to be the heavy infantry, supported by weaker units.
2) Support troops – those troops stand a little chance of victory on their own. They tend to be the lighter infantry on the rear, which support the frontline troops in their attack. They are the ones who give bonuses during attack.
3) Cavalry and Fast Attack – those troops are the most mobile in our army. They can attack anything in the front line of the army.
4) Ranged – Those troops can fire missiles at the enemy. Bowmen, skirmishers etc.
5) Commander – He is the one responsible for directing our army. At the beginning, he doesn’t take part in assaults himself, although there is nothing stopping him from doing so. He is the only one who can cast spells and commands on our army, and therefore is a very precious unit. Some heroes however, cannot cast spells, others cannot give certain commands.



More about the units:

Support troops:
Support troops are the handy guys which support the main frontline troop. If the frontline troop is placed next to it, the support troop will grant it 1 additional attack, and add half of it’s strength value to the frontline troop’s value. Those troops however have a very weak toughness, meaning they are not ideal for defense.


Fast attack troops:
Fast attack troops have a special ability which allows them to attack anything on the battlefield, apart from the second row ranged troops (unless they have the flying ability like gryphons).

Command:
Commander is vital for our army. There are two types of commanders. Generals cannot cast spells, but can give much more advanced orders then their counterparts. The Blessed Ones (magicians) on the other hand, can not use certain types of commands, but are able to cast powerful magical spells. Generals tend to give boost to morale of their troops as well, which means they are often a better choice for more cowardly armies. However, that’s up to the player.

Ranged:
Ranged troops are the ones which can shoot in the shooting phase. They have an infinite ammo, and great missile attack. However, when it comes to close combat, they will not live for long. Also, they tend to be much more cowardly and avoid close combat.

Frontline troops:
Those guys are the bread and butter of any army. They are supposed to be the spear and a shield at the same time. Most common unit type with not many special abilities.



Unit’s statistics and attributes:

Of course, each unit has to have some form of attributes. We decided to keep it as simple as possible, and we came up with this:

1) Attack Strength – how many dice this unit uses when attacking.
2) Strength – How strong the unit is. The stronger the better chance to wound the enemy.
3) Toughness – How much pain can a unit withstand. The higher the better the chance of not being wounded.
4) Morale – How brave the unit is. The higher the better.
5) Wounds – How many wounds this unit can take.
6) Ballistics (Ranged units only) – how good the unit is at ranged combat and accuracy.
Bare in mind, some units have special rules as well.



That's all im gona give for now. Assault phase, ranged and magic is all done and tested. I don't want to give a rulebook away here, as this may yet turn into a commercial project

I'm looking for artists mainly.

[Midnight_Carnival]

I'm looking for artists mainly.

As are many people around here, if you find someone with loads of talent by not enough imagination to come up with their own projects please pass them on to me when you're done

I don't want to give a rulebook away here, as this may yet turn into a commercial project

Actually, perhaps this might be a good idea. Based on what I've read you have a good system, that is all the rules are well formulated, etc... If you release these (perhaps get them copyrighted first?) and distribute them freely, then firstly, people will be more inclined to buy the cards becasue they see an interesting game they can get for "free" (minus the expenses of a few little cards they need to buy). and secondly: my expreience has taught me that people are more inclined to contribute if they see that a lot of the work is already done, you can convince them of that more easilly if you give out the rulebook, and as I have said, this doesn't automatically prevent you from making money off the cards (which is what people are going to pay for anyway).

[Moribund]

I don't want to be an ass but from reading through your system I think you need to read up on game design.

[eyerouge]

I don't want to give a rulebook away here, as this may yet turn into a commercial project

1. You probably still own the copyright even if you do post it in here. You don't have to "get them copyrighted", as Midnight_Carnival suggests. At least not in any normal country - there you'd automatically get the copyright for whatever you wrote, without having to "request" it from some bizarre non-exiting place. (That said, I do want to state that I'm not aware if what we have agreed to when using this forum, so it is possible everything we type in here would be open sourced, even if I don't think it's the case. I also don't know from what country you operate or which country's law that applies if you're in i.e. Poland and a Swede rips you off by taking your stuff from this server, located in x....)

2. Giving away the rulebook for free is even more important if you plan on going commercial: Almost all major companies do it, because they know that a rational player would want to read the rules before buying the game - how else would one ever be able to decide if it has potential or not? Even if you watched random tutorials/demos one would still not really understand the game unless the rules were revealed. On this point I agree with Midnight_Carnival, you have everything to earn and nothing to lose from sharing the rules.

="Mori"I don't want to be an ass but from reading through your system I think you need to read up on game design.

If you'd mind mind elaborating you would sound less like one I.e. what's the probelm(s) with his suggested system? Why? How would you fix that, and so on...

[Kalajel]

2. Giving away the rulebook for free is even more important if you plan on going commercial: Almost all major companies do it, because they know that a rational player would want to read the rules before buying the game - how else would one ever be able to decide if it has potential or not? Even if you watched random tutorials/demos one would still not really understand the game unless the rules were revealed. On this point I agree with Midnight_Carnival, you have everything to earn and nothing to lose from sharing the rules.

Yep, and beside, it's only the rules (or part of them). Once you go commercial, you won't also be giving the cards too…

[Cloud]

I must admit I'm tempted to put myself forward for the PHP side of things, I can't reasonably commit to being the only PHP developer and at the not the senior for several good reasons; first of all is my degree (CS&AI, 2nd year starts in September) as it will get priority over anything I do, second is that I've never really undertaken a project anything like this and, although I'm actually fairly confident of my ability with PHP, I've never really worked with Action Script (or flash). I'd most likely jump at the chance to work under someone more experienced than myself.

Other than that I'm afraid I cannot offer my assistance.