Inside “Hakan’s War Manager”: Game Design Log — 20

Hello and welcome! I’m Omer from Oba Games, and we’re crafting Hakan’s War Manager. The game’s on Steam, and you can check out the demo. Here, I share thoughts and insights into the development process. Last time, I touched on tactics and decision-making. Now, let’s dig deeper.

Tactical Choices

When I kicked off the design for this game, I aimed for it to resemble Football Manager. My initial concept was to inject elements of football into battles, seeing common ground between the two. As I delved into the design process, I began transforming tactical instructions into battle strategies. Gradually, every tactical feature became an opportunity to envision how it could play out in our game.

Tiny Mistake

So, I was in the process of creating or adapting, just to see how things would unfold. At a certain point, I started pondering, “Okay, I’ve converted these mechanics, but how will they play out in our game?” I played it out in my mind as an imaginary scenario. Each time, I realized it was quite an advanced game, loaded with elements that a big studio could handle. For instance, I drew a parallel between playing from the right wing in football and how it could translate into battle tactics. I thought, “What if a player orders a play from the right wing? It should mean that all the units react to that order, understanding their positions.” So, I began assigning positions like support, frontier, or bait, but it kept demanding more and more mechanics to cover.

Here’s the little hiccup — I forgot to mention that we only have one programmer, and our collective experience is quite limited. Even though I’m aware that we could potentially pull off such a complex system, the reality is, it would take us around 5 years. It’s a bit absurd for an indie studio to work on a project for 5 years, resembling the timeline of a AAA studio without a release.

Changes

So, I pivoted and aimed for simplicity. In Football Manager, there are three sections where you can make tactical choices: attacking, transitioning, and defending. These three sections form the fundamentals. My approach was to create a system that could later be upgraded. In battle, unlike football, we don’t have a clear sequence of going from attack to defense or any transition involving the ball. However, we do have the essence of attack and defend.

Here’s where I made it straightforward: I introduced a mentality system. Units could be designated as attacking or defending. As for the transition aspect, I replaced it with support units. These support units come into play when another unit is in a tight spot, rushing to provide assistance.

Initially, I loved the idea. It allowed for a mix of units with distinct roles — some attacking, some defending, and others interfering as needed. I pat myself on the back for this brilliant idea as I stroll proudly inside my home.

Not Working

With eager excitement, I delved into implementing this idea into the game. I created my mock-ups and devised a system where attacking units could choose different options. For instance, if you set your archers to the attack mentality, you could then pick from various instructions, such as the arrow rain option, which continuously hurls arrows at enemy units. I continued this process for other units, coming up with different attack instructions.

At a certain point, I noticed that some instructions were about attacking, while others involved movement. Believing it would be more organized, I decided to categorize these instructions. So, in the current setup, you select a unit and assign one of three roles: attack, defend, or support. Then, you choose whether the unit should focus on maneuver or action.

However, I soon discovered a flaw in my approach. In the three roles, everything somehow involves attacking, making it problematic to designate a role as “attack” when the other roles inherently encompass attacking actions.

Final Words

Okay, let’s wrap it up here. Next time, I’ll share how I once again changed, and many more times, the tactical instructions. It looks like the next couple of weeks will be a showcase of how I struggle with game design.

Unit next time,
Omer from Oba Games