It's Time for a New Game! Design Doc Summary: Part 1

2022 was decidedly, not cool. It largely kept me from my hobbies. But, 2023 has let me really get back into things I enjoy. Starting down the road of gamedev again, I started to realize that my old projects were far out of date. Unity DOTS, which I'd built everything ontop of and was my preferred system to use, had updated twice in the time since I last seriously worked on a project. API changes had been so extensive that an update of what I had, would take a heap of time. 

What I needed, was a modern project. Something with a more reasonable scope. Something I felt passionate about working on and developing into a deliverable.

Something like This project.

Over a few posts, I hope to elaborate on what I am intending to deliver here. Everything mentioned is the plan as of the time of writing, so everything is subject to change.

The Basics

What is intended to be delivered, is a Real Time Strategy game in the vein of the Starcraft or the Command and Conquer series. Set in an asteroid field far out in deep space, you as Operations Command will fight to secure a newly discovered material  for your faction using a core roster of units.

General Design Philosophy

The setting of the game, is a star system wide asteroid field that is being mined by various people floating in and out of the system due to it's richness and the availability of a new resource dubbed Helion. Mineral deposits around the map build your war effort, and pay your upkeep with the faction fleet. The 5 available resources being Metals, Metalloids, Noble [Minerals], Ice, and Helion. Because each deployment starts as basically a survey expedition, you'll first be given a surveyor and minimal military assets; but, as you tap resources the shipments you dispatch back to the fleet, will empower you to hire more workers, buy military hardware, and lock down the field you're in until finally you are able to construct a Universal Communications Array (U-Com Relay). Accessing the U-Com Relay network, means your operation is capable of communicating in real time, with both your faction fleet, and the universe as a whole. This affords you a greater number of people to recruit, more assets to build, and really the ability to fully lock down the field you're in. Driving other claimants off the land, gives you unfettered access to it for your faction (And is a roundabout way of saying, you won the skirmish match). This is an in lore way of describing "Age" progression a la the Age of Empires series, but is kind of how I'm attempting to design this entire product: Everything has a purpose in the game, and your actions are constantly working you towards a well defined goal: Securing the resource patch.

Another way of demonstrating this is with the mining and production loops. There are two basic means of resource mining: Strip mining and Operational scale mining. Strip mining means a worker drives a Utility Truck over to an outcropping, before having their drones shatter the rock face, and scooping up the resulting rock to carry back to the nearest refinery. Operational mining is a building placed on a resource deposit that will continuously produce truck loads of ore to be processed at a refinery. Each deposit of material is finite, but operational mining will not actively destroy resources in place. Instead it will produce a volume based on the reserves present at the site. If you place an operation on a half stripped deposit it will always produce less than an operation placed at an untapped resource node. Likewise most things require multiple resources. Your basic battery bank, which stores energy produced at your facility, will require both Metals and Metalloids for the structure and the batteries contained therein respectively. So your base will be spread out over the map, with multiple points needing to be defended, interconnected by a logistics network of Utility trucks and or Substations. This aforementioned network of substations specifically helping you with the primary reason you as Operations Command are here in the first place:

Helion

A odd form of strange matter, Helion is capable of producing energy in excess of what it's volume would suggest. Your entire network can be empowered by it. Vehicles using Helion fuel will perform better and move faster. Using solar panels to break down the Helion, will provide a massive boost to your power production, and certain structures with access to Helion will work that much harder. Ultimately the more of it that you can send back to the fleet, the greater the variety of options you'll have access to. So controlling Helion deposits, is a priority.

Units

Core units will be divided amongst 3 types: Flyers, Ground vehicles, and Drones. With there being a difference between the easily accessed and deployed drone units, and more difficult to acquire but decidedly more powerful manned units. Power in this case being primarily about force projection and not just raw health. A drone can do specific tasks, but a manned vehicle will be able to have further range and a greater volume of tasks they can accomplish. The scale of the vehicles will likewise go from the size of a regular person, all the way up to the 10x20x75m Panther class destroyer currently being concepted, and beyond. With larger vehicles not necessarily massive HP sponges, and more often a reflection of their capabilities. So, while the aforementioned destroyer is going to have some impressive weapons, it'll also be capable of deploying a drop ship, and projecting radar range out considerably, allowing you to send drones and forces down range much more effectively. Also, everything is designed to have use from the beginning of the match to the end. The Mobile Armored Refinery Vehicle (MARV) is 2 stories tall, and the size of 8 Heavy Combat Vehicles (HCVs for short), but functions as a builder with drone bays for worker drones, dedicated defenses, and the ability to refine mined goods. In the early game it will be your primary refinery for mined goods, but late game it can still contribute as your builder and a salvager. Ultimately though, space travel is terrifying and expensive. Each MARV will require 4 employees to function, with each employee requiring transfer from the faction fleet. So a lot of what you have will be drones. Actively controlled when in the active range of radar, drones like the simple worker drone will have a specific function it can be ordered to perform. Drones can also be dispatched on single missions that means they will fly beyond the active range of Radar, but you will be incapable of responding to the drone until it reenters your active range.

I hope you enjoyed this breakdown of some of the game's currently planned features. Next time I'll break down a few additional topics. Included is just a screenshot of the current state of assets with a Liquid storage tank, a stand-in block for the hangar, a bunkhouse for personnel, a radar tower, and then the current crop of vehicles: Light Combat Vehicle (LCV), HCV, Utility Truck, and MARV. And, a couple little dudes scattered around for scale.

Thank you for reading.