Sever?

This is my first entry in my development journal for Sever. Spring break just ended, so I have less time to work on it, but I’m filling in the gaps as much as I can. Over the last couple days of spring break, I came up with the idea for Sever. At the beginning of the week, I was beginning development of an RPG engine, but I figured it would be nothing original and too much work, so took the advice of Chris Delay at Introversion Software: minimal content. An RPG is 95% content. Chris's latest game, Defcon, is purely multiplayer and very very simple. But the design is so original and clever that the game pulls it off. That is what got me wracking my brain for a simple game like Sever.

It was actually going on 11pm when the idea came to me. Of course it was vague and fuzzy at first, but I beat it and kneaded through the wee hours until I had something close to what I have now. Then the next day I began development. I finally got to the point where I could show something on-screen. And I did, but it was only minimal. Then the next day (yesterday or the day before), I started over with some better ideas of how to implement it. I am now about a third done with the underlying structure of the game.

The game is an RTS, but a very different form of RTS. You build a route system. The one resource is people, which travel through the routes, and build the routes and nodes (route waypoints). The point of the game is to sever the enemy’s routes with yours, thereby destroying everything beyond the severed route section. To win, you’ll sever the route connecting his two central nodes, which produce his people.

The real challenge of course will be creating the AI. I am fairly inexperienced with AI, so I feel pretty intimidated. Another challenge would be supporting multiplayer. I have nill experience with that as well. However, that at least sounds doable.

That’s the story so far. I hope you stick with me as I progress. Thanks for reading! Please comment. I need the encouragement. If you have ideas don’t hesitate to share them.

clevceo