Developers Bizurk Software meanwhile debut their most comprehensive demonstration of the upcoming Tower Defence game’s prototype yet.
How Cut-scenes are timed
‘We estimate 30% completion based on the fact that we have done 5 out of the 15 waves that will be in the demo,’ states Lead Developer at Bizurk Software, Andrew Taraba. The Taracore Enterprises LLC owned subsidiary has confirmed that its upcoming PC, iOS and Android based Tower Defence game TinyWars is indeed past 30% completion.
‘The content of the waves has been planned out, but they have not been coded into the demo yet. What sounds awesome on paper can often need a lot more tweaking when put into the game. ‘ The team at Bizurk has further gone on to debut fans & followers’ first detailed look at the progress of the demo by means of a game-play video.
Said video commences with the player making use of the Witch Summoning feature – calling upon a Fire unit and placing them on one of the available objects/towers. The goal here lies in preventing enemies from reaching protagonist Mary’s tower on the left-hand side of the level.
Interaction with players takes place by means of in-game dialogue based cut-scenes, which Taraba discloses have been rendered on separate video editing software altogether rather than on core game development tools.
‘We make cut-scenes first in the video editing software, watch it and make sure everything matches and is readable,’ he states. ‘Then we paste a “frame counter” in the video and follow that frame count to time everything in the game.’ A short demonstration of how these cut-scenes are timed is also attached as a separate video herewith.
This then initiates the demo’s first wave of enemies, comprising of the team’s favourite enemy placeholders that it reveals will now be present in the final demo build as well.
‘Throughout playing the demo countless times, we have grown quite fond of this character to be honest,‘ Taraba justifies. ‘He will be staying in the demo. Will he appear in the final game? Maybe not, but he’s staying in the demo and that’s final!’
Ensuing waves then go on to depict a whole variety of other enemy designs of which only four were revealed in a prior update; the reactions of TinyWars’ playable units towards each is far from randomized, stressing upon the need for players to be prudent in their unit placement prior to a wave.
This in no way implies that the battlefield will not stay dynamic; a point proved by the enemies lugging around an explosive to break through the player’s defenses and create an alternate route to protagonist Mary from the 5:23 mark of the game-play video.
To further accentuate this, the demo will also comprise of ‘Tiny Wars’ – periodic occurrences wherein ‘Dark Magic’ takes over, levels switch to darker variations of their selves and players are prohibited from using the ‘Retry Wave’ feature for a pre-determined number of waves.
Failure in any one of the Dark Magic waves will force players to restart from the beginning of a Tiny War. Taraba states in relation – ‘You need to be able to adapt your strategy at any time, don’t get too comfortable with your tower placement, be willing to sell units when necessary to adapt to the changing battlefield.’
Interestingly though, only two of these units – Fire & Melee – will be present in the final build of the game. Reasons for this lie in keeping the main game’s narrative under wraps, given how units will be unlocked via chapter progression in the full game build.
The demo itself will take place during the course of Chapter One’s ‘Grass World’ and will lack any cut-scenes related to the primary plot. Story ‘elements’ might be present, yes, however the focus of the demo will be to provide one with a challenging illustration of TinyWars’ game-play mechanics alone.
Bizurk Software is currently aiming for a Q4 2016 release of the same primarily on Windows based computers, with its mobile versions still pending testing.
Besides implementation of the remaining enemy waves, fully-developed character based animations are also in need of furnishing. Taraba attributes the time taken for actual implementation of said waves to the demo serving as an engine for the full game more than anything –
‘Whenever a new wave is implemented – each of which has new and unique enemies – those enemies and all the contents of that wave not only need to be added to the waves, but also created and programmed.’
About TinyWars
Developed by Bizurk Software, TinyWars is an upcoming game of the Tower Defence genre for PC, Android & iOS devices.
A journey of growth — both of characters involved and players themselves — its narrative encompasses a Tiny kingdom and its Tiny inhabitants, as they journey through the world and learn about things far greater than themselves while being under constant attack. Following the tale of one such inhabitant, a young girl named Mary, said narrative will illustrate her pursuit of justice from those that belittle her as she journeys to save her Kingdom for good.
In its current status, the game continues to have its levels, character roster and game-play mechanics fleshed out ahead of a late-Q4 2016 public game-play demo release. Comprising of a portion of TinyWars’ soundtrack and early concept art.