{"id":810,"date":"2012-10-02T07:00:47","date_gmt":"2012-10-02T11:00:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.rocketshipgames.com\/blogs\/tjkopena\/?p=810"},"modified":"2022-07-01T16:35:07","modified_gmt":"2022-07-01T20:35:07","slug":"gold-leader-mechanics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rocketshipgames.com\/blogs\/tjkopena\/2012\/10\/gold-leader-mechanics\/","title":{"rendered":"Gold Leader: Mechanics"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>This is part of a series of notes on the development of\u00a0<\/em>Gold Leader<\/a>, currently being shopped around to game portals.<\/em><\/p>\n

Conceptually\u00a0Gold Leader<\/em>\u00a0organically evolved—arguably, devolved—through three distinct phases.<\/p>\n

The original concept was much more of a strategy game, turn-based but with underlying shooter dynamics and conventions. \u00a0This would be somewhat similar in mechanics to\u00a0Steambirds<\/a>\u00a0or the earlier\u00a0Wings of War<\/a>\u00a0boardgame but different enough to be interesting. \u00a0In some part this was motivated by the narrative theme of a large scale conflict<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Mostly that got set aside just because I was starting with almost no infrastructure, writing all of the underlying\u00a0game framework<\/a>\u00a0in addition to the game itself. \u00a0That concept seemed quite likely to rapidly become a project doomed by its own ambition and never completed. \u00a0Hopefully I’ll come back to some of the original ideas though, I think there’s interesting things to do there.<\/p>\n

Alongside a desire to scope down the project, the underlying action gameplay being developed was actually kind of fun. \u00a0So, the game converged rapidly into being more directly a shooter but keeping some of the original concepts. \u00a0In particular, the AI pilots that fly through<\/a> and help you out in the final product were originally a much larger part of the game, with a lot more player interaction.<\/p>\n

They came out pretty good as they’re used right now; some of the later set pieces when they appear are definitely among the best moments of the game. \u00a0However, I couldn’t easily get them to work well as co-pilots like I originally envisioned. \u00a0After a lot of prototyping and playing, that component as well eventually got scoped way down, and I wound up with a really fun but classically patterned shooter.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Gold 4 flies in to help save the day in the minelayers objective.<\/p><\/div>\n

Fortunately, I do think\u00a0Gold Leader\u00a0<\/em>has maintained a couple small twists on the shooter genre. \u00a0For me there are really three things players need to learn how to do well to succeed:<\/p>\n