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SHORT: Turn based tactical design fundamentals - TAKEAWAY.pdf

Kacper Szymczak
Kacper Szymczak

As I work on my 3rd Turn-Based Tactical game, Im sharing my insights into how fundamental design choices affect the gameplay, and sprinkle it with a couple of specific hints how to solve some of the more common design problems.

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Turn based tactical design fundamentals Kacper Szymczak
ABOUT ME Techland -> CreativeForge -> Artificer 16 years of design experience 8 years of turn-based tacticals Hard West, Phantom Doctrine, and now something new!
ARTIFICER is HIRING! Measure twice, cut once The best studio for ambitious creatives Without any personal sacrifices Always hiring! -- jobs@artificer.com
WHAT I MEAN BY TURN BASED TACTICAL Turn order Multiple characters Spatial positioning Primarily about combat
KNOW THE KEY REFERENCES
Xcom 2
Jagged Alliance 2
Into the Breach
Battle Brothers
Gears Tactics
Valkyria Chronicles
Mutant: Year Zero
Invisible Inc.
12 TACTICAL DESIGN FUNDAMENTALS AND TIPS
1. SQUARE GRID FOR SHOOTING, HEX FOR MELEE
Good for blocky buildings, interiors Not so good for irregularly-shaped environment Square grid
Sucks for urban environment Hex grid Good for natural environment or big scale yuck
Square grid adjacency sucks for melee For melee combat, adjacency is important, and square grid lacks convenience; The distance between adjacent side-by-side tiles is different than adjacent slanting tiles. That means for example that your animations need to work for both distances, or you may need to disallow slanting melee attacks.
Hex grid adjacency great for melee In Hex grid, its the same distance in all directions.
2. USE A 2AP SYSTEM (UNLESS YOURE MAKING A COMPLEX SIMULATION) Simple! No math to do Dont have to memorize AP costs Never left with a remaining handful of useless APs ...but: unfit for complex simulations (Jagged Alliance)
3. USE A SIMPLE TURN SYSTEM (MOVE ALL YOUR UNITS IN YOUR TURN) Its simple! Little interruption ...but: sluggish with lots of units
Unaffected by scale Harder to plan, synergize abilities (enemy interruptions) Players tend to focus on the next big threat on timeline Gameplay tends to be more reactive than proactive ...for big battles, use timeline instead you you you enemy enemy enemy
4. MAKE COVER READABLE Make it readable at a glance Keep it blocky Nature enviro sucks for this bad good
5. DONT KEEP THE PLAYER WAITING Let the player execute orders fast, fast, fast (shave off delays, animation time) Implement simultaneous orders (switch between units while orders are executed) Implement fast forward in enemy turn (MYZ) Fewer units in enemy turn (or use timeline) (reinforcements can help)
Full cover is better, so players will use full cover and ignore half cover. Inspect this screenshot: Ive marked the only tiles that the player will find worth considering, because they provide full cover. Level designers who are new to the genre tend to sprinkle the levels with half covers like they would for a shooter game. But in cover-based tacticals, half covers are mostly irrelevant. Treat your half covers as decor. 6. DON'T OVERDO HALF COVER irrelevant cover = decor
7. END UNIT TURN AFTER ATTACK Moving after attack enables hit and run Hit and run is best countered by overwatch Both hit and run and overwatch are defensive plays Defensive strategies slow the game down
8. GET YOUR SCALE RIGHT Fit game into the screen Adjust attack ranges to have shooter AND target on the screen Fit arenas/chokepoints on the screen
9. DESIGN THE SAFE SPOTS Create those with 3 walls Very important for support abilities (players need to feel safe to use utilities) They allow you to lead the player through the level 3 full covers = safe spot
10. CONTROL YOUR RNG TURN-BASED TACTICAL = RISK MANAGEMENT Random chance doesnt mean that ANYTHING can happen Make risk manageable Its OK for a flimsy plan to fail (30% chance miss feels okay) Its not OK for a great plan to fail miserably (90% chance miss feels wrong)
11. GET RID OF FLOOR SWITCHING DO YOU REALLY NEED ELEVATION? No You need visual verticality instead Use area bonuses to get the same gameplay result without the UX burden
12. ABILITIES ARE KING Dont cut corners or save resources on abilities!
End. (Hiring designers! jobs@artificer.com) Questions?

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SHORT: Turn based tactical design fundamentals - TAKEAWAY.pdf

  • 1. Turn based tactical design fundamentals Kacper Szymczak
  • 2. ABOUT ME Techland -> CreativeForge -> Artificer 16 years of design experience 8 years of turn-based tacticals Hard West, Phantom Doctrine, and now something new!
  • 3. ARTIFICER is HIRING! Measure twice, cut once The best studio for ambitious creatives Without any personal sacrifices Always hiring! -- jobs@artificer.com
  • 4. WHAT I MEAN BY TURN BASED TACTICAL Turn order Multiple characters Spatial positioning Primarily about combat
  • 5. KNOW THE KEY REFERENCES
  • 14. 12 TACTICAL DESIGN FUNDAMENTALS AND TIPS
  • 15. 1. SQUARE GRID FOR SHOOTING, HEX FOR MELEE
  • 16. Good for blocky buildings, interiors Not so good for irregularly-shaped environment Square grid
  • 17. Sucks for urban environment Hex grid Good for natural environment or big scale yuck
  • 18. Square grid adjacency sucks for melee For melee combat, adjacency is important, and square grid lacks convenience; The distance between adjacent side-by-side tiles is different than adjacent slanting tiles. That means for example that your animations need to work for both distances, or you may need to disallow slanting melee attacks.
  • 19. Hex grid adjacency great for melee In Hex grid, its the same distance in all directions.
  • 20. 2. USE A 2AP SYSTEM (UNLESS YOURE MAKING A COMPLEX SIMULATION) Simple! No math to do Dont have to memorize AP costs Never left with a remaining handful of useless APs ...but: unfit for complex simulations (Jagged Alliance)
  • 21. 3. USE A SIMPLE TURN SYSTEM (MOVE ALL YOUR UNITS IN YOUR TURN) Its simple! Little interruption ...but: sluggish with lots of units
  • 22. Unaffected by scale Harder to plan, synergize abilities (enemy interruptions) Players tend to focus on the next big threat on timeline Gameplay tends to be more reactive than proactive ...for big battles, use timeline instead you you you enemy enemy enemy
  • 23. 4. MAKE COVER READABLE Make it readable at a glance Keep it blocky Nature enviro sucks for this bad good
  • 24. 5. DONT KEEP THE PLAYER WAITING Let the player execute orders fast, fast, fast (shave off delays, animation time) Implement simultaneous orders (switch between units while orders are executed) Implement fast forward in enemy turn (MYZ) Fewer units in enemy turn (or use timeline) (reinforcements can help)
  • 25. Full cover is better, so players will use full cover and ignore half cover. Inspect this screenshot: Ive marked the only tiles that the player will find worth considering, because they provide full cover. Level designers who are new to the genre tend to sprinkle the levels with half covers like they would for a shooter game. But in cover-based tacticals, half covers are mostly irrelevant. Treat your half covers as decor. 6. DON'T OVERDO HALF COVER irrelevant cover = decor
  • 26. 7. END UNIT TURN AFTER ATTACK Moving after attack enables hit and run Hit and run is best countered by overwatch Both hit and run and overwatch are defensive plays Defensive strategies slow the game down
  • 27. 8. GET YOUR SCALE RIGHT Fit game into the screen Adjust attack ranges to have shooter AND target on the screen Fit arenas/chokepoints on the screen
  • 28. 9. DESIGN THE SAFE SPOTS Create those with 3 walls Very important for support abilities (players need to feel safe to use utilities) They allow you to lead the player through the level 3 full covers = safe spot
  • 29. 10. CONTROL YOUR RNG TURN-BASED TACTICAL = RISK MANAGEMENT Random chance doesnt mean that ANYTHING can happen Make risk manageable Its OK for a flimsy plan to fail (30% chance miss feels okay) Its not OK for a great plan to fail miserably (90% chance miss feels wrong)
  • 30. 11. GET RID OF FLOOR SWITCHING DO YOU REALLY NEED ELEVATION? No You need visual verticality instead Use area bonuses to get the same gameplay result without the UX burden
  • 31. 12. ABILITIES ARE KING Dont cut corners or save resources on abilities!