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It’s been a while has it not?

Well, here we are near the end of 2021 and what do I have but… a beta release of Archaos! Yes, that’s right, the game I’ve been working on most of my adult life finally gets a public, playable release!

This iteration has taken just over a month from start to beta, and I’m pretty happy with where it is right now. There are of course bugs, inconsistencies, and annoyances, as well as some big missing features (computer opponents and multiplayer being the ones I feel most will point out) but I hope to address these in time.

If you want to play it now, you can do so here: https://www.rotates.org/archaos/2021/

It currently has no network multiplayer or computer opponents (things I plan on addressing in due time) and has some bugs and inconsistencies, but I’ve managed to have a decent amount of relatively ‘vanilla’ experiences now playing the game on my own.

The source code is also public, available at my Github: https://github.com/lewster32/archaos – please do feel free to report any bugs or requests features etc. on here, and I’ll do my best to get around to them.

Thanks for holding on there, it’s been a journey.

www.archaos.co.uk

More soon…

I’m taking a little bit of a break from Archaos at the moment as more immediate priorities have arisen – notably my financial status! As you probably know, I quit my full time job in September of last year to work on Archaos, and indeed I’ve made a lot of progress; as much if not more in my abilities as a programmer as on the game itself.

As it stands, I need to do a partial rewrite on the client, as some aspects of it (mainly legacy stuff from last year) have become unmaintainable. Sounds drastic but I assure you this is only a minor setback; lots of Archaos is done and working to my satisfaction (the server for example is in a pretty good state at the moment, and the implemented features are working very efficiently) however the rigours of dealing with stateful asynchronous stuff all over the place (via the network, player inputs, waiting for animations and so on) combined with the lack of any kind of pattern have led to a game which as it stands is becoming near impossible to debug. Action must be taken, and that will begin with the application of a proper MVC pattern to the client game code.

In order to continue to be able to work on Archaos, I’ve taken on some web jobs (which bizarrely appeared totally out of nowhere from friends right as my savings were about to dry up) but this is a temporary thing and as soon as they’re done, I’ll be back onto Archaos and aiming for a beta release.

I can only apologise for the seemingly endless false starts and broken deadlines for those of you who’re following this project – it’s embarrassing to keep having to explain myself. My focus is however still solidly on getting Archaos finished and released, and then getting to the bit I’ve been really looking forward to; extending the game through new modes, features, spells and units!

Stay tuned!

I’ve spent the last few days working on the pathfinding system on Archaos. This replaces the previous and temporary ‘one step at a time’ way that non-flying units were controlled, and makes the process of moving of your units much easier and faster.

I’ve spent a fair bit of time testing the system and comparing movement ranges with the infographic posted previously. Due to some discrepancies with the way the original game handled non-flying movement, calculation of a non-flying unit’s range isn’t trivial – and when you throw in obstacles and danger of your unit getting engaged, the efficiency and accuracy of the pathfinding system becomes vital. I may still need to tweak it a little further but at the moment I’m very happy with the results.

Ease of interaction is one of the top priorities of the game; if the game’s controls aren’t implemented correctly, it could quickly get very annoying – for instance, if it was easy to accidentally move a unit to the wrong position. This is especially important when dealing with mobile devices, which offer less feedback and less accurate interaction methods.

With this in mind, all actions carried out in the game must be confirmed, either by tapping twice in the same spot, or by tapping the ‘confirm’ button which will appear once you’ve tapped to express your intent. This method seamlessly works between mobile and desktop, with intent on the desktop being indicated as you hover your mouse over the board.