Bit Battles, Screenshots and Prototyping Early

[For more information regarding Bit Battles, visit the game blog here]

Two months into development on Bit Battles and things are progressing nicely. What started out as nothing more than a test of a multiplayer bumpercars concept has turned into a full-fledged vehicular combat game set in a TRON-esque world. That's a fairly big leap in just two months! So how did I get from there to here? Prototyping.

The real story behind the game so far has been the design methodology. This is the first project where I'm using a top-down or iterative approach to development. It means getting core functionality in place early and prototyping often. Thus far, it's really payed off!

As mentioned, the concept behind the game at first was simply multiplayer bumpercars; teams of players crashing into each other while trying to complete gametype objectives (capture a point, grab a flag, etc.). The first prototype was nothing more than a hovervehicle skimming across the starter.fps terrain. Each iteration grew increasingly complex; sort of like building a house starting with the foundation. Later versions added teams, objectives, powerups and hazard zones.

The true advantage of taking an iterative approach is that you're able to find design flaws early, avoiding serious (potentially devastating) problems down the road. As an example, the initial design was based on the idea of players ramming into each other and the fun physics that occurred afterward but early testing showed this wasn't much fun. Ramming resulted in some nasty camera jitters, unexpected collision reactions, etc. Later designs replaced the concept of ramming by giving players a weapon (known as a forcebolter which fires, unsurprisingly, forcebolts). These "forcebolts" would punt players out of the way. The idea was the same -- forcefully moving enemies out of the way -- but the implementation changed from ramming to shooting and was much more fun overall. Had such a core gameplay piece been found to be "unfun" later on, the game would most likely have been scrapped altogether.

Another advantage is that early prototyping and the fluid design that goes along with it allows for some interesting gameplay options. Adding the forcebolter and forcebolts opened the door for hazard zones; sections of the map that negatively impact players that enter them (i.e. draining energy, slowing speed and so on). Hazard zones inadvertently created a "subgame" or "mini-game" whereby players would attempt to push each other into the hazards, potentially allowing a powerup to be grabbed or an objective to be captured. Early testing revealed some fun gameplay additions that would not have been discovered otherwise.

But enough of that, it's screenshot time! These are showing off a map known as The Breach which depicts a section in the network infected by a virus. With the network defenses down, the Red and Green teams move in to try and stake a foothold in the area...

First-person view from a Red player's perspective. You can see the Red hovertank firing a forcebolt at a Green enemy. In the distance, a Capture Pylon objective ready to be captured!


Third-person view from a Red player's perspective. Lining up a shot on the Green Meanie!


Observer view of The Breach. In the distance, the remnants of the mighty firewalls and two Capture Pylons.