Bit Battles: The Month in Review

[Don't know what Bit Battles is? Find out more at: Fanatical Games]

Phew! It's been a busy month and much has happened with Bit Battles since the last update.

The Find & Retrieve gametype was implemented. The goal of this gametype is for players to scour the map searching for objects known as Nanites. Once one is found, a player can pick it up and return it to a Nanite Reclaimer at their team's base. Capturing a Nanite awards the team a point bonus and brings them one step closer to winning the map. The team that captures all of the Nanites or reaches a set number of points first wins. F&R is a strategic affair as captured Nanites can be stolen by enemy players. Both offense and defense plays an important role. I talk about this in more detail here: Bit Battles Blog: June 27 (Profiling Performance, Please!)

Fanatical Games finally got a home: www.fanaticalgames.com The Bit Battles development blog was also updated to coincide with the new Fanatical Games site layout: bitbattles.blogspot.com

A second round of closed testing was done earlier in the month. A select few got to try out the game for the first time and offer (much appreciated!) feedback. Seeing people play the game for the first time, easily pick it up and then continue playing for hours is a really great feeling.

As a result of player feedback, a waypoint system was implemented to make navigating around the map easier. This was a bit of a "d'oh!" moment for me as the issue of getting lost in the world was something I had made note of back in the prototyping phase. I attempted to address it by adding a radar HUD but that did little to solve the issue. The new waypoint system draws icons on the screen that point to specific areas in the world (as defined by map creators). I talk about this further here: Bit Battles Blog: July 4 (Kickin' Butt, Chewin' Gum) and here: Bit Battles Blog: July 19 (Waypoints and Power Failure)

And most recently, work on the second map, named Power Failure, has begun. Power Failure is a sector of the network where one of the Power Supply Units has awry. The powered down state has left a whole in the network defenses and both teams move in to try and stake a foothold before the Network Admins can restore power. Track my progress here: July 25 (It's All in the Look)