Plan for Kyle Goodwin

Tagged alpha 1 release of Glyph. Testing applications opened. http://firoc.org/glyph

I tagged the alpha 1 release today of the game I'm working on, called Glyph. The project website is located at http://firoc.org/glyph (it's a work in progress and may have a few compatibility issues with some browsers, let me know if you have trouble with it). On the website is an are where you can register to enter the pre=production test program in order to play in the alpha and beta test phases. Screenshots and other information is located on the website. Below is a brief overview of the game, taken from our design document:

Glyph is a network enabled multiplayer first person shooter (FPS) game based on the Torque Game Engine. Players are immersed in a 3D fantasy environment combining the adrenaline-induced elements of FPS game play and the tactical and strategic components of a more traditional role playing game (RPG). Players are wizards who can cast various spells based on the glyphs they have acquired through battle. Some power-ups are available to increase health, mana, or other special abilities.

Players begin with only one basic spell and are spawned at random points around the map (spawn points). Players must compete to kill monsters in order to acquire glyphs granting them more powerful spells. Players are constantly competing against each other balancing current fragging with the increased fragging potential available by acquiring the more powerful spells. The game ends when a server-defined condition in terms of frags or time is met and the player or team with the highest frags wins. A score screen is shown to all players before the next level loads to display frags and other statistics.

Glyphs are acquired by killing a monster and picking up the glyph dropped after death. Spells require a certain number and combination of various glyphs and are granted when all required glyphs are in a wizard's possession. When a spell is granted, the glyphs used to create it are consumed. When a player is killed all carried glyphs and persistent power-ups are dropped to the ground. However, spells already granted to the wizard are not lost upon death. There will be five main glyphs in the game which correspond to the ancient four elements: Fire, Water, Earth, Air, and a new fifth element Spirit. In addition to the elemental glyphs, there will be six "difficulty" glyphs that are currently lettered in increasing rarity, A through F. The difficulty glyphs may be used for only one spell while the elemental glyphs are good for all spells. For example if two spells require the Fire glyph, once the player picks up the Fire glyph both spells are granted. On the converse is the difficulty glyphs can only be applied toward one spell, if two different spells require the A difficulty glyph, then the player must find two A glyphs in order to use both spells. Higher power spells require more glyphs to form and some glyphs may be dropped by harder to kill or more rare monsters. Below is a chart containing descriptions of the spells and which glyphs may be combined to "learn" the spell.

In addition to glyphs, the game will also contain various power-ups that affect the players abilities or status. Consumed power-ups, health packs for example, are periodically repopped at their spawn locations. Persistent power-ups are not repopped since they stay in circulation by being dropped upon death. Some examples of persistent power-ups are: increased max health, increased spell damage, increased speed, increased mana regeneration. Glyphs are repopped when the monsters holding them are repopped which happens periodically and on a per-monster basis. Mana is consumed when a wizard casts a spell and regenerates over time. Spells can cause damage in a variety of ways (targeted bolts, homing bolts, direct damage, area damage, etc.), make another wizard susceptible to a certain kind of damage, dispel effects on a wizard, protect a wizard, or heal a wizard. Buttons can be configured to select a category of spells and then a gui is used to select a specific spell in that category.

The engine and networking will be implemented using the Torque Game Engine. The game will be multiplayer only and first or third person.

Score keeping will follow more traditional FPS multiplayer games. Each time a wizard kills another wizard, the killer gains a frag or kill. Proposed game modes will be "Free-For-All" where players compete against each other, Team Deathmatch, where two opposing teams try to kill off each other, and, time permitting, a Capture the Flag mode. At the end of a time period or when a player/team gets enough frags, the level ends and the players are ranked according to their frags.