Introduction

Welcome to Steelcats development Blog. Here we will be posting updates on our development for a university project throughout the semester.

The project we are working on is a 3D Real-Time Strategy on the Nintendo DS.

Current Build

Team Members

Our team consists of three members, Chris Berry (Programmer), Patrick Randell (Programmer) and myself, Thomas Johnston (Designer). Chris mainly handles the 2D and 3D Programming, Patrick handles the gameplay programming and I handle the gameplay design and Artwork.

Project Summary

The project is named "CMD" which is pronounced as Command. The theme is based on a representation of the insides of a network, where units you command are malicious software, resources is data from computers and your base is your home computer.

Gameplay Summary

Gameplay is focused mainly on units and moving them across the map. Each player has a base (your computer) and the goal is to destroy your opponents base by creating new units (malicious software) to destroy it. Resources can be collected by certain gathering units and this is done by capturing computer nodes scattered in specified locations on each map. You spend your resources to create more units, while you look for where your enemy is hidden to destroy their base.

Current State and The Future

Currently we have a 2D & 3D API (the engine), basic gameplay for moving /creating units, most art assets are complete and this semester we have aimed at just polishing what we already have, focusing on gameplay, sound/music, effects/animations and overall look.

My next update will go more in depth into units, how we aim to have balance and conflict and later I will go into the sprite creation and show the development process I have to go through from start to finish. This will cover how much memory I have allocated to sprites and how I go about solving limitations whilst working for the DS.