Link to the Prototype (requires Python and either Curses or Pygame)
I've been developing RoW as part of my New Year's Resolution to make a game in 2014. I've been working on it for about two hours every night (livestreaming and recording the whole thing), and now that January is close to ending, my first prototype of the game is ready to show the world!
Right now, the game supports all of the meat of what it's supposed to. You can edit, save, and load maps, and play against other humans in hotseat gameplay. I know the ASCII graphics will turn a lot of people off, but "good graphics" are on the way after I work out the other stuff like game flow and AI. I use Curses by default, but for folks running non-UNIX operating systems, I have a custom Pygame Curses-like replacement that you can use if you have both Pygame and Python installed.
Click for more screenshots!
Roadmap
Now that I've gotten a prototype out into the world, I'm going to refactor the codebase with a vengeance. After that, I want to flex my AI muscles and try to make a learning AI using some of this graduate level computer science I've been paying for. Way down the horizon is the idea to make a campaign mode editor so that folks can create short stories that take place in this ASCII-riddled world.
What do I need?
Playtesters, mostly. After a month of work, I've been too close to the game and need some outside feedback on how to change it up. I'm mostly looking for comments on the workflow and playflow of editing maps, making units, and playing games. Right now, there is a LOT of clicking since you have to move the cursor with your arrow keys (no mouse support yet), but there are also lots of menus and its very easy to mess things up by clicking the wrong thing.
So, feedback on the user experience is most appreciated. Especially if you put it on the project's issue tracker. Also, if you make a cool map or cool units, post its JSON on pastebin or something! You can find your custom maps in ~/.rules-of-war/maps/!
I hang out in #freegamer all the time. If you want to strike up a convo, shout at me and I'll wake up.
