The experience of writing a 2D MOBA-platform for several days

It all started with the fact that a contest from the NextCastle Party accidentally caught my eye, where it was proposed to create a game in a strictly limited time frame (the theme was announced this week).

The condition was the obligatory opportunity to play with live players on one computer (no matter, pvp or cooperative, synchronous or asynchronous). As well as there were restrictions on the platforms - it is necessary that the game was in the browser.
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Actually, having learned about the competition - they decided to participate. It was embarrassing, however, that in the competition you can use any work ... After all, what if someone at this moment is doing just such a game and dragging an almost finished project to the competition? And we have suitable developments - well, not at all. Well, okay, afraid of wolves - not to go to the forest. In the end, an interesting experience.

Idea and concept

The first thing to decide is what to do. I didn’t want to do something step by step, and in the game of mind, balance would be too important. We did not dare to balance an interesting strategy in conditions of limited time. So there are arcade genres. From the arcades (thanks to HuG 'u and his flysplay - the first thing that came to mind is Spelunky platformer).

Also, in the conditions of the competition it was said that the eSports game will be especially valuable. What is the first thing that comes to mind with the word "eSports"? We immediately thought about Dota / LoL.

Ok, here's your concept. 2D Platformer + MOBA. Yes, we know that there are awesomenauts. But none of us played in them, and did not specifically look, so as not to be hostages of other people's ideas.

Preliminary game design

OK, do DotA in 2D. But Dotu is played 5x5, in Awesomenauts 3x3, and we have only 1x1. It is clear that the line with towers and creeps should also be 1. But what about farm? And what have the platformer?

Having thought it over, we rather quickly came to the following concept: the upper part of the screen is given for farm, and in the lower part - the waves of creeps directly go and the towers stand. What farm usually happens in a platformer? Collect coins. Ok, so do.

Actually, the whole concept was quickly transferred to paper:


Then it was necessary to solve the problem, so that at the beginning there was an opportunity to farm and not be afraid that the opponent would make a base for you during this time.

This was decided quite simply - the waves of creeps at the beginning are very thick and strong, so it makes no sense to try to push them through at the beginning of the game. At the same time, unlike MOBA games, we don’t give money for killing creeps, so this forces players to farm at the top of the map.

Art

With art for a long time did not think. What do everyone love and can draw quickly? Pixel art! In the process of thinking we had the idea to do something with funny animals. Let hamsters or something like that fight with us ... Then everything was turned over to the artist (treety). So all the credit for the design is his.

He invented different square hares.



After choosing the coolest hare, he quickly drew various animations. Jumping, shooting ... And also - minions. He, too, became hares, but smaller (the one that is taller is a Ranger bum, the one that is very small is a melee).



Actually, the name was also thought up immediately - “Rabbit must die”.

So that the farm of coins does not seem to be raspberries, they added neutral monsters, which at first kill with 1 strike.

Development Platform and Coding

With the platform decided immediately. Actually, the choice here is not great - Flash, HTML5 and Unity. Since from the first long gone, the second is almost unknown, and the experience most of all in Unity is that it was chosen.

True, with 2D, I had to use a third-party library (ex2D), since A new version of Unity (4.3) with full 2D support has not yet been released ... Well, okay, the experience of using ex2D is already there (like the library itself was purchased), and there would still be no time to deal with the new 4.3.

In principle, everything was coded (in 4 hands) rather quickly (many thanks to my friend and the second programmer - Dartius ). The only thing that we absolutely had no experience creating platformers, we had to catch a couple of rakes.

From the very beginning we rushed to write everything ourselves. But then they thought, “but in a unit there is physics!”. And they began to try to use physics. But after a couple of hours, we realized that it didn’t really suit us (well, or our hands are crooked). Characters now and then tried to slide sideways, cling to something, etc. So back to the samopisny bicycle.

And you know what turned out to be the most difficult? Ladders !!!



The character was constantly clinging to them, didn’t want to jump, or, on the contrary, fell ... I confess, we didn’t have time to make a good ladder mechanic. But at least, with a certain skill - you can learn how to use them. The main thing is to jump more :)

They even made hooks on the edges a la Spelunky.

It remained a little. Make towers, creeps and upgrades. Over the upgrades did not think much - run speed, damage, HP and armor. True, then we realized that we did not want to bathe with armor and health, so the first one was abolished and replaced with a range of a shot.

And having started creeps for the first time - we have experienced simply colossal pleasure !!! It was very funny to watch them try to do something. They jump, throw something at enemies ... It seems, and you know why they behave this way (after all, he wrote the logic himself) - but all the same - it was very funny to watch them.

Sound

Pixelart needs 8-bit sound, that's obvious. We could not spend a lot of time on sound, so we quickly ripped up the effects in the online 8-bit BFXR sound generator . There everything is very clear and simple. Even if you are generally a complete layman in sound, you can poke a button “generate a jump sound” until you get what you want.

First play tests

The most exciting was to try to play for the first time. After all, we knew that we could write "jump" and "shoot." But will it be interesting to play it ??

Having brought a bottle of whiskey and a couple of gamepads to a friend, we started the game with excitement in our hearts ...

And you know? It is surprising that even the first balance, which was written anyhow, was already working! Yes, there were shoals, but the play was really fervent and exciting.

Half a day was spent on fine tuning ... Twisted prices and odds. Tried to make the game develop. So that at the initial stage there was a concentration on collecting gold, and closer to the middle there was already a war between themselves and the puffing of waves.



I had to kill one made feature. At first it was assumed that the hare could still be covered with a shield. But in the course of the game, we realized that the dynamics of the game is so great that this chip is absolutely useless. It is much easier to run and jump.



So even in such a small project, we are faced with a feature cut.

Conclusion

What to say? We really enjoyed! Play really fun and perky. Even get different tactics (different purchases). For example, buying shoes - you can jump to places with a bunch of coins. But at the same time, your opponent can go to the camp and start pushing creeps.

Of course, not enough time to make the platform perfect. And the balance was tested only for us. But for such a short development time - we are more than satisfied! When you get a lot of fun nadey ass to the second programmer in his own game, or vice versa - if you want to win, this is priceless!

I do not know what our competitors will be ... We'll see. In a week we will learn everything. At the same time, the organizers and lay out the game in the public domain.

If someone is interested in specific nuances - ask. I will answer with pleasure.

UPDATE : Feel free to play online here .