How do you design a real-time strategy game that takes not more than one minute to play (the time doesn''t depend on the skill of the player), and isn''t a click fest (the player only makes a few choices, which require no special eye-hand-mouse coordination)? Not that this matters, this isn''t supposed to be a game in itself, but to serve as a sub-game in a higher level game (think Shogun Total War)

Very, very carefully

With the jokes out of the way...I''m thinking of something like Paradroid (warning: I haven''t played this version, only the old C64 version), where the player had to strategically fight an enemy AI on a very simple battlefield.

In analogous settings, the player might get to choose to take specific patches of ground which each gave specific advantages and/or point totals.

That last bit gave me another idea: Give the player goals to reach rather than basing the battle solely on force elimination. So the player chooses routes and tactical stances for each involved unit, then lets them loose and spends action points to modify their behaviour in especially nasty situations.

ld

I''m actually thinking of this myself, but you might look into a few console RPG games for ideas, specifically ones like Crono Trigger (real time battle system) and Final Fantasy Tactics (battle system with movement)

Have you played Strange Adventures in Infinite Space? (http://digital-eel.com/sais/) The space combat is basically RTS-like but the number of units is small and it''s usually over quickly.

What about something essencially static like NetStorm? Inspired by chess in that by making most of the units non-moving then they could cut down hugely on the amount on information that needed to be transmitted.

So, something like 30 seconds to deploy a limited number of (mainly static) units, then another 30 seconds to watch their performance against a wave of attacking enemies. With a good variety of units to deploy and some interesting terrains and attack waves you could keep it varied yet still fast

The idea being that you come up with a stratergy beforehand, and after deployment the units act on their own, so it doesn''t deteriorate into a simple click-fest during the actual battle.

quote: Original post by Fingers_
Have you played Strange Adventures in Infinite Space? (http://digital-eel.com/sais/) The space combat is basically RTS-like but the number of units is small and it''s usually over quickly.

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Well, it seems a lot of the reason why RTS games play slowly is because of resource gathering, so throwing resources out of the game helps cut down play time. I think a small, tatical, squad based game in a small physical area could play out very quickly in real time and still be pretty enjoyable.

Something like realtime x-com of final fantasy tatics but in a much smaller space. If you have 4-10 guys under your control with a decent amount of tatical options at your disposal it could make for a fun game that plays out quickly. Also like a fighting-rts or something.

To avoid the click fest problem you may want to let the player only give general orders (defend target x, concentrate attack on target y, use ranged attacks) or just have the player set commands before the 1 minute round and let them carry their course without interference.

Something like chess but greatly simplified might work for the time limit. About the realtime, well, I dunno. Maybe you have to place your units in the right spot to stop the enemy charge, and you get 50 seconds to place your units and then over 10 seconds, the computer shows the enemy charge and how you defeated it? If you need both sides, then maybe allow the charger to position and choose units as well, and reduce it to 25/5 and let both people play both sides.
Could be interesting anyways

Sounds pretty much like Commandos, except probably the fact, that the map needs to be a lot smaller.

But it does definetively sound like fun. I liked Commandos, but i was not too fond of the huge levels. It does get kind of a tedious task sometimes.

quote: Original post by Impossible
I think a small, tatical, squad based game in a small physical area could play out very quickly in real time and still be pretty enjoyable.

Go check out General Chaos for the megadrive if you get a chance. It was very similar to this - you''d get a small (2 to 5 person) squad pitted against another small squad. The actual skirmishes were played out on a single screen terrain (that didn''t scroll). The actual units were all just foot soldiers armed with a single type of weapon each: machine gun, grenade, flame thrower. All the weapons had different range/rate of fire/damage etc. characteristics so you had to position your units to get the most effective use of terrain and weapons.