This post was originaly going to be about Collectable Card Games done digitally. But i figured i would get alot of responces about Mage:TG online and a few others, but this was not the real ordeal. With the computing power of digital media the confines of a 2D "Card" would be a waste in my mind, but what about the concept of taking turns? There are very few Turn Based games on the market right now that see much light, even some of the classic turn based style of RPGs have been changed for a much faster mode of play. Wile some RPGs might need some speed here and there, does this mean Turn Based games are just not saught after anymore? Or is it that they are no longer appropriate for computers and it should be left up to table games? 1) How are games like "Heroes of Might and Magic 5" doing? 2) If i wanted to make a Turn Based game would i be taking a BIG risk? 3) Are there any free Collectable Card Games online? 4) What would make Turn Based games more or less appealing? Thanks all.

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Original post by Dasubermechen 1) How are games like "Heroes of Might and Magic 5" doing?

Civ 4 sold like mad. So did GalCiv2. Dunno how well Heroes 5 is selling, but it's damn good fun. [wink] (They're refreshed the turnbased system for battles a bit though. It's still turnbased, but feels a bit more realtimey, because the order of the turns isn't fixed. Good idea, imo. I think it keeps the advantages of turnbased play, while updating the game to make it feel less "slow".

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2) If i wanted to make a Turn Based game would i be taking a BIG risk?

If you want to make a commercial game, you'd be taking a BIG risk. And turn based ones are probably even worse. But it can be done. It seems to me that the success rate for turnbased games is actually pretty high (partly because there just aren't many turnbased games out there)

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4) What would make Turn Based games more or less appealing?

Improving the turnbased mechanics, like my Heroes 5 example. :)
Another example of the same system is in the (free) game Gunbound. (which, by the way, is crazy good fun) The idea is to let the units (or players) take turns, but depending on what they do with their turn, they might get more or less "delay" before they get a turn again.

That makes it feel a lot more, well, fast-paced or real-timeish, without actually being so. Of course, might not be suitable for all games (Cant imagine how it'd fit into Civ 4, for example), but basically, just refreshing the ancient turnbased formula a bit can do wonders. :)

Love turn based things for small game fields [like final fantasy tactics... <3] but still wake up in a cold sweat from civilization 2, having to wait almost 5 minutes just watching my stupid little armies move one square at a time, one at a time, the screen jumping from unit to unit, hearing 'boop' with every damn move!... AT THE START OF EVERY TURN!

uhg

Indie games are made for taking risks though :P They are made for learning your craft, and having fun doing it. Taking a 'big risk' on a turn based game, if thats what you want to do, then it's what you should do.

Turn based is great, just doesn't scale well imo.

You might want to check out Dofus, an MMO that uses turn based combat. So you can see that the appeal is still there for games with turn based game play.

To me, a turn-based combat system in a MMORPG is a more tactical one and requires more cooperation from teammates. My current game adapts such a turn-based combat system, if you are curious about how such a combat system looks like, you may take a look at the movie recorded in my game, where our team is taking down a rather easy boss,

http://gf1.myuxo.com/viewthread.php?tid=468&fpage=1&highlight=

In such a less serious fight, we chat alot with each other during the fight. As for a more serious fight, the chatbox will be full of tactics talks and there will usually be a detailed discussion before the fight about what skills should be equipped by each class and what tactics shall be applied and how each class should cooperate with each other for the correct timing and use of various skills.

Thanks for the info guys, i would like to make sure you all know this isnt just about Turn Based MMOs but all Turn Based games.

Keep the info comming.

I have seen almost everything about collectable card games gone digitally. So if you have more questions feel free to shoot. Here's some examples that are worth checking out.

Chron X (chronx.com) was the first one to go digital. It had 2 golden ages and since the client hasn't been redone in several years, it is somewhat obsolete technically. It is however a good game and you can try it out for free to see what it's like.

Star Chamber (starchamber.net) is the best iteration of a turn based game I've seen, since you plan turns simultanously and a two player game can not take longer than 30 turns because the game is designed as such. I highly recommend trying that out to see turn based beautifully incorperated. It takes a little more time to get the hang of, but is fantastic once you 'get it'.

Auto Assault TCG (http://www.autoassaulttcg.com/) is a fast paced TCG that does not have simultanous turns like star chamber (though it's designed by some of the same people). It does play very fast though, as one would expect from a car game.

In the past there's also been some that you sadly can't tryout anymore. I would like to say that one game ST:CO (star trek conquest online) suffered from having too many choices and therefor slowing down the game.


Things you must keep in mind:

-Players being deliberately slow in a competitive match
-Deciding whether it would be playable off-line or not (chron x uses stealth and a randomizer as well as 'manufacturing cards' which I all loved)
-How long should a game last? Turn based games tend to take more time
-Can a player do anything while waiting or is it simultanous?
-Can a player see everything the opponent does while he does it?
-What if a player accidently hits 'next turn'?

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Original post by Dasubermechen If i wanted to make a Turn Based game would i be taking a BIG risk?

If you are planning on making an indie game rather than a big budget commercial, then the rules for what is a big risk are turned on their heads. While the turn based market might be too small for a large company to spend multiple millions of dollars on the development and the marketing, that leaves a gap in the market that is still large enough for a well-crafted indie game to do quite handsomely. In this case a bigger risk would be to try and emulate the big budget titles by going for their favourite genres (FPS, MMORPG etc.) since the indie hasn't got the funds and manpower to compete at the same level.

Numbers-wise, the biggest games on the internet are casual card games like poker, bridge, hearts, etc. So clearly people don't have a serious problem with non-real time games online. I think the problem with 4x-style games is the amount of work each turn entails. If you keep the wait time down (and have a good game of course), I doubt people will stay away just because it's not a real time game.