New Demo is LIVE

AHOD isn’t your typical deckbuilding game. It is not even your typical pirate game.

It has been a while since our last public demo and we pulled the demo because we wanted an overhaul of many of the systems. We wanted to create something new and exciting that would be a truly unique experience that you cannot get anywhere else.

Perhaps we let our imaginations run a little wild, but this was a needed part of the creative process. Unfortunately for game development, the creative process is a painful one. It has cost us time, money, and energy. That being said, it has given us an enormous amount of knowledge and skill set that will ultimately be essential for the road (and waters) ahead.

We have chiseled out a much more succinct game loop that feels closer to the vision that we faintly saw when we began this project. We had our initial game design doc and only until we had a build in our hands could we truly feel what the game was missing. We are committed to the vision and will take these creative risks to get the game in a state that it deserves.

Here is a brief overview of some of the main changes we have made since the last public play test.

TLDR

1. Cards no longer are limited to the side of the ship and card slot

2. Navigation in all of its forms: world map nodes, world map free roam, and captain’s view

3. Fog of War to create a better sense of exploration

4. Win Conditions have returned to a more linear approach

5. Resources limited to gold for markets and supplies for gas

6. Overheat system keeping the flow of gameplay

7. Adjustments to the crew systems and having overboard mechanics

8. Hazard Zones add dangerous elements to the landscape that will require careful navigation

1. Card Gameplay

All cards now get funneled into the cannon side closest to target. Our older model had cards aligned to the cannon based on the slide of the ship. While more realistic, this ultimately caused too much friction and too much circling around. You will notice this in many other naval combat games that there is a lot of this type of motion, which we felt was a little nauseating and ultimately not that much fun. Realism is not the goal of this game - fun is! This also opened up other mechanics like quick card combos which give a satisfying punch and rhythm to combat.

2. Navigation

There are 3 main ways to explore in the game.

1. Fast travel using the node system
2. Zoom into the captains view and take the helm directly
3. And breaking free from the node system with “free roam”.

The free roam system adds a layer of freedom and choice that unlocks other exciting mechanics like finding shortcuts, fleeing from enemies, ambushing enemies, discovering hidden treasures, and allowing the player to navigate on their terms.

3. Fog of War

One of the unexpected “scope creep” systems we had to wrestle with was the fog system and how it tied into the exploration part of the game loop. It was difficult to balance the amount of known and unknown information of the map. Cutting through a cloud environment lends itself to a heightened exploration experience, and we feel this was one of the elements necessary for the treasure hunting pirate genre.

4. Win Conditions

Initially we wanted multiple ways to lose the game, so we had a boss moving towards the “conduit tower". This is still an interesting idea to us, and something we may explore in the future but for now we have returned to a boss zone location with no wind state tied to the "conduit tower" health.

5. Resources

One of our ideas we wanted to explore were different resource types. Those ideas were economic supplies, ship supplies, crew supplies, and weapon supplies. Ultimately we felt it was a little overboard and reducing the resource types simplifies player choices which feels better for a fast paced game. Resource types is something that we may bring back into a future build, but for now we will stick with gold for buying/selling and supplies as a form of fuel for the ship and crew members.

6. Ammo to Overheat

Like most deckbuilders, we were using whole numbers for our energy system. What makes AHOD different is that it is a realtime deckbuilder, so transferring turn-based mechanics into realtime requires us to break some conventions. The overheat meter now acts as the energy system, with each card played contributing to the heat. Wait a few seconds after playing a card and the heat will reside. Another thing this fixes was the constant reloading. The reload sequence was triggering too often (pun intended) and made the gameplay feel jerky and broke the game flow. By having an overheat meter, it limits card spam while allowing card gameplay to continue to flow.

7. Crew

The crew going overboard was a nice addition to the gameplay loop. Taking down an aggressive galleon and then scooping up their crew members adds that little bit of world building that only a pirate could only understand. Another big change to the crew system is that we went from a relatively low limit of 3-5 to a much larger limit of 15+. We are still tweaking the formula and the UI for crew, but we like the direction it is going.

8. Hazard Zones

When you view the world map you will see red hazard zones. These zones alter the landscape and will slow down your movement if you are unfortunate enough to get stuck inside the radius. Like the node system, they are procedurally placed and will add variation per play through. Some hazard zone types are sharks that launch out of the water, deadly homing mines, and rocks that give cover from incoming cannon fire.

We hope this brief summary excites you as much as it does for us. Enough talking, go and see the changes yourself with the demo!

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