Battleships Forever

Last updated
Battleships Forever
Battleships Forever cover art.jpeg
Developer(s) Sean "th15" Chan
Publisher(s) Independent
Designer(s) Sean "th15" Chan
Engine Game Maker
Platform(s) Windows
Release2007
Genre(s) Real-time tactics [1]
Mode(s) Single player

Battleships Forever is an IGF award-nominated [2] freeware real-time tactics video game set in a futuristic space environment inspired by Warning Forever. While still in beta phase, [3] there is no further development by the author. Players control a variety of spaceships and must position them to maximize damage on opposing ships and minimize damage to their own ships utilizing a wide variety of tactics and vessel sub-systems.

Contents

Gameplay

Players can embark on a single-player campaign, play four different scenarios, [1] or use a free-form "sandbox" gameplay mode. [4] The game is played in 2D, with ships designed using raster graphics that resemble vector graphics. [5] Battleships Forever has no resource management, and play centers on the positioning of ships to attain the best tactical solutions. [5] The campaign begins with the player being issued a single ship, with more ships being added both during and between missions. Several grouped warships can be commanded at once, or individual turrets can be selected and issued attack commands. [4] All, even the smallest ships, are separated into sections, each of which can be individually targeted and destroyed. The ships are separated into 3 categories: patrol craft (or frigates), destroyers, and battleships. Patrol craft tend to be small, with only 2 sections, and fast with 2-3 weapons and little to no defense. Destroyers are larger, 4-8 section craft with some active and passive defenses, but tend to focus on firepower.

A gameplay scene depicting ship formation Battleships Forever gameplay.jpg
A gameplay scene depicting ship formation

Battleships are highly specialized, with some acting as massive mobile shields for other vessels and others as heavy assault ships, able to focus comparatively huge amounts of firepower on a single target or multiple targets. One of the larger battleships, the Cronus, also carries a flux projector, which allow players to draw their own defense layout within set parameters using their mouse. Among other modules with special functions are several kinds of 'deflectors', which can render sections of ships invulnerable. Some defensive ships can also intercept and destroy enemy fire with their own weapons. [1] Since ships are constructed from individual sections, if one section is destroyed the ship can continue to function. [6] A ship editor is included with the game, which allows the player to design custom ships, which can be uploaded to the developer's website to share with other players. [1] These ships can be used with the game's various 'skirmish' scenarios in place of the normally available selection of vessels (though any scores attained through the use of this feature are not valid and cannot be uploaded to the high score database), or spawned within the 'sandbox', which includes a number of special options not available in the other game modes, such as the ability to spawn asteroids, meteors, and powerups, or to destroy ships at ease.

Development

Battleships Forever was created by Singaporean Sean "th15" Chan, [4] using the free Game Maker software. [7] The later releases have also been developed by community members of the Battleships Forever forums, mainly the largely expanded ShipMaker 4.0. Latest release happened in 2009 with version 0.9d, [8] since then development is dormant and no support is provided anymore. Successor plans of the author did not materialize. Despite the years long dormancy, the author refrained from taking help offers and refused to open up the development and source code to the community. [9]

Ship Maker and Sandbox

The Ship Maker component began as a separate project by Jack Coady, but has since been developed by Sean Chan. The recent 4.0 release largely featured content developed by community members at the Wyrdysm Games forums. This includes many features that almost infinitely multiply the possibilities, including sprite importing for use in ship sections, turrets, doodads and bullets, as well as the ability for ships to spawn other custom built ships by the players. Moving and rotating sections were added, as well as the ability to make sections turn in key with a hidden weapon - allowing them to act as turrets.

Finally, a series of triggered events can be set up, such as a charging animation and firing sequence for a main weapon. Even working boolean logic gates can be set up using ShipMaker's trigger system, albeit via a convoluted process. Ships made in the Ship Maker can be played in various scenarios such as protecting a never ending evacuation from aliens, destroying a large alien battlestation, and acting as a pirate force looting civilians. The Sandbox lets the player spawn any custom ships into an area that can be resized by the player. These ships can be made to interact with one another at the player's leisure, or set to be controlled by one of two AI teams.

Since the release of the game, the Ship Maker has increasingly become the focus of the game for many players. In essence, the Ship Maker allows players to act as game designers on their own, molding a gameplay and visual experience to their own liking. While the gameplay largely remains an expansion on the original formula, with custom sprite import, graphics can greatly deviate from the standard vector-like graphic style created by Chan.

The most community-focused and multiplayer aspect of Battleships Forever is pitting custom ships made by one or more players against one another, controlled by the AI, in a form of gladiatorial combat to see which ship emerges victorious.

Reception

Battleships Forever is a finalist in the 10th annual Independent Games Festival's Design Innovation Award [2] and has received positive feedback from the indie gaming community. Independent gaming site Play This Thing's Greg Costikyan found the game "very nice indeed", [1] but found that the game crashed sometimes and hoped this would be rectified when version 1.0 is released. He suggested that the game would appeal more to strategy gamers than action game fans. [1] Shacknews' Chris Remo was impressed that the game had been designed single-handedly and described gameplay as "accessible, but not overly simplistic". [4] GameAxis Online associate editor Ismet Bachtiar stated that Battleships Forever is the first Singaporean developed game to become a finalist in the Independent Games Festival's main category, "if there’s one defining moment that marks the coming of age for Singapore game development, I’ll have to point you to this amazing achievement by one lone individual". [5]

See also

Related Research Articles

<i>SubSpace</i> (video game) 1997 video game

SubSpace is a 2D space shooter video game created in 1995 and released in 1997 by Virgin Interactive which was a finalist for the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences Online Game of the Year Award in 1998. SubSpace incorporates quasi-realistic zero-friction physics into a massively multiplayer online game.

<i>Warning Forever</i> 2003 video game

Warning Forever is a freeware fixed shooter for Microsoft Windows written by Japanese developer Hikoza T Ohkubo and released under the name of his software house, Hikware.

<i>Pacific General</i> 1997 video game

Pacific General is a computer wargame depicting famous battles of the World War II Pacific campaigns. It was published by Strategic Simulations in 1997 using the same game engine of the earlier and successful Panzer General for Windows 95. It was re-released on GOG.com in May 2015.

<i>Galactic Civilizations II: Dread Lords</i> 2006 video game

Galactic Civilizations II: Dread Lords is a 4X turn-based strategy by Stardock for Microsoft Windows. It is the sequel to the 2003 game, Galactic Civilizations, and was released at retail and on Stardock's online subscription service, TotalGaming.net, on February 21, 2006. An expansion, Dark Avatar, was released in February 2007. A second expansion, Twilight of the Arnor, was released in April 2008.

<i>Operation: Inner Space</i> 1994 video game

Operation: Inner Space is an action game developed in 1992 and published in 1994 by Software Dynamics for Windows. The player's mission is to enter the computer in a spaceship and recover the icons and resources that have been set loose by an invasion, and ultimately to destroy the "Inner Demon". The player interacts with other spacecraft along the way, and can compete in races for icons.

<i>Sins of a Solar Empire</i> 2008 video game

Sins of a Solar Empire is a 2008 science fiction real-time strategy video game developed by Ironclad Games and published by Stardock Entertainment for Microsoft Windows operating systems. It is a real-time strategy (RTS) game that incorporates some elements from 4X games; its makers describe it as "RT4X". Players are given control of a spacefaring empire in the distant future, and are tasked with conquering star systems using military, economic and diplomatic means.

<i>Super Battleship</i> 1993 video game

Super Battleship is a naval simulator video game released for the Genesis and Super NES in 1993. The game is strictly single-player and is primarily a strategy game with some real-time elements. It is based on the Battleship board game by the Milton Bradley Company.

<i>Morpheus</i> (1987 video game) 1987 video game

Morpheus is a 1987 shoot 'em up developed by Graftgold for the Commodore 64 and published by Rainbird. The game's designer, Andrew Braybrook, wrote a series of articles on the game's creation for the magazine Zzap!64 over eight months.

<i>CyberStorm 2: Corporate Wars</i> 1998 video game

CyberStorm 2: Corporate Wars is a turn-based and real-time strategy game developed by Dynamix and released in 1998 as a sequel to MissionForce: CyberStorm. It was published by Sierra On-Line.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sandbox game</span> Type of video game encouraging creativity

A sandbox game is a video game with a gameplay element that provides players a great degree of creativity to interact with, usually without any predetermined goal, or alternatively with a goal that the players set for themselves. Such games may lack any objective, and are sometimes referred to as non-games or software toys. More often, sandbox games result from these creative elements being incorporated into other genres and allowing for emergent gameplay. Sandbox games are often associated with an open world concept which gives the players freedom of movement and progression in the game's world. The term "sandbox" derives from the nature of a sandbox that lets people create nearly anything they want within it.

<i>Infinite Space</i> 2009 video game

Infinite Space is a 2009 role-playing video game co-developed by Nude Maker and PlatinumGames for the Nintendo DS. It was published by Sega in 2009 in Japan, and 2010 in Western territories. The science fiction storyline, set across the Small and Large Magellanic Clouds, follows the life and growth of Yuri as he first confronts the aggressive expansion of the Lugovalian Empire, then a greater alien threat. Gameplay involves Yuri's fleet travelling across the galaxies, fighting in both scripted battles and random encounters, with the battle system featuring real-time commands and both ships and crew being customizable.

<i>Iji</i> 2008 video game

Iji is a freeware 2008 video game featuring platform and shooting elements, developed by Daniel Remar using Game Maker over a period of four years. In the game, the player controls Iji Kataiser, a young woman enhanced with nanotechnology, as she navigates a research facility on modern day Earth in the wake of an invasion by the Tasen, an alien species. Awakening after an aerial bombardment, Iji finds herself enhanced with nanotechnology and, learning of the Tasen and their invasion, resolves to convince the aliens' leader to retreat from the planet, guided by her brother Dan via the complex's loudspeaker system. Iji was generally well received. Reviews praised the replay value, the player's ability to guide Iji on different moral paths, and that it was created by a single developer.

<i>MechWarrior: Living Legends</i> 2009 video game

Mechwarrior: Living Legends is a free, fan-created multiplayer-only game based in the BattleTech universe - originally a total-conversion mod for Crysis, it's since become stand-alone - running on Crysis Wars, and using CryEngine 2 as its engine. It's one of the few mods based on the BattleTech universe to have been sanctioned by Microsoft—who currently owns the rights to the Mechwarrior video-game franchise—and additionally received pre-SDK support and sanctioning directly from Crytek, producers of the games' engine. On December 26, 2009, an open beta was released via BitTorrent and other distribution methods. Because the project changes the play-style and feel of the game it is originally based on so completely as to be unrecognizable in comparison, it is billed as a "full-conversion" mod, since little to no trace of the original game's art or play-style exists any longer within MW:LL. It was created by American developer Wandering Samurai Studios.

<i>Clean Asia!</i> 2007 video game

Clean Asia! is a freeware vertically scrolling shooter video game. It was developed by Jonatan "Cactus" Söderström and released for Windows on February 1, 2007.

<i>Hyperspeed</i> 1991 video game

Hyperspeed is a space combat role-playing video game developed by MicroProse Software in 1991 for DOS, and is a sequel to Lightspeed.

<i>Captain Forever</i> 2009 video game

Captain Forever is a multidirectional shooter video game by Australian developer Jarred "Farbs" Woods. Its name stems from both its development process, with new versions of the game being continuously developed and released and its endless gameplay.

<i>Over Horizon</i> 1991 video game

Over Horizon is a 1991 horizontally scrolling shooter co-developed by Pixel and Hot B, published in Japan by Hot B and in Germany by Takara for the Nintendo Entertainment System. Controlling a space fighter craft, the player must destroy numerous enemies to defeat an alien threat intending to dominate the universe.

<i>Indestructible</i> (video game) Video game

Indestructible is a freemium vehicular combat video game developed by Glu Mobile for iOS and Android mobile devices (2012).

<i>Worms W.M.D</i> 2016 video game

Worms W.M.D is a 2D artillery turn-based tactics video game developed and published by Team17. It is the nineteenth installment in the Worms series, and was released on 23 August 2016 for Linux, OS X, PlayStation 4, Microsoft Windows, and Xbox One. It was later released on 23 November 2017 for Switch, and on 1 July 2022 for Stadia. Its gameplay resembles that of Worms Armageddon more than subsequent installments, while adding new features that range from interactive vehicles such as tanks, to buildings that the worms can enter for protection. It is also notable for being the first major redesign the worm characters have received since Worms 3D.

<i>Bismarck</i> (video game) 1987 video game

Bismarck is a turn-based strategy video game developed by Personal Software Services and published by Mirrorsoft. It was first released for the Commodore 64 and ZX Spectrum in 1987 for the United Kingdom. It was ported to Amiga, Apple II, Atari ST and Atari 8-bit home computers in both the United Kingdom and the United States the following year. The game is the tenth instalment in the Strategic Wargames series. In the game, the player can choose to control either the German battleship Bismarck or command the pursuing fleet of Royal Navy ships.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Costikyan, Greg (2007-12-27). "Battleships Forever". playthisthing.com. Archived from the original on 22 January 2008. Retrieved 2008-01-21.
  2. 1 2 "Finalists & Winners". Independent Games Festival. Archived from the original on 22 January 2008. Retrieved 2008-01-22.
  3. ↑ Bardinelli, John (2008-01-12). "Weekend Download". Jay Is Games . Retrieved 2008-01-19.
  4. 1 2 3 4 Remo, Chris (2008-01-14). "Battleships Forever, Space Combat for Free". Shacknews. Archived from the original on 2012-12-10. Retrieved 2008-01-19.
  5. 1 2 3 Bachtiar, Ismet (2007-12-29). "Late Friday Soapboxer: Winning the Battle for Local Game Development". Game Axis. Archived from the original on 4 January 2008. Retrieved 2008-01-19.
  6. ↑ Smith, Graham (June 2007). "This is... Strategy/Management". PC Gamer UK . p. 23.
  7. ↑ Hanqing, Liew (2007-12-20). "Would you pay to play this game?". asiaone.com. Archived from the original on 19 January 2008. Retrieved 2008-01-19.
  8. ↑ Battleships Forever Info | 0.90d released 14 Apr by th5s
  9. ↑ I have a proposal on wyrdysm.com (2008)
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.