Korotkov Game (2024)

17/09/2022

The Third World War. Review of Regulations

Real-time tactical strategy. The conflict between the Warsaw Pact and NATO countries. Technology of the late 1980s.

The game is declared for the Windows platform.

plot

In the late eighties, instead of the collapse of the Union and the COMECON bloc, there is a conflict with NATO. Details of the process are provided in short references before missions.

A piece of the plot.
A piece of the plot.
GAMEPLAY

The gameplay is a real-time tactical strategy.

There are several game modes.

Training missions. Three pieces. After passing them, an understanding of what is happening in the game will appear. I highly recommend going through, as there are a lot of nuances.

Tutorial.
Tutorial.
Quick battles. One of the 19 big cards is selected and the battle unfolds there. You can fine-tune the properties of the carnage. For example, NATO equipment can be used to fight against NATO equipment.

A quick battle.
A quick battle.
Campaign. There are only seven missions here, but they are quite huge. There are also settings, but you will have to play at specified locations, with specified forces. You can set the difficulty of passing these levels.

Story missions.
Story missions.
I really liked the project in terms of technical implementation. In any battle, we play on a huge location with a bunch of points of interest.

Example of a battle card.
Example of a battle card.
An incredible number of types of equipment (tanks, self-propelled guns, MLRS, helicopters, airplanes, and so on) take part in the battles, and real samples or their modified analogues are presented. The full list can be found in the local encyclopedia. The machines are used by fighters of the respective branches of the armed forces, which adds even more color.

Equipment on the battlefield performs a variety of tactical actions (the list is not complete, most likely, it is unlikely to delve into all the nuances):

- Disembarkation of personnel with different purposes.

- Intelligence.

- Bypassing enemy positions from the flanks.

- Regrouping of units suffering defeat.

- Supply of ammunition.

It arrived.
It arrived.
Since the equipment is different, it performs completely different tasks on the battlefield. For example, a BMD detachment (an amphibious assault vehicle) brings personnel to the battlefield, then can land it to increase the possibility of enemy fire damage (ATGM-s, RPG, infantry shooting are used), then a unit (the game is played by units, that is, the infantry will not be able to break away from the vehicles) can dig in on the defensive.

And in exactly the same way, in accordance with their purpose, the rest of the units are fighting. The main tanks break through the defense, helicopters make sense to use for quick strikes and reconnaissance, and so on.

Defense.
Defense.
The details are being worked out at a high level. For example, if we are attacking tanks, then it is worth attacking from several sides, and it is desirable to make sure that the main striking means are located on the flank - this will increase the likelihood of armor pe*******on.

Flanking maneuver.
Flanking maneuver.
There are several important aspects of the game around which the whole battle is built and which cannot be overlooked:

- At the beginning of any battle, we have a certain number of technique points. On it, we recruit units from the list of available ones.

- There is a supply system. The equipment has ammunition and it is being spent. It can be replenished when the unit is reorganized or using special supply vehicles.

- Planes and howitzer artillery participate in the battle in the form of strikes, which are carried out on request. The power of such attacks is high, so it is logical that these units work with time rollbacks and there is a limit on the number of strikes.

- Re-formation of the unit, its withdrawal from the battlefield. If the squad is about to die or is in a disadvantageous / hopeless position and further combat is not useful, then you can give the command to retreat. If this succeeds, the detachment will disappear from the map and after a certain time will be available again for a call to our drop-off point, and with replenished ammunition and repaired. If the unit cannot retreat and dies, then it will be the same, only you will have to wait more time to get the unit back into battle.

- The condition for winning is a set of special points. To win, you need to reach a certain amount.

Movement of troops. At the bottom you can see a list of units available for hire.
Movement of troops. At the bottom you can see a list of units available for hire.
Consider the pros and cons of the game, let's summarize.

pluses:

+ Excellent graphics for the genre. You can consider everything in detail, up to the equipment of any infantryman.

+ Good music and sound. Good sounds of combat and radio exchange.

+ A huge number of types of equipment based on real samples.

+ Good tactical capabilities (infantry landing, defense, flanking attacks, etc.).

+ Spectacular use of aviation and artillery. You can also make a fireball and na**lm the enemy's position.

+ Huge, well-designed locations.

+ There is a Russian localization of the text.

SOMETHING THAT CAN BE BOTH A PLUS AND A MINUS:

+- In my opinion, even the simplest level of difficulty is too difficult. But here the problem is in me, I've never really been able to play strategy. Serious fans of RTS will like the level of opposition from AI, I think.

+- Sometimes battles are illogically prolonged. For example, there was a situation where an enemy unit with a conditional armored personnel carrier was on the defensive, and my entire armada was hitting them. And they can't really dig out some indecent amount of time even with the use of art. This can be evaluated from different sides, so I don't write in the cons.

That's the fight.
That's the fight.
minuses:

- Some points of interest are directly cheating. For example, I play and see a railway station that is located at the other end of the map relative to the opponent's main position. I think - let me grab it. But no. Having killed all the enemies there, it turned out that the station was not captured. What gave the situation - I have one landing zone, the enemy has at least two, and strategically advantageous. Somehow this is too cool considering the possibility of endless re-formation of detachments. And the AI uses this, after a successful first battle, literally out of thin air, three detachments fell on my tank guard squad in this place, i.e. in principle, it cannot be captured.

- Some actions are not implemented very clearly. For example, supply vehicles drove up to the combat unit to recharge ammunition. It seems that the process is going on, but somehow it is clearly not traceable, and it is difficult to say what they are doing there and how soon they will finish.

- No online battles. In my opinion, this is a serious drawback for such a game.

conclusions

Excellent tactical strategy in real time. Many types of equipment, different game modes, aggressive, turning into epic battles. Both the quantity and quality of content development are impressive.

Something like that. Na**lm worked on the enemy's position.
Something like that. Na**lm worked on the enemy's position.
PS: Probably did not disclose all aspects, could have missed something. I will be glad to supplement/ correct the review or answer questions in the course of communication in the comments.

PPS: Steam game page.

Have a good game to everyone!

17/09/2022

A sincere confession. Part II.

Well, that's it. The orchestra played the notes. I lean back wearily in my chair, sweat flows down my back and face - it was so exciting. Below you will find a huge pile of errors and raw text. I'm writing in hot pursuit, so to speak, and it's not a fact that it's beautiful. For those who do not understand what we are talking about, this is a continuation of the post before last.

I remember the first time I was able to elicit a strong emotional reaction from my players. At the end of that day, I was driving home with tears streaming down my face. We completed the story arc of one of the characters, and it was so inspiring and sad that everyone cried. Right at the game, in the club, where schoolchildren were rolling in MTG behind the wall. But there was a tragedy in our little world, and we grieved for it. All together. Under the surprised glances of people passing by the room. It was 2019. No one has heard about the virus yet, we gathered live, and played a self-written story. We ate pizza, laughed merrily... and I gave each player a portrait of his character. And even managed to make a few miniatures.

Then the world changed. Cardinally. We stopped leaving our homes, but tabletop role-playing games became the thread that connected our hearts. Once a week we got together online and continued to play Pathfinder, discussing how life goes between scenes.

But it was almost impossible to do the main thing through discord - to convey emotions. Looking into the player's eyes is an important tool in the session. As well as being in the same room, where no one will distract. And nothing will distract. I've been trying to get it back for 2 years. To return those emotions that we all experienced together at that very session that turned the whole world of NRI upside down for me.

We started a new campaign, and I introduced Olga Gallon there. It was my old character. Perfectly fit into the current setting and fell in love with the players. And then I realized - here it is! My chance! My chance to regain that wonderful feeling of contentment, a sense of emotional unity! Six months of active preparation, "hanging guns", thinking over the character of the villain...

And the moment has come! On August 20, 2022, I succeeded again!
Two players came to me for this session live, the rest on discord. We sat down comfortably at the computers, and the heroes went to the magma caves to save their friend.

When I described what Choral (the villain) turned Olga Gallon into, I directly felt the tension and longing emanating from the players. Alyonka sighed softly from every word I said, because the further I read the description of the scene, the sadder it became. He somehow quieted down, and did not move while I read out the descriptive part. I didn't even notice how my hands were shaking. My breath caught, sweat flowed down my back, goosebumps ran over my skin.

And finally the final phrases: "The cry of pain spreads throughout the cave, echoing from its walls. The dragon breaks off the wall, preparing to attack. The fight has begun. A throw of initiative." And then in the discord, the players can be heard saying in sad voices that they will have to kill Olga to free him from "non-life". Turning my head, I saw them. Weeping. On the other side of the discord, Anya and Max uttered in strangled voices what spells they cast. The atmosphere of longing was replaced by a gloomy determination to punish the evil facing the heroes.

The fight with Choral lasted an hour and a half. I didn't play along with them, and used all the dragon's abilities to the fullest. This creature cast spells in the air, diving into a lake of magma, surfacing in another place and watering them with a cone of magma from its mouth. Hundreds of damage units shredded the heroes, but they stoically withstood the blows of the villain, dealing with his henchmen on the ground. Each attack to Olga caused sighs of regret from the players, because they understood how much the character was disfigured and how he was suffering, understood that all his attacks were perverted favorite traits, and understood that Olga was conscious all this time of the fight and was a silent witness to his actions.

On the 6th round, the first player character fell. On the next round, the NPC called to help died. The ranks of the heroes decreased, but they did not retreat. Almost all of the healing abilities were spent. Potions are drunk. Each character had about a quarter of health left. But working like a real team, skillfully transmitting information about the dragon's weaknesses, flanking, reducing defensive characteristics in order for the allies' abilities to be more effective, they defeated him!

The last blow was met with cheers and applause from the players! The villain has fallen.

That's the status of "at death" finished all the characters.
That's the status of "near death" finished all the characters.
Catfolk Msha'Iri'Tashi bent over the body of her lover, mourning his death.

And here the final act of the performance began. I love when such scenes end well. Iri turned the whole party of the NPC into the faith of her goddess, and this was not forgotten by me.

Beautiful music started playing, and I started describing the last scene. The prayers were answered, and the bodies of the beloved ascended to the ceiling, they were covered by the light of the stars, which seeped right under the arches of the cave, and two already stepped on the ground. Olga Gallon was resurrected.

Now there were tears of happiness on the faces of the players. A joyful Alyonka wiped them from the corners of her eyes, Egor looked away, the sobs of other players could be heard on the other side of the Discord. We were all "in the moment." Everyone felt this unity and joy from the ending.

Yes, in the end we got hepii end. Well, how happy. Now the character needs to go through a long process of recovery from PTSD. He will be haunted by flashbacks for many years to come. Such things do not pass without a trace.

Someone will say that such a finale is banal. That if Olga had died and did not want to be resurrected (I had such a thought), the ending would have turned out to be more gloomy and so on. Only here's the thing...

I just wanted to plunge back into that moment from 2019. I really missed it. But suddenly, I got a new moment. All my talent, all my inspiration came together in this game session, and it was worth it. For the sake of such sessions, I play in the NRI. To hear how players, despite their personal effectiveness on the battlefield, save friends, act together as a team is priceless. To see how they experience all these plot twists with you is priceless! The way they appreciate your creativity is priceless! The way they create an amazing story together with you is priceless! And discussing at the end of the game how cool it was is priceless!

There are many more adventures ahead of them. They will see new countries, take part in amazing scams, smile 100 times and a dozen will be terrified to look for ways to escape. And I hope they will keep today's session in their hearts, just like me.

With the last words of this blog entry, I want to once again declare my love for my players. You're cool!

PS and thank you, reader! That he was with me during these few days and read both blog entries. I hope to please you with content in the future

17/09/2022

What is a "bagel"?

Introduction
To understand the genre, first you need to understand where it came from and why there is a rouge postscript in all “bagels”, and why they are called “bagel" in general.

To do this, let's delve into history.

Direct history
It all started in 1980 with the appearance of a game bearing a simple name, Rouge. The essence was as simple as the name. There is a dungeon, there are enemies, there is loot.

Go through the dungeon, kill enemies, collect loot. Easy as pie.

And now, in fact, the very history of the appearance.

Now there will be some notes from the memoirs of Glenn R. Wichman with my comments.

In the old days, in 1980, the power of computers left much to be desired. However, even then there were games, albeit text, but games!

And so, two students from the city of Santa Cruz, California, got at their disposal a text game Adventure, where the computer displayed text on the screen and offered the user to make a choice, for example, “go north” or “go south". At the same time, at the University of California at Berkeley (U.C.Berkeley), a student named Ken Arnold created a library of procedures that allowed programs to "choose the direction with the cursor"; this meant that programs could move a character in certain directions on a computer screen. It was still not real "graphics", but now it became possible to use letters, numbers and symbols, imitating pictures. The library of program procedures was named "spells".

That's what "Adventure" looked like;
That's what "Adventure" looked like
Having received this set of “spells” in their hands, two ambitious and creative guys wanted to make their own adventure game that would not be driven into the framework of linear passage from point to point. They decided that the game would be called "Rouge" and would create unique dungeons by itself. "Rogue“ was supposed to be such as to "surprise the creators themselves.”

Having developed the initial version, Michael decided to take her to the very university where the “spells” appeared and share the idea with their creator. So, the game moved from Santa Cruz to Berkeley and things got better. The game was built into UNIX BSD (a kind of operating system) and Rogue went hand in hand. In the next three years, the game gained unprecedented popularity.

That's how games once looked, who would have thought
That's how games once looked, who would have thought
And now about the gameplay. The goal of the game was as follows: to get the amulet of Yendor, which was located on the lower level of the dungeon, and then return back to the surface.

Simple and understandable, if not for the random generation of loot, dungeon rooms and enemies. Speaking of enemies, the lower the hero descends, the stronger they are. Also, the obstacle was the fact that in the event of the death of the character, all the property obtained by overwork was lost, and the game started anew. These are the key facts you need to know about the game and the genres it has spawned.

Let's fix it, random generation of dungeons, enemies that get stronger with each level, losing means that the game will have to start over. Oh yes, I forgot to mention a very important fact, the game should be step-by-step, that is, the player makes a move, then the dungeon reacts to his action. That is, enemies also move or attack.

So, I brought up to date, now directly about the genres "Roguelike" and "Roguelite".

Rougelike
In 2008, in order for a game to be considered a "Roguelike" genre, it had to go through the key factors separating it from other genres, namely:

The game should be turn-based, each team should correspond to one action and one move;
Game levels must be generated randomly, being unique for each passage;
The game must contain a "permanent death", not allowing the player to continue the passage after the death of the character;
The game should have a single mode and a single set of commands for all game situations, without allowing any additional menus, puzzles or mini-games;
The game should not provide the player with a single linear path, but freedom with many options for passing;
The player must independently explore the found objects and discover their properties.
In the future, this concept will be criticized, but do not discount it.

Rogue made a real splash among players and programmers, which led to the emergence of the "Roguelike" genre.

A perfect example of "that very bagel" : Pixel Dungeon
A perfect example of "that very bagel": Pixel Dungeon
In general, the games released under the proud name "Roguelike", roughly speaking, are not clearly tied to the criteria listed above, but try to follow them. In fact, these games are a mixture of genres, which is based on just "Rogue". Based on the above, it is wrong to call them "Roguelike", for this the name "Roguelite" appeared.

Rougelite
And now about the genre that follows from Roguelike, Roguelite. Which is now all the time. As an inheritance from Roguelike, there are a couple of points left, namely permanent death and random generation of dungeons. That's basically it. But there are also projects that include almost all Roguelike criteria.

In RogueLite, the flight of developers' fantasies is outrageously wide: the game may or may not be turn-based, it may be a platformer, or it may be a first-person shooter. Even an RPG component is added, in the face of pumping. Therefore, everyone will be able to find a “bagel" to their liking. And that's why I love this genre with all my heart and I will definitely write about a couple of games that have sunk into my soul the most in the future.

For example, about a wonderful representative of the genre "Immortal Redneck";
For example, about the wonderful representative of the genre "Immortal Redneck"
Perhaps my little article turned out to be crooked and messy, after all, this is the first time I'm writing. And there are a million such articles, but I wanted to share it and plan to share it in the future!

I will be glad to hear advice and criticism, because I'm just learning.

17/09/2022

Hunter or Victim: Stealth simulator based on the Warcraft 3 engine

Description
Hunter or Victim is a multiplayer map for Warcraft 3, combining the genres of stealth and survival. Each of your journeys will be unique, as all the environments and game events are generated in a new way each time.

Play
HoV Development Page

Hunter or Victim?
Hunt animals, eliminate rivals, or just try to survive by getting food by fishing and gathering.

You will be accompanied by a faithful companion pet who will look for useful items and try to protect you from enemies. You can also join forces with other players, as there are many dangers waiting for you.

Sooner or later, darkness will gather over you, and hordes of undead will pour in a wave from all sides. Therefore, at some point you will need to rebuild fortifications, or capture the robbers' fort.

But the undead are only a harbinger of an impending threat. Since the world is waiting for the awakening of a Demon with destructive power, it will be very difficult to defeat him alone.

Uniqueness
HoV is a game ported to Warcraft 3.

The project contains hundreds of mechanics and unusual solutions that seem impossible within the framework of the engine almost 20 years ago.

17/09/2022

Locations of cities | DarKnot

Did you know that there will be several cities available in DarKnot?
We decided to dedicate a new developer diary to this topic.

In cars abandoned by their owners, you can find a lot of useful things.

So feel free to hack them – it is unlikely that the owners of the cars will ever come back and complain to someone. Therefore, it is necessary to collect medicines, leftovers, look for clues and somehow get out of here. Just be sure that you can fight back if the alarm goes off and you attract unnecessary attention to yourself.

Most likely, the owners of the cars are already dead and for them this whole nightmare is over. But not for you: you will come back to it again and again. Giving up is not an option.

A new faction

Strange noises and desperate screams are heard on the unlit streets of the DarKnot world.

You will definitely hear them, but only in the dark. And if you move silently, you can pass by without seeing the appearance of the creatures making these sounds. But as soon as you announce your presence with an awkward step or the slightest rustle, these strange, sometimes pathetic, frightening creatures will appear from all the cracks.

Play
They have high speed and attack in a crowd. It's up to you to run or fight. The damage from their blows is not critical, but extremely unpleasant. These creatures run up to you with a wild scream, which in combination with pitch darkness is quite creepy. After inflicting or receiving damage, there is a high chance that they will run away, but will soon return to repeat their futile attempts to vent their anger at you from their impotence.

Clothes

On the streets we scattered good clothes, dumped in heaps on dusty roads.

Wearing such clothes is not a pleasure for everyone. But it's better than running around the city in your underpants, freezing and shocking your enemies with shocking behavior. All found items of clothing are now transferred to a box next to the chair, where you are resurrected after each death. After the resurrection, one question: what stinks more – the found clothes or the main character? We live more than once, we will have time to find out.

Brightness Window

The whole team watched more than a hundred streams of the closed DarKnot demo and found out that few people found one little secret.

It is hidden in the brightness change strip of the screen.

In situations where pitch darkness comes suddenly, traffic jams are cut off due to a thunderstorm and there are no light sources nearby, remember about the brightness settings. They can help you, but that's not for sure.

______________________________________________________________________________________

Add DarKnot to the wishlist on Steam to be the first to know about the release of the game in early access:

DarKnot on Steam

______________________________________________________________________________________

Now we are actively preparing DarKnot for early access and are working on new locations. We also optimize the game, fix the voice acting and eliminate all possible bugs.

If you encounter bugs, send them to Feedback and Bugs in discussions on Steam:

Feedback and Bugs

We would like to express our gratitude to the voice actor Brian Watts and recommend him to colleagues from the gaming industry.

Play
We received a lot of positive feedback on the English voice acting of the main character in his performance.

Korotkov Game

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