I\'ve been posting short development planning and sprint review notes on the community forum. So far those notes don\'t have many views, and may have been too brief and cryptic to make much sense to anyone but myself. It\'s been I while since I posted any substantial development updates, and as I\'m getting questions and feature request it\'s time for a longer dev-log post.

First, a few words about my background:

I grew up in Stockholm, Sweden, and have always been interested in games and computers. Learning programming early on, I enjoyed writing small simple games that I could play myself or try out on my friends. I started working on a real game (Mission Starlight ) with a friend while studing Computer Science at Stockholm University.

[dynamiclink href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IFB2NnKn4tw\"][/dynamiclink]

This was in the ancient pre-internet era, so we had to send out paper-based emails (aka letters) and physical demo disks to publishers in order to get it released commersially. Although retaining my interest in game development, I\'ve been working professionaly as a software developer and architect on many different kinds of non-game related projects. But now I\'m back to games again, working full time on the Battle Match - Samurai Wars project. Being a strong believer in lifelong learning, I\'ve also gone back being a part-time student of mathematics at the university. In addition to the fascinating beauty of mathematics, I find it very useful for game development: Linear algebra and analytic geometry for 3D graphics, calculus, numerical analysis, and statistics for battle simulations, graph theory for network programming, game theory for balancing, the list goes on.

Having played all sorts of games, I eventually developed a taste for games where there is a clear rock-scissor-paper (RSP) relationship between the pieces and where intelligence and tactical decisions matter. Where a relative simple set of rules produce a complex and rich game play. There are many abstract games in this category, chess being one of the most popular. Then there are more realistic tactical wargames such as Squad Leader, which I enjoyed playing.

\n[img src=\"https://cdn.cloudflare.steamstatic.com/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/45219796/0a0327ea29ff1e3fed6c881f5753ccc94501b075.png\"][/img]

These board games are based on the mechanics and the tactical aspects of abstract games, only with far more detail and realism. But the complexity of the rulesets, which you have to learn and apply my hand by throwing dices and calculating the results, makes them somewhat inaccessible to anyone but the hardcore wargamer. I wanted to dive deeper into accessible realism and turned to computer games.

There are two computer games in particular that have inspired the development of Samurai Wars. The first one is Myth: The Fallen Lords (and its sequel Myth II: Soulblighter) developed by Bungie and released 1997.

[img src=\"https://cdn.cloudflare.steamstatic.com/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/45219796/001864a18fc521cace9e553830ea19c5a31cbc46.png\"][/img]

It had several innovations that set it apart from other strategy games. There is no base building or resource management. Instead you start each level with your army already assembled and ready for combat. In single player, you have to use tactical skill to fight your way through a story driven series of engagements. It has a great fantasy-based narrative and the graphics, music and sound effects really sets the mood. Visually, its landscape and buildings are made up of irregular polygons, giving a non-artificial and natural look (not common to wargames at the time), enhancing the feel of realism and suspension of disbelief. At the core there is a real-time battle simulation with hundreds of free-moving individuals, realistic physics engine, and units with understandable RSP relationships. It also had a multiplayer mode and a devoted community. Despite the smallish scale of the battles, it was doing so many things right.

Then there is the original Shogun: Total War which was released in 2000. In contrast to the Myth series, it had the right scale: thousands of individually simulated soldies on the battle field (not mere tens or hundreds). Realistic physics engine, and it modelled psychological aspects such as fatigue and morale too. Yet, commanding the units was no more difficult than playing chess.

[img src=\"https://cdn.cloudflare.steamstatic.com/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/45219796/19f64dc2c3647fbaa5bd798c25ae93051e67f076.png\"][/img]

This was it! This was the game I had been dreaming of. Winning the battles were difficult at first, but after completing the campaign a couple of times, having learned all the units, I had become an invincible tactical master. Or so I thought... So far I had only played the single player mode, and it was time to try my superior skills against other humans. My first online battle was a complete failure and a total humiliation! After a hundred or so battles I wasn\'t totally losing. After a thousand battles I was doing ok, or at least above average.

The eye-opener with STW was the sharp contrast between playing solo and playing against other humans. Not only the difference in tactics, and the human ability (or inability, depending on skill) of reading the battle vs the computer. And the sometimes annoying unpredictability and irrationality of human allies and opponents. Even more important are the social aspects, the community of players, the in-game chat and taunts, the clans, and the competitions. Solo play is has its place and is important too, but for any game with symmetric gameplay, multiplayer should be developed as the primary mode of playing, not as an afterthought.

As I continued to play games in the real-time tactics genre, I more and more felt that they didn\'t take advantage of the opportinities of online play. It was obvious to me that you could do so much better. So I started experimenting and prototyping such a game myself. After some failed initial attempts at a Java-based game, I managed to put together a first rudimentary 2D version for iPad.

[dynamiclink href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AijLy7dQKs0\"][/dynamiclink]

As a programmer, I enjoy challenging myself with difficuly technical problems. Combining the complexities of multiplayer networking, 3D graphics, and a real-time tactical battle game with semi-realistic simulation was the perfect fit. I did not have a clear goal, but I continued to research technologies and design solutions, and kept adding to the game on my spare time because it was a fun and relaxing activity.

The community has been very important to the development of the game. I\'m very thankful to all the feedback that helped shape the game to what it is. But with any online community there will be troublemakers. I did not realize how important and how difficult it is to properly moderate a community. And that you need to have right tools to be able to do that.

So I learn a lot, but also made a lot of mistakes. The architecture was in some respects good and sound, but in other respects too inflexible or too complex and difficult to maintain and develop. This is a common problem in software development. On the first attempt you may produce something that solves the problem. Along the way you gain deeper and deeper insights into the problem, and eventually you realize that the solution you have is naive and doesn\'t account for the more subtle aspects and relations between the concepts.

The system I had developed didn\'t scale and eventually it simply became too expensive to host the servers. Moving to a new job with little spare time for hobby projects, it came to a point where I needed to take a step back and reconsider what to do with Samurai Wars.

There was a period of collecting my thoughts and ideas. The available technology stack today is considerable more mature. Many of the crazy ideas I\'ve had, that were difficult or impossible back then, have now become easy to implement. I now had a clear picture of how to reassemble and rewrite the code base. Encouraged by players who contacted me about relaunching the game, and having secured financing, I eventually decided to embark on a new and ambitious project: Battle Match.

[img src=\"https://cdn.cloudflare.steamstatic.com/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/45219796/322a339a7a68b9aab04d11d504e6b31b67162176.png\"][/img]

Battle Match is the name of a project and a platform consisting of (1) a battle simulation engine and (2) an online match service.

The battle engine is designed to be a general physics-like simulator. The unit types, such as yari ashigaru or katana samurai, are defined in what is called a \"module\" (mod), separate from the engine itself. Samurai Wars is the first such module, reimplementing the units and rules from the good old game we all know. There will be several other such official modules covering various time periods. And there will be tools for creating your own mods and maps.

The match service, like the battle engine, is designed in a general and agnostic fashion. All the rules for how matches are set up and resolved are defined in what\'s called a \"scenario\". The Samurai Wars scenario will provide the familiar lobby with last-man-standing matches. However, anyone with a little web programming knowledge will be able to write custom scenarios and victory conditions. It will be possible to do competitions, ladders, campaigns, etc, as well as single player scenarios with AI opponents.

It\'s important that the project is financially successful to support the development and operation of the servers. So while the battle simulation will remain free to play in sandbox mode, the match service will require the purchase of a Battle Match pass.

Discord will be used for the in-game chat, and will be seemlessly integrated with the game. This way I dont need to reinvent the wheel regarding community functionality, and it nicely solves the moderation aspect.

Planning software development is hard. I\'m getting better at it, but things still often take twice the time you expect. Anyway, moving forward, the general plan is as follows:

• The basic feature set of battle engine has been in development for almost two years and is now getting in shape. There are many little details in need of attention, and this will be an ongoing activity during the Early Access period.

  [/*]

• Early Access will start once the online match service is up and running with functionally equivalent to the old version of Samurai Wars. This will be the focus for the coming sprints. Maybe not done before the end of this year, but definitely early next year. The EA will simultaneously be released on Steam, App Store, and Play Store.

  [/*]

• During Early Access, I\'ll work on the map and mod tools, and the module and scenario support. It will stay in EA until this functionality is complete, too early to say when, but current estimate would be end of 2026.

  [/*]

• Development of new features for the battle engine, like new weapon systems, new terrain features, improved algorithms, etc., will be an ongoing activity, both during and after early access. I have no plan for when to do what, but will select appropriate features to implement at the start of each new development sprint.

  [/*]

• As mentioned, there will be other official modules in addition to Samurai Wars. This will be towards the end of EA, and the preliminary plan is something WWII.

  [/*]

This short summary is an overview explanation of what this project is. Maybe it raises more questions than it answers, I don\'t know. In time, further down the road, I hope things will start making sense.

/felix

While the Early Access release is still several months away, I can now announce that the mobile versions will be released at the same time as the Steam release. However, as I'm eager to get feedback on the game, I've decided to run a pre-release playtest. If you don't mind some missing features and are happy to report any strange issues, you are most welcome to join.

July is vacation month, so the development pace will be slower, and no new features. I will try to adress any issues with the functionality implemented so far that might pop up during the pre-release testing. The battle mechanics are not yet fully implemented in detail, but the basics of the sandbox is working so please test and give feedback the camera and command gestures. The online lobby is unfortunelty still missing, but is planned to go live in August.

Join the Playtest on Steam!

Im very pleased to announce that the server infrastructure that Ive been working on for the last couple of months is nearing completion, and that the sandbox can now be played online in multiplayer mode.

This is now working:

What is not working (yet):

• The netcode is up and running, but needs some further work to ensure that it runs smoothly and uninterruped.
• The battle simulation has up to now been a more of a prototype (enough to be able to test the netcode), and the mechanics need major work to implement all the relevant aspects of battle: movement of individal and units, melee combat, missile weapons and artillery, terrain effects such as height/vegetation/water, and psycological aspects like morale and fatigue. This will be the primary focus for the coming sprints.
• Finalize command gestures, for issuing movement and target orders. Add support for selecting multiple units and commanding groups of units. The camera gestures are mostly working, but need some final fine tuning. Need to add control settings and to be able to customize keys.
• For turning the sandbox into an actual game, we need matches/teams and victory conditions. Initially, last-man-standing, but Ill make sure to support other future victory conditions as well (king-of-the-hill, catch-the-ball, whatever).
• Add in-game chat. Very important for an online game, for obvious reasons.
• Add the Samurai Wars lobby. Obviously also very important for an online game, it must be super easy to be able find and challenge other players.
• The final thing needed for the Early Access is the desktop app downloadable from Steam.
  

Early Access

• Reintroduce the map editor and seamless map sharing through the Steam Workshop.
• Add a powerful built-in mod editor and mod sharing, also with workshop. There will be some support for scripting as well, with the ability to add more advanced victory conditions and story-driven scenarios.
• Support for improved unit selection and deployment phase, so that players can customize the their armies at the start of the battle.
• Add support for clans, so that you can manage membership and arrange clan matches.
• Some kind of leaderboard ranking system, to keep track of players and clans score/ratings.
  

This sprint started with some visual improvements, most noticeably the rendering of weapons, but also some minor tweaks regarding terrain and water rendering. Although there are more things I want work on regarding rendering (commands are still placeholders, animations would be nice, and 3D models, etc), I think that the current state is good enough for launching EA, so I will not work on that until the game is more complete, probably towards the latter half of EA.

I have tweaked the camera gestures and, apart from some corner case issues, Im now pleased it is working more or less as intended. There are no settings yet, the keys are:
WASD = move camera
QE = orbit camera
RF = tilt camera
ZX = zoom camera
C + mouse = orbit/tilt camera
mouse click/drag = move camera

Finally, I worked on movement and melee mechanics, and added some basic collision and casualty calculations. The Battle Match engine is much more sophisticated than the old Samurai Wars engine. It will model physical properties such as mass, momentum and energy. The rock-paper-scissor mechanics is not explicitly coded. Instead the relationship between units (who beats who) relies on the emergent behavior that is the result of the lower-level physical and psychological properties.


The above example illustrates how the size and space of individuals affect movement, and that the behavior is very different depending on who is moving and who is standing still.


Here, we can see how the length of shaft and blade of different weapons affect melee. The advantage of spears is the larger kill zone in front of the unit, making it possible to stop dead even a charge of cavalry. The disadvantage is that the kill zone only extends in the frontal direction, making the unit vulnerable to attacks to the flank or rear.

That said, the simulation engine is still in a very rudimentary form. Movement doesnt consider mass or momentum, and weapons instantly kill upon the slightest touch by the blade. But although calculations are currently few and simple, I find its quite fascinating to see the complex interplay that arises when pitching units against each other on the battle field.

Next up: Networking! The unique selling point of Samurai Wars was its seamless online multiplayer features. I intend to take this to the next level with the Battle Match engine. So the for the next couple of sprints I plan on implementing networking. This means most of the work will be on the server back end, and if that goes well, I will be able to add two very important buttons to the user interface: Host Match and Join Match.