Inventaverse: World War - A primer for the uninitiated.

Inventaverse: World War - A primer for the uninitiated.

Those of you who have had the experience of playing the first iteration of Inventaverse, Inventaverse: Worlds, know that I value interesting and complex game logic.  Inventaverse: Worlds, had some really complicated systems, but out of that complexity arose intrigue.  New players would approach the game and wonder how they could improve their character by using various combinations of skill traits, artifacts and character abilities.  When I added javascript based incantations, this added yet another layer of synergy on top of the other 3 systems.  These systems, combined with an ongoing capture the flag contest, made for some extremely fun games!

And with that fun, came some interesting lessons about video game design.  As the players played, and tried new team compositions, and new character builds, it became apparent that the aspects of the game that made it fun to play were in most cases, not what I had originally considered to be the fun pieces.  I thought people would be more interested in building worlds and challenging their friends to play them, like Mario Maker.  I thought that a big part of Inventaverse was exploring procedurally generated worlds, and discovering interesting treasure.  Maybe one fun part of it would be upgrading your home world to bigger and more interesting houses.  

It hadn't dawned on me until I hosted the first CTF tournament matches that what was most fun about Inventaverse was playing a fast paced game, with friends, without having to download anything.  You just visit the site and pick a team and you're in the game.  You're carrying the flag, you're protecting the flag carrier, or guarding the flag base.  You're taking down other players in the midfield.  You're scoring.  In addition to all these things, you're testing out all the recent modifications you've made to your character.

The critical lessons of Inventaverse: Worlds, I've carried forward into Inventaverse:World War.  Deep and complex character customization is prominent.  Esoteric coder-centric features are there, they're not essential to your success, but watch out!  Most importantly, speed, action, excitement, and friendly collaboration are the primary focal points.  

The Triumvirate

The game is built around the concept of a "Triumvirate", or 3 rulers who oversee a world flying aimlessly through the vastness of space.  Together, their decisions shape the destiny of not only their world, but countless others.  In order to play I:ww, you need 2 friends to join you.  In Inventaverse, the three of you will adventure, explore and plan for the future of your small world.

Our Triumvirate is made up of these 3 characters:

The Overlord, the Technomancer and the Imperator

The three different characters in I: ww vary in size, speed, health and various other attributes, but they all offer something special to the group in terms of advancement. Something unique to I:ww is the shared skill tree system.

What this means, is that when one player selects a skill trait, that trait affects the other two players.  A practical example would be something like this: If the Overlord of a world selects the Stealth skill trait, all 3 players on the world now are able to become invisible for a short time.

Each of the three players have a unique skill tree.  The Overlord's skill tree is largely based around survival, with traits like Regeneration, Symbiosis, Field Medical Kit and Stealth.  The Technomancer's skill tree is most related to mobility with a bit of survival mixed in.  RPG, EMP, Speed Demon, Afterburners are some of the skills to be found there.  The Imperator's skill tree is focused on improving weapons and armor.  Laser Rifle, Autocannon, Power Core+, and Charged Ammo are a few of the traits in the Imperator's tree.

The Objective and the Stakes

Inventaverse: World War is about two things: building and destroying.  As you build your world, the inhabitants of other worlds are going to be trying to tear down what you have built.  All the players in I: ww exist in a single universe, which provides for a great environment for competition.  Games of I: ww ideally last a number of weeks as players rise up, discover interplanetary travel, and conquer the worlds of the other players.

In Inventaverse: World War, defeat isn't just losing a battle – it's staring down the annihilation of your entire civilization! Forget sore loser sore spots, here, defeat means oblivion. Your meticulously crafted world reduced to cosmic dust under the victor's boot.

What's the game we're playing here?

Inventaverse: World War was inspired by quite a few games.  Among them: Tribes, Mario Galaxy, The original Inventaverse game, Missile Command, the list goes on.  But, at it's heart Inventaverse: World War is a complicated game of Hide and Seek.  As you build your world, you give intruders more locations to hide as they attempt to sabotage your work.  In addition to that, every player also has the ability to hack the enemy's world system.  A relatively simple hacking terminal is built into the user interface that provides access to a important abilities:

1. Through hacking you are able to disable the enemy's structures. 
2. Through hacking you are able to gather intelligence about what the enemy has built and which skill traits they have selected.
3. You can conduct reconnaissance and gather location data about the structures on the enemy world.  You can then feed that information to your team mates who operate missile silos on your world and conduct a precision strike, destroying those structures. 

As a defender, the espionage perpetrated by enemy intruders can be reversed by counter-hacking.  In short, you are able to open your terminal and reverse the damage done.

Keep in mind, your player is vulnerable to being killed while you are hacking and as an attacker on an enemy world this means respawning on your own world.

An Over-Simplification

It's a game of hide and seek, wrapped in a game of hide and seek.  That's the simplest 2 second elevator pitch for I:ww.  "But why Josh?", you ask.  The answer is simple, because the task of meticulously hacking the enemy system while the enemy hunts you, and backup is due to arrive at any second, is insanely exciting.  As long as this situation happens frequently enough, I: ww should prove to be an incredibly thrilling PVP game.

But, that remains to be seen.  That is, if there are at least as many exciting moments playing it as there were challenging moments building it ;)

Until next time...

Inventaverse 3D Update

It's been too long!

We've come a long way.

Inventaverse 3D is entering what I would call the final stages of Rev1 release candidate level development.  We're getting close...  I've made so much progress in the last few weeks, it frankly makes my head spin.  Not the least of which is an interesting terminal style hacking system that will allow players to engage in digital espionage against their enemies.  It's an interesting feature that I hope players find intriguing and cool.  In coming weeks, I'll put a blog post together that details out all the commands and how to use them.

 

Sabatage your enemies' systems, but don't get caught doing it, because as you're hacking, you are vulnerable to attack!

 

What I'm most proud so far is the visual style the game is starting to assume.  It's not complicated, but it does have an identity of it's own.  Similar to original 2D game, which also had its own flavor of colorful pixel artwork, 3D is proving to be an interesting and unique spectacle in its own right.

I've still got quite a bit of placeholder imagery in there, but I'm having a great time fleshing out the various models, textures and UI.  This game is closing in on "basic" completion.  Find your 2 allies who will help you survive in this deep and complex game now, so that when it launches, you're ready to hit the ground running on a campaign that could last anywhere from a few days to a few weeks of game play. Your skill and ability to survive are the deciding factors.  Choose wisely.

Over the course of the next month or so I'll start dropping a few educational blog posts aimed at getting everyone familiar with the systems in place in Inventaverse 3D.  They're not going to be exhaustive, but they should be enough to get you up and running with your triumvirate(crew).

I'll probably cover the following topics:

• What's a Triumvirate, precious?
• Structures and the things they do
• Research on an alien world
• A hacker's guide to Inventaverse 3D
  

Until next time...

On the Horizon

 

R&D Day

If your company doesn't drop a few days a quarter into an R&D event, you're missing out on some of the best innovation and team building to be had.  We just finished our quarterly R&D day and the projects were just incredible.  We had everything from custom IDE extension and tooling to ChatGPT integrated into our in-house refinement utility.  It was awesome.

Because of the R&D Day event, I haven't thought a ton about what we're going to do in the short-term afterward, but in the medium range future, I'm excited to announce that the Inventaverse:3D project tentatively titled Worlds With Friends is progressing at record pace.  This should give you a decent idea of where I am with development:

 

1. Worlds are literally flying through space independently of one another, in a single, massive universe:

 

2. The orbital view of planets is coming along nicely, don't forget your 3D glasses!

 

 3. Okay, check this out,

Left image: me standing on a planet looking up at the sky

Middle image: outside the atmosphere of the first planet, you can see that the planet in the sky in the left image isn't just a decoration.

Image on the right is me standing on the planet that's in the sky of the first picture. you can see the planet of the first picture in the sky here.

Up next, I'm planning on building out the research tree, wiring as much of that up to the game logic as I can.  Then I'll build in the projectiles and all the types of weapons that make use of projectile logic.  Then explosions.  Then I'll build some of the special functionality that comes with each of the structures (for instance, missile silos allow you to launch interplanetary ballistic missiles against enemy worlds).  Then after that, I'll start replacing the temporary 3D placeholder assets with decent ones.

There's still  quite a lot to do, I'm really hoping to have most of this up and running before summer time!

I'll keep you all posted!

2 vs 2 Deathmatch Tournament Details

In the words of Khabib, prepare to be Smesh.

It's official.  The teams have assembled.  The maps have been created.  It's time to do this thing.

The Teams:

• Shane and Grayson
• Raul and Billy
• Steve and Josh
• Brian and Gracias
• Emad and Mark

 

The Tournament Bracket:

 

The Maps
These teams will fight for dominance on the following fields of battle!

 

Official Rules:

Here are the official rules that I've copied over from another blog post.

1. Don't break the game during a match.  No cheats, exploits, hacks, etc.  If you do, you'll be put before a tribunal of your peers and your fate as a competitor in this tournament will be decided.  Hopefully fairly.

2. Score a point every time you kill a member of the other team.  At the end of 3 minutes the game ends, the team with the most points wins that game.  A match, as always, is best of 3.  You and your partner will play 3 back-to-back matches to see who moves on to the next match in the bracket.  If one team wins the first two games, it's at the discretion of the losing team whether or not they'd like to play a third match.

3. Once a team has selected their characters, they may not change them until the next game.  That means they must play the same characters for the full duration of the 3 minutes.

If you need help!

In the event that you're still in preparation for the ultra violence, please feel free to consult the following blog posts for guidance:

New Players Guide

Character Builds

Incantations

Changes:
Before going into battle, be sure to check the change log and familiarize yourself with the latest bug fixes and enhancements at Inventaverse.com/ChangeLog

Good Luck!

It's an honor to serve with you and I'm excited to meet you on the field of battle!  Best of luck!  -Originator (Josh)

How to Win at 2v2 Deathmatch

Inventaverse is a relatively complicated game.  There are several factors at play that can decide the outcome of a match.  For example: selected skill traits, artifacts, character selection, incantations.  These are all important, but there is one factor in 2v2 competition play that rises above all others: The Team Composition.  In 2v2 you have the opportunity to select characters whose skillsets complement one-another or synergize.  In this article I'll introduce you to a few key concepts that will help you to create a 2v2 team capable of winning in competitive play.

Select a Theme

Whether you're going for a super tanky 2s team or a high explosive damage team, you want to be sure that every skill trait, every artifact, every incantation is highly specialized to your team's specific theme.  Be thorough in customization so you can be sure you've maximized your team's strengths while minimizing your weaknesses.

This doesn't mean that both players need to be playing the same character, or use the same artifacts, but it does mean that each character should be fully tuned to meet a specific objective.  Here are a few examples of team theme:

Tank and Healer Comps - One player absorbs the brunt of the enemy team's damage, while the other heals through it and evades enemy attention.  At key times they focus down a common target and outlast their opponent.

Control Comps - Using blackholes and crowd control mechanics to force the enemy into difficult situations and then concentrate damage to finish them quickly. 

Sniper Comps - Many characters can be adjusted to function as a sniper.  Pair two of them up and be well coordinated, and you've got a very deadly solution to the 2v2 arena team problem.

Consider The Counter

Even the best strategy has a counter.  Consider what the counter to your team's strategy is and come up with a plan on how to adapt and minimize the effectiveness of that counter strategy.  Listed below are the counter strategy to the most common 2v2 team compositions.

Tank and Healer Comps - The easiest way to defeat a tanky team is either to deal so much damage that the healer can't keep up or to take out the healer first and avoid the tank.  

Control Comps Counter - A great counter to control comps is to use teleporting characters, artifacts or incantations.  The key to beating these teams is to escape the trap before lethal damage is inflicted upon you.

Sniper Comps Counter - There are a number of ways to counter a team of snipers, for example, equipping both players with a Refractive Field Generator or making yourselves difficult to hit by using the Black Talisman.

Practice

Every 2v2 team is made up of two players, and if each player is able to play their character well, when combined they're much more effective.  Taking the time to understand your character, your artifacts and your skill traits will go a long way toward ensuring victory for your team.  Beyond that, practicing against other 2s teams in preparation for your coming match is the most valuable kind of training for you and your partner.

A Second Chance

Remember that in order to secure victory, you've got to win 2 out of 3 games and if you lose your first game, you've got another game to catch up and win.  A great way to keep your opponent on their toes is to have multiple 2v2 teams prepared, and if your opponent is using a hard counter to your team, change it up in round 2!  The rules state that you can't change your character in the middle of a game, but you can change your character between games.  Use that to your advantage!

May the best Team Win

I hope I've given you some guidance on how to create a team, or at least some things to consider as you and your partner prepare for the events ahead of you.

Good luck!

2v2 Tournament Announcement!

One for the record books

 

The Noob Squad frolics around their recently earned trophy.

The conclusive final match of the first Annual Inventaverse CTF Tournament was an amazing event for the record books.  The Noob Squad decisively defeated the Obliterators in a two-game shut out to solidify their legacy as the first winners of the annual event.  BUT, that doesn't mean everyone who didn't win the annual CTF tournament can't also experience the sweet sweet taste of victory...

Introducing the first ever 2v2 Inventaverse team death match tournament!

CTF is super cool.  Don't get me wrong.  We can't just have CTF tournaments all year though, we need something to mix things up, a new and different problem to solve.  The problem this time is: how can my battle buddy and I score the most kills in 3, 3-minute matches against another team of 2 players?  To that I answer: by having the best configuration of two players possible, and by having the skill to get the job done, that's how.

Why 2v2?

2v2 as a tournament format is interesting for a bunch of reasons:     

1. The players get to experiment and figure out which characters and artifact combinations synergize in such a way that they're most effective.  With enough participants, we should expect to see some really incredible team compositions and meta-strategies emerge.

2. Matches are fast paced and intense! 

3. With fewer players per team, more teams can participate, resulting in a bigger bracket and more games!

The Rules

1. Don't break the game during a match.  No cheats, exploits, hacks, etc.  If you do, you'll be put before a tribunal of your peers and your fate as a competitor in this tournament will be decided.  Hopefully fairly.

2. Score a point every time you kill a member of the other team.  At the end of 3 minutes the game ends, the team with the most points wins that game.  A match, as always, is best of 3.  You and your partner will play 3 back-to-back matches to see who moves on to the next match in the bracket.  If one team wins the first two games, it's at the discretion of the losing team whether or not they'd like to play a third match.

3. If you don't have a partner, but you'd like to participate, you can pick someone from within the company, but outside the team!  A growing sentiment among participants is that we should open this to other groups within the organization.  To that I say, YES!

4. Once a team has selected their characters, they may not change them until the next game.  That means they must play the same characters for the full duration of the 3 minutes.

Sign Up 

I Know what you're thinking "This sounds amazing, how do I sign up?"  Simple, just message me in Slack, or send an email to inventaverse@gmail.com to sign up, but make sure you do so on or before 2/2/2023 (GROUNDHOG DAY).  Be sure to include your name and your partner's name.  I'll create the bracket for the tournament on 2/3/2023, and you'll see it posted below in this blog post.  It will include a list of all the teams and their scheduled matches.

The Prizes

The prizes last time were quite awesome.  This time they'll be even better!  I don't know what they are yet, but I'll update this blog post with the prizes as soon as I figure that out!

New 2v2 Tournament Maps

I've decided to spend some time on the weekends building out some new 2v2 maps, the older small maps aren't that interesting and if I build some new ones I can be sure they're well suited for small team game play.  Check them out!

[Arena] Self Assembling System

[Arena] Three Layer Cave

[Arena] Iceberg

An urgent request to the hyper complex software designer, from their customers.

Here we go.  It's a manifesto.  That's what they're calling rants these days right?

For those of you short on time, here's a TLDR: In order to be successful with technology in a marketplace where the customers *hate* technology, you need to adopt a strategy that minimizes the frustrations of using technology for those customers.

1. The $10k parable, a conversation between a farmer(Fred) and software salesman(Steve).

Steve - "Fred, our software will make ordering products take less time and you'll ultimately end up spending less money."
Fred - "That sounds great Steve, but I already don't spend much time putting my order together, I do it in the off season when I have quite a lot of extra time anyway.  Saving money sounds nice, how much are we talking about  here?
Steve - "Well, for your farm, you're looking at about $10k."
Fred - "That sounds great, what do I have to do to get it?"
Steve - "You just need to *learn* to use our software to submit a product order request to the system so agricultural retailers can bid on it, online."
Fred - "HARD PASS ON YOUR SOFTWARE Steve, I DON'T NEED TO LEARN ANYTHING TO MAKE $10K.

Guess what.  Fred is right.  He doesn't need to learn a thing.  He shouldn't need to learn anything, if we do our jobs right.  Granted Fred is our worst case scenario, but every single Fred that walks away is potentially tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars in revenue.

2. The Range, Know your Enemy, and Personas are a lie.

The $10k parable is an exercise written with marketing personas in mind, reality, unfortunately, is more complicated.  

In software design, there exists a range of ease of use.  Ideally you simply convey what you want the software to do in a minimum number of instructions.  Whether that be clicking a button, or speaking a phrase.  At the other end of the range, a complex form with specific, step by step instructions on exactly what the software needs to do, including bells and whistles and blinking lights and dozens of those beautiful shiny buttons, input fields and drop down controls.  Just as there exists a spectrum of software complexity so too there exists a spectrum of users who are associated with a maximum level of complexity.  The factor that decides whether the complexity of a piece of software is within a user's complexity tolerance, or above it, is how many controls are required to complete the task.
 

(For those of you who are visual learners, I took 30 seconds and made a picture. You're welcome)

The more useful a solution is, the less instruction it needs, to be able to do the job.  This is a measure of usefulness for all things.  A useful tool requires less effort.  A useful employee requires less instruction to get the work done correctly.

3. Complexity and Frustration are really the same thing.

Think back to a time when you didn't understand how to make a difficult tool, difficult employee or a difficult software solution, work.  I'd wager that you didn't think about throwing in the towel on the problem until you were faced with the task of getting that thing to work correctly.  Then if YOU reached your threshold for complexity, and all bets were off.

Our customer is feeling that same sensation you felt.  Questioning if the effort is really worth it, as they precariously tap through your solution wondering if they've messed something up along the way, and how long is this going to take?  You see, learning is always stepping outside your comfort zone, and being outside your comfort zone is... well... uncomfortable.  Some people don't mind it, others... well, they frankly hate it, and the hate felt for software stems from being uncomfortable learning to use it.

Put yourself in that situation.  Then delete.  That's right, just delete every step that isn't something you can do behind the scenes as part of an algorithm or process.  Then delete the non critical pieces.  Then delete the parts that you think are really cool.  JUST.  DELETE.  AS.  MUCH.  AS.  YOU.  CAN.

May these words help you lead a horse to water who, despite your greatest efforts in futility, to convince them not to walk away, with buttons and inputs and drop downs...

decides to drink.