Fantasy Wars Wrap Report

At first, we remembered our own experience from those games - the features we enjoyed and those we disliked. Afterwards, we dug out old war games, and spent a lot of time playing them again and again - despite the fact we had difficulties running them on modern computers - and exchanged opinions. From these, we came up with a design document for what turned out to be Fantasy Wars.

In strategy games, you're usually able to view the whole battlefield from a distance. That was a serious task, especially since we also wanted the close-up views to be very attractive. We had to redo the entire landscape code.

Alexey Kozyrev: We used an exterior engine for visuals, part of the multiplayer code and some other tools. Everything else was made in-house. During development, our programmers did their best to create everything on their own... for example, the interface, magic system and so on. We even created an editor that allowed everybody involved in the project to compile and attune every element with the rest. Our programmers even used to spend their free time improving the editor tools. That proved to be a great surprise for us, and saved many hours of work. One example is the "undo" option we made in the mission editor tool. It became so easy to use that almost anyone can master it without a problem.

Speaking about the visuals, we had specific demands. For instance, we didn't want the player to see the so-called map's edge, i.e. the border where landscape ends and meets with darkness. We created a special non-playable area so gamer could see the horizon. The landscape ending caused some troubles with optimization, but it was good for the visuals. From the very beginning, we planned to make two options for the units rendering. When zoomed in, we see the whole squad with small figures of soldiers; when you zoom out, every unit is shown as one big figure. That took much more time and effort than we initially planned. We needed to calculate and perform the fight scenarios based on a known final result, and to do so in several seconds of visualization; battles should be short-lived because the player sees several battles within one turn.

Nobody expected that this would be such a complicated task. At the same time, we had to make absolutely different algorithms for close and distant battle animations. The programmers used to joke that they were making two games instead of one, and they complained that warriors were engaged in hand to hand combat instead of shooting each other.

Development Timeline

Alexey Kozyrev: We postponed the release almost a year. Development began in late 2004, and the game was released in autumn, 2007. The delay occurred because of mistakes in planning. I didn't take into account two factors. First of all, we didn't schedule enough time for final polishing, bug fixing and corrections to the controls and gameplay.

Second, it took a lot of time to develop the multiplayer mode, which was completed at the very end of development. Before that, we were making the single-player campaigns. This is why there aren't as many multiplayer maps; we simply didn't have enough time to make more. We need to give credit to our publisher, 1C Company, which understood and gave us enough time to finish our work successfully. And while developing multiplayer, we did manage to test the game and fix practically all the bugs.

Changes and Enhancements

Max Bodrikov: Like most games, Fantasy Wars underwent many changes during development; we had to add new features and cut some inappropriate ones. The project was tested constantly, so we were able to draw conclusions as to what really improved our game, and what seemed superfluous. For example, in the early stages, we implemented day/time changes, but this turned out to be a mistake; it disturbed the players instead of making play more fun. We also took out a dynamic weather change system that didn't fit with the planned gameplay concept.

The storyline was also modified. We simplified the plot, which unfortunately made the game more predictable, though it also turned out to be good; players can concentrate on the gameplay.

We didn't accept the limitations of past hexagonal war games, which led to the addition of some modern mechanics such as the units' influence upon characteristics of neighboring forces, which accentuates the importance of tactical formations, and role evolution of the units and heroes, which helps to prepare forces for specific aims. The gameplay became more vivid, intense and dynamic... well, as much as we can call turn-based strategy dynamic. : )

The campaign missions in Fantasy Wars are story-based, so we made dialogues with voiceovers and game videos. As the plot unfolds, we also get acquainted with the characters. We created them differently from one another, although that isn't normal for hexagonal war games. We hope our efforts made the game really cool and thrilling.

Major Challenges

Max Bodrikov: We faced many challenges in the technical areas. Fantasy Wars is based on TheEngine from SkyFallen Entertainment, creator of Dawn of Magic. It was originally built for an RPG, where the camera is typically close to the surface, and we see only a few characters simultaneously. In strategy games, you're usually able to view the whole battlefield from a distance. That was a serious task, especially since we also wanted the close-up views to be very attractive. We had to redo the entire landscape code.

Using a new principle for landscape construction allowed us to create a map editor. That turned out to be a positive decision, and helped us avoid a great variety of problems.

We had to fight for frame rate. As we already said, we used dual methods of rendering units to make the gameplay more fun. When the camera is close to the surface, you can see every warrior in a unit. It was too difficult to calculate these animations with the highest graphics settings, even on high-end PCs, but our programmers did their best. Optimization became a key word for our company.