Super Speedy Strategy Army Horde Tap-Tics (SSSAHT) is a local multiplayer game that combines elements of Real Time Strategy with fast-paced play that's easy to learn and hard to master.
Programmer
Level and UI Design
Publishing to Windows Surface
Tarin Smith - Artist
Web Page Link: SSSAHT download link
Contruct 2
Windows Visual Studio
Windows Surface
Development of the game was entirely done on Construct 2, one of the game engines that has many tools provided to prototype ideas quickly, such as a local multiplayer game with light RTS elements. With a very limited time frame, the scope had to be kept small and simple, which worked to our advantage throughout development.
An interesting challenge for this game is designing around the imposed constraint of having a game made for Windows Surface, a tablet device with multi-touch capabilities. With the constraint, the game was made to be small and focused in scope, easy to play, and take only a few minutes per session. I managed to achieve the feat by having a small number of unique units, designing levels involving symmetric and asymmetric play, and having time durations that should last only a few minutes.
One of the more challenging parts of this game development was testing and releasing the game on the target platform Windows Surface. The first thing that had to be done was measuring the screen with pixel per inch method to figure out the proper size for displaying the game elements clearly to the players. After getting the needed measurements, I used Visual Studio to run the game on Windows Surface tablet to ensure that the gameplay elements worked as intended. After countless testing and iterations on the game project, there was the publishing process, which required tests that ensures that the software never crashes upon startup. Afterwards, the publishing process is as simple as putting down the necessary information such as ratings, price (which is set to be free), etc.
Having gone through the development process for building a game on a particular platform, such as Windows Surface, I understood how games are influenced by the target platform from the appearance and functionality to screen size and computational power. Whenever I have another chance to develop games on platforms beyond PCs, I will be more than happy to embrace such challenges.