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The Gameplay

Seismic Showdown is a Tug of War action game. The game is largely focused on creep control, hence the "Tug of War" description. Although ever game starts out as a Tug of War style gameplay, from that point on you can choose how you want to play.

Hero Arena Gameplay

You start the game with a hero. This hero is not as important as a DOTA hero, but is important none the less. This hero will be structured in a similar fashion as a DOTA hero. The difference is that you are not only controlling your hero, but an army as well. However, this does not mean that your hero isn't important. A large part of the game is Hero Arena, and you must take care of your hero, or it will become easy to kill and a good way to farm for your enemies.

Your hero is also required to take command of new Tactic Zones, which grant bonuses such as bonus creeps and increased income. Tactic Zones are explained in greater detail later.

Creep AI Functions (Tug of War Gameplay)

The AI on the creeps is incredibly advanced, and can be upgraded. I will not go into details, but an example would be ranged units. Ranges units will do what I like to call "The Shuffle". During their attack cooldown, they will retreat on the "move" command. When the cooldown is over, the unit will turn around and attack again. All abilities are on the AI, and there are many other standard techniques that have been implemented. (This part of the game is actually almost finished).

Micro Style Gameplay

Not all players enjoy Tug of War. It requires less micro, and more thinking ahead, and economic management. AKA, macro. For the player that enjoys taking down the enemy by winning individual battles, there is the creatively named "Micro" upgrade. This will cause commandable units to spawn from that particular Spawner. You will have full control over these units, and can do what you want with them. However, each spawner can only have 1 micro unit on the field (as apposed to 3 for creeps), and they take longer to spawn.

Tower Defense Gameplay

The last mode is still in the "planning" stage. I do not intend on releasing this until the game is far into beta. This is the TD mode. This will cause a unit to spawn... somewhere. As I said, this is still in the "planning" stage, and I don't know much about it yet. It is most likely going to be implemented eventually, but more research needs to go into how it is going to be done.

The Map and Unique Gamplay Components

Map Layout

The map is structured as a square. Each team gets a side of this square. There are 4 teams of 2. Each team has one main base. If this base is destroyed, you lose.

The "Solo" Problem

The game is designed to be fair, even when you are without an ally. You will spawn double the units that you normally would, and your hero becomes far stronger. You are also given increased income. This is designed to do a variety of things.

With an ally, you have, well an ally. This ally will be able to be controlling his own hero and army, and will be a second brain. You can't do that by yourself. Just giving double the spawn isn't enough. So, the increased income will balance this out. You will have less control, but you will have more units. This will keep the game fun for everyone, including your enemies as well as you.

Spawner Units

Spawner Units are exactly what they sound like. They spawn units. Think of them as the buildings you make in games like Desert Strike, except for they are actual moving units. These units are cloaked, and cannot attack or use abilities. They are also invulnerable.

There is a small raised area on both sides of your base, one for you, and one for your ally. There are 5 different orbs in which you can spawn these "Spawners" from. This will be further explained later.

Tactic Zones

Tactic Zones are strategic locations on the map. There are 16 of them to be controlled, giving each player a potential of 2 to command. Your hero must be present to control a Tactic Zone.

Tactic Zones contain neutral temples, guarded by ancient guardians. (Stone Zealots). When you destroy the 2 Stone Zealots, the temple is yours. This temple will grant you additional minerals every 5 seconds, and will spawn additional creeps that will aid you in your battle. These creeps will not award the enemy any minerals.

When you take command of a Tactic Zone, 2 more Stone Zealots appear to guard it. You also have the option to transfer a Spawner unit to the Tactic Zone. If you choose to do this, the Spawner Unit will no longer spawn units. However, it will stay and guard the Tactic Zone. When a Spawner that has been transfered to a Tactic Zone dies, it will respawn it's spawn time later at the same spot. If the Stone Zealots are destroyed, any remaining Spawners will be sent back to your base to resume their job.

The Orbs

As mentioned earlier, there are 5 orbs at every base. These orbs are the orbs of the elements, also known as the Portal of Fire, Portal of Ice, Portal of Air, Portal of Nature, and Portal of Nature. These will summon Spawner units to your base that will periodically spawn creeps of their type, and send them to your enemies'.

The Summoning System

When you begin, you can only summon the 5 basic units. The Firebat, Marauder, Marine, Zealot, and Broodling. You must then merge these units together to make more powerful spawners. For example, merging 2 broodlings will make a Zergling. 2 Zerglings and a Firebat will make a Reaper, and so on. There are currently 75 different units that can be created by merging units. There are scheduled to be 50 more added.

The Elements

The game works on a Rock Paper Scissors system. Fire -> Ice -> Air -> Nature -> Water -> Fire. Units attacking an a unit of an element of their strength will do 1.5x the damage. For example, instead of 4 damage, a broodling will do 6 damage to a Firebat.

Bonuses

The Custom UI

I have spent quite a bit of time working on designing a clean, efficient, and visually appealing UI. Note that when I say designing, I mean actually drawing out and conceptualizing. The actual UI (as of 8/22/11) hasn't even been built yet! I am putting a lot of effort into this, not just because I think it is important for it to look good, but because it is important for the UI to be optimized for gameplay. The standard UI is great, but is designed for an RTS game, not an RPG, ToW, or TD. I wanted to fix that.

The borders, in my opinion, could use some work. In games such is Seismic Showdown, where a player is playing as all three races, a Zerg themed UI doesn't make sense. Neither does a Protoss or Terran UI. I have created an entirely new border for the UI to use. This border will be themed with leaves and other plant-like objects, to represent the tranquil forest terrain that is in the game.

Unit Stat Viewer

In Seismic Showdown, the standard UI is no longer present. Because the standard wireframe and stats of a unit are designed for the removed UI, it would make no sense to keep them as well. Because of this, I have completely re-designed the way units are viewed.

Instead of a tiny 2D image of a unit, you will get full 3D preview to the right of your screen. Along with this will be a tint. If the unit is normal, it is healthy. Yellow, losing health. Red, almost dead. The same color scheme the default wireframe uses. Below this will be the unit stats, and level and attributes if it is a hero.

The Shop

In the custom UI, as mentioned above, there is a 3D preview for your unit. This allows you to rotate your unit, and see what it looks like in 3D.

However, the preview takes up a lot of space. That is why I have allowed this space to be utilized by the shop. The shop is a place where you can spend the Player Points that you have earned. The shop is designed so that unlimited amounts of items can be sold, for there will be a scroll bar and categories. A small description of the item will be shown when you hover over it. The price and quantity available is always shown.

Player Points

As you play Seismic Showdown, you accumulate Player Points. When you win a game, you get 25 points. When you lose, you get 10. When you quit, you lose 15. This is designed to keep players playing. So, what do you spend Player Points on?

Well, Player Points are desinged to be spent on things that will be appealing, but will not necessarily aid you in the game. For example, skins for your heroes. You can purchase various skins for your heroes, and even your spawning orbs. You can also purchase items that will modify gameplay. For example, when you want to summon a powerful unit, you must first summon all of the necessary weaker units to sacrifice. In the case of a unit like the Archon, this can be over 65 units, and 150 merges! There is an upgrade you can purchase that will create all the necessary units for you, and then merge them all until the desired unit is created.

If any units that could be used for the merge exist, they will be used instead of new units being created. This will optimize convenience for the player, and make the game more enjoyable.

Also, all of these upgrades will be unlocked for the first 60 minutes of play time. After that time is up, you must purchase these upgrades with the player points that you earn by winning, or just plain completing a game. Additional bonuses and achievements in the game will award Player Points as well.

Conclusion

Seismic Showdown may appear to be inactive. This project has been in the making for 6 months, and is scheduled to be released in late October of this year. Stay tuned for more information.

Any questions, comments, concerns? Send me a PM