All of this entity defining is all well and good, but what do these entities do? As there needs to be a place where these entities live and do things, I am now defining the ‘Map’ or ‘Battle’ or ‘Arena’ or whatever theming that is desired. I will refer to these general concepts as the map going forward. Ultimately, the map is where all of the action will take place.
There is a big discussion around square grid or hex grid. I believe that the hex grid is commonly considered to be superior as it does allow more movement (6 directions rather than 4) which leads to more natural gameplay. I however have decided to stick with the good old fashioned square grid as I think that it will be much easier to make and get my head round.
So there you have it really, I have a square grid, plonk the entities on it and add some core gameplay concepts I.e teams, AI, win conditions etc and bish bash bosh, I have a game. Easy right!? Well of course there is a lot of work to go and there will need to be some decision over what these entities can actually do – as even though configuration will define all of the properties there does need to be some structure to the configuration and how they relate to gameplay.
I think for now though I will leave that discussion up till next time…