Posted: Feb 20, 2014 An attempt to create a collectible tactics game with fewer, but more interesting, moving parts.

Fig 200.1 - Collect them all!

This is a collectible tactics game in which you collect units to play as. In an effort to limit the number of moving parts, units are the only thing you collect, and indeed the only thing that you have available to manipulate outside of battle. The point is to have fewer connections between game elements, but also to make the connections more interesting.

Fig 200.2 - A typical unit.

Each unit is made up of four different parts: BODY, WEAPON, SPECIAL ATTACK, and PASSIVE ABILITY. That's all. This means that units have three options available to them during battle: Move, Attack, and Special Attack. They are limited in what they can do in an effort to make each one uniquely suited to different situations. They do not level up or grow stronger.

Fig 200.3 - Three typical units.

Here are three units, each with their own BODY, WEAPON, SPECIAL ATTACK, and PASSIVE ABILITY. When it comes time to play a level, you simply select which units you want to use and place them on the board. There is a bit of unit customization, as units that you don't opt to use can instead be temporarily "equipped" onto the board units, changing their components and creating a composite unit.

Fig 200.4 - A composite unit.

In this example, Maxim is the unit being placed on the board. The player has decided not to use Ruby or Evil Wizzer, but has instead decided to improve Maxim's unit with them. He equips Ruby in the WEAPON slot, switching her WEAPON in. Similarly, he equips Evil Wizzer in the SPECIAL ATTACK slot, allowing the Maxim unit to summon demons instead of blindly handing out naive praise.

In this way, unlocking new units doesn't just make the units available, but also their components for use on other units.