Okay, so that's a bit dramatic. Our first game, previously codenamed Bywater, is now going by its working title of War Plan Pacific.
In the wake of Pearl Harbor, with the Pacific Fleet a shambles and the Far East falling one domino after another to Imperial Japan, you take the helm. Instead of Nimitz, FDR taps you to lead the Allied comeback. Or, step into Yamamoto’s place, leading the Combined Fleet against the sleeping giant you have just awakened. You must secure the vital Southern Resources Area before the Allied fleet grows too large to resist. In either role, survey a vast map of the Pacific Theater, from the US West Coast to Singapore, from the Aleutians to Australia. A few dozen key bases dot that map, mostly isolated islands connected only by the vital sea lanes. Your Navy, so vast in port, seems to shrink as you spread the ships across the Pacific on all the vital missions needed for victory.
Turn-based, fast-paced, and historical, this is a game you can play in an evening, and replay for many evenings to come.
In War Plan Pacific, you assemble your ships - real, historical ships - into task forces and send them on missions to patrol, raid, or invade the 30 bases chosen to represent the actual strategic considerations of the Pacific Theater of Operations. Control of the bases is vital whether securing oil for Imperial Japan, or strategic bomber bases for the Allies. Battles are fast paced, with carriers sending out strike groups and battlewagons thundering away at one another. Abstractions have been carefully chosen to enhance game play without sacrificing the feel of a historical strategy game. If you are a WWII Pacific Theater buff, this is a game you will enjoy many times over.
War Plan Pacific is currently in the latter stages of Alpha development. The game engine, interface and AI are functionally complete and undergoing fine-tuning and refinement. Much of the artwork - as you will see in the screenshots - is still of the placeholder variety. For example, you may notice that there are only three different images for all of the ships in the game, and those images aren't exactly polished themselves. The USS Iowa currently stands in for all BBs, even the Japanese ones! (though we did plaster a big red meatball on the foredeck so you'd know who they belonged to.) The USS Yorktown and USS Pensacola fill the same role for carriers and cruisers respectively, with a scaled down version of the Pensacola even doing double duty as the image for troop transports. When the final artwork is complete, each ship - Allied and Japanese - will be represented by an accurate image. We have hundreds of deck plans scanned in, waiting for the artists. A map of the same island (can you name it?) shows up regardless of the base you're fighting over. Rest assured, accurate maps for the actual base locations - which were chosen to represent historically important locations - will be there when the game is released.
Much of the UI is also bland, mostly just plain blue rectangles with white text. All of this is undergoing artistic polishing as well. You can see some of the direction we are going in the screenshots. It's pretty easy to guess which parts have gotten attention from our artists and which haven't. The final game will be attractive and visually quite unique.
But good looks aren’t what the game is really about. We've prioritized game play and code quality. We believe the only reason you should get frustrated with a game is because the AI keeps kicking your... ah, rear area. Trying to figure out the interface should not be the biggest challenge in the game. We're constantly refining the UI to make it smooth and intuitive. The AI is already challenging, though still prone to occasional bouts of cluelessness which we are steadily eliminating.
The net result? A game that still has some work left to do, but is going to be a keeper when it's done. We predict this will remain on the hard drives of PTO buffs for quite a while.
All of these are from the January 25, 2008 build (fresh off the CD-RW)
This is the main map. It's the start of the game, and the IJN is ready to strike. This shows the bases that are in play for the game.
TF-16 (USS Enterprise) and TF-23 (a cruiser squadron) are all that stands between the IJN Striking Force and the US Pacific Fleet at anchor in Pearl Harbor. From this screen, you can create or
disband task forces, and move ships between them.
TF-16 defends Wake Island. The Japanese have sent too weak a force, and will be beaten back. If they're lucky, then can withdraw before the Enterprise air group pummels them.
This is the screen where battles are resolved. The Allies are going to Hold their position, staying within air strike range while not allowing the IJN to close for a gunnery (and torpedo) duel. Sure, three Allied Heavy Cruisers could probably make short work of four IJN Light Cruisers, but why risk it when you have air superiority? And yes, those aircraft images are pretty rough.
You might also notice that the image shown on the map is definitely not Wake. It's a placeholder graphic that is used for all the bases right now. The final release of the game will have the correct maps, but for now, can you name the island we're using as our stand-in? Answer below...
RAF Blenheims and Hurricanes (cleverly disguised here as B-24 Liberators and P-40 Warhawks<g>) desperately try to beat off the Japanese invasion of Singapore. They've inflicted quite a bit of damage on
the transports (SNLF, or Special Naval Landing Forces, the Japanese equivalent of Marines), but troops are already coming ashore.
Tragedy for the British! Singapore has fallen, and the Royal Navy, trapped in port, scuttled several fine ships to keep them from falling into enemy hands.
A valiant, but doomed, Allied defense of Java. The game includes Japanese, American, British, Australian and Dutch units.
It's December of '42, and the Allies begin their counterattack. Can the Marines retake Tarawa?
Notice the drawing glitches in the Japanese control overlay around Java and Port Darwin.
Did you guess the name of the island we're using as a placeholder for all our maps? It's Guam, in the Marianas. The Allies have found the IJN Big Guns here in mid ‘43, vulnerable without adequate air cover. I sense bad news for Tokyo.
Stay tuned for more info as we progress with the game. If you have questions or comments, please send them to info@kestudios.com or hop over to our blog post and leave a comment (comments are moderated).
Thanks for sparing us the bandwidth to look over the game.