Expansion

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Produced for: #dreamhackaustinjam

A game about space (locational) in space (cosmic).

Colonise the galaxy with a click of a mouse. Use human cunning to outwit the expanding hordes of aliens, robots, and squid-people(?) as you all compete to control the limited space in the galaxy.

Features:

• A strategy game that will make your fingers remember how much you love/hated Minesweeper.

• Five difficulty settings (yay!)

• 3 enemy races each with unique bonuses.

• Randomly generated maps.

• Super nerdy!

Description

It is a strategy game played on a board of 3200 squares which represent the/a galaxy. Each map is randomly generated within specific parameters. Upon the board are four different races, resources, obstacles, and stellar phenomena.

You play the humans, but there are robots, squid-folk, and aliens. The first half of the game is about expanding your humans across the galaxy, and the goal of the game is to completely cover the entire galaxy in humans.

Population density matters, but initially the idea is to reach out and claim valuable resources, before the other races do.

There are three types of resources…

There is also a pair of wormholes on every randomly generated map, which can offer the user instantaneous travel across the galaxy.

Games are played in turns. At the start of the game you get a single population to drop on the map but as your population grows, and as you acquire Populanium, you will be able to drop more population per turn.

Once the galaxy begins to fill up the different races will encounter each other. At this point assimilations begin to occur automatically. An assimilation is when one race replaces another one on the map.

In the above example the central human has a population weight of 3, his own weight of one and the two adjacent green men. There is a population weight of 2 Aliens bearing down on him. In thi case the tile would not be assimilated.

Having dense groups of population means a tile is less likely to be assimilated. It is important to fortify vulnerable locations by surrounding them with population, or preferably reinforcing certain map points to keep large areas safe.

There are other methods of strengthening the weight of a tile. Dyson Spheres are large population centres that reinforce any line with an extra 25 points.

Lines can also be disrupted with the building of walls.

Which can also be exploded to take out especially strong areas, or even resource hubs.

During the first half of the game expansion is key, but in the middle half of the game, holding on to resources and breaking up enemy lines will stop inevitable stalemates when equal population densities meet.

Each map also generates with a number of suns ready to go super nova. When they do they cause a huge amount of damage to the surrounding map but leave behind a resource. A supernova can alter the game at any stage by strengthening one race or causing new lines of battle to open up. The endgame is usually, but not always, played out between two races doing the best to completely annihilate the other.

#The Races:

You play as the humans. Who are equally good, or bad, at everything. The red aliens excel in expansion and are usually dominant in the early part of the game. The blue squid-folk gain a bonus to mining resources. The grey robots cannot use Populanium to boost their growth but gain Unobtanium every turn, regardless of resource centres owned.

#strategy