[Progress] Turn Based Battles (Patreon)

(Mouse targeting won't actually be a thing in the final version of this, it was just a quick test of the floating numbers and applying a health change to a target in the fight.)

We're getting somewhere!

Patrons will get access to the source code of this prior to recording the video so they can dive in and mess around while I'm creating the actual... tutorial bit. Though I still have a little to go to get there. Eventually this will also be available to all with a one-off fee similar to most of my other works. The video(s?) of course will be free for everyone to watch as always.

This tutorial is going to end up fairly beefy even though the result will be very barebones relative to the depth to which one can go creating a system like this. I'm doing my best to keep things as modular as possible while retaining simplicity and my own sanity. The deceptive thing about this topic is it sounds like a game feature, to have turn based battles. But really a turn based battle "system" is or can be an entire game in its own right depending on your personal lens and the game in question. You can really go all the way and a huge spectrum of possibilities exist that many will take for granted.

My tutorial aims to get people off the ground making a turn based battle system but allow them to go in any direction they please while hopefully still getting an initial result that resembles some kind of video game in its own right. This is a very difficult aim.

I expect the comments on the final video to be flooded with at best potential directions to expand, and at worst indignation that I didn't include the things the viewer considered to be obviously crucial. Unfortunately I am unlikely to pursue either when this tutorial is done with limited possible exceptions. 

I don't want to constrict this project to only being of help to those who want a very specific type of game, and unfortunately there is only so much one can add without passing a certain point of no return (and indeed, every choice I have made thus far brings the project closer to that point and will have already excluded what some people will want from a "turn based battle" video.)

You're going to be able to:

• have a party that has stats
• create encounters with a custom number and type of enemy
• define actions that appear for your party members, and how they behave
• select those actions from menus when it is a party member's turn. At least including "attack" and some other simple variants.
• have enemies perform actions defined in the same way via simple random choice
• queue actions to occur in sequence so that the player can continue to menu while the game is progressing (and leaving room to easily create an ATB system)
• have fun floating number effects (as seen above) but effects generally will be the bare minimum needed to communicate gameplay. As I said, you can really go all the way with this (sequences could be great here but too complex!)

I hope this will answer the vast majority of needs from the many who wanted to see me cover this topic!!