The Three Design Pillars of Bella Factionum

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1 - Introduction

Bella Factionum is published, now what?

Bella Factionum is a project that I intend to work on for a good while. Naturally, this means that I need to keep myself in line, lest there be feature creep (and to also manage players' expectations). This post will discuss the Three Design Pillars that I will stick to when implementing new features into Bella Factionum. 

2 - What is Bella Factionum?

If you're reading this and don't know what Bella Factionum is, it is a real-time strategy game where customizable Factions send Squads (abstract Units) to Points, capturing them, with different Point Types giving Factions different benefits. The aim of a Bella Factionum match is to be the last Faction standing, which is achieved by eliminating all other Factions, specifically their Squads.

Factions can also have and use Abilities, such as:

A core feature of Bella Factionum is that Factions, Maps (where the actual Faction Wars take place), and Scenarios (like Maps, but with precise placement of Factions at points) are all customizable in-game, meaning you can enact all sorts of fun, interesting or wacky situations.  

With that, let's discuss the Three Design Pillars. 

3 - The First Pillar - Complexity

The core gameplay, sending Squads to capture Points, and being the last Faction standing, is nailed down, and will not see any likely changes. That being said, that is far from my final vision for Bella Factionum. What I want, at the end of the day, is for Bella Factionum to become a game where this core gameplay occurs as part of a set of interconnected systems, which influence each other in interesting and unexpected ways. When a new mechanic is added, the first question I must ask myself is how will this mechanic interact with existing systems in a way that will be interesting and replayable? This way, I will focus on quality over quantity - it's better to have a small number of systems that play well off each other than a hodgepodge of... stuff. 

However, complex systems are useless (in my opinion) if the AI is unable to use them (or abuses them), so improvements to AI-controlled Factions are a high priority also, with a more solid AI System being a plan for Phase 3 (see Section 6 for an explanation of Phases). 

4 - The Second Pillar - Customization

Customization is a non-negotiable part of my design for Bella Factionum. Letting players make Bella Factionum their own is crucial to me. I want Players to be able to feasibly play in any scenario they dream up. An important part of that is making Bella Factionum's design sufficiently abstract such that it can be applied (with a little imagination) to any scenario, from armed conflicts between Countries to a war between Cats and Dogs, for example. 

Currently, when Factions are created, they have a choice of 5 Possible Strengths, 5 Possible Weaknesses, and 5 Possible Abilities. And, when Maps are created, there are only Three Types of Points that can be placed. As I add new mechanics (as discussed in Section 3), the new gameplay possibilities will give rise to new choices for customization. For instance, if I add some kind of system for deception (no promises, just an example), then Factions could naturally have a Strength or Weakness relating to being more "Stealthy". 

A very important caveat to any mechanics I add is that they should be compartmentalized, such that a Player can switch them on and off as they see fit, and be allowed to play unimpeded. Aside from being toggleable, new mechanics should be tunable, which will be achieved through the Gamerule Customization system I already have created. This also means that, if a certain mechanic is deactivated, custom Factions, Maps or Scenarios should be altered in a customizable way, rather than made unplayable (using the example of a "deception" system, if that is inactive, a Faction with Stealth as its Strength/Weakness should have that replaced by another Strength/Weakness). 

As more Options for Customization are added, it is also crucial that I create a GUI that isn't tedious to work with. Furthermore, with what I have in mind, we will reach a point where there may be too many options in customization, which leads to a player being overwhelmed and frustrated. Systems will need to be in place for managing complexity of customization, for instance by optionally hiding categories of options. Additionally, as of this Devlog, Factions and Maps require the Player to upload an Image as the Faction Symbol and Background respectively. But what if the Player doesn't want to fiddle around with Graphical Programs like Paint or Photoshop to make Faction Symbols or Maps? (Simpler) systems for making Faction Symbols and Map Background Images should be in place (that would also help with what I will discuss in Section 5). 

5 - The Third Pillar - Content

With all of its Customization, Bella Factionum is like a Recipe Book for any Realtime Strategy Conflict. But what if you just want food, not a recipe? The Third Pillar, naturally, is for there to be systems for producing content that Utilizes all customization options without the player having to expend much effort. 

This will be done in three ways:

1. Procedural Generation: I intend, over the course of several Phases (see Section 6 for an explanation), to implement Procedural Generation Systems for Maps, Factions, and even Scenarios. Since Bella Factionum is so abstract, there's just so many ways I could generate procedural content (e.g. for maps, I could have Cities, Islands, Mazes, Dungeons, and so much more, and for Factions, there's too many possibilities to list). I'm open to feedback and suggestions for Procedural Generation Ideas, and would be more than happy to use this as an opportunity to experiment with different systems (Wave Function Collapse anyone?)
2. Hand-Crafted Content: I'm no artist, but I'm dabbling in Various Programs, and aim to get more "Default" Maps, Factions and Scenarios into Bella Factionum, since it's a bit barren as of now...
3. User Content: Every Faction, Map and Scenario in Bella Factionum is a single file, which means Players can easily share Factions, Maps and Scenarios with each other (with the usual security caveats). So, ASAP, I will aim to put together a system for uploading User content and sharing it. Maybe one day I'll release Bella Factionum on Steam, and then we'll have the Workshop to play around with, but until then, I'll have to figure out something else.

6 - How will Updates be made?

These ideas are all good, you might say, but how will I actually go about making updates for Bella Factionum? 

Bella Factionum will be split into "Phases". As of this devlog, we are in Phase 2 - (Phase 1 was the Minimum Viable Product). Be on the lookout for a Devlog where I talk about what will be featured in Phase 3. If there are any immediate bugs or small fixes, they are submitted in intermediate Phases (e.g. "Phase 2.1").

7 - Conclusion

Thank you for reading this far! Let's do a recap. 

There's three pillars, Complexity, Customization, Content, and, when implementing new Phases into Bella Factionum, I will refer to these Pillars (to this very devlog, actually). 

If you haven't played Bella Factionum yet, do try it out, and give me feedback - in the Phase 3 Devlog, Player feedback will come first. 

I hope this was informative, have a fantastic day/night/weekend/any other upcoming event!