Hey, I'm Josh and I'm the Lead Dev at TOME Studios. Some of you might know me as the lead on Isochron, but for TOME Studios I'm teamed up with Moj, an ex-Irrational Games artist who has worked on games such as BioShock and Tribes. Together we're putting together Danger Alliance. (renamed from Lost Company) It's a 3D Tactical Turn Based game for iPhone, iPad and Mac OS X. The best way to think of Danger Alliance: Battles is like a sophisticated chess game on steroids. One tester actually described DA as "Like chess with rocket launchers and cricket bats!" So the core fun in this title is the turn based tactical match-ups, and out-witting your opponent with careful placement and planning that lets you smash them when you get within range. Watching the cartoony characters performing your commands and dealing deadly killing blows is also a lot of fun There are 6 battlefields to play on and each map has its own strengths, weaknesses and features - * Maps come in various sizes for long range or short range match-ups * The 3D terrain really matters! We have a sophisticated Line Of Sight engine that makes cliffs and hills provide cover for your units. You can hide up against the base of cliffs, or take the high points for greater coverage. * Water zones on maps slow you down to half speed to make key points more of a challenge to control * Obstacles at full and half hight provide tactical barriers - half hight gives some protection against projectiles, full height means you're mostly safe (but watch out for grenadiers who can lob grenades over both!) * Each battlefield has been hand crafted over many, many months to provide an excellent balance of tactical control points and game pace. We have about 10 battlefields that have been tossed as they didn't make the grade and provide the deep tactical engagement we were looking for. (You should thank Moj for his excellent level design skills!) When you get the game, you'll only be able to play the first battlefield - as you complete games against the AI more levels will become unlocked. And once you unlock all the levels, a special Strategic Victory (capture the flag) mode is made available for all the previous battlefields! And to top it off, you'll really have to think hard about choosing the right team as we have a bunch of pre-made AI teams for you to fight against. You wont know who you're fighting until you start the battle so you'll have to adapt your tactics on the fly. And as you get better you can play through with an Easy, Normal and Hard AI. Enjoy!
It's been a long time I'm waiting for a "ufo-like" to land on the iphone, so many thanks and good luck guys. Do you have an ETA ? And I've got many questions, will it have base management, covert destruction, precision depending on position, etc etc etc ?
the game is primarily multiplayer at the moment and there is an overarching management component with respect to managing your squad. There are seven unit types that will be unlocked during play allowing a huge number of team configurations. We also have team perks you can unlock for that extra edge. The levels are highly interactive too so you can use lots of different tactics. Half cover will reduce accuracy and buildings and high terrain will require arcing weapons like grenades.
While we've designed most of the game mechanics and pushed for the playable pre-alpha you see here, there are still a bunch of assets to finish and mechanics to implement. We're planning to meet an October deadline for our internal beta, and then we'll be releasing once everything has been thoroughly tested in both the game and the online server.
While our online server has been set up for any number of teams in online matches, the maps and the game are geared towards two player battles for our initial release.
Arf, I'm sad it's designed with multiplayer in mind, I guess I'll continue waiting for my UFO-like to arrive... Hope you guys will make your game evolve with a focus on single player. I so want a tactical game with the kind of depth you can find in silent storm, xcom ! I've tried the "advance wars lookalike" you can find on iphone, and it lacks a lot of things for me, I want to be able to crouch behind cover, that my bullets can go through wood doors, etc etc. I want to be able to choose between careful shot and blind shot, place teamsquad on ambush for they can shoot during the ennemy turn, and so on. I know a lot of people prefer simple/quick games like FF tactics or advance wars, especially on iphone, but I know some day a kind dev will bring me the fallout tactics I want. Anyway, the best to you, seems like a good game.
I feel your pain... if you were to search all of my posts you would see that I said several times how I wanted a Silent Storm, Warhammer 40k: Squad Command, x-com, fallout tactics, Laser squad nemesis on the iphone. I hope you guys do implement any form of offline even if its just a skirmish mode.
Lost Company has some single player elements in the works which will eventually make it into the game. We feel that the level of involvement is just right for an online tactical game. We did a lot of table top testing and it's deep enough to develop some strong tactics without getting bogged down in micro management. If you're after something more like X-Com though, you should really check out my other title - Isochron [dev blog]. Both Isochron and Lost Company being built off my tactical game engine so both are currently progressing at pretty much the same rate. Isochron will take a little longer to finish though due to the extra management components and depth, but in the mean time you'll have Lost Company which is definitely needed for the iPhone.
Very interesting. I'm a bit disappointed too that the game is multiplayer-focused, but I could get behind that anyway, if the gameplay is as good as those character models. Great work there!
