Ruilan Bolton
The Art of War
Rushed or not you build your bots - to fight or to sing they go on the conveyor belt!
About
Players: Singleplayer
Game Type: Digital Game - Unity
Status: Complete
In The Art of War, players navigate the dual worlds of a high-pressure corporate War Bot factory and the tranquil haven of their own home. Balancing between fast-paced resource management in the factory and a slower, reflective creative process at home, players must harness their creativity to shape the outcome of the game. Using a drag-and-drop builder mechanic, players face time constraints and surveillance challenges in the factory, contrasting with the freedom to craft Art Bots at home using pilfered parts. The game's dynamic setting evolves from a stark corporate environment to a personalized space influenced by player choices, offering a unique blend of strategy, creativity, and narrative exploration.
Making Magpies Studio - The Team
Design History
Preliminary Concept (September 2023)
This is where the concept for The Art of War began. We started with deciding on our main value of Creativity. From there, we came up with the premise of working in a factory and exploring creativity in a corporate space.
Two main screens:
Factory
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Robot parts move across a conveyor belt
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Different combinations of parts created different bots that would be logged in the Notebook.
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Art Bots were made using Unique Parts that would otherwise be destroyed.
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Players could steal Unique parts by putting them in their Pocket. ​
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Home
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Stolen parts from Pocket could be used to make Art Bots, these designs would then be saved in the Notebook and could be built in the Factory screen.
Paper Prototype
(October 2023)
We then tested our building and stealing mechanics. We created a physical prototype with three players competing to make the most and the best bots.
Two main screens:
Factory
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The "conveyor belt" is replaced with a rotating board. The players had 10 seconds to grab "parts" and build bots before the board rotates. They have one full rotation to make the most bots (and get the most points per bot) out of the 3 players.
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Bots are built using 1 yellow part (Power Part) and 1-2 other non-yellow parts that equal up to the number on the Power Part. Depending on the combination they get a different number of points per bot.
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Players may "Steal" parts and add them to their Pocket when the BO55 coin is flipped to the green side (the coin is flipped with every rotation of the board).
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Home
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Stolen parts from Pocket can be used to make Art Bots, whose parts are then swapped with the pot of Parts. Any bot made with an Art Part becomes an Art Bot. the goal is to have more Art Parts than Parts by the end of the game.
We discovered that players were not incentivized to make Art Bots. We needed a new mechanic in the Home section going forward.
Digital Prototype
(November 2023 - April 2024)
Using what we learned from the paper prototype, we then moved to coding the game in Unity.
Two main screens:
Factory
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Return to singleplayer
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Implementation of the simple math for bot building, as seen in the paper prototype
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Players have a quota
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Players may only steal when the BO55 is not watching
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Removal of the Notebook
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Home
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Players may make Art Bots at Home with the parts they stole from the Factory. Depending on the configuration of parts they use the Bot will sing a different song and become colourful.
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Parts used to make Art Bots will replace normal Parts in the Factory. Any War Bots build with Art Parts will become Art Bots instead.
At this stage, we have begun implementing assets, music, and additional mechanics.
Sample Assets by Stefanniia
Final Gameplay Screenshots
Final UML Diagram
As the Systems Designer for this game, it was integral for the team to follow along with the structure of the code. Below is the UML Diagram I created showcasing the methods and variables that make up the game's inner-workings.
Controls:
Click and Drag/Use two fingers to move around the diagram.
Use the scroll wheel/pinch to zoom in or out.