So, welcome to ÆDesignation; this is a blog dedicated to the development of a game currently under the working title of Project Designation, as you probably already knew. Why blog about the development? Because we couldn't afford to hire someone to make a documentary.
Now, a little about me: My actual name is Marcus, as is obvious from the post, though, at least online, I'm more commonly known as Varine. I am working on Designation as a side project, for the most part. I currently work full time, and am preparing to return to school shortly, so the development of this will likely be slow and tedious, but hey? What can I do, right?
The company, Æternal Designs, originated as a small team dedicated to developing maps for Warcraft III. Our most prominent project was the campaign expansion planned for WCIII called The Edge of Eternity, or EOE. Unfortunately, due to conflicts within the core development team, the project was never finished, despite several attempts at revival before EoE was officially abandoned, and the various other projects that were under conception at the time were also, for the most part, scrapped.
In the few years that have passed since, I have been designing and prototyping various things, from games to electronics to landscaping ideas for my house, in my free time, and thus far it has lead up to the design for Project Designation.
What IS Project Designation exactly? Beyond the obvious of it being a video game, Project Designation is a real time strategy war game of sorts. The player takes the role of a support operator, providing oversight for soldiers in the designated area of operation in the form of direct air support, providing directions and critical intelligence to ground forces, and designating priority targets.
The AI system will handle movement of the units for the most part, leaving the player free to focus on the larger battlefield.
How the core scheme of the game works is a dynamic status system. Ground forces will push forward without the need of the player to directly command them, and will make decisions regarding the situations dynamically to protect themselves and their allies. However, they will require support. Air strikes, reinforcements, supply drops, and medical evacuations, along with a plethora of other design systems planned to be integrated.
The player's job is to coordinate the support efforts to get ground forces the aid they need as quickly and efficiently as possible. Though there is no traditional resource system, where you spend gold or credits or some forms of currency in exchange for units, the player must think on a larger scale to succeed.
Instead, the player has a limited number of supplies available. There are only so many planes and so many soldiers ready to go into battle. Time management and intelligent use of the resources will be required to keep up against the invading forces.
Varine
