Arkhados: A FOSS fast paced 3D Arena game
Arkhados 0.5
I'm happy to present the game that I've been working on for some time now – Arkhados. Arkhados is a 3D online multiplayer arena game where players use various spells to kill each other. Arkhados is entirely skill based; there's no auto-targeting, no random effects and no items that make your hero more powerful than others. Only your skills and Internet connection matter!
Arkhados is very fast paced. There's no tedious item grinding phase and there are no mana costs. In most cases the only limit is cooldown. This doesn't mean you could just mindlessly spam all your skills – it's very important that you use your spells at the right moment.
Arkhados is entirely free and open source (FOSS). I value free software and culture very highly. Arkhados is developed in Java, using jMonkeyEngine 3.
Arkhados 0.5 features:
- Deathmatch mode
- 1 arena
- 4 distinct heroes with each having 8 unique abilities
- Replay-support
- Lots of high quality music
- Free and open source
Arkhados' website: http://triplesnail.github.io/Arkhados/
Arkhados on GitHub: https://github.com/TripleSnail/Arkhados
Note: Before playing, you should look at "How to play" on Arkhados' website. It helps you understand game mechanics and each hero's abilities better.
Gameplay trailer
What's coming next?
- Team deathmatch
- More interesting arena with more visual details
- New hero
(I will add hero designs somewhere later)
Contributing
For ideas, please take a look at Arkhados' GitHub-repository's front page:
https://github.com/TripleSnail/Arkhados
You may also want to look at Arkhados' issue list:
https://github.com/TripleSnail/Arkhados/issues
Specifically, Arkhados needs more and better (low poly) skeleton animated 3D-models. I'd be very happy to one day notice to see that there is new animated 3D-model for one of the upcoming heroes. If you are willing to make a 3D-model, please take a look at the hero design page.
(I will add hero designs to Arkhados' site later)
FAQ
System requirements
Arkhados has been tested on Windows, Linux and Mac OS X.
Arkhados requires at least OpenGL 2.0 support from GPU.
Arkhados shouldn't be very demanding. For almost one year I developed Arkhados on a machine with old dual core CPU and nVidia GPU from year 2005 and it worked fine with lower resolutions. I haven't done proper testing on low end machines for some time though.
On the other hand, it seems that low end machines with an Intel Atom processor can't handle Arkhados well enough to be playable.
Arkhados 0.6 has been released!
Improvements over 0.5.x:
See Arkhados' website for screenshots of the new version. And if you haven't seen the trailer of Arkhados 0.5, please take a look at it :)
http://triplesnail.github.io/Arkhados//2016/01/07/Arkhados-06-released.html
To see what's planned for Arkhados 0.7, see this GitHub-issue:
https://github.com/TripleSnail/Arkhados/issues/36
That looks like an interesting start already, however the slightly odd top-down perspective is probably going to turn off quite a few people. Have you tried if a more isometric like angle still retains the overall feel of the game?
Edit: did you look into adapting the level editor from OpenRTS by the way? Would be a really cool way to make nice looking levels. See: https://github.com/methusalah/OpenRTS also jMonkey3d based.
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Thanks for the ideas
When thinking about changing the camera angle, one thing that must be kept in mind is that enemies shouldn't be able to attack undetected because they are "under the camera". I don't want to give any weird advantages to those who are attacking from the south. I'm trying to make the gameplay "competitive".
But yes, I think it could / should be changed. I once tried but then my free camera didn't work as nicely anymore so I kind of left that for later and then forgot it :D .
Do you think that this game has better camera positioning / angle ?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3vu70sWL2pA
Wow. I saw OpenRTS at some point but for some reason I hadn't thought of utilizing its level editor. I'll definitely investigate it at some point.
The camera angle in the video you posted looks much better, but of course I don't know if it would also play better. Seems worth a try though and it would definitly help making the game look better and while also being less alienating to new players who will expect a more 'typical' camera angle.
Since it is 3D you could maybe 'flip' the maps? I.e. I assume it will be a bit like Dota in the sense that you normally have a "top" and a "bottom" team, but if you would flip the angle depending on the team so that both sides move "up" toward the enemy team it would be quite fair I guess and also allow a somewhat increased view distance in most common game cases. Of course fipping view angle depending on the team might be a bit confusing at first for new players trying to memorize the maps.
Oh and I think integrating the OpenRTS editor (and level assets?) should be top priority as it is really great and would make your game 500% better imediatly :p Seriously, do it NOW! :D
Edit2: Did you think about using the Ryzom character models and animations? They have been converted into relatively usable formats not too long ago: http://forum.freegamedev.net/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=5138
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Okay good to know. That game (Bloodline Champions) used to be my favorite game but it's Windows only, proprietary and now it's pretty much dead. If that camera was okay then Arkhados' camera can be too without sacrificing anything.
Flipping camera wouldn't help much in most arenas because there aren't really "sides" even though there are teams. Memorizing wouldn't be a problem because arenas in Arkhados are small by design and there's really nothing to remember.
Are you by a chance affiliated with OpenRTS in some way :P ? Anyways, I cloned it and looked at it yesterday. Perhaps I should look even more since 500 % is so alluring ( did you try Arkhados already? ). But master server would be quite good for the ease of use and other future features too.
I guess OpenRTS map editor could be for 0.7 and if not for 0.7 then for 0.8 at least. It depends on how easily I can integrate it.
Well, I pretend to have been the one who convinced the author of open-sourcing of OpenRTS, otherwise I am not really affiliated... but once it reaches a more mature state as a RTS it is definitly on my (dream) list of engines to mod ;)
Integrating the editor for 0.7 or 0.8 sound good... I don't want to pressurize you of course, but I am conviced that those two changes (view angle and nicer editor/maps) will already make a big difference in how your game is percieved (and thus attract more potential players).
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