Inspired by Advanced Wars and Wargroove, Imperial Flight is a local multiplayer turn-based strategy game where the goal is to capture as much territory as possible rather than to annihilate your opponent. Move your planes over a building to capture it and the nearby area. There are three different plane types and three different buildings, each with varying function (explained in the in-game tutorial menu). This Deluxe version expands upon the original Jam version with a range of new mechanics, UI and quality of life changes.

NOTE: Due to limitations, the web version only has mouse controls, and is missing sound effects. The downloadable version is still available at the bottom of this page.

DELUXE FEATURES:

  • A total of 4 maps to choose from:
    • The original from the Jam version, updated and renamed to "Azure Archipelago"
    • 3 new maps: "Crimson County", "Verdant Village", and "Amber Atoll"
  • Each empire now gets to choose a commander, with each giving a unique gameplay bonus.
    • Ryoko - Decreases damage taken by 1 when the plane is within allied territory
    • Clein - Increases damage dealt by 2 when the plane is within allied territory
    • Hikari - Restores 1 health after moving, if the plane ends turn within allied territory
    • Conrad - Decreases the cost of all new planes by 25 gold
    • Finn - If an attack would kill the plane, gives up to a 25% chance for the plane to survive on one HP.
    • Ashera - If the plane starts its turn on an allied building, allows the plane to move one extra tile.
    • Sivrit - All new planes start with 1 extra HP.
    • Marie - Starts the game with 400 more gold than normal.
  • Enemy AI, allowing for any of the up to four players be replaced by the AI
  • New control options for both mouse and gamepad (detailed below)
  • Background music and sound effects
  • And a series of UI changes including:
    • Seeing the exact range both your and the enemy's planes can move to
    • A brand new tutorial menu
    • The amount of gold you have being visible at all times
    • A change to the end screen allowing a swap between the leaderboard and the final map

CONTROLS:

MOUSE:

  • Mouse Motion - Movement in the menu / game
  • Left Click - Selection in the menu / game
  • Right Click - Deselect a unit / building
  • On-screen button - End turn

KEYBOARD:

  • W A S D - Movement in the menu / game
  • SPACE - Selection in the menu / game
  • BACKSPACE - Deselect a unit / building
  • RETURN or ESCAPE - End turn

GAMEPAD:

  • Left Stick or D-Pad - Movement in the menu / game
  • A - Selection in the menu / game
  • B - Deselect a unit / building
  • Start or Select - End turn

KNOWN BUGS:

  • When using keyboard or gamepad controls, and playing against an AI, it is possible to pick up and move the last building moved by the AI. 
    • This bug does not occur when playing against other human players
    • This bug does not occur when using mouse controls
    • This bug does not occur in the web version
  • When using mouse controls, it is possible for certain AI movement to also relocate a building.

ASSETS USED:

More information

Download

Download
DX.zip 17 MB

Install instructions

Download and extract the zip file, and run the .exe file within.

Comments

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Beweeted1 year ago

I'd love to try this. Any thoughts of releasing it for Mac or Web?

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Donian1 year ago

I don't have a Mac so can't test on there, but I'll have a look into getting PyGame to run on Web. Will reply again if I do it :D

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Donian352 days ago

Sorry for the long wait, but I have finally added a web version! If you try it please tell me what you think!

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Beweeted23 days ago

Thanks for this, and the follow up comment! I tried it out on Web. I don't have much time right now, but the first playthrough was definitely neat. I couldn't help myself though and wound up playing a second game while I was typing this up. I lost both games.

Game 1: 6 turns vs 1 ai, AzureA

Game 2: 9 turns vs 2 ai, VerdantV

Liked:

  • Turn counter and conquered territory meter did well at giving the feeling that there is some depth, while keeping the unit variety very small. Great idea without adding complicated unit abilities.
  • The difference between tent, house, and flag helped too.
  • Turn counter simulates different economy intensities.
  • AI is not trivially easy.
  • 3p game, knew I needed to go for the empty space, and decided to go for blood on the trapped neighbour instead. I was completely ravaged by the other AI, who did expand into the open space. I like that even with 30 years of strategy game experience, I still lost to temptation to go for blood. I surrendered with 3 turns left - AI was actually on track for complete domination, but probably wouldn't have made it in time.

Feature suggestions you could explore:

  • Impassible tiles
  • Random commander option
  • Different sized maps
  • Different eco maps (more/fewer houses, more/fewer flags)
  • A spiral map, which leads each player around the map to the rear of the next player.
  • 3 player maps.
  • Different starting units. Per commander, or selectable, or reduced start.
  • Undo. At least one action, but since it's all deterministic, back to the start of the turn seems reasonable.

Improve:

  • I'd love just a tiny bit more visibility on health and damage for units. Especially since the commander bonuses are so explicit. I don't have a sense of scale for how much +1 damage is. Maybe mouseover/highlight UI in tent selection screen?
  • Higher contrast on health bars vs bar border, and on team colours vs grey moved units/unclaimed buildings. Pastel blue in particular.
  • I missed the tutorial - maybe put that as option #1 or #2 in the future, instead of underneath credits?
  • Unit pricing (4>3>3.5) feels weird with the names. Maybe Heavy, Balanced, and Scout?
  • Show movement range for all units when cursor is over them. Don't require a click to get it. Maybe tint colour for your own units, based on exhausted vs ready vs clicked? I really wanted to check the movement range on my own units after I had moved them, to see how things would line up for the next round.
  • Smart highlight for when you are out of units & purchasing power.

Bugs:

  • Mouse controls didn't always catch up to the mouse cursor. Sometimes it would just leave a tile 1-2 spaces away highlighted, and I would have to move the mouse again to get it to catch up. Clicking without doing this will select the highlighted tile, not the tile the cursor is over, resulting in misclicks. This can be felt a lot on commander select screen, though the impact of it is the least. I wonder if there's some sort of dead space on the main game, similar to all the dead space in the CoSel screen, that this is picking up on? The worst was running into this when buying units though.
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Donian22 days ago

Thank you for the in-depth feedback! I agree with your improvements / feature suggestions, most of this game's flaws were probably from originally being just a weekend game-jam game, but even then this version atleast is a lot better than the original (eg the original had no movement highlight, AI, commanders, etc.)

I was thinking of trying to make a more standard Advance Wars-like game (with grounded units) at some point, especially now that I have ground units working in my other game Doceana Quest (which I saw you've played). The asset maker (Kenney) released some assets specifically for that sometime last year, so I just need the free time to make it. But also I like making different genres, so don't hold your breath for it to release soon!

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