Another week, another game completed as part of [my three prototype games challenge](/posts/the-three-game-challenge/) ([part one](/posts/the-three-game-challenge-part-1-lateshas-crib/), [part three](/posts/the-three-game-challenge-part-3-the-family-jewels/)) I set myself at the start of this month.



For this one I decided on a type of game that I have been wanting to make for a while, a turn based strategy game. Many moons ago I used to play a J2ME (shudder) game called Ancient Empires. It was a great little game with lots of depth and replayabliltiy and I think it deserved a remake of sorts.

So here is "A Cunning Plan":

[![screenshot_16](/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/screenshot_16-300x224.png)](/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/screenshot_16-300x224.png) [![screenshot_13](/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/screenshot_13-300x222.png)](/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/screenshot_13-300x222.png)
[![screenshot_14](/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/screenshot_14-300x220.png)](/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/screenshot_14-300x220.png) [![screenshot_15](/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/screenshot_15-300x225.png)](/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/screenshot_15-300x225.png)

You can play the game here:

[Play A Cunning Plan](/projects/acunningplan)

This game was far more complex to create than [Latesha's Crib](/posts/the-three-game-challenge-part-1-lateshas-crib/) and hence I spent about 43 hours over the last 9 days making this one.

I was able to save some time by reusing parts of the rendering and hopping logic from Latesha's Crib. As usual I used the  [Ash Framework](https://www.ashframework.org/) with Adobe Starling and Feathers. To code the AI for the computer player I used [Tim Conkling's Excellent Godmode Behaviour Trees](https://github.com/tconkling/godmode-as3) library which is truly an excellent AS3 library. The way Behaviour Trees work is really cool, I strongly recommend checking them out if you are going to design any sort of AI.

Special thanks go to [Mike Rigby](https://www.facebook.com/mikepaulrigby) for helping with play testing and [Ian Callaghan](https://www.facebook.com/ian.t.callaghan) for suggesting I check out Behaviour Trees :)

Let me know what you think of it, if people are feeling it then I may turn it into a full-blown mobile game!

Again I recorded the my time spent making this one, heres the log:

4th April
9:30am - 2pm
3pm - 7pm

5th April
9:30am - 10:30am

6th April
12:00pm - 4pm (-1 for josh, -1 for lunch &amp; spanish)

7th April
2pm - 19:30pm

8th April
1pm - 3:30pm (-1 spanish and lunch)
4pm - 6pm

9th April
3pm - 7pm

10th April
12pm - 7pm

11th April
9am - 10am
1pm - 6pm;

12th April
10am - 1:30pm

Well I have just finished off the first of [my three prototype games challenge](/posts/the-three-game-challenge/) ([part two](/posts/the-three-game-challenge-part-2-a-cunning-plan/), [part three](/posts/the-three-game-challenge-part-3-the-family-jewels/)) that I set myself last week.



For this one I started off with an idea that I wanted to make a time-based puzzle game. Well it didn't turn out that way, also somewhere along the way I discovered an [Ebonics Translator](https://joel.net/EBONICS/Translator) so I decided I would incorporate that for a giggle.

[![screenshot_05](/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/screenshot_05-300x226.png)](/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/screenshot_05.png)[![screenshot_06](/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/screenshot_06-300x225.png)](/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/screenshot_06.png)

[![screenshot_07](/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/screenshot_07-300x226.png)](/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/screenshot_07.png)[![screenshot_08](/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/screenshot_08-300x226.png)](/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/screenshot_08.png)

Anyways see what you think:

[Play Latesha's Crib](/projects/latesha)

In total I spent 31 hours over the last week making this over the past week:

26th March
3pm - 5pm

27th March
10am - 12pm
1pm - 5pm

28th March
10am - 11:30am
3pm - 8pm

29th March
2pm - 5pm

1st April
2pm - 6pm

2nd April
8am - 12pm
2pm - 3pm
5pm - 8pm

3rd April
9:30am - 10:30am
12:pm - 1pm

It was good fun tho I reached a point where I think I had sufficiently prototype the game play so it was time to move onto the next game :)

Let me know what you think. If people really like it then I may turn it into a full-blown mobile game!

![](/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/c05c1aa4a34153cda98d2ed3964498f6.png)

Well as announced [in my last post](/posts/my-2013/) im going to be spending most of this year travelling around various parts of the world. I'm leaving on the 7th on May so I have about a month left before I go so I have been thinking on what small project I can do in the meantime to keep me out of mischief.



I had a great idea for a game which I may write about in a later post but decided that perhaps now may not be the time to make it. So instead what I have decided to do is create a number of prototype games, three to be precise then let you guys decide which one I should take further.

The rules are the games all have to be designed as if they are going to work on mobile so that means only touch based controls. Ill be using Adobe AIR with Ash for all these prototypes so ill make sure that they all run in the browser with PC based controls too.

Im also going to get myself another ground rule. I can only use the free [Lost Garden Planet Cute](https://www.lostgarden.com/2007/05/dancs-miraculously-flexible-game.html) assets.

[![main](/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/main.png)](/posts/the-three-game-challenge/attachment/main-9/)

I hope that this limitation will mean I don't spend too much time worrying about the tech and how it looks and instead concentrate on what has traditionally been tough for me, making it fun!

Ill be updating regularly on my progress and then throw a vote out at the end of it and see which one people like the most, wish me luck!