Triverse is a 2D triangle-grid-based game where players build drones from scavenged or manufactured parts, leading their fleet to explore and survive in a procedurally-generated world.
The project is an experiment combining these elements:
- Player-designed units
- Simultaneous turns
- RTS-style orders
- Triangle grids
- Procedural world
- Grid-based physics
Early prototyping
An early prototype (circa 2012) featured fully real-time, top-down shooter gameplay in continuous space, implemented with C# and Unity. Inspired by Subspace, movement had momentum and a feeling of mass, and the player could push or crush other objects like asteroids or enemy ships. The prototype exposed the challenges of mixing building mechanics with fast-paced gameplay, complications with turrets, and controlling larger ships or fleets.
New direction
A newer prototype introduces pausable real-time gameplay to give players more time to focus on tactical decisions, fleets, and unit design. It’s written entirely in F# and uses Urho3D for graphics/audio/input, with a homegrown ECS/actor system to glue everything together. It features about a dozen drone parts, simple building mechanics, and enough gameplay and AI to conduct battles. Time steps are large and all movement is aligned to a global grid, so it can resemble either a roguelike or real-time strategy game depending on how the player chooses to control the game.
Of course there’s much more to do, but the important parts are (1) making sure player choices in unit design translate to diverse and meaningful gameplay, and (2) ensuring the overarching economy and resource system makes sense. Aside from that, there are plenty of opportunities to refine areas like game balance, UI, visuals, or AI.