Greetings!  Welcome to Messy Strategy, the home of cool and unique real time strategy games!

3/28/2020 UPDATE:  New projects in the works...

Game demo for "War of Barnard's Star" available for download!  See below!

Screenshots from the full game (forthcoming)

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UPdate! Wednesday March 5th, 2014: Yeaaa!  Download War of Barnard's Star DEMO BETA here!

update Friday Feb. 7, 2014:  OK, I've finally hammered out a EULA and I'll be uploading the game demo to the website shortly.

YEA!!!!!  Game demo for "The War of Barnard's Star" is complete!  YEA!!!!!  Oh, btw Jan. 31, 2014. :)

update Wednesday Nov. 27, 2013:  Aside from a few tweeks to the main menu, the core of the game is DONE!  Currently building missions.  For the demo there will be the training mission and 2 regular missions.  It'll be about 2 weeks to completion, barring any complications.

update Monday Nov. 18, 2013:  OK, it's been awhile and I've been very busy.  Checklist countdown (I've added some stuff): 1) fx option for additional ambient light.  Without the ambient light the ships can be hard to see although I think it looks cooler.  So I'm adding the option.  2) Additional vocals for the command options (about 15 of them).  3) Add a "stop" command for ships.  4) Various gameplay tweeks like speed and hit point variables.  5) Build up training and first 2 regular missions.

update Fridays Nov. 1, 2013:  Updated main menu complete.  Checklist countdown continues: 1) special fx options, 2) improved space ship models, and 3) build up training and first 2 regular missions.  We're almost there...

update Fridays Oct. 25, 2013:  Well, at this point it's easier to describe what I have left to do.  1) redoing the main menu so it looks a little more professional 2)add some optional fx bling (lots of transparency stuff), 3)do a final pass on the ship models making them look a little nicer, 4)and last but by no means least, build up the training and first 2 regular missions for the demo. This will include doing some voice-overs and some additional artwork.  ETA?  Soon, I hope.

update Fridays Oct. 18, 2013:  Mad progress this week.  AI ship movement completed.  Icons for player ship data completed.  "legendary ship" feature added along with updated runTactical() function.  Started an "After Action Report" (AAR) instead of just a victory/defeat picture.  Started drafts of training mission and first 2 regular missions. 

update Fridays Oct. 11, 2013:  I made great progress this past week.  All weapon fx are finished.  The tactics engine is all done.  Need to do some more sound fx, and finalize hud design.  Then off to the wonderful world of AI.

update Fridays Sep. 27, 2013:  OK, I skipped a week. It was a crazy week.  4 Beta Screenshots in the games-WBS section!  Reworked tactics engine is finished.  Particle and other fx is 1/3 complete.  Next up is some more robust sound fx. 

update Fridays Sep. 13, 2013:  Reworked tactics engine is half finished.  Battleships and destroyers now function a lot better.  Next up is reworking the tactics for the strike craft.  Also, I plan to redo some of the original fx with some of my new resource based particle system that I made last month. 

update Fridays Sep. 6, 2013:  OK, the new layout for the sectors is all done.  It looks a lot better and is much more intuitive - no more different "levels".  However, as I continued to beta test, I found the gameplay to be kind of off somehow.  The ships in the game have 2 "modes" , suppression fire and attack.  Attack is just full power against a single ship and suppression cuts in half the fire power of all enemy ships in that sector.  It looked to me that both modes would be useful, but when I tested it I found I only used the suppression mode if I outnumbered the enemy ship in a sector.  Otherwise, I just used attack mode all the time.  So, I'm going to rework the tactics engine into something more interesting.  More soon.

Special Update, Tuesday, Sept. 3, 2013:  I'm making some changes to the gameplay of WBS.  The original layout was that ships move sector by sector, and there are (or were) 3 levels of sectors, kind of like 3 chess boards one on top of the other.  I thought this was a cool way to add 3 dimensional movement to the game.  However, when I started to beta test the gameplay, I found it confusing and frustrating.  Moving between the levels was counter-intuitive.  And for a game that would have no more than a half dozen ships per side, there were just too many sectors (57 in all).  The fix is pretty simple.  I'll cut in half the number of sectors, and there'll be just one "level" of sectors, but rather the sectors won't all be on a flat plain.

The game is otherwise looking good and I've already started planning what to put in the sequel.

update Fridays Aug. 30, 2013:  I'm planning to have the game finished by the end of the weekend.  Hopefully.  ;)

Aaand I can't wait until I complete my resource library.  It'll make future projects sooo much easer.  Resources made so far:

Particles: sparks, smoke, flashbang, fire, flash, fade, shockwave

Movement: "transitional" movement (for spaceships.  allows movement in one direction while the ship is pointed in another), slope (i.e. for vehicles on the side of a hill) (trickier than it sounds)

Utilities: mouselook, interpolate, putobject, syncobject, mouseoverimage, distance2D, limit variable

Update Fridays Aug. 23, 2013:  *sigh* Well it looks like I need another week or so to polish things up.  Small, annoying little bugs keep popping up - sort of the programing equivalent of whack-a-mole.  Fear not.  This game is a go! 

On a separate note, this project has been a real learning experience for me, and I'm figuring out better ways to do things.  Now, the way I have been programing is to start each project from scratch and to create a new "type"  for each kind of object I put in the game.  But this is incredibly time consuming and tedious.   So I've started to do something different.  I've started making a "library" of commonly used data types(i.e. TYPE=spaceship) and functions(i.e. moveShip() ).  The advantage is that once completed  I'll be able to use these reusable pieces to make future games much more quickly without constantly having to reinvent the wheel (or in this case function) over and over again.  I've already finished types and functions for particle effects such as sparks and smoke as well as a simple spaceship and its' movement function.  Next up:   flare effects, ballistic objects, and a main menu template.

Update Fridays Aug. 16, 2013:  OK, it looks like next weekend should be it.  I'm programing the A.I. now, will do a few artwork tweaks and polish up the sound a bit and the demo should be ready!

Update Fridays Aug. 9, 2013:  Demo ready in 2 weeks.  Promise!  I need to tweak  some of the textures and add the fighter CAP and nebula conditions to the tactics engine.  Also, I have to write out some text for the 2 sample missions and do some voice and AI for the training mission.  And then I'm done!  :D

Update Fridays Aug. 2, 2013:  missiles are finished (a carrier wing alpha strike is particularly awesome! ) .  Currently working on shells. 

Update Fridays July 26, 2013:  While progress continues to be smooth, I fear I won't make the end-of-July deadline I set for my self.  New deadline is set for the middle of August.  To give perspective as to where I'm at with the game I'll explain what I've done already and what I'm currently working on now.

Completed:  Main Menu (including graphic options, about and help tabs, and mission buttons and button sounds).  I might change the Main Menu background picture-it looks a little plain and boring.  Also completed in the game itself:  Most of the art work (including 3d ship models, star field backgrounds, dust cloud and nebulae graphics, ship icons and data graphics, and some explosion fx with fireballs, sparks, and sounds), All ship movement, Tactics Engine, End Game sequence.

Working On Now:  Sounds (including background ambient, ship engines, explosions, "CIC" personnel backgrounds), Weapon fx (including missiles, missile trails, particle cannons, flak), and voice and text special for the training mission.

well... back to the grind!  :)

UPDATE July 19, 2013:  I've set up a nice routine that seems to be working out.  On Mondays I do sounds (voices, sound fx, etc.).  Tuesdays is for general programing.  Wednesdays are for artwork (3d models, sprites).  Thursdays is general programing and Fridays is for website updates.  Weekends are for whatever leftover tidbits that need doing.

I'm still hopeful the demo will be done by the end of the month, but it's near completion so it won't be much longer in any event.

UPDATE July 12, 2013:  OK! After many false starts, it looks like I have a game that I will finish up pretty soon.  "The War of Barnard's Star"  is a space strategy game that focuses on tactical ship combat.  More later-much more :)

UPDATE July 5, 2013:  site revamp, game demo by end of July.

Update Apr. 15, 2013:  Major movement and camera tracking bugs fixed (whew!). 

Update Apr. 1, 2013:  (3 new screenshots in the games\hydra section) Work on "Hydra" is progressing smoothly.  Ship movement and basic graphic layout is finished.  Next up is working on complex movement command i.e. orbit planet and attack ship at long range.  I've also gone with a pretty funky all-on-one-page main menu where all the graphic ,option and other various buttons are all put together.

update Mar. 22, 2013: OK, I think I'm getting my act together a bit better now.

     Solar Sailing is shelved for now.  It will be part of a seperate universe.  The new

     mini-game project is just a stripped down version of AST FC called "Strike of the

     R.S.I. Hydra".

update Feb. 26, 2013: New mini game project announced - Solar Sailing

update Feb. 20, 2013: Added contact info

update Feb. 20, 2013:  Added "World Union" story.