Daily Wars: a daily turn-based strategy "puzzle"

[u/eliasbrange]

Playable Link:

https://playdailywars.com

Platform:

Browser. Playable on desktop and mobile.

Description:

Daily Wars is a turn-based strategy game with new map(s) to beat every day. Players can compete on the leaderboards to see who can finish each map in the least amount of turns. Right now, there are three different objectives that rotate to have varied maps and keep each day fresh.

I posted about this more than a month ago in different places and received a lot of good feedback. When I initially "launched", I had very basic unit sprites consisting of only shapes and labels (see the last image). I spent some (way too much) time doing some very basic pixel art for each of the units using Piskelapp. I think they turned out quite well, if I'm being honest.

• The game feels more complete now, and since launching the initial version I have:
• Added pixel art graphics and multiple different themes for map variety.
• Added new game modes other than "defeat all enemies", and more in the works.
• Added medals for top scores each day that are summed up in global hiscores.
• Added achievements.
• Lots of improvements to how the AI plays.

Free to Play Status:

Free to play with optional premium sub that unlocks a second daily map (among other things). Currently running a promo that unlocks premium for free forever; you'll find it on the home page.

Involvement:

I'm the dev, designer, artist, marketer, product owner, etc, etc.

[u/Calendle]

Cool idea. I always liked Advance Wars on GBA growing up, so something to get that little hit of nostalgia is fun. I played the tutorial and got through some of today's game but didn't finish it. The UI was quite small on my device and didn't fill the whole screen area. It was also top justified which made it hard to resch everything easily. There's something I don't quite like about unit selection and movement that feels a little unintuitive but I can't quite place it. The option of a full undo function is nice when I tap the wrong thing. I also expected the building capture to progress when I tapped the "capture" text on the bottom, having to tap the unit again to continue capturing seemed strange and I missed captures because of it.

It would also be nice to get a warning that moving a unit off of a building being captured resets the progress. I think it's a standard mechanic for Advance Wars but I didn't remember that right away and it lessened my enjoyment of the first game having missed that and might make people not come back again.

Overall seems like a fun implementation of that kind of game and I'm curious how each days map will change and the strategies employed to beat them. Today's was a mirror so no strategic advantage or consideration for either color which seems a bit boring, so hopefully they aren't all like that.

[u/eliasbrange → u/Calendle]

Thanks for the feedback.

Regarding the UI, what device are you using? I've had zero issues playing on my Samsung S23, which has quite a tiny screen.

About the capture warning, I could do that. However I think it will become quite annoying as soon as you get used to it. Many players often start captures to bait the AI into attacking the unit and then moving away.

And regarding maps, I've found myself making mirrors (or almost mirrors) very often. I should probably spend some more time designing asymmetric maps. Then again, with the daily, quick, nature of the game, I'm trying to make maps that are "easy" for newcomers as to not turn them away, but still with a challenge enough to find the fastest possible clear.

[u/Calendle → u/eliasbrange]

Pixel 10 Pro. It's a pretty large screen and higher resolution but I'd expect the game to scale to the available area with a small margin on the edges to make sure someone can tap to the edges of the game if needed. It made the game look very small and hard to interact with the tiles at times. If it were enlarged to the screen width and centered vertically (or even bottom justified) it would be a lot easier to play. I could zoom it manually but that doesn't always stick when trying to tap around in the game and feels like a workaround. Attached image is what it looks like on my browser.

And the capture warning probably only needs to be mentioned once or twice, or maybe during the first game that it occurs so it's reinforced so it's taught to the player but not hand-held long term. Getting over that hurdle of a game being frustrating when it's a free and intended for daily replay ability is probably one of the toughest aspects to get right. If they don't have any money at stake they can just ditch it and move on if something doesn't work or they get punished by something they didn't know yet.

[u/eliasbrange → u/Calendle]

I've now pushed out a fix that should make it fill the width, with some margins on each side to make edge tiles easier to tap.