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Jonas Tyroller26 Feb 2018

OVUS NOVA - New Abilities! - [Resource Management?] - Dev Log

Key insights

6 takeaways

01
Ovus Nova has shifted from a simple strategy game to a complex, choice-driven experience by integrating a resource management system fueled by unit sacrifice.
02
Players generate a specific currency by detonating existing units, which is then reinvested into active abilities such as spawning creatures, area-of-effect damage, or instant egg hatching.
03
The new mechanics replace traditional cooldown-based systems with a strategic feedback loop that forces players to decide when to sacrifice units versus when to deploy abilities.
04
Internal testing shows the updated design increases replayability by allowing diverse tactical approaches, including defensive positioning, aggressive damage output, or rapid unit expansion.
05
To prevent exponential power growth and maintain balance, the developer implemented a scaling cost system where each consecutive use of an ability becomes more expensive.
06
The developer reports that these new systems integrate seamlessly into the existing game framework without feeling extraneous.

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Transcript

hey everybody today I want to implement abilities into my game opus Nova and I have a couple of ideas let me show you an ability that allows you to match all X instantly that one makes all of your X invisible in a certain areas or enemies can no longer attack it simply an ability that deals damage to enemies also an ability that oppress your creatures so they deal more damage or they h more quickly an ability that spawns new creatures position where ever you want them so those are the abilities I want to implement and the way those abilities will work is we have an additional resource and you get that resource whenever you detonate your units whenever you make your units explode and then you can spend it on cool abilities [Music] so that should provide you with a lot more options elaborate ejek adapt and some of them will be pretty hard to balance but we'll figure it out yeah I

don't know if I can implement all these abilities today but I'll start with the most interesting ones and we'll see how far we get so we're not probably gonna skip most of the coding I just feel like doing some chillaxed and relaxed coding so that's not gonna be all that interesting let's just skip to the results I implemented the first ability now it's this one right here here you can see my resources in the corner whenever I detonate a unit I get 50 resources and when I have 750 resources I can use this ability maybe I can show you the ability here so the first ability spawns a couple of new units now let's gather some resources by detonating them I really like how this new ability mechanic fits into the rest of the game it doesn't feel tacked on because you get the resources when you detonate units so it's very interconnected with the core gameplay so

it doesn't feel like it doesn't belong in the game it actually fits into the game quite well I think you can see that I used the ability I spawned three units and every time I use the ability it gets a little more expensive I feel like that's almost necessary to keep it in check because otherwise the exponential growth thingy will just get out of control again and we would have way too many units I need to have something that keeps the usage of those abilities in check either cooldowns or making the abilities more expensive I think making the abilities more expensive every time use them is the more interesting approach because then you can do things like saving up a couple of resources till the end and then using the abilities two times after each other three times after each other and that would not be possible if the abilities had cooldowns but yeah as I said then they need to have something that keeps them in check

a little bit now I can use the ability right here and a very strategic strategic position where my enemies can't reach it that quickly it's a really powerful ability especially in the late game when you have a lot of Units and you detonate a lot of units you get those resources really quickly so these levels here are so easy now with some new mechanics it's a joke ha ha ha now I can use my ability let's play some units here yes this looks like a decent start see iif up all of my resources now that's also a strategy you can do now now I can spawn multiple of these colonies and I beat the levels let's try to add more abilities because these abilities are fun damn it alright I implemented two new abilities now we have three abilities let me show

you what they do I have to skip a couple of levels otherwise it's a way too easy you know the first one spawns new units the second one is an explosion that is damaged it starts off very cheap bang just a little detonation that deals quite a bit of damage so another really powerful ability which makes these levels so easy will have to go to way more difficult one let's let's try this maybe this is a bit of a challenge and then the last ability and the really expensive one instantly hatches all ex use W ability here little bit of damage to those creatures go away you're wwwo not enough resources have a lot of different options now now in this level let's try to to get the e ability to instantly duplicate all of our X first of all we need to throw a bit of a

farm here now we almost have enough resources okay disability is just so powerful it's so powerful oh my god but after you use it once it gets way more expensive and it has to otherwise it could you could go absolutely crazy look I can use it again crazy crazy which abilities are we gonna use to beat that boss here can actually see the change in the HP bar when I press W believe it you can do it a bit let's spawn a new colony here pretty easy I can't wait to add more abilities but for now this is enough because I still need to edit this video and all that good stuff new colony here

what if we kill the rest of them with W very easy because they overlap so heavily and the W deals damage to everything within that radius and s they are so big you can basically deal damage to all of them at once maybe we can try to get the e ability again it's so powerful it's just so powerful and also so fun let's give them our W ability in the center because they're also stacked on top of each other once again so much easier now now look at that it feels so good oh my god hardest level should be super easy now now I'm not super easy but quite a reasonable challenge let's see which abilities we use here and part

of it now let's use a couple of double use on this side let's try to kill the us on this side so we can spawn our colony here okay maybe this was not the best strategy new colony [Music] okay I pretty much beat that level so that's the rest of that is not all that difficult anymore let's try to restart and let's try to beat the level with the e ability I haven't used the e ability the thing we can get another ability [Music] oh no that's so cool there are so many

different ways to beat this level now I want to try one more strategy I want to try to only only try to kill the ones on the right side so we can move our colony to the right side I will focus all of my firepower to the right and now that all of these creatures are moving here I can zoom start a new colony over there let's start one over there it's pretty much safe and uncontested okay instantly hatch I love it you have so many options

now that's so cool tell me how you like these changes there will probably an updated version on each table I oh very soon not today but very soon I want to change a couple of things before I upload the next version other than that thank you very much for watching have an amazing day make the road your playground and see you in the next one peace

Summary

Ovus Nova, a real-time strategy game, has undergone a significant design shift by integrating resource management and a suite of active abilities to increase tactical depth. Initially conceived as a simple strategy experience, the game now requires players to balance unit production with the strategic sacrifice of existing units. By detonating units, players generate a specific resource currency, which is then reinvested into powerful abilities that allow for spawning new creatures, dealing area-of-effect damage, or instantly hatching eggs.

The implementation of these mechanics creates a feedback loop where the core gameplay of unit management directly fuels the ability system. To prevent exponential growth and maintain game balance, the developer introduced a scaling cost system where each subsequent use of an ability becomes more expensive. This design choice encourages players to make meaningful decisions regarding when to deploy abilities, offering a more nuanced strategic experience than traditional cooldown-based systems.

Testing indicates that these additions significantly alter the difficulty curve, providing players with multiple viable strategies to overcome challenging levels. By allowing for varied approaches—such as focusing on defensive positioning, aggressive damage output, or rapid unit expansion—the game offers increased replayability. The developer concludes that these mechanics successfully integrate into the existing framework without feeling extraneous, effectively transforming the game from a straightforward strategy title into a more complex, choice-driven experience. Future updates are expected to refine these systems further as the project continues to evolve.