Save the Battleships!

The classic Battleships concept has been poorly used in flash gaming. There are several clones floating (unintentional pun) around the web, but that is all they are - clones, adding nothing to the basic luck-based gameplay of the original. The most creative among those, and that is using the word generously, is Hasbro's official version, where every time you hit a square with an enemy ship you have to pass a small timing test in order to avoid a near-miss.

Taking Battleships' advantages - quick, simple gameplay, mainstream recognition - and adding some depth (unintentioanl pun #2), variety and audio-visual punch will result in a highly approchable, highly addictive game, especially for a title with multiplayer capabilities. To see a good example of such a Battleships upgrade it is necessary to peek at a different platform and check out Gameloft's mobile game, Naval Battle.

For a game of this type to be compelling, it has to stay simple while adding a good dose of strategy and audio-visual feedback. Here are some basics:

• About 8-10 different types of ship. Each ship has its own look, size, shape and special attack.


• Each ship also has its unique price. At the initial deployment stage, the players have 1 minute to choose and place ships on their respective side of the game board. They can create any kind of fleet they wish up to a total value of 1000 points. They can also press a button to allocate random ships in random positions.


• Gameplay is similar to basic version, except a player may choose to use one of his ships' special attacks instead of the normal attack. There are two pre-conditions to launching a special attack: First, the ship providing that special attack has to still be afloat (it may be damaged, but not yet sunk); secondly, the Power (Glory, Prestige or whatever you want to call it) bar of the player has to be full. The power bar fills up by about 10 percent each turn where nothing is hit, by 25 percent when an enemy ship is hit, and by 50 percent when an enemy ship is sunk. After a special attack is executed, the power bar returns to zero - but may almost immediately re-fill due to the special attack hitting and/or sinking ships.


• Example of special attacks: The sub can fire a torpedo that crosses a whole row or column of the player's choice, hitting the first occupied square on that row or column; The missile ship may fire a salvo of rockets that hit randomly around a chosen center.


• Attacks, special attack, hits, sunken ships and the sea background itself will all be depicted with detailed animation, effects of water, smoke, sparks and fire, and warzone sfx. This will add greatly to general atmosphere, the satisfaction of winning and the anguish of losing.


• Optional: each ship may also have a special attribute, which is active at all times depending on certain conditions. For example, a cruiser-type ship may have the ability to intercept and destroy any missile-based special attacks directed towards a spot in a specific radius around it. In this situation, it may have a 50 percent chance of destroying each individual missile or rocket that is about to hit inside that radius. This also, ofcourse, will have to be shown visually while not compromising the exact location of the cruiser.