TMM: Entourage

Intro

You feel a warm breeze on your skin. As you look up your gaze is caressed by clouds gently passing by. Your mind drifts away, thinking of another place in another time. Suddenly the drums brutalize your ears and swiftly pull your feet back on the dirty ground. There they are! You see phantoms form from what once was mist and haze. As if all the spirits of earth and water gave birth simultaneously, hundreds of creatures emerge from the towering wall of obscurity. It is the enemy! You exchange thoughts with your comrades at the blink of an eye, then the drums get faster and faster. With the mind of one and the strength of thousands you engage the enemy, the earth below trembles in fear. As frenzy pulls friend and foe into the maelstrom that is hate and bloodlust, gunships in the sky trade broadside upon broadside. In a small lodge not too far away from the field a sinister grin acknowledges the work of discord.

Description

Tales of Mystics and Madmen: Entourage or TMM: Entourage for short is a top down shooter with a couple of RTS mechanics mixed in. You pick one of three sides and fight either the other two in various competitive or just one side in cooperative game modes. Each player character is joined by three bodyguards which may be controlled by your friends at the push of a button on a gamepad. The game offers various objective-based game modes which vary in length and style, with most of them sharing the same principles.
There are two layers of control: You control a single unit directly. You raise defenses by constructing turrets in the field and buff allies for a short time to gain an advantage over the enemy. On top of that you may change the current production order and target focus of your troops. These troops are automatically produced and deployed in your main base. If no specific orders have been given or whenever you yield control, an AI takes care of your troop management.
Although this game can be played by yourself, it is more fun to engage in conflict with your friends locally and with others around the globe.

Background

Three sides fight for supremacy. They are called Primitivists, Progressionists and Royalist. The Prims are deeply connected with nature and draw influences from various African and Asian cultures. Progs have aristocratic origins and happen to be techno-lovers (literally), they tend to invent the next big thing before anyone else gains knowledge of their last big thing. The Royals foster nobility and pride and like to duel each other if not fighting off some bigger threat.

Key Features

• 5 Competitive Game Modes: King of the Hill (hold 1 objective), Capture the Flag, Escort, Team Deathmatch, Warfare (hold 6 objectives)
  
• 3 Cooperative Game Modes: Stronghold (Hold 3 objectives at the same time), Onslaught (survival mode), Tug of War
  
• Pseudo Campaign Mode: Play a couple of matches in a row to find a winner of a war
  
• Hotjoin local coop: Up to 4 players can play locally, three of them can join/leave at any time
  
• Unique RTS/Shooter mix: control a single unit and build turrets directly, produce troops indirectly by giving general orders
  
• Various Weapons with primary and secondary fire modes unique to each faction
  
• RPG mechanics to round up the gameplay: gain technology points by defeating enemies and empower your troops, use skills to buff your allies
  
• Call and enter a gunship to turn the tide of battle
  
• Procedural map generator: each game mode requires a different map layout, the map generator creates maps according to set rules
  
• Match customization: there are various parameters which can be set to adjust game length, starting resources etc

Future Development

We feel like there is still so much potential hidden in this game. We want to add new game modes, delve deeper into what we can do with the current ones and improve local and online multiplayer. Since this is our debut title things may be a little rough around the edges, but we are committed to getting the best out of this game. In addition to improving the current game and adding quality of life updates, we want to build a community by introducing workshop support at some point in the future. This might happen sooner or later, but it's definitely something which would add a lot of value to the game. Here is a quick list of things you can look forward to in the near future.

Improvements

• Entourage: Enable your bodyguards to join your Gunship.
  
• Entourage: Enable your bodyguards to change appearance and weapon
  
• Campaign Mode: Allow the host to customize the campaign mode in detail
  
• Campaign Mode: Add a mode which is fun to play solo or just with your friends locally (need your help with that)
  
• RTS: Make resources more impactful on the game, e.g. establish supply lines which can be fortified or disrupted
  
• Add elevation levels and tactical advantages
  
• Add new road layouts to increase map variety
  
• UI: Reduce clutter