Indie Interview – A Talk on The Turf

Published: June 5, 2016 1:02 PM /

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The Turf Header

When you think of an RTS, it's highly likely you'll think of armies—legions of trained soldiers fighting wars with the fate of nations in the balance. The Turf is a bit different. There are no tanks to be controlled or mines to be constructed. Instead, The Turf takes a look at something smaller and a bit closer to home: gang warfare. Recently I was able to get in contact with the game's developer Marty Green to discuss a multitude of subjects, such as his inspirations, the Kickstarter campaign, and what makes The Turf stand out from other RTS titles.

 

TechRaptor: What were your biggest inspirations for The Turf?

Marty: I have always enjoyed games about gang warfare such as GTA and Saints Row. The story and settings were based around those games from when i was younger. I had always wanted to explore those themes myself, in more of a cartoon and enjoyable setting rather than a serious game.

After having the initial game mechanic idea of taking over areas of a level and fighting over buildings. The gang setting fitted in nicely with the mechanics that i wanted to make. So this naturally all fell into place as the game progressed.

TechRaptor: RTS doesn't seem like a usual genre to make a crime-based game, what are some pros and cons of making The Turf as an RTS?

Marty: Controlling your gang is very important in the turf. The game is all about assigning roles and being tactical about your choices during the matches. The RTS genre fitted this style well as it makes controlling your gang easy and allows for real-time tactics that i find very interesting to develop.

The Turf Gun Store

TechRaptor: Your Kickstarter page mentions story mode and skirmish, how will each of them work?

Marty: The story mode is all about fighting through district levels. The story will work by you capturing areas of the city, until you have taken over all the areas. In which case you will unlock the next city. The story will feature many unique gangs, each with there own back-stories, graffiti and identities. 

The skirmish mode is more of a procedural mode for re-playability in the game. You can play any of the games levels with a random gang. This mode will allow you to setup different settings such as fighting multiple gangs on one level or limiting units etc. There could be other procedural levels in this mode as well depending how things go during development.

TechRaptor: What's the difference between lethal and non-lethal combat?

Marty: The game allows you to play how you want on most levels. The lethal is your standard RTS game so you can shoot the rival gangs to take them out. The other option is once you have created units, you can capture the police station. If you own the police station you can turn your units into police officers. This allows your units to arrest the rival gang using your stun gun. Once you capture them you can control that gang member and lock them up in your prison. You will gain bounty for arresting team members but it comes at a risk. If the rival gang captures your police station with there members are inside they can unlock the doors and they will all escape! 

TechRaptor: Roughly how long do you plan to make the campaign?

Marty: Currently the campaign is still under construction but i would like to make it around 4-6 hours i hope.

The Turf Chopper

TechRaptor: One of your stretch goals is multiplayer, do you have any multiplayer-specific content planned?

Marty: If we reach the target we will feature competitive online multiplayer with various modes such as protecting VIP and capture all turf. I have other exciting bigger modes planned such as bank heist. Each team will have to protect your bank and if you lose money you won't be able to buy anymore units to stop them!

TechRaptor: A higher tier also has VR support, how would VR support work in the game?

Marty: We currently have temporary VR support so you can walk around the levels and look around in VR. The full VR support would work looking top down above the level and you can issue commands and play the game in VR.

TechRaptor: Finally, what is it that you think really makes The Turf stand out from other RTS games?

Marty: The Turf artstyle is very different to many other RTS games. It's very clean and colourful, making it stand out. The gameplay is very different as well, with the level being pre-defined. This makes the game more about getting your base units to the buildings to upgrade them. Rather than standard RTS were you start with unit already being upgraded once you buy them. This makes the game all about capture/defend rather than about money generation.

TechRaptor: Thank you for your time.

The Turf Combat

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