Hello, Xhelos community!

We are thrilled to announce that Xhelos, our beloved turn-based strategy game, is undergoing a complete overhaul and a massive update, built from the ground up with the latest technologies: Laravel 12 for the backend and React for the frontend! This isn't just an update; it's a reimagining that will elevate the gaming experience to a new level of strategic depth and fluidity.

We know many of you have enjoyed the tactical complexity of Xhelos, and with this new version, we are expanding those horizons. Our focus remains on turn-based tactical combat with persistent units, but now backed by a robust and scalable architecture. Each Userwill have multiple Playerprofiles, and their Unitswill be persistent, existing even outside a game so you can build your ultimate roster.

What makes the new Xhelos so special?

Intuitive and Deep Game Flow

We've refined the game flow to ensure a clear and engaging experience. The game will progress through distinct phases: from the Lobby Phase and Deployment Phase, moving through the crucial Planning Phase where strategy comes alive, to the exciting Resolution Phase, and finally the End Phase where victory conditions are met.

A Dual-Layer Energy and Action Point System

Resource management is key in Xhelos. We've implemented a dual system that will challenge you to think several turns ahead:

• Player Energy: A resource pool belonging to the player that is consumed when units perform actions and regenerates at the start of each turn.

• Unit Action Points: Each unit has its own action points that limit how many actions it can perform per turn, also regenerating at the start of each turn. This combination forces you to balance both your overall team economy and the action economy of individual units.

Unprecedented Action Planning and Sequencing

A core strategic element is the ability to plan multiple sequential actions for a unit. Want to move, then attack, then reposition? You can plan it all! Actions are executed in the order they were planned (marked with Roman numerals I, II, III, etc.). The cancellation logic states that if a player cancels an action, all subsequent actions for that unit are also canceled. This sequencing system allows for complex tactical planning and combinations of actions.

Dynamic Resolution Based on Agility and Partial Resolution

When all players are ready, the Resolution Phase begins. Actions are resolved one by one, with the backend calculating the order based on unit initiative/agility. But here's the twist: Partial Resolution. If an action is blocked (e.g., a movement is intercepted), the unit will execute as much of the action as possible and then proceed to execute subsequent planned actions from its new position/state. This opens up a range of tactical possibilities, from clever blocks to controlled "friendly fire" situations.

Strategic Fog of War

The battlefield is a place of limited information. Our fog of war system ensures that each team has its own visibility map. Units can only see a certain distance around them, and allied units share visibility. Areas outside this visibility range are obscured, revealing progressively as your units explore and actions unfold. Get ready for surprises and ambushes!

Intuitive Frontend Interface with React

With React, we are building an incredibly responsive and user-friendly interface.

• Unit Selection: A clear unit list at the bottom of the screen and a detailed information panel in the top-left will give you all the info you need.

• Visual Action Selection: With lucide-reacticons, clear energy (⚡) and action point (AP) costs, and visual states for available, disabled, or on-cooldown actions, you'll always know what you can do.

• Planned Actions Visualization: Your own planned actions will be shown in blue, while allied actions will be in light blue (celeste), with a "warning system" that allows teammates to suggest action reviews.

• Immersive Resolution Cinematic: Watch as turns unfold on an interactive timeline, with the Fog of War animating as events are revealed. You'll have controls for play, pause, speed adjustment, and jumping to specific events.

What's Coming in the Future...

Our roadmap for Xhelos includes even more depth: enhanced unit customization with parts that grant specific actions, more complex action types (area effects, status effects, etc.), advanced fog of war mechanics with detection and stealth, weather and terrain effects on action execution, and a unit progression and experience system.

We are pouring all our passion and the power of Laravel 12 and React into this project to create a strategy video game that will keep you hooked for hours. Get ready for the next evolution of Xhelos!

Stay tuned for more development and release updates.

Sincerely, The Xhelos Team.

14 years ago we started this project along with the blog TaurenCreate, a blog dedicated to video game creation. In 2014, we stopped developing this project for multiple reasons, but now in 2024, with new technologies at our disposal, we can continue the development of this great project.

With this, we are launching Alpha version 0.9.5, which will focus on fixing various bugs we have. Also, we want to mention that we will have a larger team for this development, and we will be working with GIT to improve the entire process.

The upcoming features on the Roadmap are:

1) Create our own login system for this game instead of continuing to use the Bootstrap system from Drupal6. It was good because it allowed us to log into the game with a Drupal user, but it is neither effective nor efficient. What we might do for now is call the login only once, if it’s done through Drupal for the game. We will also store the user in a session to match it with Drupal for the time being. Most likely, we will use WordPress to recreate the main page.

2) Address the insertion of units on the map and create the Global Energy system. Every action will cost, in addition to the unit's mana (which we think we will eliminate in the future), a Global Energy cost, so you will need to balance the use of large weapons with your energy usage.

3) Review the unit creator system. Unfortunately, the most recent copy we have did not migrate the creature creation system. We will have to rebuild it.

4) Review the base construction system and see how we will handle unit construction. The focus is always to make this game more tactical than strategic, so we want to limit resource acquisition to make it more fun. At the beginning, we might make it more common, but we will refine it as we go.

The 13th of every month is always a perfect day to continue something.

#somethingiscoming

On Saturday, March 7, 2015, the Arequipa Meetup took place where a Demo of the Xhelos Project was presented.

We showed the progress of the Xhelos game, a bit of the use of artificial intelligence, and the roadmap of where we are headed.

Many thanks to those interested who attended.

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• Play I Dont Know How to Draw en Gamejolt.
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Help me make this game more fun :).

See my super uber game Super I Dont Know How to Draw. It's an platformer / action game. I hope to finish it on time, enjoy the advances!

As you know, Xhelos its a proyect that has been developed since 7 years ago. To accelerate the programing of the game, its time to see this in a professional way..

So I have decided this:

• We should foucs all our resources in Imbasion, the webgame that we are building using Construct2. the objetive of this is to know more about game development as a team. Also we are going to try all the ways to market games in internet. We expect that this proyect is going to give us more knowledge in our current status.
• When Imbasion get to a stable version, we are going to focus all our efforts and time to finalize Xhelos. Also I plan to use Construct2 and the fluid animation that it give, in some interfaces from Xhelos

So, we have been working hard for this game and be sure that we are going to launch Xhelos in a nearby future. Keep coming!.