SpiritWars Preview

by Penelope   (9/27/98)

Over the past few weeks, I have been helping to test SpiritWars, a wonderful new game from Kellogg Creek Software. Very shortly the game will be offered to the public in an open beta on W.O.N.. Keep your eyes open for the announcement sometime soon.

Spirit Wars is a two player, online only strategy game. Melding many different genres of games such as board, card, turn based strategy, and games of chance has resulted in a game with an amazingly broad audience and appeal. Beta Bites has managed to obtain permission to post this preview and a short interview with Randy Chase, the creator and developer of Spirit Wars.

Please note that all screenshots from the game are from a very early release and that Mr. Chase has indicated that the user interface will be undergoing a complete revamp before the game is final. So while you will get the general idea of the game, be assured the final release will be more polished.

Game play is relatively simple once you get the basics down. Anyone who has played Magic: the Gathering will immediately feel at home and be ready to play serious games after just a couple of test runs. Likewise, anyone who has played chess or other strategic board games will feel just as comfortable after a slightly longer learning period. The game consists of several phases of play and progresses in an orderly, turn based fashion.

When you first start the game you are awarded with 200 spirits to populate your kingdom. From these 200 spirits, you must create dungeons which contain between 30-50 spirits and spells that complement one another. You must connect to the server to be awarded your starting spirits, but can build dungeons while offline if you are subject to connect time charges. After building your dungeon, start the game, and challenge an opponent.

The opening screen shows your lonesome little castle on the board. In the lower left hand corner, called the courtyard, you can see the spirits and spells that are currently available to you. Associated with each spirit or spells is a "casting cost" in certain types of energy. The little colored bars at the top of the screen show you how much energy of each type you currently have tucked away to help your spirits arrive at the field of play.

Energy is the meat and potatoes of Spirit Wars. Without it, you're dead. Your castle will produce some energy each turn on its own, but not enough to win the game. Some of the spirits available to you will produce energy. Others will defend your castle from your opponent, have special spell casting abilities, have ranged attacks, or help you see more of the playing board. In the graphic below you can see an example of a defender (the tower of pizza thingee), a ranged unit (the arrow), a standard combat unit (the shield), and an energy producing unit (the windmill). The silver units belong to you, whilst the gold ones belong to your opponent. You can also see your objective, your opponent's castle.

Eventually if things go right, your opponent will be vanquished. Having heard of your fame and good fortune new spirits will arrive in your kingdom, ready to serve. Be aware though, that if you lose, morale will drop and some of your spirits will leave seeking a more fortunate leader.

After every 6-14 games, 10 new spirits will come to you as a sort of natural migration within the realms. It is worth noting that unlike Magic: the Gathering or other games of that sort, the player will not be required to pay more and more money just to keep his or her kingdom consistent with that of their opponent. Migrations from time passing or winning and losing will make sure that the kingdom does not stay static. Later in the development period, trading will be implemented. There will be strict rules in place to prevent abuse and encourage socialization amongst players.

Spirit Wars is a great, addictive game with a lot of promise. I've already had FAR too many episodes of "just one more game, oh my god it's 3AM!" than I'd like to admit. It's very difficult to get up and go to work at 8AM when you do that, you know... Once the interface is revamped and the classical art theme is matched with a more polished layout and look, this game should be wonderful fun literally, for the whole family.

Mr. Chase was kind enough to give me a few moments of his time and was willing to answer a few questions. The full text of our interview is posted here.

We'd like to thank Mr. Chase for taking the time to answer those questions for us, and wish him the best of luck with his endeavor. If you are interested in getting into the closed beta please fill out the signup form. Not everyone will be accepted into the closed beta, but the public is invited to the beta which will be released at W.O.N.