Introducing Wargame Design Studios

[Strela]

Introducing Wargame Design Studios.
 
We would like to officially announce the formation of Wargame Design Studio (WDS).
 
WDS is composed of industry veterans with experience in building games for the grognard war gamer.
 
WDS will be initially focused on the John Tiller Panzer Battles game system and has the right to build and modify the game code as required. This is the first time that John has licenced his game code for external commercial use. Any resulting titles will be published by John Tiller Software. To drive change in the game code, Robert Osterlund (Berto) is joining WDS as lead programmer and architect. Berto has been working with the Campaign Series Legion to update the Campaign Series games published by Matrix Games. Berto will continue to work with both design studios.
 
The team at WDS have previously published Panzer Battles – Kursk the Southern Flank, Panzer Battles – Normandy, Panzer Campaigns – Kharkov ’43 and Panzer Campaigns – Moscow ’42.
 
We are working on a number of projects currently. The third Panzer Battles title is set in the Desert and the official campaign covered will be announced soon.
 

 
 

We are also working on a Demo that will be available for free. The initial scenarios to be released with the Demo will include actions from the Eastern & Western Fronts, Desert and Pacific theatres. We expect to make more content available for the Demo over time. We’re committed to bringing both new players and new designers into our hobby and the Demo will be a perfect way to promote that.



 
 
With access to the source code we will be enhancing and adding a range of new features in the game. We are currently testing a beta patch for both Panzer Battles Normandy and Kursk. This beta patch will be released soon for broader testing within the community and will include a number of enhancements;
 
Firstly, Panzer Battles – Kursk will be bought up to the same standard as Panzer Battles – Normandy v1.01.
 
In addition, we are adding completely new short-cut keys for nearly every in game function;




 
With the advent of high resolution monitors, we are providing double sized Classic and Standard (new) toolbars. All have tool tips including the applicable short-cut key. There are 70 icons now available in either a single or double row;




 
Below is an example of the new standard icons at the ‘small’ size. The 70 icons fit across a 1920-pixel screen width. Lesser screen resolutions will be supported;
 



We have also included double sized ‘classic’ icons;
 



Finally, there are a lot of additional informational filters – below is one example showing height elevations;





These are just a couple of examples of the changes that will be coming in the Beta release. There are a lot of data and scenario updates being worked on currently and once the new Beta has been reviewed we will release the next official patch with all the changes included.
 
We have quite a long list of enhancements to be considered including everything from victory points to supply, through artillery & artillery spotting. We also hope to enhance reporting and other player aids. All of these are yet to be committed to but with access to the code there is a lot we can do.
 
Finally, we have quite a number of other projects underway and look forward to sharing those at an appropriate time in the future.
 
Thanks,
 
 
The team at WDS
 

[Warhorse]

Looking real, real good David! Look forward to hearing more! Working with Berto myself, you guys are in very good hands, he is amazing!!

[Buccaneer]

Very exciting! Looking forward to many great titles!!!

[berto]

Working with Berto myself, you guys are in very good hands, he is amazing!!

Well, let's not forget The Man, John Tiller.  He is the truly amazing guy here. 

I'm just a hacker standing on the shoulders of a giant.

[fastphil]

Do you have a website yet?

[Strela]

Do you have a website yet?

Not yet - not much to show.

We prefer to frequent sites like the Blitz rather than host our own forums.

Our released titles will all be up on John's site and any hints/tease/news will come through sites like here or Grogheads etc.

We do have a domain name registered so can host a website if the time is right.

David

[Pepe Botijo]

Hey guys you made my day! You brought a lot of interesting changes to JT games since the times of Kharkov´43 . I´ll keep an eye to your progress. 

PS: I know Berto is a talented programmer. Excellent addition!! 

[Compass Rose]

It sounds like a super good "Win-Win" situation for all of us JTS fans.

That is great news hearing about what is up and coming and also about the increase size of the toolbars.

Can't wait to see what the future may bring with JTS and WDS.

Here's to a great future!

[wiggum]

Great news !

And nice to see features i requested actually being worked on like the new UI making use of FullHD monitors or the elevation level overlay !

Will you also work on a improved strength dialog with filters and highlighting ?

Playing the Tutorial #2 (Utah) i really dont know what forces will be available to me during the scenario.
While i can open the "Units -> Scheduled" Dialog i only see that countless ships (LCVP) will arrive but i cant see what units they will transport.
The "Strength" and "Show Organization" Dialogs are painful to read and dont help anyway because they include a ton of unnecessary (not present) units.
How are we supposed to know what forces will be available during a scenario, how can i see what units ships and planes will carry ?

Here is my idea for a improved strength dialog:

[Strela]

Great news !

And nice to see features i requested actually being worked on like the new UI making use of FullHD monitors or the elevation level overlay !

Will you also work on a  improved strength dialog with filters ?

Playing the Tutorial #2 (Utah) i really dont know what forces will be available to me during the scenario.
While i can open the "Units -> Scheduled" Dialog i only see that countless ships (LCVP) will arrive but i cant see what units they will transport.
The "Strength" and "Show Organization" Dialogs are painful to read and dont help anyway because they include a ton of unnecessary (not present) units.
How are we supposed to know what forces will be available during a scenario, how can i see what units ships and planes will carry ?

Here is my idea for a improved strength dialog:

We do listen to you (and the rest of the community) Wiggum!

Reporting is on the list to be reviewed, but it's not in the do 'ASAP' bucket.

As you can see from the User Interface changes we do plan to look at all the aids players need to effectively play the game. We are also looking at areas where there may be other ways to provide information without changing/maintaining existing reports.

I'll post here if/when we start to review reporting.

David