User:Razr Nation/Flotilla (video game)

Flotilla is a Turn-based strategy space combat video game developed by Brendon Chung's video game studio, Blendo Games. It was released in February 2010 for Microsoft Windows, and in March 2010 for Xbox Live. The game employs Microsoft's XNA game development platform, and its development was influenced by cats and board games, such as Axis and Allies and Arkham Horror. The game follows the player in an 30-minute adventure through a randomly generated galaxy.

Flotilla was developed by Chung immediately after Pandemic Studios closed, and used assets imported from an early prototype called Space Piñata. It also incorporates several pieces of classical music, such as Chopin's Raindrop prelude, to compose its score. The game received mixed to positive reception from video game media outlets, scoring 88 out of 100 on aggregate website Metacritic, and was included in Mike Rose's book 250 Indie Games You Must Play.

Gameplay
Flotilla is a simultaneous turn-based strategy space combat video game set in a randomly generated galaxy. The game allows the player and non-playable opponents to issue orders to their ships each 30 seconds, and then performs these orders in real time. Allen Cook from Gamers With Jobs commented that this gameplay set up worked "as if Homeworld only involved 2 ships and only let you set orders 30 seconds at a time." The player is usually given no more than several ships to control, and they can be rotated arbitrarily in any direction.

The game's single-player mode is framed as a single adventure that can be played an indefinite number of times. These adventures have a fixed duration of 30 minutes. Each time the player starts a new adventure, a new randomly genereated galaxy is created and filled with planets and enemy ships. The player then goes through a short tutorial system before being able to freely explore the galaxy. All planets offer a possible challenge to the player, and upon succeeding, a new chapter is added to the player's character's story. The character dies at the end of the adventure, and the player is given the option to start a new adventure.

The challenges are tactical battles the player must fight against a variety of different enemies, such as "tattooed chicken space pirates or crocodiles suffering from space madness." Ship upgrades are given to the player after each successful battle. These upgrades can be used to customize the ships with improvements such as increased firing speed or heavier rear and back armor. The upgrades available to the player vary upong finishing each encounter, and the player may not receive the same upgrade by plaing the same encounter in two different adventures. Flotilla also has a co-operative mode that can be played using an Xbox 360 controller, and a split-screen multiplayer mode.

Development
Flotilla was developed by Brendon Chung under his video game studio Blendo Games. Chung, who worked as a level designer for Pandemic Studios, has contributed to the development of Full Spectrum Warrior and Lord of the Rings: Conquest. Chung started coding Flotilla in 2009, after Pandemic Studios was shut down and all staff laid off by Electronic Arts. Chung, who was excited at the time of the studio's closure, stated that "there was adrenaline pumping through my veins." The game was developed using XNA, a set of tools focused on video game development, designed by Microsoft. Chung had already used id Software's id Tech 2 engine to develop his previous release, Gravity Bone.

The concept of Flotilla came from a combination of "sci-fi like Star Wars and submarine movies." Chung explained that he "figured there was enough games about little fighter jets," and that what he had in mind was "a jumbo battleship floating in space." In an interview with Square-Go, Chung revealed that cats and board games, such as Axis and Allies and Arkham Horror, also had an influential role in the development process of Flotilla. An early prototype called Space Piñata was being worked by Chung before development of Flotilla took place. The prototype, a two-dimensional turn-based space action game, incorporated similar gameplay and structural elements that were present in the final version of Flotilla: "It was extremely similar to what [it] ended up becoming," Chung commented.

The game includes a limited length of play time in the solo mode. According to Chung, this was intentionally executed as an "experiment in making a short-story generator." The goal of such a system was to have "one entire adventure to be started and completed in about thirty minutes." However, after a negative response to the limitation, a patch was deployed to address the issue. The patch introduced a new "hardcore" mode that could be played without time limits. Flotilla incorporates several pieces of classical music, such as Chopin's Raindrop prelude, to compose its score. According to Egde magazine, this selection gives battles in Flotilla "an emotional undercurrent." Chung elaborated that he wanted the game to be portrayed as "the anti-testosterone-fuelled" action game; he added that "the music was supposed to give it a tragic feel."

Reception
Flotilla received a mixed response from video game journalists upon release. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the game received an average score of 72 based on 7 reviews. The American version of PC Gamer awarded the game a score of 81 out of 100, and commented that Flotilla "is a charmingly crafted bite-size portion of tactical fun." Meanwhile, the British version of the magazine gave Flotilla a slightly slower score of 78 out of 100, and elaborated that "overflowing with charm and character, this is, however, a random experience."

An editor from website Charge Shot praised the game's artificial intelligence and overall design, but criticized the multi-player mode and the fact that the co-operative mode only worked in the same room, given that the game lacked a proper matchmaking system. Paul Millen from Gaming Daily considered Flotilla to be "a curious mix of surreal comedy and, dare I say, something verging on the profound, like a majestic thunder storm that rains tartan and shoots lightening directly into Glenn Beck face." GameZone's Tom Dann awarded the game 7.0 out of 10, and commented that Flotilla "can be frustrating while you get the hang of maneuvering your ships, the combat is a little shallow, and the bizarre approach to the storytelling and presentation is radical."

Egde included Flotilla in their 2010 list of the Best 20 Indie Games. In the article, the magazine considered the game to be "as exacting as it is quirky, a stiff challenge beneath a sugar coating." Mike Rose included Flotilla in his book  250 Indie Games You Must Play.