Kiloton
A youtube review of Kiloton
This is Kiloton, a cold-war RTS game I made during college.
Kiloton’s Influences:
I was heavily influenced by the movie WarGames (1983), artistically, conceptually, and in design. I must have seen it eight or nine times, which is rare for me. If you haven't seen it, I recommend it, and you'll immediately recognize a lot of the pieces of my game in there, everything from the premise, to the console, to the control room... that's all from WarGames. It was my starting point for the vast majority of the visual and mechanical design components.
Some people think WarGames is about the computer, Joshua, and the dangers of AI. I suppose they're right, but they're largely missing the point. I think WarGames is a great explanation of Mutually Assured Destruction (MAD) doctrine. It's not like Dr. Strangelove (also a fantastic film), which makes fun of MAD. WarGames seems to genuinely give a great argument for it! The whole conclusion of the movie (spoiler), that "The only winning move is not to play," is the chief tenet of MAD, without which everything else falls apart. WarGames's conclusion is an affirmation of MAD doctrine; that in the face of mutual annihilation, aggression is complete insanity—It's inconceivable that the Soviets attacked, because they understand that attack is suicide.
Some people think that Kiloton is DEFCON all the way down, or maybe ICBM: Escalation, (haven't played it yet!) but I only actually discovered DEFCON a year or so into working on the project, and then immediately felt pretty stupid that I hadn't done my research. That being said, DEFCON was a fantastic reference for a lot of aspects of the design— the psychological impact, the design principles of escalation, and some of the iconography. (Chiefly the fighter-bomber and the ICBM silo). DEFCON, pretty obviously, is also inspired by WarGames! It's the first line of the "About this game" on steam. DEFCON, while fantastic, intentionally does not incorporate much MAD! DEFCON, for the sake of gameplay, balances the player interactions around 'counterforce' - the doctrine relating to wiping out an enemy's nuclear targets before they can use them. It does this super well— you have to scout out your enemy's bases, identify angles of attack, and use your bombers and subs to open up weak spots for your land-based silos. It requires excellent subtlety and timing, and feels great to pull off. But, very little MAD!
But as much as WarGames was my inspiration, it wasn't what actually got me to sit down and start writing code. That honor belongs to this image:
I remember I was a few hours into a wikipedia rabbit hole about the Soviet Anti Ballistic Missile programs in the late 70s, when I ran into this image and immediately started sketching- at first just copies of the images, and then I added more and more until I had something that I wanted to make: an anxious game about the nuclear arms race, where you would have to walk the line between economic growth and global security. Everything else really came from that.
In my reading on nuclear doctrine I came across two types of target selection: counterforce and countervalue.Counterforce targets are enemy military installations, primarily those having to do with nuclear war. Missile fields, C&C centers, Airbases, air defense sites, etc. A completely successful counterforce preemptive strike would leave the enemy unable to retaliate.Countervalue targets are enemy cities. They may not directly influence nuclear war, but they have an incalculable value to the enemy, and therefore, are valuable targets. Even if you don't possess a nuclear arsenal capable of effectively wiping out your enemy's counterforce targets, as long as you can hit countervalue, you have a credible nuclear threat.
In Kiloton, I always knew I wanted to tie in civilian casualties, because that's really the main horror of war— sure, millions of soldiers died in the second world war, but the most horrific moments to us were the civilian deaths— the Holocaust, Nanking, the blitz, the firebombings, and the A-bombs. To make a nuclear wargame without horror would be irresponsible, I think. It's important for me to make that clear. Some people seem to think I'm trying to glorify nuclear war-- It's difficult to walk the line of fun and politics. For me, the game had to be both- fun, and horrible.
DEFCON does this well, with the megadeath info popping up after each civilian strike, but for Kiloton I wanted more tactility, and responsivity. So, I came up with my population system mainly as a way to dramatize the nuclear impacts— the craters left behind were reminders of the massive scale of violence implied with even the smallest in-game action. The cities were the game's memory- bases would come and go, but the nuclear impacts were permanent scars. Then, for a class on procedural generation, I designed a custom cellular-automata system that grows and shrinks the cities. It's not particularly accurate to anything, but the effect is, in my opinion, really cool! A nation that runs its economy into the ground will watch their cities crumble and their people suffer, whereas one that focuses on economic growth will watch their cities sprawl out over time. The scars of old bomb craters won't completely fade, but will be grown around, like tree-knots. At a glance, you can see the history of the country in its cities. Sometimes you'll get an east-west germany situation where a border city will have wildly different outcomes on either side of the border. I understand it's not a particularly smart population or economic simulation, but I think it's interesting enough to justify its unreality, and it's real enough where it matters - the player becomes attached to the population through the tactility of the cities. Ideally, they feel responsible for the outcomes.
-Jack
Kiloton’s Influences:
I was heavily influenced by the movie WarGames (1983), artistically, conceptually, and in design. I must have seen it eight or nine times, which is rare for me. If you haven't seen it, I recommend it, and you'll immediately recognize a lot of the pieces of my game in there, everything from the premise, to the console, to the control room... that's all from WarGames. It was my starting point for the vast majority of the visual and mechanical design components. Some people think WarGames is about the computer, Joshua, and the dangers of AI. I suppose they're right, but they're largely missing the point. I think WarGames is a great explanation of Mutually Assured Destruction (MAD) doctrine. It's not like Dr. Strangelove (also a fantastic film), which makes fun of MAD. WarGames seems to genuinely give a great argument for it! The whole conclusion of the movie (spoiler), that "The only winning move is not to play," is the chief tenet of MAD, without which everything else falls apart. WarGames's conclusion is an affirmation of MAD doctrine; that in the face of mutual annihilation, aggression is complete insanity—It's inconceivable that the Soviets attacked, because they understand that attack is suicide.
Some people think that Kiloton is DEFCON all the way down, or maybe ICBM: Escalation, (haven't played it yet!) but I only actually discovered DEFCON a year or so into working on the project, and then immediately felt pretty stupid that I hadn't done my research. That being said, DEFCON was a fantastic reference for a lot of aspects of the design— the psychological impact, the design principles of escalation, and some of the iconography. (Chiefly the fighter-bomber and the ICBM silo). DEFCON, pretty obviously, is also inspired by WarGames! It's the first line of the "About this game" on steam. DEFCON, while fantastic, intentionally does not incorporate much MAD! DEFCON, for the sake of gameplay, balances the player interactions around 'counterforce' - the doctrine relating to wiping out an enemy's nuclear targets before they can use them. It does this super well— you have to scout out your enemy's bases, identify angles of attack, and use your bombers and subs to open up weak spots for your land-based silos. It requires excellent subtlety and timing, and feels great to pull off. But, very little MAD!
But as much as WarGames was my inspiration, it wasn't what actually got me to sit down and start writing code. That honor belongs to this image:
I remember I was a few hours into a wikipedia rabbit hole about the Soviet Anti Ballistic Missile programs in the late 70s, when I ran into this image and immediately started sketching- at first just copies of the images, and then I added more and more until I had something that I wanted to make: an anxious game about the nuclear arms race, where you would have to walk the line between economic growth and global security. Everything else really came from that.
On the population system:
In my reading on nuclear doctrine I came across two types of target selection: counterforce and countervalue.Counterforce targets are enemy military installations, primarily those having to do with nuclear war. Missile fields, C&C centers, Airbases, air defense sites, etc. A completely successful counterforce preemptive strike would leave the enemy unable to retaliate.Countervalue targets are enemy cities. They may not directly influence nuclear war, but they have an incalculable value to the enemy, and therefore, are valuable targets. Even if you don't possess a nuclear arsenal capable of effectively wiping out your enemy's counterforce targets, as long as you can hit countervalue, you have a credible nuclear threat.
In Kiloton, I always knew I wanted to tie in civilian casualties, because that's really the main horror of war— sure, millions of soldiers died in the second world war, but the most horrific moments to us were the civilian deaths— the Holocaust, Nanking, the blitz, the firebombings, and the A-bombs. To make a nuclear wargame without horror would be irresponsible, I think. It's important for me to make that clear. Some people seem to think I'm trying to glorify nuclear war-- It's difficult to walk the line of fun and politics. For me, the game had to be both- fun, and horrible.
DEFCON does this well, with the megadeath info popping up after each civilian strike, but for Kiloton I wanted more tactility, and responsivity. So, I came up with my population system mainly as a way to dramatize the nuclear impacts— the craters left behind were reminders of the massive scale of violence implied with even the smallest in-game action. The cities were the game's memory- bases would come and go, but the nuclear impacts were permanent scars. Then, for a class on procedural generation, I designed a custom cellular-automata system that grows and shrinks the cities. It's not particularly accurate to anything, but the effect is, in my opinion, really cool! A nation that runs its economy into the ground will watch their cities crumble and their people suffer, whereas one that focuses on economic growth will watch their cities sprawl out over time. The scars of old bomb craters won't completely fade, but will be grown around, like tree-knots. At a glance, you can see the history of the country in its cities. Sometimes you'll get an east-west germany situation where a border city will have wildly different outcomes on either side of the border. I understand it's not a particularly smart population or economic simulation, but I think it's interesting enough to justify its unreality, and it's real enough where it matters - the player becomes attached to the population through the tactility of the cities. Ideally, they feel responsible for the outcomes.
-Jack