Turn-based strategy/tactics game for 2-8 players based on the Spectrum game, Chaos.
Language: C++
Status: Functional. No AI players, small spell selection.
Imbroglio is based on Chaos, an old turn-based strategy game that was originally released on the Spectrum.
The premise of the game is that there are 2 or more wizards (each of which controlled by either a player or AI) fighting it out with one another in an enclosed arena. Each wizard is given a random assortment of spells at the beginning of the game, and can cast a single spell each turn. These spells include creature summons, which allow the wizard to create minions and use them to attack his foes; enchantments, which allow the wizard to increase his combat prowess in a number of ways; and spells with other miscellaneous effects, such as direct damage spells, spells to steal another wizard's summoned creatures, and so on.
Powerful spells have a lower chance of being successfully cast than weaker ones. However, each spell has some associated alignment, and as more spells of a particular alignment are cast, future spells of that alignment will become easier to cast. In this fashion, you could cast a bunch of weak chaotic creatures in order to build up the chance of successfully casting a much more powerful chaotic creature later on.
Creatures may also be summoned as Illusions. Illusionary creatures appear identical to their non-illusionary counterparts; they can move at the same speed, attack with the same skill, and so on. Illusions have a 100% success rate when being cast, but they do not make future spells of that alignment any easier to cast. They can also be instantly destroyed through the use of a Disbelieve spell, a basic spell that all wizards are given.
There's probably quite a bit more to the game than my brief description would indicate, and it's one of those things that works far better than it sounds like it should. I'm fairly sure that the original game has been released for free now, so you could try to hunt it down and play it on an emulator, or look for one of its many remakes. However, I never found a PC-based remake that was particularly good, so I decided to have a go at making my own.
Imbroglio, similarly to Metal Mittens, is written in C++ and uses Allegro for game-related functions and fmod for its audio. The graphics are actually handled using OpenGL (via AllegroGL), which let me go a bit nuts with transparency effects and additive blending and the like. I even implemented a simple GUI of my own to use with the game which seems to work reasonably well (the Combo Box widget used to make the game crash sometimes, but I don't think that happens anymore).
Imbroglio has most of the features that the original Chaos had, it's just lacking an awful lot of the spells of the original and the AI players. However, since the code is fairly old and I seriously doubt it has aged well, I'm pretty sure that I'll not be adding those things any time soon, so I've released it here "as is". The game can be played with the same controls as Chaos (some fairly arcane keys that I won't list here) or by using the mouse, where left-click is used for select and right-click is used to cancel.
I'd really love to make a more complete (and well written) version of this game some day, and have toyed around with implementing a few bits of it (just for testing purposes) in Java. Who knows. Fingers crossed!