The cursor highlights the shallows off the coast.

Shallows are the areas of the ocean generally near the coasts. Their waters are calm enough to allow hoverbugs to float over them, but they are not deep enough to allow Cruisers or Battleships to pass. cyningstan.itch.io/waterworld. #ibmpc #msdos #cga #BarrenPlanet #Waterworld

Sandbanks on the coast of an island.

Sandbanks clog up rivers and coastal areas around the islands. Air Fighters and Hoverbugs can travel over Sandbanks, but of the sea units, only Mining Boats can navigate these areas, and even those at a careful pace. cyningstan.itch.io/waterworld. #ibmpc #msdos #cga #BarrenPlanet #Waterworld

The cursor highlights some land on the map.

Open Ground forms most of the larger islands, and is where Ports are built. Ports are generally next to Deep Water so the port can build the largest ships. Hoverbugs and Air Fighters can move over this terrain. cyningstan.itch.io/waterworld. #ibmpc #msdos #cga #BarrenPlanet #Waterworld

The map cursor highlights a deep ocean square.

As you'd expect for a campaign called "#Waterworld", most of the maps are made up of ocean. But there are small areas of land that poke up above the ocean surface, and there is a variety of terrain there. cyningstan.itch.io/waterworld. #ibmpc #msdos #cga #BarrenPlanet #Waterworld

These gun platforms are ready to repel any attack from the sea.

Gun Platforms are static land-based units, useful for defending ports. They're static units, but they have a longer firing range than any other unit in the game, so can keep enemy ships away from your Ports. cyningstan.itch.io/waterworld. #ibmpc #msdos #cga #BarrenPlanet #Waterworld

A Battleship, escorted by Cruisers and Destroyers.

Battleships are the largest ships afloat. They have more power and a longer range than cruisers, and are the best units to have in a sea battle. They are also good for offshore bombardment. cyningstan.itch.io/waterworld. #ibmpc #msdos #cga #BarrenPlanet #Waterworld

Cruisers are the more powerful units in this battle.

Cruisers are medium-sized combat ships with a good attack range. They're useful to add extra power to naval battles, and to bombard ports and other land units from off shore. They're slightly slower than destroyers. cyningstan.itch.io/waterworld. #ibmpc #msdos #cga #BarrenPlanet #Waterworld

Destroyers form the main part of this fleet.

Destroyers are the smallest sea combat units. They have little firepower and a short range, and are lightly armoured. They can navigate deep and shallow water, but they can't navigate too close to the sandbanks. cyningstan.itch.io/waterworld. #ibmpc #msdos #cga #BarrenPlanet #Waterworld

These Air Fighters are ready to swoop down on any enemy that approaches the Port.

Air Fighters are another unit brought over from Dapra. They can fly over anything except volcanoes, whose eruptions are too dangerous to venture near. Air Fighters have a longer attack range than Hoverbugs or Ports. cyningstan.itch.io/waterworld. #ibmpc #msdos #cga #BarrenPlanet #Waterworld

A group of hoverbugs defend the island.

Hoverbugs, the small anti-gravity combat vehicles from earlier campaigns, are here on Dalen. They can hover over land or shallow water, but are not stable enough to cope with the rolling waves of the deeper ocean. cyningstan.itch.io/waterworld. #ibmpc #msdos #cga #BarrenPlanet #Waterworld

This Mining Boat is gathering resources from a Crystal Node on the ocean floor.

Mining boats are as important as the Ports: they sail out to the crystal nodes and harvest the resources. Since they're mobile, they can retreat from attack. They are small enough to venture near the sandbanks. cyningstan.itch.io/waterworld. #ibmpc #msdos #cga #BarrenPlanet #Waterworld

An enemy port on the eastern point of an island, with its stats shown.

The Port is a static unit found on the shores of Dalen's oceans. The port has facilities to build and repair other units. It has little of its own defence, and needs protecting from attack by other units. cyningstan.itch.io/waterworld. #ibmpc #msdos #cga #BarrenPlanet #Waterworld

In Waterworld, Ports construct units and Mining Boats gather resources.

The construction and repair units in #Waterworld are static; the harvesting units are mobile. This is a reversal of roles compared to The Polar Expedition, and gives players some new strategies to experiment with. cyningstan.itch.io/waterworld. #ibmpc #msdos #cga #BarrenPlanet #Waterworld

Waterworld, showing its vast expanses of ocean.

The second expansion for #BarrenPlanet is #Waterworld. Dapra's neighbouring planet Dalen is over 95% covered with water. And at the bottom of these oceans: crystal nodes! Let battle commence! Get it at cyningstan.itch.io/waterworld. #ibmpc #msdos #cga #Waterworld

A photograph of a Hewlett Packard 100LX running the default Barren Planet campaign First Landing, showing the Nuvutech briefing for the first mission.

A photograph of a Hewlett Packard 100LX running the downloadable Barren Planet campaign The Polar Expedition, showing the Nuvutech briefing for the first mission.

A photograph of a Hewlett Packard 100LX running the downloadable Barren Planet campaign Waterworld, showing the Nuvutech briefing for the first mission.

Here are the three #BarrenPlanet campaigns running on a Hewlett Packard #hp100lx. You can download the game from cyningstan.itch.io/barren-planet, where you will find links to the two DLC campaigns. #hp200lx #msdos #cga

The Barren Planet title screen, the first thing a player sees when they launch the game. This is a 3D render of barren terrain bearing a few of game game's most iconic units: the Mining Base, a Gun Platform, a couple of Ground Rovers and a few Hoverbugs. This image is used in full colour for the manual cover, but is here reduced to the four-colour palette for the CGA title screen.

Once #BarrenPlanet had been tested it was time to launch it into the world. I've launched three projects since, and the process hasn't changed much. You can read about the launch process at dos.cyningstan.org.uk/post/201/bar... #gamedev #ibmpc #msdos #cga

In the absence of any image specific to testing, here's a debriefing from one of the battles from First Landing, the campaign supplied with the game. The Nuvutech player has apparently annihilated the attacking Avuscorp forces, which are therefore nowhere to be seen.

Testing #BarrenPlanet wasn't an afterthought. After more than two years of development, I needed to make sure that the game worked. I discuss the testing process in a blog post at dos.cyningstan.org.uk/post/200/bar... #gamedev #ibmpc #msdos #cga

The campaign definition file for the First Landing campaign. One of the major phases of development was building this content. Each of the sixteen battles had a briefing for each side, a victory debrief for each side, and a defeat debriefing for each side: a total of six short documents for each battle: 96 in all. This added to all the battle details like the map and unit disposition, and the graphics for the campaign, was a lot of content.

A lot went on in the 2½ years it took to develop #BarrenPlanet: planning, the creation of a wargame library, the coding itself, and building the content. I talk about this in a blog post at dos.cyningstan.org.uk/post/199/bar... #gamedev #ibmpc #msdos #cga

A screen shot using Barren Planet's monochrome option, which displays the graphics in 640x200 monochrome, with dithered patterns replacing the colours. The game's "Remote Turn" screen is shown, where turn files received from a human opponent are processed, and the opponent's moves played back. PBM mode was one of the new features of Barren Planet.

The feature list of #BarrenPlanet, while it never spiralled out of control, was one of the main reasons it changed from a 1-month jam project into a major 2½ year project. I discuss the features I added at dos.cyningstan.org.uk/post/198/bar... #gamedev #ibmpc #msdos #cga

A screenshot from one of Barren Planet's sources of inspiration: Battle Isle 2, also known as Battle Isle 2200. The landscapes are different: Battle Isle's green and pleasant terrain contrasts with Barren Planet's dry deserts; the desert theme was inspired by the board game Ogre, partly because one CGA palette fit very well with that theme.

I got inspiration for #BarrenPlanet from a number of sources. It was built on a combat engine of my own design, but included elements from other games. I discuss these in a blog post at dos.cyningstan.org.uk/post/184/bar... #gamedev #ibmpc #msdos #cga

A battle rages in Barren Planet. This is the first battle of the supplied campaign, First Landing. Numerous futuristic military units battle over resources on a desert planet, marked with rocky areas and magma flows.

#BarrenPlanet didn't have a straightforward development journey. Shortly after development in 2023, I posted the story of how the game came to be. You can read the first article at dos.cyningstan.org.uk/post/180/bar.... #gamedev #ibmpc #msdos #cga

One of the later battles in The Polar Expedition. The three Mining Stations are providing 6 resource points per turn, almost enough to build a Combat Droid or a Hoverbug each turn.

The Polar Expedition and later expansions are available from the Barren Planet Itch page: cyningstan.itch.io/barren-planet. Keep an eye on this page for future expansions and other news. #barrenplanet #ibmpc #msdos #cga

Buildings in Nuvutech's mining settlement in the second battle. These provide excellent protection for Combat Droids, allowing them to snipe at much stronger units passing along the road outside.

Buildings provide excellent protective cover for Combat Droids. If you're defending a base, you need to keep enemy Combat Droids out of here, as once they get in, the droids are very difficult to shift with all but the most powerful units. #barrenplanet #ibmpc #msdos #cga

A large Avuscorp mining settlement with a comprehensive Monorail system. This allows Gun Platforms to navigate all around the settlement, maximising their attack range and protecting against incursions.

Monorail lines built around a base allow Gun Platforms to move around as needed. Without a Monorail, a Gun Platform is a static unit that needs to be protected; with Monorail, the Gun Platform can advance and retreat to cause a real nuisance to an invading enemy. #barrenplanet #ibmpc #msdos #cga

Roads run around the buildings of the Nuvutech mining settlement in the second battle. Some units travel much faster along a road than they do over the snow plains, making roads a quick way to get to the battle front.

Roads are strips of Snow plain that have been dug down to the rock beneath, and then smoothed out for fast vehicle travel. All ground units move at full speed along a road, so use them to get your vehicles around the battle map as needed. #barrenplanet #ibmpc #msdos #cga

A Crystal Node in the first battle, not yet exploited by either side. When a Mining Station is built on a crystal node, like the one on the left-hand edge of the display, it will generate 2 resources per turn.

Crystal Nodes, as in the desert, are where resources are found. If you see one poking out of the snow, you will need to build a Mining Station on top of it to begin harvesting the resources. In some battles, there are Mining Stations already built here. #barrenplanet #ibmpc #msdos #cga

A lake formed by Ice Flows in one of the later battles. The ice melted by volcanic activity can form both lakes and rivers, providing an obstacle to many of the units.

Ice flows are icy rivers partially melted by volcanic activity under the surface. They can only be crossed by Combat Droids on foot, and by Hoverbugs and Air Fighters that can pass freely over them. Ground vehicles need to find a way around them. #barrenplanet #ibmpc #msdos #cga

The Ridge running across the map in the first battle divides the area in half. As the forces face each other east to west, the strategists have to split their forces carefully. Units can cross the ridge, but it takes time.

Ridges are formed both from tectonic forces and from crater impacts. THey slow some units down, but also provide a protective advantage due to the high ground, and the ability for smaller units to hide behind the crest. #barrenplanet #ibmpc #msdos #cga

Rocks behind a building provide a small amount of protection from attack from behind. Most units are slowed down by these boulders.

The snow plains are strewn with Rocks, fields of boulders that impede movement. Apart from getting in the way, they provide a little protective cover to some units that can hide behind them. #barrenplanet #ibmpc #msdos #cga

The Snow plains of the first battle. Snow plains form the majority of the terrain on all of the battles, and allow most ground units to move at a moderate pace.

Most of the battle maps are made up of Snow plains. Some units can travel at full speed here, but the soft snow can slow other units down, such as the Ice Tanks and the Constructor. Units out in the open here are not protected from attack. #barrenplanet #ibmpc #msdos #cga