Students of the Utrecht School of the Arts, the school I also attended and graduated from, recently did a project with Vanguard Games as a client. The team, consisting of eight people, called itself JARRR and the game they made is called General Conflict.

A trailer for the game can be found here. Maybe it’s a little too chaotic to notice what’s actually going on, but I can assure you it’s very easy to pick up this incredibly fun and competitive game. The project’s main supervisor was Vanguard’s producer René Derks, who recently let the JARRR students pass their final exam with flying colors.

Gameplay

In a nutshell, General Conflict is a free for all last man standing game for up to four players, involving bombs and collapsing terrain. Players move around the battlefield to collect bombs, which they can then throw forward or drop behind them. Exploding bombs destroy a layer of the tile they’re on and blast players away from them. You fall into the water, you lose a life. Whoever can survive the longest in this constantly changing fragile landscape will be the winner. Players are able to climb back onto a tile from the edge by rapidly pressing a button, but this becomes harder after taking more hits from bombs. You do have a couple of lives and the ability to spawn where you want, and there’s also a team battle mode and multiple levels.

Hands-on

As part of the supervising team from Vanguard, I’ve seen the game develop from concept to what it is now. I’ve been impressed by the progress made in each iteration and some tough design decisions that were made. Getting a game to a stage as polished as this, especially in a school project, is quite the accomplishment. We’ve been playing it regularly at Vanguard and you really should give it a try if you ever manage to get your hands on it. Get a chance to do so at tomorrow’s Utrecht School of the Arts project market.

Disclaimer: Although very much inspired by Greed Corp and Mistbound, General Conflict holds no relationship to Vanguard’s current or future projects. The project was issued to the Utrecht School of the Arts by Vanguard in an ongoing relationship with Dutch game development related education.