Taking the Cake
Taking the Cake
Taking the cake ........................................................................................................................................ 3
How a new player can Take the Cake...................................................................................................... 4
Concept origin and focus ......................................................................................................................... 6
Gameplay elements and mechanics........................................................................................................ 7
The map ............................................................................................................................................... 7
Resources ............................................................................................................................................ 8
Roads ................................................................................................................................................... 8
Signs..................................................................................................................................................... 8
Minions ................................................................................................................................................ 9
Towers ............................................................................................................................................... 10
Fog of War ......................................................................................................................................... 10
Construction of roads and towers ..................................................................................................... 10
Controls ................................................................................................................................................. 11
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Taking the Cake
Taking the cake
Taking the cake is a real time strategy game without direct unit control. Instead players focus on
building infrastructure and placing signals to direct traffic towards important resources or strategic
locations. Combat will be engaged automatically by opposing forces that meet on roads and can only
be influenced through player abilities and redirecting more forces to the battle.
Taking the cake does away with most traditional unit micro in favour of macro decisions, creating a
casual game in terms of stress levels yet still offering hardcore mechanics and appeal in gameplay.
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Taking the Cake
How a new player can Take the Cake
A new player need know only the following:
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To win, gather more sugar than your opponents.
To gather sugar, build roads from your base to sugar deposits.
To build roads use the build menu.
Minions spawn at your base automatically.
Minions carry sugar over the roads.
You can control minions by placing road signs.
From the build menu road signs can be built.
Signs cost tools to build. Tools are gathered from tool deposits, same as sugar.
Manage the flow of your minions over roads via more road signs.
To win, gather more sugar than your opponents.
To gather sugar, build roads from your base to sugar deposits.
Abstract map overview
To build roads use the build menu and place roads on the map. Minions will carry sugar over these
roads.
You can indirectly control minions via road signs. From the build menu road signs
can be built. Place signs on roads to direct minions.
More signs can be built by gathering tools from tool deposits.
Build roads to tool deposits. Have minions carry tools over these roads. Manage
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Taking the Cake
the flow of your minions over roads via road crossings, signs and changing road connections. Protect
minions and roads with towers.
Gridless map concept without roads
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Taking the Cake
Concept origin and focus
There are three staples of RTS games. These are base building, unit management and resource
gathering. Over the years several variations of these ideas have been tried, most focusing on the unit
management side, in a micro and macro way, sometimes even completely taking away base building
or resource gathering. Examples such as Sudden Strike, Company of Heroes, the Total War series and
many more come to mind. Other games feature base building and resource gathering but put a
severe emphasis on unit control and micro, Starcraft for example. At a high level this leaves many
players unable to compete simply because they lack an extremely high reaction speed or mouse
finesse, not strategic or tactical insight.
The most important driving element in any RTS game that involves actual strategy is the resource
gathering and the system surrounding it. Even in an extremely micro heavy game such as Starcraft
games are mostly won by outsmarting your opponent in terms of expansions and economic
harassment, the emphasis on micro management skills being the only barrier of entry for many
players.
No games so far have actually tried focusing entirely on the resource gathering aspect of strategy
gaming.
Taking the Cake is a strategy game that puts a high focus on resource gathering. Resources are not
used to buy new units or research upgrades. They are needed to construct roads, signs and towers,
activate combat buffing abilities and also to win the game. There are two types of resource, Sugar
and Tools. Tools are for construction and sugar is needed for abilities and to win the game. By taking
away unit control and base building focus is laid entirely on strategy. There is no need for players to
frantically manage tens or hundreds of units simultaneously, leaving more time to focus on overall
strategy and macro management.
Taking the Cake’s closest comparison is likely Company of Heroes, with its emphasis on territory
control for resource gathering and Victory Point system of winning multiplayer games. Taking the
Cake is however more streamlined in its focus on territory and supply lines and much less concerned
with the outcomes of isolated battles. The game is also much more abstracted, less complicated and
highly accessible.
This is not to say that players can simply sit by and watch the game play itself. Using road signs to
change the direction of minions over the roads, building new roads and constructing towers at key
locations can quickly alter the state of the battlefield and reactions must be swift and well thought
out.
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Taking the Cake
Gameplay elements and mechanics
The map
The map is a hexagonal grid. Each tile of the grid can represents a part of the terrain. Each part of the
terrain can be filled with one element, giving it specific attributes. The following are the possible
terrain types.
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Bases
Base hexagons represent player bases and function as spawning points for minions. Bases occupy
a single tile.
Resources
Tools and sugar. When connected with a road, minions can enter these tiles and pick up some
resources. Resource deposits can occupy multiple tiles depending on their value.
Empty, nature
o Normal
(normal walking speed when roads are built) (grass)
o Difficult
(slower walking speed on roads) (hills, small water)
o Impassible (can’t build roads here) (mountains, rivers)
Roads
Minions use these to walk from point to point. Roads can be connected at any side of a hex tile,
in this way roads can be created and via road signs crossroads can be created and special orders
given. Each road occupies a single tile.
Towers
They can only be built where roads can be built and have to be connected to a road as well.
Towers occupy a single tile.
Map overview concept late game
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Taking the Cake
Resources
As previously mentioned, there are two types of resources, tools and sugar. Tools are much more
common than sugar as they are needed a lot. Sugar might be located in one or two major
deposits or scattered around over small deposits across the map, this is entirely map
dependant. What this implies of course is that deposits are not infinite. This does not
necessarily have to be the case, resources might also be infinite but their dispensing rate
can differ from one another, larger deposits being able to give out more resources at once
than others. This is a tweakable setting.
Sugar carries two uses with it. The primary use is that when a player gathers the required amount of
sugar he wins the game. The secondary use for sugar is that it can be used up as a powerful but short
lived boost. Players can activate special powers with sugar, for instance shortly spawning extra
minions or increasing the movement speed of all minions.
“The fifth king of sugar first came up with this idea. In his final battle he gave out a portion of his gathered sugar in exchange for services as
a minion. Chaos erupted on the field as literally thousands of sugar deprived junkies joined the fray and overwhelmed all opposition.”
Roads
The main tool in any player’s bag, roads will get you where you want to go, sugar central. A famous
writer once wrote that spice must flow, in Taking the Cake sugar must be obtained. And to do this
roads must be built and minions must walk on these roads.
Roads are not just for walking. They are also the only place where signs can be placed. Multiple signs
can be placed on roads but only one of each type concurrently. Traffic signs can be placed at all roads
to create crossings while Order and Combat signs are limited to one per road.
Building a road is done by selecting the road icon from the build menu and selecting
the tiles along which the player wants to build a road. Roads can only be build when
connected to another existing road and can only go one way with the exception of
crossings. Roads can be rearranged, creating different connections and pathways by
connecting them in different ways.
Signs
Bought and placed via the build menu, signs are always placed on roads and can be used to regulate
the movement and actions of minions. There are three types of signs, Traffic signs, Order signs and
combat signs.
Signs can only be placed on roads. One more rule applies for the placement. No signs can be placed
on contested roads. If a road is occupied by enemy minions or both your own and enemy minions,
you cannot place signs on this road. Only a road that is being occupied by one or more of your
minions or a road that is empty but was last occupied by your minions can be used to place signs. If a
road is captured by the enemy, by eliminating all your minions from that road, all signs you have
previously placed are removed.
Traffic signs are used to create crossroads and regulate the division of minions across these roads.
Traffic signs can be used to say take a left here, a right there or more advanced, for each minion that
takes a left one must also go right. In this way the flow of minions across roads can be manipulated
and distributed. When Traffic signs are placed at roads the default setting is to divide all incoming
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Taking the Cake
minions equally across all exits. Traffic signs only affect minions coming onto the road without special
items or missions. A minion carrying resources will take the shortest route back and will ignore Traffic
signs.
Order signs work in an entirely different manner and have wildly varying effects. They also cost a lot
more tools to use and are active for only a limited time. Example Order signs would be alert signs
that draw minions toward a location, hold and charge signs that have minions gather up before
moving on and so on and so forth.
Combat signs are an exception to the placement rule in that they can be placed on roads where
minions are fighting other minions. Combat signs cost sugar but can be used to steer a battle in your
favour by greatly increasing the fighting capability of all present minions, unless the enemy also uses
combat signs of course.
Minions
The butter for your bread or roads if you like, the ants that gather the sugar, minions are the
representation of your loyal subjects for when you are the king of sugar. While strictly digital, as you
should be well aware, in the finale your true followers* will replace their digital counterparts in an
attempt to gain both your favour and your sugar.
Minions will automatically spawn at your base in regular intervals. The exit road that is used can be
selected via the base. There is a maximum number of minions that can be on the field at any one
time. This number can be raised temporarily with a significant sugar expenditure but is otherwise set
in stone. The spawn interval can be manipulated up and down as well, in this way fresh minions can
be saved up for a fresh charge later on.
After being spawned on a road, minions will walk forward until reaching a sign, a dead end, a
resource deposit, a tower or an enemy minion. At a sign the minion will follow the instructions, at a
dead end the minion will turn around and head back, at a resource deposit or a tower the minion will
try to enter and perform a task there and when encountering an enemy minion he will charge it with
a furious rage that only a sugar junkie can reach when something is between him and his sugar.
Minions, hard at work
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Taking the Cake
Towers
Towers can be used to guard areas and specifically roads from enemy minions. A tower has to be
connected to a road when built. Once built minions must man the tower for it to work.
Towers can be destroyed or captured by the enemy via overwhelming force or special minion attacks
that can be triggered via signs.
There are two types of tower, recon towers and defense towers. Recon towers have a large field of
vision, clearing fog of war and helping spot enemy movement. Defense towers have large firepower
and are hard to overtake.
Towers are expensive to build. They cost a lot of tools in comparison to most road signs.
Fog of War
The shroud that envelops the entire map, save for where the player has buildings and minions. Fog of
War prevents the player from seeing the enemy build and move troops. The map itself is visible but
grayed out. Existing roads are displayed but only roads that are owned by the player are actually
visible.
Construction of roads and towers
When a player decides to lay down some roads or a tower they
are not instantly built. A construction minion is sent from the
base towards the designated construction site, once there he will
quickly build up a road or tower. Typically only one construction
worker is sent out at a time and a large cooldown timer is active
after this to prevent construction from going too fast.
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Taking the Cake
Controls
Controls for Taking the Cake are limited to scrolling the map, placing items from a selection menu on
the grid map and rearranging the layout of roads.
Limiting controls to such an extend should make it highly playable on any type of platform, ranging
from PC with a mouse, to console controllers and mobile phones with touch screens. This is very
important to the World Government as they want it made clear that anyone, anywhere, in the entire
world, has the right and the ability to participate in the worldwide Taking the Cake tournament.
Anyone can be king, they just have to work, hard, for their sugar.
Any tile that has a road on it can be re-linked to a different road whenever the player wants to
rearrange. This can be done via the road rearranging tool, selected from the build menu. When the
tool is selected the player can select a road tile and unhook it from the current road and rehook it to
a different one. This can only be done when there are existing road tiles for the new connection and
the player is in control of the tile. This is the only way in which road sections can become
unconnected, these roads will be unusable until reconnected and minions left on unconnected roads
will wander up and down aimlessly.
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