Koku Drumroll

By: Albert Lai

On: December 13th, 2006

I saw a car with turn signals that blunk (or, uh, blinked) at least twice a
second. There should be a law against that kind of malarky. A law!

Anyway, I recently received an e-mail from Reid Gershbein about Koku
Drumroll, though no drums are evident. I’m watching you.

To quote him:

A number of us at work (Dreamworks Animation) are really into Advance Wars
and were frustrated by the Advance Wars by Web interface for online play.
So, I wrote a browser-based TBS game similar to Advance Wars but [with a]
new game engine and artwork.

Koku Drumroll runs within a browser and is refreshingly smooth that indeed
moves away from the ‘click – refresh – load – load – click – refresh’ school of AWBW.
There is no refreshing involved when playing a game, whether when moving units
or switching turns.

But I’m not here to prattle on about the efficiency of Koku Drumroll, I’m here
to tell the people reading this post — that haven’t stopped reading at browser-based
TBS — that Koku Drumroll is fun. It’s a simplified version of most TBS’s,
with a low amount of information and calculation needed to play.

Each turn a player holds a set amount of energy (gained only from what appear
to be mushrooms) which they use to produce units from generators. Energy isn’t
stored turn to turn, however, preventing a player from hoarding energy.

Attack and defense isn’t handled in terms of HP – instead attack increases
the percentage chance a unit will destroy another, and defense does the opposite.
In addition, placing units within one space (including diagonals) serves to
‘reinforce’ the units by adding their attack and defense. Correct placement
of units and knowing where the weak spots in an opponent’s mob is essential
in winning a game.

What else is there to say? I definitely recommend Koku Drumroll for TBS enthusiasts
out there!