Tile-Thursday 6: 32 x 32 Volcanic/Barren Tile Set Progress 2

Hello everyone,

A small update for this week! Progress on the Volcanic / Barren tile-set is being made. I am enjoying working on this tile-set a fair bit up to this point! I worked on the tiles themselves for some variation and added a few decorative objects. 

Until next time,

Dylan

Game Maker Progress 37: Next Step - Production Menu

Hello everyone,

Before moving onto the next set of tasks - I fixed a couple of issues that were left with the resource sets and resource tracking slots. This is not final - I will be changing the icons themselves - however for the moment these will suffice for testing purposes.

The next major element I will be moving onto next is the Production Menu. The production menu will be an important tool for the player to manage their nation. It will allow the player to assess what is being produced, how much and also set a production limit to prevent structures that generate a particular resource to overflow the storage or consume needed resources. 

Until next time,

Dylan

Tile-Thursday 5: 32 x 32 Volcanic/Barren Tile Set Progress 1

Hello everyone,

As I've mentioned last week - I've chosen to jump on making a different tile-set! Moving onto this next tile-set, I've increased the tile-size from 16 x 16 to 32 x 32 to give me more room to work with, and switch things around.

I started working on this tile-set more or less hap-haphazardly. I started with trying out a few ideas, putting things down and starting over a couple of times before I settled on something and decided to essentially just go with it and see how it comes out!

I'm not completely settled on the theme for this tile-set; although it's more or less a volcanic or barren type tile-set: based on the colours and ideas I have for it! 

I look forward to bringing you more updates!

Until next time,

Dylan

Game Maker Progress 36: Resource Sets

Hello everyone,

So the last update I had that talked directly about Foundation of Civilisation itself - I was still trying to get the Resource Trackers going. I have finally managed to get this taken care of - it turns out I had a small issue with the code that was causing the buttons to stack in a particular spot - it turns out I forgot to put in the break; command in a switch function. Oops...

The resource track slots - which refers to each individual one of those white squares that displays information on a given resource - can be set to show other resources. The idea I have is to allow the player to set which ever resource to track by clicking on the slot and switching it. An alternative is to have pre-set options - Resource Sets - such as food. 

By selecting a Resource Set - the track slots switch to that particular set of resources - similar to what can be seen above. The next step is to have a few more pre-sets set up and make some adjustments to the track slots to remove the background image of previous resources - then it's moving onto a new category of tasks!

Until next time,

Dylan

Tile-Thursday 4: 16 x 16 Desert Tile Set Progress 4

Hello everyone,

I haven't done too much towards adding onto the tile-set during the last week - between other work; I've had to make a few adjustments. That being said - I did re-work the sky backdrop primarily and made adjustments to the ground terrain.

I've decided to hop onto a new tile-set next; whilst this tile-set is far from finished - I've felt like excited working on this particular tile-set so to keep the spirit of practice going - I want to jump to work on something else!

I will show what I begin working on next week!

Until next time,

Dylan

Game Maker Progress 35: Approach to Design

Hello everyone,

The past week has been rather busy - I didn't have too much of a chance to work on implementing the resource tracking systems I had in mind at the end of last week's post. Whilst I was tending to other tasks - I did have time to reflect about the approach I was taking with designing the systems and experience for Foundation of Civilisation. 

Whilst I am keeping an open mind as I iterate new prototypes and ideas - having a type of philosophy or set of guidelines to use to concentrate my focus and attention seems to be necessary. Whilst working on the concept build - i.e. Dawn of Civilisation:  I had a lot of ideas, a lot of excitement of how these can tie together. This is great - but when it comes to implementing the ideas - some work together, some don't - some turn out to be good ideas, others leave a lot of room for improvement. 

That being said - after I switched to working on this new project - I knew that I needed to focus my approach better to keep things both in perspective and tied together in a comprehensive yet in-depth manner. A few weeks ago I showed you a mind-map - at the centre of this map of ideas and systems I thought of - is the core components I've chosen that will guide this project. 

These 3 components allow for a huge amount of depth - if worked on correctly. As I expand on each, I can more allow the player for more and more freedom to experience the game in a meaningful manner. Take the component of Population for instance.

In a game where the player is controlling a small nation/group of settlers - the population is definitely a key component. Population systems can include education, clothing, entertainment, health, housing, and food just to name a few ideas. These sub-components can be broken down even further to bring forward their functionality. This allows for depth - however the core components remain at the centre of the game experience. 

As the project move forward - I hope to continue working on this approach to design; see what works and what doesn't - and if it turns out to work well - keep using it. To this point - it is helping me concentrate my focus, ideas and priorities - without complicating the game with too much elements that seem redundant or unnecessary. 

Until next time,

Dylan

Tile-Thursday 3: 16x16 Desert Tileset Progress 3

Hello everyone,

The tile-set is slowly coming along! I worked on a few more decoration tiles as well as adjusting the background and ground tiles a small amount.

At this point I'm trying to think of what style of tiles I wanted to go for. I was to go for some desert ruins and have tents that show signs of people exploring these ruins. Maybe go for a small desert treasure hunter type tile-set!

Until next time,

Dylan

Game Maker Progress 34: Resource Costs

Hello everyone,

The final pieces of functionality that deal with construction is more or less nearly dealt with!

Now the cost of the structures will be shown below the build icon itself - with in-sufficient resources being marked with red text at the moment! In addition to this, modifying the cost of structures is less 'inconvenient' in a way than it was for the concept build, having centralised all the cost-related elements of structures in a script for easy adjustment!

The last task left at hand related to construction is the resource HUD. Unlike the concept build, I plan on having 'Resource Track Slots' at can be seen in the screenshot above. These would be able to track any resource that the player selects. Moreover, the player can pick from a few pre-set selections of resources such as Food, Construction Material etc. I hope that this will help ensure the player have the information they require more readily at hand when making decisions during game-play.

Once this is complete, I will decide what to move onto next; most likely the elements involving the population, work-post functionality or district functionality!

Until next time,

Dylan

Tile-Thursday 2: 16x16 Desert Tileset Progress 2

Hello everyone,

Progress on the desert tile-set is coming along nicely. The more consistent practice has been a refreshing change of pace from the consistent focus on a single project! I also look forward to writing these posts more and more as I make progress on the tile-set itself!

I have added a few basic decoration tiles, i.e. a ruined pillar and some sand stone bricks, together with an elevated terrain piece and background details. I plan on adding more and more decoration tiles; possibly going into a few full structures or the like! 

I do like how the tile-set is slowly taking shape to this point!

Until next time,

Dylan