Tuesday 27 June 2017

Game Maker Progress 39: Weather and Seasons

Hello everyone,

Two key systems were implemented in the last week; weather and seasons, together with a resolution manager. 

The weather and seasons are two of the most basic or fundamental obstacles that players will need to contend with and plan for. They do not necessarily pose negative effects - for instance, farms produce far more during rainy weather - they do however, suffer a production hit during winter time. 


For the moment - the only way the player can tell what season and weather it is currently is by looking at the indicators at the bottom left of the screen - with the left showing season and right showing current weather. This is, for the most part, temporary as I wish to reflect the changing weather on the tiles themselves - as well as provide a better indicator to show the current season and weather. I also have plans to have area-specific weather events, for instance rain in the north, and clear skies in the south, these are however in the back-log; as the priority is to have a playable prototype using these new systems.

The resolution manager is an addition which I find to be quite enjoyable and pleasing. The resolution manager calculates the optimal resolution based on the width and height of the display that the game runs on. The game's resolution will then adjust based on this figure - allowing it to be played on various screen sizes fairly well. That being said - I hope to implement a way for players to choose the resolution and aspect ratio they wish later on. For the moment, this does aid in providing play-testers with a build that can adjust as required based on the display they utilise.

Everything is progressing nicely - the game's systems are nearing a stage where the game can be played, however there are still a lot of systems, code and elements that require attention before I can begin to play-test the game, and begin thinking of more advanced systems to put into place.

Until next time,
Dylan

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