It's All About The Map

My ever changing side project, Stellar Fortune, is a multi-player sandbox game.  One of the core ideas behind it is to have meaningful exploration.  To accomplish this, I need a large game world for the players to be able to explore.  That also means I need a good map system.

There are four levels to the game world:  Quadrant, Sector, System and Planet.  Each one is basically it's own map.  So I need a system that allows players to drill down all the way to a planet view.  I am currently going with a simple grid for each map level. Click on the Quadrant, click on the System, click on the planet and you are at the lowest level.

That's not too complicated, but in order for exploration to be meaningful I have to track what every player knows about.  So every system visited has to be noted.  Also, one way to make exploration profitable is for players to be able to sell information about systems they have visited.

As this is a sandbox, I want players to be able to exploit these newly discovered systems by being able to build there.  That brings up the question of fog of war... should players be able to see what's going on in a system once discovered even if they don't have anything there?  The easy answer is yes, the tough answer is no.

I also want discovered systems to eventually become public knowledge.  So those who discover a system will have some time to do with it as they please (claim, sell) but after a period of time passes, everyone will know about it.

This all presents some programming challenges, but I think it would provide an interesting game world for players to explore and exploit.

Read More

Frustration

I only remain happy playing games for a limited amount of times.  It eventually just leads towards me wanting to make my own game.  This weekend I reached that point.  It seems to be a never ending cycle.  I do work on making my own game, run out of time, go with it for a few months, then go back to the start.

It really bothers me that I can't seem to muster enough time to make my dream become a reality.  This is especially true with my new job which requires even more of my time.  So I have these ideas, which I desperately want to try out, but can't.  Very frustrating.

There is an option.  Pay someone to do all the time-consuming bits for me.  Seems like a good solution, sacrificing money for the time.  Getting my ideas in a form that someone can take a produce a usable prototype is the real challenge.  But it may be the only way moving forward.  It is something I'll have to think on.

Read More

Bring it to Market

My side project, tentatively named Pioneer, is progressing nicely.  I've recently added an important game system, the Market.  If you have played a MMO before, it's basically an Auction House, minus the auction aspect.  So, very similar to WAR and SWTOR in that regard.

I had considered going with a buy and sell order system like Eve Online has, but decided it was not really necessary for this project.  I have it coded up already for others though, so plugging it in is mostly a matter of interface changes.

To use the Market, your character must be in a hex that has one.  Like everything in the game, markets will be built by the players.  Those who build them will get a cut of the profits.

Game Status:  Move around, explore, find stuff, buy and sell stuff

Upcoming:  Eat and drink stuff, Claim land, build stuff

Read More

Explore

I'm pretty much on vacation this week.  That has meant free time for development, yay!  Just a quick post today.  I hooked up a 'fog of war' system for tiles that you have explored.  Explore is an action, which lets you find items and uncover resources.

Read More

Limitations

With Dev Spy working and usable, I've started on a new venture.  This one is back in the realm of web-based games.  I'm still in the early stages of the idea, but basically it is:  Multiplayer, Exploration focused, hex grid world.  I've been pondering a question this week...

What limits should be placed on player activities?

Activities being actions they take in game, like moving, building and so on.  I've come up with threee options.

No Limits.  This would be akin to the common MMO.  Players can log-in and do whatever they want for how long they want.  Usually it ends up being a mix of grinding and waiting.  For my project, I don't really think this is a feasible approach.  The game would would have to be enormous.  There would also have to be a lot more to do than I could possibly provide.

Resources.  With this model, players would have a pool of 'action points' which are spent doing things in the game.  Once exhausted, the player would have to wait until they get a new allotment or they can purchase more from a store.    This one seems to be pretty common among free to play games.  I am not really a fan of it though.  It seems too focused on player purchases than gameplay.

Time.  Every action takes X amount of time to complete.  For example, it may take 30 seconds to travel from one hex to another.  This is the option I have implemented so far.  I'm not a huge fan of making players wait, but this seems like the least intrusive.  I can also provide tools, like pathing, that let players queue up actions for when they log off or do something else.

So right now, it looks like option #3.  Did I miss some better ways of handling the problem?

Read More

New Ships and the Haulers Union

This week in Stellar Fortune I accomplished two important things.  The first was adding the ability to purchase new ships.  The second was the introduction  of the Haulers Union faction.  Read on for more details and screenshots.

Read More

How to make hauling fun

Let's face it, moving cargo from Point A to Point B isn't the most exciting gameplay.  In Stellar Fortune's first Alpha release, that is all there really was to do.  Hauling cargo is only meant to be a short term activity until you advance beyond the Merchant rank.  That doesn't mean it shouldn't be fun.

Read More

Ownership and Companies

It was quite a successful weekend as far as Stellar Fortune goes.  I implemented ship buying, which required me to rethink a bunch of code.  More on that later this week.  The task currently on my mind is, who owns a Factory?

Read More

Aspirations

Developing a video game can be a difficult task.  It is certainly a time consuming one, which is a very valuable resource.  Especially when it takes away from playing games, oh, and spending time with family and friends.  Many try their hand at video game development and a lot falter.  That's why I try to keep my aspirations low.

Read More

Stellar Fortune Alpha Release

For the past couple of months I have been working on developing a game as a side project.  It has been a lot of fun and a great learning experience.  Since my end goal is to actually complete a game, I set myself a deadline to get out something playable by the end of the month.  With a day to spare, Stellar Fortune Alpha version .1 is ready for release.

Read More

It's a big universe

This week I spent most of my time tightening up the Captain experience in Stellar Fortune.  This involved a lot of tweaking of Traders so that there is a good choice of jobs available to the player.  I also whipped up a simple starting screen for next week's public test.  I added the concept of Star Systems to the game, read on for more details.

Read More

Expanding the economy

Last week, I covered Stellar Fortune's job system.  It is basically responsible for moving goods from point A to point B using the player and NPC's.  This week I focused my development efforts on the overall economy.  Read on for more details about Stellar Fortune's economy.

Read More

A job is a job

When you are beginning your career in Stellar Fortune, you start out at the bottom hauling cargo.  It may not be the most exciting profession, but it is vital to the game's economy and a good place to learn the ropes.  In this post, I'll discuss the details of hauling cargo and some of the decisions still to be made.

Read More

Stellar Fortune

Over the weekend, I did a lot of thinking about my Untitled game side project.  I've made some good development progress, but there really was no cohesive direction that actually made it a game.  That has changed, as I now have a clear view of how I want to use all of these pieces.  The result will be called Stellar Fortune.

Read More

You've got Galactic Mail

My task this week for the Untitled game is to get a working job in.  A job is not a quest really, but it will do for lack of a better term.  It just basically means 'doing something.'  There are a bunch of pieces to this task, the first of which is to be able to find out about it.

Read More

I've got gas

This week I spent a good amount of time working on some basic movement mechanics.  Since exploration is one of the games core features, there needed to be a fuel system.  If you are going to set out into the unknown, you should have to do some pre-planning.  Continue on for a video, with commentary, about the new fuel system.

Read More

Tactical Overlay

During the long weekend, I managed to get a good amount of work in on the Untitled game.  One important change was the addition of targeted abilities (weapons) rather than just point and shoot.  These abilities will have varying firing arcs, so I wanted someway for the player to see them.  As a result we have the Tactical Overlay.

Read More

Sensors

This week in the Untitled Game, I added the first real ship component: Sensors.  They will determine at what point you can see other objects.  Large objects, such as Asteroids, will always be visible.  Smaller objects, like ships, will require you to be in range of them.

Read More

Exploration

The Untitled game project marches on. I actually have a name in mind but am still thinking it over. I'm starting to get into the 'adding stuff to do' part of development.  One core feature of the game is going to be meaningful exploration.

Read More

Big Picture

I worked on two projects involving the untitled game project this week.  The first was the Global Market screen.  The second was some type of map functionality.  Instead of going with a seperate map, I decided to take a page from GalCiv 2 (and other games) and go with a zoom based map.  Continue on for a video.

Read More