Welcome, Guest. Please login or register.

Login with username, password and session length

 
Advanced search

1411276 Posts in 69323 Topics- by 58380 Members - Latest Member: bob1029

March 28, 2024, 11:41:36 AM

Need hosting? Check out Digital Ocean
(more details in this thread)
TIGSource ForumsCommunityDevLogsCurrently untitled Island Game
Pages: [1]
Print
Author Topic: Currently untitled Island Game  (Read 705 times)
Oats
Level 1
*


High starch content.


View Profile
« on: January 27, 2015, 02:26:19 AM »

I've started a multiplayer Island Game, I'm not sure how long this will last, but I thought I might as well post a DevLog.
At the moment it's really a tech demo but here is the screenshot of what I just compiled:


(Sorry for such a big screenshot)

As shown I have a system that will allow the states of the objects be sent dynamically over a network. Will post again when there is significant progress.  Hand Thumbs Up Right
« Last Edit: April 29, 2015, 11:36:51 PM by P1x3lRuckus » Logged

eh
Oats
Level 1
*


High starch content.


View Profile
« Reply #1 on: February 13, 2015, 03:52:00 AM »

All right!
Well I spent my spare time today and yesterday fiddling with island generation, came up with a system I'm pretty happy with. Obviously as you can see no details or interesting features are added yet but trees and other flora are coming soon! Here are some screen captures of the islands:


I'm not totally satisfied with the output, there are some obvious floors in the algorithm (the widths of beaches being thinner on curves then on straights), but for this stage in development I'm pretty happy with the progress.

I think I'll take the opportunity to talk about my idea for the game, I decided to try and make a game that purposely turns players against each other. The game will manipulate the amount of natural resources on the island, so that as the game progresses there will always be just not enough food for everyone. The way I hope for it to play out is that even when every available food source  is gathered, if everyone plays fair, no one will have enough to survive. I'm hoping this will create a very tense experience, maybe I could add seasons of plenty to loll people into a sense of security, then crush their aspirations into dust with a natural disaster. The main issue I think I will encounter is replayability, sure it might be an experience to be stuck on a murderous island with other players pushed to cannibalism, but I'm not sure how to add enough diversity in the gameplay to warrant many playthroughs, without making the game too complex for new players. So I'm interested in ideas/feedback.

Other things I'd like ideas on is food sources, ignoring cannabalism here's what I've got.
  • Berries/herbs, that can be gathered across the island, I could add poisonous variations that could kill inexperienced players, or that could be used by experienced players to kill others off.
  • Coconuts of course, can't have island survival without them.
  • Crabs/shellfish. I was thinking having small shoreline creatures that could be gathered for food, except populations would be very slow to build up again, so it could be used as food for the first few days before other food sources where found.
  • Boar? I might go with the Lord of the Flies theme and have huntable boar, bearing in mind that wild pigs can fight back hard.
  • Fish is a no brainer, common but possibly hard to catch, requiring teamwork or gear to capture.
  • To add extra spice to fishing I might add sharks, extremely hard to kill with little good meat in return sharks could be a natural way to keep players on the island, as trying to swim away could be fatal.

I'm also interested in any other features, gamemodes or natural disasters people can come up with, since this will be an entirely multiplayer experience I'd like all the feedback possible. Thanks for reading my devlog  Wink

PS: As soon as there's gameplay I'll post a link to a downloadable version for Mac/PC/Linux/Solaris (if anyone wants)

EDIT
I fixed the islands! Look how pretty they are now!

« Last Edit: February 13, 2015, 08:40:02 PM by P1x3lRuckus » Logged

eh
Oats
Level 1
*


High starch content.


View Profile
« Reply #2 on: February 22, 2015, 03:42:02 AM »

These islands are coming along!

As you can see in the gif islands now share seeds across clients, have procedurally generated palm trees (still requiring prettification) and tides. Still haven't started any gameplay elements though but for know I'm really enjoying this game.

Also I need to synchronise more things, waves are quit predictable, so very little bandwidth needs to be waisted to keep those pretty much synchronised, as for the players I haven't even got started, but using what I've already done it should only take an hour or so once I get down to it.

As for now I'm gonna start implementing gameplay features, not the fun ones yet, but utility things like the inventory, clothing, physics, food and health things. I've decided I'm going to try the organised route, where I make a flexible well implemented base, then start adding on game mechanics when the base is ready. This is in stark contrast to how I've developed games in the past, where I've acted like an overly excitable child in a sweet store, adding gameplay here and there to make a game as fun and flashy as early as possible, but often then having to continuously go back and fix things I rushed to make. I think this approach is also why I give up games quite often, because I start out really hard and fast and enjoying everything I'm doing, then end up slowing down because of the number of things I have to fix, and because of a poor game structure new features become harder and harder to implement, so the whole project goes stale.
This time should be different though, I'm pacing myself and I'm saving the pudding till last, so I have something to look forward too.

Lot's of food analogies today, I must be hungry.
« Last Edit: February 22, 2015, 05:31:45 AM by P1x3lRuckus » Logged

eh
Oats
Level 1
*


High starch content.


View Profile
« Reply #3 on: April 29, 2015, 11:36:33 PM »

Well, it's been a while since I've posted, there's been a lot of progress, I've added a lighting system, soft bodied physics, wind, a day night cycle and synchronised a few more things like the waves and wind. So in that front I've done and learnt a lot.

However as anyone clicking this thread will see from the icon I've decided to kill this project for now, this game will pass un-noted into the history of games failed because of unrealistic scope. While programming this I've realised how slow implementing even the most seemingly simplistic ideas can be, that on paper looked like they could be done quite quickly. Anyway I think I'm most annoyed that it took so long for me to realise this game was doomed, I guess I forgot the "Quick to Fail" advice floating around when planning this project. If anyone likes this idea I guess I'd be ok with them using it, not that I have really posted much information.

RIP Island game.

Logged

eh
Pages: [1]
Print
Jump to:  

Theme orange-lt created by panic