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[mokesmoe]

Cafe is a better example.


Even if the game never gets made, the pictures you are creating will always be pretty to look at.

[oyog]

I've already got the Alpha release.



...In my imagination.

[RCIX]

I've already got the Alpha release.



...In my imagination.

Pshaw, i've got beta! it's less buggy!

[Scut Fabulous]

http://scutanddestroy.files.wordpress.com/2010/12/salvage-solitaire-0011.jpg


I’ve been running ideas through my head on how to work the debt system in The Salvage, and I’ve also had board games on the brain a lot at the same time.  So the other day I decided to use a tabletop concept to help me work out ideas on distilling game mechanics down to simple systems that a player can grasp easily and keep track of in their head.

The idea I’ve sketched above is not the complete concept, but it’s a basic game idea.  It plays as a sort of solitaire board game.  A grid of cards are placed face down, and the player moves their avatar through the grid, revealing neighboring tiles and uncovering what is hidden within the tile they currently occupy.  The player has several types of tokens at his/her disposal that afford special abilities, but must be ‘leased’ from the game’s bank.  Having more tokens at the player’s disposal protects them against hazards, but increases the debt-load, thereby increasing the long-term risk of the treasure haul not being able to cover the cost of the debt.

My goal is to work out a simple game based on a risk vs reward mechanic, with the debt as an additional vector for pressure.  The debt acts a bit like a hidden enemy.

I still have a few ideas to sketch out on paper, but I think I’ll try to print and assemble this concept as a working board game prototype.  I think it will help me work out game mechanics better than mulling them over in my sleep.

[McMutton]

I like the idea for the debt system. Pretty interesting.

I forget if this was mentioned before, but will there be any offensive devices? You mentioned that pirates appear occasionally and steal stuff from you, so will there be any way to fight them off? Perhaps some tools that would enable to you use the environment against them or something?

[Taugeshtu]

> Perhaps some tools that would enable to you use the environment against them or something?

I think, it would be nice to see it... Dig a rock, then throw it in a pirate. Sounds great!
Also, as I imagine it, there is place for some turret-like systems, which could be bought (for artifacts?) and be placed somewhere around the warehouse (if there is something like it to bring artifacts into it)

[iggie]

Love the art and sprites

My goal is to work out a simple game based on a risk vs reward mechanic, with the debt as an additional vector for pressure.  The debt acts a bit like a hidden enemy.

I like the idea behind this (have thought about similar mechanic for RPG raids), but I struggle with punishing the player. Most games turn into "rewards and more rewards" with no real risks. I'd love to see a game that had big risk/reward payoffs like a game of Poker.

[oyog]

> Perhaps some tools that would enable to you use the environment against them or something?

I think, it would be nice to see it... Dig a rock, then throw it in a pirate. Sounds great!
Also, as I imagine it, there is place for some turret-like systems, which could be bought (for artifacts?) and be placed somewhere around the warehouse (if there is something like it to bring artifacts into it)

Or perhaps something less directly aggressive.  Collapse land from under them at the loss of possible artifacts?

I dunno.  That sounds kind of costly.

I do like the idea of having almost no offensive capability and distributing funds to protection, archeology tech, and artifact transportation.

[Helmeted]

The Salvage looks amazing! I can totally understand why people are anxious to see it get done, but this is one worth waiting for.

You've put a lot of thought into the world of the game, it's already easy to imagine a whole universe going on unseen beyond the edges of the screen. I absolutely love that immersiveness in games.

I remember a game for the Amiga called Ports of Call where players owned ocean freighters and your bank loans were constantly looming overhead. You started in debt, and could go deeper into the red, and balancing your profits with keeping your ship running and paying off the bankers really added a great tension to the game. Of course it's been a long time so I may be misremembering horribly, but I always thought that was a great mechanic.

[Scut Fabulous]

I remember a game for the Amiga called Ports of Call where players owned ocean freighters and your bank loans were constantly looming overhead. You started in debt, and could go deeper into the red, and balancing your profits with keeping your ship running and paying off the bankers really added a great tension to the game.

This is something I need to check out!  I've been looking around for other games to reference that have used debt in a way that feels like more than simply a spreadsheet, so thanks for the tip.  Maybe if I'm lucky someone has done a let's play on youtube.

I forget if this was mentioned before, but will there be any offensive devices? You mentioned that pirates appear occasionally and steal stuff from you, so will there be any way to fight them off? Perhaps some tools that would enable to you use the environment against them or something?

There won't be any kind of direct shooting combat.  You can strategize to help minimize losses that pirates will incur.  You'll likely also be able to irritate them enough to leave by improvising traps.  I'm thinking when they get harmed they'll just warp back to their ship and leave.  Maybe this week I'll draw a warp animation for them.

[Scut Fabulous]

Hey everybody, sorry for the lag on posts, I've been working on some nice tiles that were quite time consuming.  Oh, also Just Cause 2 was on sale...  yeah... that is one brilliant Asshat Simulator, and an effective productivity sink.


I have coloured squares arranged in pleasing manners for you!


http://scutanddestroy.files.wordpress.com/2010/12/salvage-new-stone-pixels.png

^^ As usual, click the link to embiggen. ^^








I needed new types of stone to represent the different strata you'll encounter in the game.  I think I might use the top brown texture as the highest strata, and put the texture currently used in the mockups into the layer beneath that.

I'm getting more and more of a knack for palettes.  It's really astonishing how much of a difference tweaking colours can make to otherwise identical tiles.  Buh, I wish I had been taught painting in school..

[Lizardheim]

Love the middle texture you got there.

[Scut Fabulous]

I plonked all the stone textures into identical mockup scenes so that it would be easy to get a sense of how they'll look in-game.  I put the original in the second image to make direct comparison easier.  You'll also note that the 3^rd and 4^th are the same texture, just mirrored.  It's because the shader layer really stood out hard against that texture so I tried a flip to see if it would help with blending.

[RCIX]

Can hardly wait till this gets into production!

[Lizardheim]

That will be glorious indeed.

[oyog]

These two are a little strange with the jaggedness of the land.  Is the pink tint the result of the shader layer?

[Scut Fabulous]

These two are a little strange with the jaggedness of the land.  Is the pink tint the result of the shader layer?

True, but if I use that texture it won't be for upper strata, it will be a deeper layer of stone. 
The pink is caused by the shader, yeah.  All the examples use the exact same shader, but how it blends with the layer underneath really changes the colour a lot, funny huh?  I think it looks pretty decent in all the examples, so I probably won't push to have a different shader for each stone type, would likely get too complicated.  One alternative would be to change the shader to a more blue or purple hue so that it works across a broader spectrum.

[James Edward Smith]

I liked the look of the texture with the long stones in it but I don't think it works well with the way terrain actually seems to be placed in your mockups. The other two textures maybe don't look as cool, but because their details are smaller, they look better when put on the terrain in the game. The one with the long stones looks too much like it's getting cut off all over the place in my opinion.

[Taugeshtu]

New tile #1 is awesome for upper layers of stone.
New tile #2 is awesome for deep layers.
New tile #3 has too small details on it, as I think. On the other hand, increasing detail size of #3 would bring it "not-good-for-upper-layers" look, just like #2 has it. Maybe you should try to redise detail count per tile in #3, so it has detailed zones and "solid rock" parts...
Really, don't know what to suggest for #3. It seems too chaotic for me.

[TheSpaceMan]

Don't take this the wrong way. I really wish it was as easy to implement the features as doing the mocups, because I love the design of this game.

I so hope this will be implemented an fully working.