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[Pemanent]

Well, I figured it is time to start my own devlog. :)
I have recently taken an interest in making a game and have started lurking around the community. I started listening to the Infinite Ammo podcast and got super inspired so I started making my own game!

Here is what I have come up with so far!!

Basic storyline, you are a Noble under a kings rule. The king has tasked you with building a thriving city. So that is what you do... design a medieval city. You start with a few villagers but over time more villages migrate to your town. Your sole goal is to pay your taxes to your king and keep your villagers alive.  
You will be able to build a multitude of structures from churches, to archery ranges, to science facilities.
There will be different trees which you can research down to unlock certain 'perks' and buildings.

Here is just a screenshot of what I have so far. You can see grey bricks which will eventually be stone, some wood tree trunks, and some poor looking crystals. Eventually I want to upgrade the graphics but for now it will do.

As you can probably see I am using pygame. I took all the computer science classes so since I know pascal and Java, Python came pretty easy to me. Oh, the two brown cubes in the corner are villagers, the image will change eventually.

EDIT - Graphics Adjustment :)


The game will play a lot like dwarf fortress. Where when you pick up a resource it doesn't increase a number, the villager will just put it in a stockpile to use when you build something.
In the screenshot you can see a resource counter but that will go away eventually! :)

I am on Christmas break right now so you will probably see a lot of work done in the next 2 weeks, but after that, maybe not after school starts up again.

Alright so thats the introduction!
What am I working on RIGHT NOW?
Well...

- when you press the shift key then the cursor moves 4 grid squares instead of the normal 1 when the shift key is not pressed
- when you select a villager and then a resource, the villager will move to the resource. I am not worrying about collision yet but I will get to it.


Mmmm what else to say... I think that is it. I will keep you updated! Hopefully I didn't bore you to much!

[Pemanent]

Ok so here is another update.

1. Shift keyboard modifier is working, so if you press shift and the arrow keys to move then the cursor moves 4 grid squares instead of just 1. Also it is easy to change the speed of this movement so I will probably put in an option so the player can decide how much they want the shift key to increase their movement.

2. I got a buggy selection system working. Now you can select a person and then select a resource and the person will move to the resource. Some problems with this -
    - the person moves to the exact position of the resource, not just next to it
    - the person doesn't check for collision, so it just goes through any other object in its path

Today my goals are to fix the movement bugs and... well frankly I just got the whole Humble Indie Bundle 1 because of my Humble Indie Bundle 2 purchase, so I will probably play those today!

[OneMoreGo]

Looks similar to a game I was working on (currently in my on hold pile  ) - I was inspired by Settlers. Good luck with it

[Inane]

Sounds interesting! Not much to say this early.
It might be worth making the resources all 2-4 pixels taller, so their tops don't align perfectly with the grid. It's simple, but it usually looks best to break grids whenever  it's not beneficial to keep them.

[J. R. Hill]

Err, what do you mean the name will change?

[Pemanent]

Just another update!

You can see a few changes.
- I changed the stone and crystal image, taking in mind Inane's advice about breaking the grids.
- I removed all traces of the old resource counting system.
- Also I fixed the Villager AI movement to avoid other Sprites, so it doesn't travel through objects. Although it is the most inefficient way to travel because it moves in a square to its target. I will need to look at making the Villagers move in a straight line to their target.

About the name, haha I never realized that! Powderpuff Girls right? Ok, then I REALLY need to change the name because this game has nothing to do with the Powderpuff Girls, although it would be funny to include easter eggs in relation to that.

Thanks for the feedback! Even if it is to early to determine anything.

So yup, there you go!
Some goals for today,
- Create a Zone Class, to 'zone' out resource stockpiles and building plots.
- When the villagers get to their target, if the target is a resource then they will collect the resource and move it to the nearest applicable Zone Stockpile.

[Pemanent]

So I am looking at moving my game over to Flash. I don't want be limited on platforms and I've seen that flash is a great way to upload your game online for anybody, even Iphone's... I mean Droids, since Apple is being a bitch about flash. Also I see posts where people say 'oh I just threw that together in a day' and I think, frick! Well maybe Python is just cumbersome and I don't even know it!

Though I am following this tutorial http://www.zoklet.net/bbs/showthread.php?p=2019522, just to get learn ac3 and the sorts.
It looks and feels a lot like Java :/
But I don't know... Python (well mostly Pygame) is so fun and easy!!

[Pemanent]

Well I decided to stick with pygame for the time being. Meerly because its fun! Which is the whole point of the project right! Who knows, I will probably switch over to flash at some point in time. But for right now here is an update.

I changed the background image, so it is no longer grid squares, which also forced me to rewrite my displaying system. Things are better now because thought!

In the above image you can also see the three zones I have created. I created a zone class and a zone selection menu to choose the zone you are putting down. At the moment you must move your cursor over each square you want to zone out but eventually I want to create a box select system.

My next action will be to efficientize!!! Things are quite inefficient right now and frankly its just sad. So tomorrow I am going to set up a white board (actually just a piece plexi glass, or the cheapest material I can find at Lowes which dry erase markers erase off) to visualize and draw out what is actually happening in my code. Instead of just thinking about it in my head.

I also want to work on a UI system, modeled after the grand DF!! Huzza!

Anyways, good luck everybody with your games!