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[Melon Mason]

Update October 2017: I stopped posting on this log some time a go, but I thought I'd return just to say that I made it to Steam early access release. I now consider this dev log complete, at least in the sense I reached the 100% mark for EA v1.0.0. I'll be posting development updates on the Steam hub for the game and retiring from this thread. Thank you for your interest, you can learn more about the game on its website.

Steam Greenlight: Greenlight as of January 2015, click here for more details and to support me.   U

Quick Overview
ProtoMasons is a building and life simulator, that takes inspiration from modern manufacturing and materials. Players use a futuristic robot to help them construct buildings from blueprints, as well as furniture and machinery.

Unlike other games of the building / survive genre, ProtoMasons is more about the industrial process than mining, and threatens players with disease and illness as opposed to monsters and combat.

Style
ProtoMasons is a 2D multiplayer experience. The world works like in a platform game. The graphical style uses a combination of real-world and painted textures. Characters in the game have an untextured cartoon style.

Overall, public opinion indicates people are finding the game positively quirky and unusual.


Overall Gameplay Concepts

• Manufacturing system lets you create materials, goods, and electronics either by hand (using one of five factory minigames) or with machines that you build yourself.
• Architectural designer lets you plan building blueprints which are constructed by robotic "Proto-pal" helpers, allowing you to make anything from small buildings to tall towers.
• Simplistic electronic engineering system lets you create devices (such as desktop computers) starting with the individual components inside of them.
• Fight illness and disease using medicines and hospital equipment to research, diagnose, and hopefully cure players (don't die or you'll be stuck as a ghost!)
• Day / night system with simulated weather and daylight hours based on real-world patterns, complete with seasonal temperature changes
• The fun doesn't stop when building is over; grow food, cook meals, decorate buildings with furniture, send robots into space, create artwork, and more.

[dirak]

Gmod and Sims had a baby! Were all the trailer scenes player made? Is there any loose objective, or is this more of a 'make you rown fun' kind of game?

[Melon Mason]

Gmod and Sims had a baby! Were all the trailer scenes player made? Is there any loose objective, or is this more of a 'make you rown fun' kind of game?

Hmm yeah, if you want to make analogy by games, there definitely is a feel of Gmod-meets-Sims-meets-Starbound with my own twist bahaha.

Buildings are made in the game using the planner (which is only briefly shown as the menu where you select textures is half done).

Furniture, like the MRI scanner, can be buily using components in the crafting system, and then placed.


EDIT:  oh and sorry, forgot to mention that there is no defining aim in terms of story or plot. You just survive and create. It is a freebuild sandbox game with context and structure.

[Quarry]

Freemason conspiracy

[Melon Mason]

Freemason conspiracy

 

But naw, it is mason as in stonemason / builder. "Proto" just means 'original' and it sounds good.

Basically the fruits of flicking through a thesaurus.

Wouldn't mind a conspiracy if it helped with traffic though ehehe.

[BlackLodgeGames]

Yeah, Freemasonry is the first thing that popped in my head as well, which is a good thing because it made this game jump out at me (I ran into it in my Greenlight queue yesterday, and I voted yes!)  Good to see you promoting a devlog here as well.  Becoming an indie dev, I'm starting to really get a sense of community from everyone.  Welcome!  I look forward to your updates!

[Melon Mason]

Thanks for supporting it! As for me, I've not really been part of an indie community before, so I'm looking forward to getting to know some names and see some projects too.

[Melon Mason]

Dev Log 16th July 2014

I didn't do much today, but I was messing with ideas for difference faces in the game.

I lost the template I was using for the heads so I'm trying to recreate it from the files I have. I think the direction of the face is a little off on this one, but I should be able to fix that easily.

The heads tilt to face the position of the mouse, but that is currently restricting me to short / no hair styles.

I'm also planning to look into how the background is going to work in the game. Currently there are a few clone trees and blurry hills I threw in to add a sense of perspective, but it looks pretty crappy. Gonna focus on that.

[Melon Mason]

Dev Log 17th July 2014

I work incrementally like many solo game makers, but I do tend to leave large graphical changes till last. I was getting annoyed at how gross the background looked though;  you may have seen the weak hills and clone trees in the video, and rest assured, they are not permanent.

I've started experimenting with some graphical improvements. Above you can see the kind of look I am going for when it comes to background visuals.

Just felt like sharing. ProtoMasons is an odd game graphically, but I think it is all the better for it.

[Melon Mason]

Dev Log 25th July 2014

Currently adding in a lighting system, but it is being a bit glitchy so I can't really show much of that yet.

Also working on a system to let the user select objects to initiate a function (like clicking on a lamp to turn it on). Trying to avoid a design that resembles The Sims, so I'm looking at creative ways to make this work.

UPDATE:  Here we go.



The life sim aspect to ProtoMasons is pretty simple. You have to stay nourished, warm, and keep your character generally happy.

This approach is most comparable to games such as Little Computer People and The Sims.

In ProtoMasons, energy, hunger, and thirst are the key character needs. These are self explanatory. It should be noted that ProtoMasons is not a life simulator in its entirety, so this is only a part of gameplay. For example, eating at least one proper meal a day will keep you going, without any major upset to your character (so you don't have to spend every moment worrying about how well your character is).

Another need is warmth, which will make use of the weather and temperature mechanic of the game. For example, you are likely to experience negative repercussions if you spend hours outside in the dark during a snowstorm.

Finally the "buzz" need indicates how mentally aware and happy your character is. This is to encourage the player to build unnecessary, luxury objects to increase the buzz of their character. It also helps avoid players "working" too much in the game.

These life simulator mechanics encourage you, as a player, to find a goal or aim, and to find some balance in the chaotic mixture of gameplay elements that ProtoMasons combines. It adds a little structure, and provokes building ideas. Maybe if you play with a group of friends, you could start a farm or a processed food factory to help them out with their hunger needs.

Finally, this system also adds to the medical gameplay in ProtoMasons. Certain illnesses might have symptoms such as increased hunger, trouble getting warm, or severe dehydration. A player might notice their character is sick this way. It adds a new level of challenge to this aspect of the game.

[Melon Mason]

Dev Log 25th July 2014

I wanted to add something into the game that would let me test the new life sim mechanics, so I made this vending machine.

The person who builds it can fill it up with different food items, and earn money by selling the contents to other players. The owner could also use it as storage.

[Melon Mason]

Dev Log 26th July 2014

Finished a tidy script that lets me easily add player interactions with objects. A player selects the object, then options appear above the object using a variety of symbols the player learns to identify (as well as text labels). It has a unique look to it which was important. I'm trying to make sure ProtoMasons has its own identity and a unique feel about it.

No photos to post really, maybe later.

I'm also looking into remaking my player movement. Currently it just uses sprite assets to animate the walking, but I'd like to use some sort of skeleton animation system. Can't be doing with animating everything in images.

[Melon Mason]

Dev Log 28th July 2014

Worked on an inventory system today. Decided to limit how many different types of object a player can carry, but allow for them to have an unlimited amount of any one item.

Most games limit the quantity you can have of a single item. For example, in Minecraft you can carry 64x of an object in a slot.

I decided against this because I don't see it as anything more than an inconvenience. It could be annoying if you were trying to build a large structure but couldn't carry enough of the construction materials to create it in one go.

I understand why limits like this, but I think limiting what different kinds of item a player can take is enough.

[Melon Mason]

Dev Log 1st August 2014

Been working on adding an animation system (so I can trigger pre-made character animations) and also thought bubbles over the players head.

If you select an object that is a little bit too far away, your character will show a thought bubble and automatically move near the object so he can use it. You'll mainly be controlling your character with keyboard movement, but there will always be those times where you are too lazy to manually walk over.

[Melon Mason]

Dev Log 3rd August 2014

Demonstrating some changes to my multiplayer game, ProtoMasons.

Managed to fix de-syncing bugs in my game.

Added in an ownership / unique ID data map, so players can only edit their own objects, and I can dynamically trigger interactive objects across all clients (i.e there are 3 doors, client opens door 1 of 3 and the correct door opens across all game clients regardless of object identity differences).

Boring but important.

Planning to focus in on furniture / object placement tomorrow, including rotation.

[Melon Mason]

Dev Log 10th August 2014

Brief things I was doing:

• Fixing some general bugs
• Working on the building design interface
• Doing some stress testing to see how many world objects the game can take

Not much to update there. ProtoMasons is now on IndieDB though, so you can follow the project in an official capacity there, by clicking here.

[Melon Mason]

Dev Log 24th August 2014

Was working on the inventory system. It works, and lets you store an unlimited quantity of up to 24 objects. The player will be using lots of materials, so there is no quantity limit to prevent the inventory from being a nuisance.

Looks alright, but I might change the appearance around at a later date.

[Melon Mason]

Dev Log 7th December 2014

Took a hiatus due to other things that required my time, but I'm back into it.

Created a mod system. Modifications are distributed as .ZIP files and the game extracts them for use on launch. Going to focus most of the game content around external ZIP resources, so you can both mod and extend game functionality. High level customisation is good for these kinds of games.

The ZIP file type also makes it good for sending mod data to other clients.

You can read my December announcement here for info on Greenlight progress.

[Melon Mason]

Dev Log 5th Jan 2015

Sweet mother of melon it is 2015.

There was a major progress breakthrough. The mod loader was more or less finished in December, but the mod system as a whole is now largely complete.

• Mod support ranges from in-game resources, furniture, interactive objects, building textures, maps, and skins
• The game downloads mods you don't have (or updates) and installs and enables them for you, all while you join a server
• Any content you download can be enabled on your own server
• You can restore damaged mods locally

Additionally, some DLC is now planned. I'm very much against DLC that alters gameplay, as I believe you should pay once and get the full game experience. This DLC will be an optional tool that will let you create mods using a visual editor. It'll let creative types avoid the technical part of making mods and jump right into easy content creation. Hooray!

More on that later... as always, support the Greenlight page! Your votes are still needed!

[Melon Mason]

Dev Log 22nd Jan 2015

Yesterday we were Greenlit! Hooray!

Steam release is crucial, because of the community integration (screenshots, workshop, achievements) that Steam offers.

This is a big boost for motivation, and will allow me to work with the Steam SDK to develop core features.