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Thread: Fairy Building Game

  1. #1
    Legendary Member cairnswm's Avatar
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    Fairy Building Game

    One of my favorite game genres is the City Building/simulation type games. At times my daughter has also been interested in playing game like Zeus etc. My idea is to make a rather simple city building game for her. She loves fairies so its an obvious choice.

    My plan is that the board starts as plain brown ground. On this ground the player needs to grow flowers. The more flowers she grows the higher her score.

    Flowers only grow if tended regularly by fairies. So the player needs to plant various items to enable fairies. Faries only can walk on grass so the player needs to build grass paths for the fairies to walk on (as they pass flower gardens they will tned the gardens and make then grow better).

    Fairies however do not look after their own houses and therefore the player needs to ensure that there are gnomes walking the paths to tend the fairy homes. Fairies also need other things to keep them happy (not sure what yet) and if they have enough access to these things their homes will improve enabling multiple fairies to live in the same homes thereby increaing the number of gardens that can be tended.

    Other ideas I have is that possibly the fairies (or someone else like dwarves/pixies) also need to look after some garden animals such as ducks and rabbits.

    Of course there are always problems that will be experienced like ants that eat the flowers that bloom.

    Garden ornaments can be used to improve patches of garden.

    Scenario goals can be set on the number (and type) of flowers that must be grown to complete a level.

    Art I'd need:
    Fairies (Reiner has a nice fairy sprite)
    Gnomes (Reiners Gnome would be fine, else maybe the Willie sprite)
    Dwarves (Maybe the Willie sprite of the Builder/Carrier sprite)
    Flower patches (various states)
    Fairy homes
    Other fairy buildings (mushrooms)
    Garden animals and pests
    William Cairns
    My Games: http://www.cairnsgames.co.za (Currently very inactive)
    MyOnline Games: http://TheGameDeveloper.co.za (Currently very inactive)

  2. #2

    Fairy Building Game

    This is a nice concept. I think i'd like plaing with it.
    So the fairies will be something like "computer controlled"? You prepare the places and they do what is needed ?

    And how will "bad things" (ants) be resolved ? would there be a way to kill them? (a flamethrower fairy? )

    PS What are those Reiner and Willie reference you talked about ?
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  3. #3
    Legendary Member cairnswm's Avatar
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    Fairy Building Game

    Reiner and Willy and all my sprites come from:
    http://www.reinerstileset.4players.de:1059/englisch.htm

    Basically you as the player will build buildings, roads, plant flower beds etc. A fairy home would then generate a fairy that starts walking along the road. Whenever the fairy passes a flower bed she 'works' in the garden and the flowers grow.

    Basically just like any other city building game (Zeus, Caesar etc)

    Not sure how to do the enemies except by having a specific unit that fights them.... needs more thought
    William Cairns
    My Games: http://www.cairnsgames.co.za (Currently very inactive)
    MyOnline Games: http://TheGameDeveloper.co.za (Currently very inactive)

  4. #4

    Fairy Building Game

    With all the hack and slash games found on the market today, this should be a welcome change.

    Not sure about the ants eating leaves though,.. in real live ants bring leaves back to their nests where it is used to grow some kind of fungus.
    Perhaps caterpillars would fit the bill beter. In terms of 'fighting', it would make more sense as it would be perfectly okay to have one or two of them in your garden. Ants on the other hand usually go in groups, especially when food is involved.

    Please do, keep the ideas coming. I'd very much to like to see what else you've planned.

  5. #5
    Legendary Member cairnswm's Avatar
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    Fairy Building Game

    One of my 'Problems' is too many ideas - I get to do about 1 in 500 of them and probably complete about 1 in 10000

    Caterpillars is a cool idea though. I like it in that you actually want some caterpillars as they turn into butterflies for bonus points However too many would mean that you dont have enough flowers.... Its all a thing about balance.

    I think the idea would be to have different sorts of enemies, Rabbits for example could eat the flowers and you need to make sure you chanse them away etc.

    If you look at the City Building genre all actions in the game typically have an effect the gets added to all other effects on an area of the map. So in this way ants are a perfect enemy as you need to ensure that you have enough 'fighters' passing the flowers at all time to discourage ants from comining into the gardens.

    My units currently consist of:
    Fairies
    Gnomes (Maintain the fairies homes)
    Fighters (vs ants/caterpillars)
    Maybe some utility units that bring other stuff to homes/gardens (Fertiliser etc)

    My Buildings:
    Flower Garden
    Grass Pathway
    Gnome Toalstool
    Fighter Home
    Possibly something like a water fountain to ensure water to the gardens
    Home for the Utility Units

    My Enemies:
    Ants
    Rabits
    Caterpillars

    Game Rules
    Fairy Homes produce fairies. Only 1 to start with, if maintained by a gnome it produces 2 fairies, if the fairy home is supplied with water it produces 3 fairies and if it also gets 'fairy dust' it will produce 4 fairies.
    A fairy home needs to be maintained by a gnome regularly. If a gnome does not pass the house within a 'minute' then the home decreases in size and the player loses a fairy.
    A gnome lives in a toadstool. A toadstool produces 1 gnome unless supplied with '?' by a carrier then it will produce two gnomes.
    A Carrier comes from a '?'. They move around picking up various items such as '?' and fairy dust (maybe they carry the water) which they drop off bit by bit as they walk around.
    A 'fighter' comes from a '?' it always produces only 1 fighter. A fighter helps chase ants and rabbits away.
    A 'fighter2' comes from a '?' it always produces only 1 'fighter2'. A 'fighter 2' chases a catterpillar away each time he passes a garden. If there are enough catterpillars in a garden he always chases the youngest one away. After 'X' time a caterpillar becomes a butterfly and gives bonus points (or a special once off ability/power up the player can use).
    Each turn a garden will grow 'X' amount. 'X' is influenced by how often a fairy has walked past the garden and how much it has been damaged by enemies (possibly also how much 'F' a carrier has given the garden).

    Actually sounds more and more fun as I build on the idea

    Reiners tile sets have a few Cute building I could use for the Fighter and Carriers
    William Cairns
    My Games: http://www.cairnsgames.co.za (Currently very inactive)
    MyOnline Games: http://TheGameDeveloper.co.za (Currently very inactive)

  6. #6

    Fairy Building Game

    Sounds good.

    Is it going to be a turn based game or realtime? Because in your previous post you speak in both time as well as turns.

    The whole catepillar thing is not clear to me. You say they need to be chased away, but when fully grown they do give points when they turn in to butterflies. Somehow that doesn't add up.

    Also, where do the houses come from? Do you need any building materials. Or is there suddenly a new house available.

    What is going to be the endresult in a level? Do we have some sort of missions to achieve?

    Hmm,.. lots of question here. Perhaps I'll wait for some answers first

  7. #7
    Legendary Member cairnswm's Avatar
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    Fairy Building Game

    I'm thinking a real time game will be best. I sort of want it to be playable by my kids (9,6,4) and they are now used to real time games. (A turn is an internal game measure of time).

    The catterpillar 'thing' is an idea of finding the right level of balance. Too many caterpillars will cause too much damage but at the same time you want a few of them around for the bonuses they can deliver when they turn into a butterfly. This sort of gives an alternate dimension tot he game where you have a serious choice to make.

    In city building game you typically have an amount of money to 'buy and build' buildings on the map. So you click on a 'fairy house' from the pallette which then takes a 100 money from your balance. You click on the map where you want the house to be and it either immediatly becomes a house of it looks ike the house is being built (grown maybe in this case).

    Havn't given all that much thought to the misson goals but some could be - have X fairies, grow Y flowers, produce Z butterflies etc.

    Thanks Traveller - You have sort of helped me get my ideas in line Have you ever played a game like Zeus/Caesar?
    William Cairns
    My Games: http://www.cairnsgames.co.za (Currently very inactive)
    MyOnline Games: http://TheGameDeveloper.co.za (Currently very inactive)

  8. #8

    Fairy Building Game

    Realtime does seem the best way to go for this game.
    And as you say, I suppose kids nowadays hardly play turnbased games anymore (possibly because so few tb games are left these days) and I wouldn't be surprised if they actually don't like those games.

    I understand your idea of caterpillars and it is an interesting one. I'm not exactly sure though how to translate that to a game. Usually in games things are either good or bad. There is no gray area where you can have a bit of both. I'm not sure if a player will understand the concept that a few caterpillars in your flowerbeds is a good thing while they actually do damage to the flowers. Because as long as there aren't too many of them you should be okay, if fact you'll even earn points.
    I have no kids myself, so I can't really tell for sure, but somehow it strikes me as too complex for children around that age. (<10)

    Hey,.. theres a thought. What about making butterflies the actual goal and ignore the damage they do. This way the player only has to focus on the condition of the flowerbeds and cocoons and perhaps the state of the houses and thats it. You could then use different kinds of flowers where each specimen has its own affect on butterflies. More exotic flowers atract different exotic butterflies etc.
    Perhaps you could even buy seeds used to grow the special flowers from a market of somesort.

    Heh,.. I'm getting lots of ideas myself now too

    But I'll leave it at this for now. I'm waiting for your thoughts first

    PS. I have played Zeus a little, but I didn't like it that much. I heard the later versions Pharaoh was much nicer/better though.

  9. #9
    Legendary Member cairnswm's Avatar
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    Fairy Building Game

    Zeus is actually one of the few games I own (and Cricket 2004 and some really old games - I just dont play games that much).

    Interesting Idea on the butterflies, what if you had to actually have someone 'planting' butterfly eggs

    I like games that make you balance things - this is often one of the key things in a city building game. For example in Zeus house cant grow bigger than a certain size without a doctor walking past, but an infirmary (that makes doctors) lower the apeal of an area making house less likely to grow. The caterpillars do this sort of thing.

    I would really like to get going on this game Now I just need to find some time

    Keeping it as simple as this definitly makes it achievable. If we keep the more complex ideas (Fairy Castles etc) out of it we may make it work...
    William Cairns
    My Games: http://www.cairnsgames.co.za (Currently very inactive)
    MyOnline Games: http://TheGameDeveloper.co.za (Currently very inactive)

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