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View Full Version : My entry to 3rd PGD challenge - no name yet



SilverWarior
16-08-2013, 07:54 PM
After giving it some thought I finally decided for my theme.
For 3rd PGD challenge I intend to make a game where you are leading your kingdom from kings point of wiew.

The core of game mechanics is that no information can reach from one point to another instantly but has to be delivered using messangers.
To ensure the safe and timely delivery of messages across your kingdom you need to maintain certain level of order and organization across your kingdom.
This of course will become more and more dificult as your kingdom will grow in size since you will have to deal with more and more problems and messages about these problems will be coming with longer and longer delays. Yes you will be facing iwth same dificulties that caused even the mighitests empires tto crumble and fall apart.

To ensure my game fits the rules of the competition I will simulate many ingame characters (protagonists) like farmers, hunters, messengers, tribute collectors, soldiers, traveling merchants, bandits etc.
Each of them will have certain degree of autonomity so they would be able to adapt to current situation. For instance: reports of bandids ocupying one road would cause messanger to use alternate route even if this would mean longer trip and thus longer message delivery time.

As a king you controll your units by isuing orders like: find the bandids ocupying some road and deal with them properly or expand mine to increase production


Now since I'm poor in graphics I'm thinking of minimazing graphics assets of my game and focus more on coding of various features and mechanics to compensate.
But I would still like to have athleast some basic map view in game. I would like for my map to look like it has been drawn in middle age time.
Preferably I would like to be able to create the map programatically.

So I'm wandering if anybody of you have some graphical resources which I can use for this or athlest know where I can find them.
Also if anyboddy of you is prepared to make them for me I would be more than gratefull. They don't need to look proffesional.

I would really like for my map to look like these two (black and white one would suffice wihe second one would be even better):
http://imageserver.mzk.cz/mzk03/001/053/433/2619316879
http://imageserver.mzk.cz/mzk03/001/039/774/2619266867


Now lets start coding basic classes for my game.

Oh and if anyboddy wants to join me on making of this project you are welcome especially if you are graphical designer or have good expirience in creating ingame UI.
I still haven't decided which graphical library I will use but I would prefer programming in Delphi as I'm used of it the most. But this doesn't mean that you also have to also do programming in Delphi.
Using of graphical engine that compiles both in Delphi and your prefered IDE would suffice. And in worst case I could code in Delphi and then transfer that code into FPC/Lazarus.

pstudio
18-08-2013, 08:07 AM
Sounds like an interesting concept. I'm looking forward to see what you make.
You mention that you would like to create the map programticcaly. Does this mean that the map will be different for each playthrough or will it always be the same map layout?

SilverWarior
18-08-2013, 08:12 AM
My intention was for having uniqe map every time.
But due to time constraints I probbably won't implement this into my entry. I just remembered how much time I spent working on this on my entry for previous challenge. And becouse it still isn't finished and would need athleast partial rewrite due to change of how I intent to manage map this time I think it is better for me to leave this out or I will run out of time again.

WILL
18-08-2013, 08:45 AM
Procedurally generated maps would allow for nearly unlimited map layouts causing your game to have a ton of variety, however it would weigh in on your time to program as much. An alternate option is to create a set of pre-designed maps and randomly select one of those at game start to keep the game from playing the same almost every time.

I think it would be a good idea to have at least more than 1 predefined map layout in the game though. It would prevent the game from falling into the trap of having a "solve the puzzle" type of game play. It also would mix it up so your players aren't always trying the same stratgey so it has more replay value.

Predefined maps by nature do sort of fix your variables for balancing and benefits in strategy games generally, but with even a little bit of variety this can at least be diluted a bit.

SilverWarior
18-08-2013, 09:53 AM
Procedurally generated maps would allow for nearly unlimited map layouts causing your game to have a ton of variety

Yes I know.



An alternate option is to create a set of pre-designed maps and randomly select one of those at game start to keep the game from playing the same almost every time.

I'll probbably go for this option.



I think it would be a good idea to have at least more than 1 predefined map layout in the game though. It would prevent the game from falling into the trap of having a "solve the puzzle" type of game play. It also would mix it up so your players aren't always trying the same stratgey so it has more replay value.

I'm also planning to add some random events which would make playing expirience of a single map a bit different every time.


But it all comes down to the avialable time I'll had.
Right now I'll be focusing on basic stuff to make my game athleast playable and then work from there on. This migh just alow me to finally finish my entry in time even thou it won't be best one.


EDIT:
BTW if anyboddy have a suggestion to name my game please do share it as I don't have a clue.
All names that I could think of are already being used >:(

Super Vegeta
18-08-2013, 01:26 PM
An alternate option is to create a set of pre-designed maps and randomly select one of those at game start to keep the game from playing the same almost every time.
For greater variety, one could glue a map from a set of pre-designed pieces. Map could be composed of 2x2, 4x4 pieces, whatever. Pieces could either go anywhere, or each piece could have several variants. This way, designing (pieces)*(variants) pieces yields (variants**pieces) maps, and that's a lot. Of course, probably not all variants would fit together, so some kind of matchesWith flag would be needed, but I say it's still worth the benefit.

WILL
12-09-2013, 10:38 AM
No updates in a good while. Hows it coming along?

SilverWarior
12-09-2013, 12:50 PM
No updates in a good while. Hows it coming along?

Teribly!
To be honest I'm scratching this idea and trying to see if I might have more luck with my second idea I presented in 3rd PGD challenge coments (making a somekinda traffic simulator where the vehicles would be "protagonists").


So far I have reimplemented A* pathfinding algorithm which I now intent to modiffy so that it will take into account more parameters when deciding which path to use (actual distance, esimated travel time for each road section which is based on average time needed for cars to passed certain road section during previous day, etc.). I also plan on making two heuristic levels one will take into account whole road section between intersections and another the actual pathfinding inside each road section to alow overpassing and changing lanes.

Even thou this won't be most optimal I use list of object/classes instead of arrays of records. The reason I decided to do so is ease of upgrading the algorithm with aditional parameters etc. (class inheritance) and with the fact that when using classes I can easily achieve data reusability by using properties. This also gives me ease of implementing mutithreading support.
As you might have read in http://www.pascalgamedevelopment.com/showthread.php?26690-Bezier-curve-example I'm thinking of having nicely curved roads of course if that won't require to much time to implement. I can always use grid based aproach which is easy to implement, but won't look as good.

But still I'm afraid I'll run out of time.

WILL
15-09-2013, 08:48 PM
Sounds interesting. This would be an interesting project to see come to life.

Good thing you didn't really name the thread then huh? ;) That's okay, sometimes the more creative ideas just don't turn out. The cost of being experimental.

Well if you don't complete the idea, might as well submit something anyway. You at least have the rest of today to get it to a showable state or form of completion.

SilverWarior
16-09-2013, 02:45 AM
Well if you don't complete the idea, might as well submit something anyway. You at least have the rest of today to get it to a showable state or form of completion.

All I have are just bits and pieces:
- reimplemented A* pathfinding algorithm which I haven't even tested thouraly so I'm not sure f it even works properly. No multiparameter decision implemented ye
- modified Catmull-rom example which bases on Paul Nichols example. I modified it so I can change focus points position at runtime. Catmull-rom curve rendered on Form, several panel used to represent focus points and move them around
- some decision making code which should controll which car goes through the crossing first by obeying some trafic rules (right rule, main road, etc.) which doesn't work as it should. Don't ask me why?

Anywhay again I have no enty for PGD competition/challenge.
This is no wonder by the fact that I hardly found about 6 days worth of free time that I could focus on this.
But that was not enough. My game deveopment knowledge is to low for me to pull something of in such a short time.
Not to mention the fact that I always try to do hard things rather than easy ones.
I could have tried to do some basic RTS (just combining few easy to get code pices together) but NOOO that would be to easy. I always need to complicate things >:(

pstudio
16-09-2013, 02:49 PM
Not to mention the fact that I always try to do hard things rather than easy ones.

I think this is really the point of these challenges. These challenges do not test our knowledge of programming games. They test how good we are at comming up with a game concept that we can fulfill in the given time, and how good we are to prune away features that are not needed.

It's too bad if you don't have anything to submit, but at least the experience should make you a better game designer in the sense that you know what you can or can't complete in a 30 day challenge.

SilverWarior
16-09-2013, 05:47 PM
It's too bad if you don't have anything to submit, but at least the experience should make you a better game designer in the sense that you know what you can or can't complete in a 30 day challenge.

That is true.
And one day I will finish my entry in time and I be damned if I won't. :D