ProtoFlow

Hello everyone!

What's going on?

My exams are over (getting results today) and I've had some time to code again. I've done some rewrites of bad code. Cities have a simple coordinate system, created for a linear map. I also extended the admin panel again with some extra fields here and there.

The rest of this post works towards “ProtoFlow”. Hope it can help you in one way or another.

The explanation of the coordinate system copied from the script (as comment) :

CeasterTrade uses a linear map system, which looks like this:

(Hongkong) <- 10 min -> (Brussels) <- 20 min -> (Capital) <- 15 min -> (Washington DC) <- 6 min -> (Rio De Janeiro)

The Capital is in the middle, and the distance to a next city is given. You can calculate the distance to another city by making the sum of the distance to each city in between.

For example: Distance from Brussels to Rio = (Brussels -> Capital) + (Capital -> DC) + (DC -> Rio) = 20 min + 15 min + 6 min = 41 min

The order of the cities and the distance between them is important.

We go out from the Capital, which has CO = 0. Every number in a CO stands for 1 minute. When the CO is positive, it's right from the Capital. When the CO is negative, it's left from the Capital.

So when: CO = -60, that means that city lies on 60 minutes to the left of the Capital.

Then we can easily find the order by arranging them in descending order.

Back to the example, each above city would have these coordinates:

(Hongkong, CO=-30) <-> (Brussels, CO=-20) <-> (Capital, CO=0) <-> (Rio De Janeiro, ) <-> (Washington DC, CO=+15) <-> (Rio De Janeiro, CO=+21)

Polishing

I’m very happy with where my game is right now. I have a descent framework, with some good basic features. It’s playable. The only thing is, I don’t think it’s fun, and it doesn’t look fun. Honestly, for me, it doesn’t necessarily have to be fun. This is an experiment and a journey. But, I think there is potential in the basics I’ve laid. Now I will have to polish it into a good game.

UI is needed to show the potential

To make good use of the basics, I need a good UI. At first I didn’t think it was important for a preview / ALPHA, but I started thinking…

“I think there is potential in this game.”

For other people to see this potential, I’ll need to give them guidance. From the start on I had the UI in mind, and acknowledged its importance. This thought moved to the background while creating a working prototype, and partly because of my lack of experience with javascript.

An innovating and interactive 2.0 game interface

I like to design an UI, and my dream is “an innovating and interactive 2.0 game interface”. I expect it to be less romantic to implement it in reality. Many of my ideas for a good interface are from the period before I started coding. And I still like ‘em. So I can just start working!

Browsing

The browsing through shops has been important since the beginning of this game’s design. I decided I would use a “linear map” and chose the same for cities.

The only thing what was bothering me was how to fit it in the UI in a decent and pretty way.

Somewhere down the road I had an idea for a cool way of showing the shops, on a “linear map” without all that annoying scrolling. I only didn’t know how to look for it (I didn’t have the right vocabulary).

Advanced javascript UI

Yesterday I decided I would explore the world of advanced javascript and cool interfaces. So I just googled “advanced javascript UI”. The result was some interesting sites and… CoverFlow!

This was what I was looking for… the magic ingredient for my shops. To some of my readers this may look dumb to not know this (I wouldn’t know) but to me it is new.

This is what CoverFlow is: http://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cover_Flow (now I remember where I got my idea from, safari and apple)

ProtoFlow

Now I had something to work with! I needed CoverFlow, I needed it to be javascript, and it would be cool if it used Prototype (the javascript library I’m working with). A quick search on google showed me ProtoFlow. Now I hope I can rework it to a feature of my game-with-potential.

http://www.deensoft.com/lab/protoflow/

Twitter

I know I have promised you some posts and that I would post more often, but I don’t know if I’ll be able to accomplish that. But, for faster updates, follow me on Twitter!

http://twitter.com/jannesiera

I suggest you download twhirl (http://www.twhirl.org/)

See you later!

PS Don’t be surprised if I’ve changed my mind about the UI the next time you hear me, I do that sometimes ;).

Hiatus

I like that word. Sounds like a cool title, but maybe a little over the top, since I mean a 2 weeks break. But I didn't do much the past weeks either.

My exams start next week, so I won't be able to do anything. But I hope I can start with renewed energy after that!

As from the 24th I'll have lots of time. (that doesn't mean I'm going to work on my game full time, though)

I also made a new (temporary) header for the prototype. Didn't took me long, but I kinda like it for now.

Screenshots

Keeping you up to date: Prototype

Hello everyone,

Again, the writing of this post took me longer than I expected. With this post I want to let you know where I am with CeasterTrade.

I actually have (almost) finished a very basic prototype of the game. This is important because I can test features and game play before spending to much time and energy in bad features.

The most important things you should know about this prototype are:

1. It has a crappy layout and no (good) graphics. For its final release I'm planning many graphics and a very user friendly interface, but these are problems for later. Testing the game itself is more important.
   
2. Basic features are implemented. Like for example: buying, selling, producing, building. But some systems are simplified. There is room for improvements/expansion after the testing!
   
3. More complex features and cool stuff aren't implemented yet. I have to make sure the basic ideas work properly.
   
4. Security and some back end stuff (like a decent admin panel) I need to work on later on the road.
   

So, with this prototype my goal is to gather information about what is fun about the game and what is not. Just so I can make further development more targeted. Off course, I'm also dying to see my game working ^^.

I'm currently doing some small things while waiting for my father to host the prototype. I'm also spending my time more on other things, like school and designing other games.

When the prototype is going online, I'll let you know. But note it's just a prototype, and by no means an alpha phase. I'll just be testing stuff, and showing it to some people.

That's it for today, but I hope I'll be able to post more often in the future!

Greetz,

Janne

Little Update: future posts

Hey everyone,

Long time no see ;). I haven't been able to work on CeasterTrade so much lately, because I was on a 2 weeks holiday, and because I've got other things to do also. But it's going well, and I certainly won't give up on it!

My intention was to post something earlier, but there was a little to much to tell. So I decided to give myself some time to create them, avoiding too chaotic posts.

In future posts I'll cover subjects like:

 - My holiday (not really game related).

 - Which aspects of CeasterTrade have been done, and which not.

 - Sharing some game ideas (and how they developed).

 - Something about a preview.

It will be, as always, nothing big. But, as always, my own notes of a journey.

PS: Wow, just noticed how long it has been since my last post... So you have to know the project is still alive! I'll try to keep you a little bit better up to date in the future!

Ranking

The last few days I’ve been thinking about how I would arrange the ranking system. I decided to have one ‘main ranking’ and besides that multiple other, less important, rankings. This iswhat I’ve got:

1.   Most Sales: the quantity of sales you make decide your ranking
   
2.  Most Goods Produced: the quantity of goods you produce decide your ranking
   
3.   Stock Market Profit: the total profit you made by trading shares on the stock market decide your ranking
   

These are the ‘side rankings’. It’s the main ranking which I’m not sure about. Now I have:

1.  Ranking: your total value (in ‘points’). An example how this would be arranged: Cash on hand + (each level of each building you own x 3) + (each piece of empty land you own x 2) + ((every good + gold you own)  x 1) + (every resource you own x 0.5)

I think I can’t do much wrong with this, still if anyone has a better idea, feel free to tell me ^^. The ‘side-rankings’ would be available during each rounds. The ‘main ranking’ only after each round.

A little game theory based on "Maslow's hierarchy of needs"

This is a post about little theory of mine concerning the development of browser based games.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maslow's_hierarchy_of_needs

Maslow's hierarchy of need says human's needs are divided into 5 levels.

Most important first:

1. Physiological needs (water, food, ... )
   
2. Safety needs (security from crime, health security, ... )
   
3. Social needs (friendship, ... )
   
4. Esteem (achievement, respect by others, ... )
   
5. Self-actualization (morality, creativity, ... )

When  the first need is satisfied, people will move on to the second need, and so on.

So why do people play (browser based) games? Where do games fit into this hierarchy?

I think it's pretty clear.

• Social needs
  
• Esteem

I would consider Self-actualization too, but I think that's less important. Note some people don't even get to this last level of needs.

When people play games, the reasons are:

• They want to make friends
  
• They want a feeling of achievement (e.g. quests)
  
• They want respect by others (Dude, see my lvl 100 char!!!)
  
• ...

I conclude that if a game wants to be succesfull it should take care of the social needs and esteem of it's players.

An intresting topic on bbgamezone was for me "Game Play vs. Graphics". And "What makes a good game?". In both topics there were people for graphics and there were people for gameplay. But most people agree that the community makes the game, the community makes the players stick around.

I noticed this in games I played already to.

My little theory applied on some games:

Erepulik:

Built on it's community, became very popular. The "social needs" are taken into account. Maybe it could invest some more in "esteem".

Neopets:

The "respect by others" is very important here. You can win prizes, collect things, make a beautifull pet, ... just to show off to your fellow players!

Tribalwars:

This game has good gameplay, but the reason I sticked around was because of the "clan" I was part off.

I bet you could apply this theory to almost every popular browser based game out there will forfill one of these 2 needs. And the bad games, the failures, couldn't forfill them.

Not browser based games usualy took care of the "esteem" (achievement), but now are focusing more and more on the "social needs". Playing together is always better than playing alone :D.

I didn't do a lot of research, so there is a very real chance I'm wrong on this, so feel free to comment.

Though, this is just a little theory of mine. And Maslow's hierarchy of needs isn't exact sience either. (chapter: "criticism" on Wikipedia)