[WIP]-Free City

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[WIP]-Free City

Postby tzoli » Sun Apr 07, 2013 1:38 pm

Hi guys! :D
I started working on a huge project. As you could guess this game will be similar to SimCity but different too.
Like Pixelcraft and Minecraft. It's based on SimCity but it will go on a way that I imagine for it.
This is my first Strategy game that uses a grid map system so the code isn't perfect. The game appears with the usual paint graphics by me.
:arrow: Current functions(version 0.2):
- Road system(detects if there is an other road close to it and connects to it)
-The base of a Tax system(you can collect taxes from houses and markets and factories)
-Building menu
-Main menu
- Various buildings
- Ingame music
- 100x100 map
Things I need:
-Ideas(Ideas are always welcomed)
Changelog:
-More fluent map moving
-Inustrial zone, building, tax
-Corrected IDtoX() function.(Before:lox=id-lox*100; After:lox=id-loy*100;
-Info button(to get information about buildings and people)
-New obiects and retextures (thanks to GEuser)
- Ingame music (thanks to Lacotemale)

Controls:
Mouse: Left Click: Build Right Click:Destroy
Arrows: Move map.
Screenshots:
Image
Image
:!: Download:
https://dl.dropbox.com/u/87739508/fsimc.rar

I hope you like it. Please give feedback! :)
Attachments
freecitymenu.png
Last edited by tzoli on Sat May 25, 2013 6:54 am, edited 6 times in total.
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Re: [WIP]-Free City

Postby GEuser » Sun Apr 07, 2013 10:22 pm

Hi there.

This is a game genre I really enjoy playing and wanted to create a game editor version myself when skilled enough so was pleasantly surprised to see this :D
I like what you've achieved so far for this very basic first version. Had a quick test run:-

Menu
Cool that you can see what things are on the message label at bottom. You might want to do this for everything like when going mouse over the icons right of map. Also might be an idea to allow user to click the menu so that you can close off the building mode so that player can hover over map buildings and see what they are (the message label at bottom to display map tile type).

A pause button might be good too. I don't like the brown wool texture though.

Navigation

Had no problem with using the arrow keys to move around but might be better to allow repeat keys for future versions. Also when building roads I tried to build one 100 tiles across, no problem doing it but it got a bit sluggish and slowed scrolling down (I appreciate this is a first version and you'll probably likely to optomise later on).

Zoning

Works fine but I think you should color in the zone block besides just the border (lighter colors for fill and darker for border like they are at the moment). Was expecting to see the industrial zones, hey, hurry up, I want to make factories, hehehe and government zones so my kiddies can go to school!

Building
I really tried to crash the road making stuff but as hard as I tried I couldn't get your road building system to break :lol: 10/10 for this. Once again, having repeatable demolish function (right click) would be good for future.

Overal

Confident that you can pull this off. All the really basic stuff you've got working more or less. I suppose it's just a matter of expanding upon it and scaling things all up. I even managed to get a population and made some money on just a single screen block sized city, so thumbs up. I need to spend more time on my little city.

QUESTIONS:

What zones are you going to add?
Will there be emergency service buildings?
government zoning: education, health, civil stuff?
Are you going to include transports, simple bus & car stuff?
Will you have a way to zoom in/out to see city at a glance?
WHat about city stats?

If there's anything more specific you want me to test out let me know on the thread. I really want this genre to succeed so good luck and keep up the good effort!
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Re: [WIP]-Free City

Postby tzoli » Mon Apr 08, 2013 5:39 am

Wow... Thatnks for the post :D
I'm glad you like it. :D
This gave me a new energy for continuing the game.

Some answers:
Navigation: I thought about the repeatable navigation keys but I was afraid of making the buttons do twice moving because of that. I will try to implement it.
Menu: I will change it this was just a temporary on. Do you have any ideas? Plus I'm making a background for the main menu.
Zone: The industrial zones was already done when I uplloaded the game but they were not implemented in the game.(only graphics were made)
Roads: I'm glad to hear that neither others can crash the system :)
Questions:
1) Industrial zone(you wanted it and I already have the graphics so why not? :) )
2) As I understood what is an "emergency service building". There will be at a new tab I think.
The goverment zoning will be done. Not sure when.
3)This is a good question. I want to but I'm not sure how to make it. Altough I have an idea.
4) This is a hard one... I might do it but I'm not sure how.
5) Can you be more specific about city stats?
I hope you got answers for your questions. :)
I will improve it and I hope I can release a new version in 2 weeks.
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Re: [WIP]-Free City

Postby MrJolteon » Mon Apr 08, 2013 5:54 am

tzoli wrote:5) Can you be more specific about city stats?

Likely stuff like environment, safety, land values, demand(R, C, I), health, education, etc.
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Re: [WIP]-Free City

Postby tzoli » Mon Apr 08, 2013 6:48 am

MrJolteon wrote:
tzoli wrote:5) Can you be more specific about city stats?

Likely stuff like environment, safety, land values, demand(R, C, I), health, education, etc.


I see. I think that will be in a tab like taxes.
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Re: [WIP]-Free City

Postby Lacotemale » Mon Apr 08, 2013 11:31 am

OMG... I had this idea already! xD

I love SIm City! I would help with coding if I could understand what the hell your code does. :mrgreen:

Instead I might be able to make some graphics for you if you like. :)
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Re: [WIP]-Free City

Postby MrJolteon » Mon Apr 08, 2013 12:18 pm

tzoli wrote:I see. I think that will be in a tab like taxes.

Demand should always be on the screen.
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Re: [WIP]-Free City

Postby tzoli » Mon Apr 08, 2013 1:24 pm

Lacotemale wrote:OMG... I had this idea already! xD

I love SIm City! I would help with coding if I could understand what the hell your code does. :mrgreen:

Instead I might be able to make some graphics for you if you like. :)


Well a lot of people said that my code isn't really understandable altough I tried to make it the simplest I could :)

Some graphics would be really appreciated. :)

MrJolteon wrote:
tzoli wrote:I see. I think that will be in a tab like taxes.

Demand should always be on the screen.

What demand?
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Re: [WIP]-Free City

Postby Lacotemale » Mon Apr 08, 2013 2:08 pm

Well a lot of people said that my code isn't really understandable altough I tried to make it the simplest I could


Its a bit complex I think. For my games I use the most simple code possible. :D

Some graphics would be really appreciated.


Excellent, just let me know what you want/need! :)

What demand?


He is talking about the demand for Residential, Commercial and Industrial zones. Simcity displays a demand for each type of zone the population wants.

-Music that has the game's style(so not an Action type music, something calmer and happier)


Also, Yes I was THAT bored today so I made a music track for the game! xD
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Re: [WIP]-Free City

Postby tzoli » Mon Apr 08, 2013 2:50 pm

Lacotemale wrote:Also, Yes I was THAT bored today so I made a music track for the game! xD

For this game?
Btw I let you know what I need ;)
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Re: [WIP]-Free City

Postby Lacotemale » Mon Apr 08, 2013 3:14 pm

Yup, for this game! I might do a little edit and then send it on. :)
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Re: [WIP]-Free City

Postby tzoli » Mon Apr 08, 2013 3:38 pm

Thanks :D
An other problem done :D
A little update:
I already done the industruial zone and industrial building.
Now working on the idea that GEuser said.
You will be able to click on buildings and see what are they what is their problem etc.
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Re: [WIP]-Free City

Postby Lacotemale » Mon Apr 08, 2013 3:57 pm

Its ready, what quality/format should the audio be in? :)

(at the moment its a 60MB .wav file) :D
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Re: [WIP]-Free City

Postby tzoli » Mon Apr 08, 2013 4:20 pm

Not sure...
Unfortunately (as I know) Ge can't play mp3 files...
What is the "smallest" format that GE can play?
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Re: [WIP]-Free City

Postby GEuser » Mon Apr 08, 2013 4:58 pm

tzoli wrote: I will improve it and I hope I can release a new version in 2 weeks.


There's no rush for you to do this just take your time. I appreciate how complicated this can be. It's more than likely that you will end up scrapping this and start from scratch over & over again at some point. Don't be afrraid to do that if you feel it's for the best. I end up doing several versions of a project that I've had to scrap & re-start again but each version has given me new insight and better way to do things.

tzoli wrote: 2) As I understood what is an "emergency service building". There will be at a new tab I think.

Stuff like Fire stations, Police station. Ambulance station (All though this would probably overlap with health = hospital/clinic stuff).

tzoli wrote: The goverment zoning will be done. Not sure when.

3)This is a good question. I want to but I'm not sure how to make it. Altough I have an idea."

mmmm? I don't where to start. Haven't really given any of this any thought yet. The difficulty here is that all these types of buildings (leisure, emergency, education & health) are really sub-zones of larger goverment zoning. So really, they are all zone type government but different versions of it. One possibility might be to have zones attached to the buildings. Say the city hall is really a government building. In city bulding type of genre you usually can't specify zones for goverment, emergency and leisure facility. You just have to plonk the building where you want and it replaces the zone underneath making it a government zone.

Whats stopping you from allowing a reservable zone block which is reserved only for government buildings. The player can put his own choices on it rather than your simulation doing it, like for the residential, commericial and industrial versions.

Example: I will eventually need to build a police station but might not want to do it straight way at the begining of my city build. Having the ability to reserve a tile (say: Government=> Emergency zone block) will mean your simulation won't build anything on it, only the player can do it when ready or wants it from the appropriate tab. Once its placed your simulation takes over treating it as another government zone. To simplify things make just one government zone tile (one color but different hues for each subtype:emergency, education, health, etc...) that a player can reserve and don't allow your simulation to build automatically on it, only the player can when ready. This way you can have several sub-levels of goverment stuff( leisure=parks, baseball courts. Emergency=Fire station, Police station. Education: library, school, college, university. Health: Health clinic, Hospital ).

It's a big project your doing. You can see why I put it off. The biggest challenge is doing the A.I. for all the simulated bits. It's going to requirre you to do a lot thinking & preparation on paper. I'd say it's a typical group project.

GEuser wrote: Are you going to include transports, simple bus & car stuff?

You'd have to develop a separarte A.I. simulation to handle transporation. I don't know. You would have to do a lot of research work and build up your programming skills. One way would be to have animations that are just for show (they don't actually simulate anything).

CITY STATISTICS (City Stats)
For example I would need to know where the crime areas are (colored areas on a map view of city) in order to place the police station at the best position in the city to handle crime. Same for health, power, water, education, so on... It all depends on how far you want to take it.

Zooming In/Out
My radar function could be redone from scratch to display the city map but doing for a city simulation is another level of difficulty.


Handling Programming
One way to do it is to treat each feature like a separate game demo. Perfect it and them move to working on the next feature as another game demo and eventually stick them togather like lego (coding and all). Of course you'd have to set up things so things compatible when you link them up (graphcs, coding. bah, blah). This way you can get people to test a feature before you move on.

Another, thing would be to reduced it down to something really simple don't have so many features. Stick to a minimal set of of buildings. you could use layers for the different types of detail level (Layer 1: power lines, water pipes. Layer 2: Zones. Layer 3: Buildings. Layer 4: transportation and so on). And you can always use the "Visibility" settings of things to control what is display or not, if you want.

A lot of thought will have to go into this. You may have to decide to sacrifice alot of the ambitious stuff for the sack of coding simplicity and what gE can handle. It's gonna be a balancing act. What can I practically do, realistically considering your knowledge, time, coding skills and limitations of gE game engine. You can see why I wanted to leave this alone until I'm good enough. No harm in being ambitions and learning as much as you can. It's not always about completing a project but learning what you can while your doing it. You might decide you want just a simple game with the same order of complexity as a farmville type game ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FarmVille )?

Graphics donations.
Would love to donate graphics.

The of size of 1 tile. This is another thing would some buildings span across several tiles? (perhaps best to leave them at 1 tile size at this stage, for simplicity?). Oh, and tzoli, don't feel pressured to use anything that I donate. Let me know if you don't like the graphics and how you would like them. After all its your project. based on the graphic style you want.

I haven't had the time to look at the code. Anyways, keep us updated :)
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