Plant Tycoon clone

[Midi_Amp]

Hello all, does anybody knows a Windows Mobile/Palm OS game by the title of Plant Tycoon? It is created by Last Day of Work. I really love the game when it was launched for the first time. It is my first ever mobile game purchase ever. But it's been a very long time since the game was updated, and the gameplay seems getting stale for my taste now. So rather than just ask the developer to release Plant Tycoon 2, I think I'm gonna make my own version running on Windows Mobile platform.

For those who didn't know, Plant Tycoon gameplay is deceptively very simple. You just plant seeds, water it, wait, the seeds grow into a plant, the plants then needs to be pollinated, producing seeds, repeat. The game seemed to be based on real-time clock, but it is not. To my observation, the game saves the last data variables when you exit the game, then when you started the game again, it will calculate the time difference and change the data accordingly. I cheat with this method by advancing the time on my PDA to accelerate the plants growth.

So, I searh around on the game-editor function, and it doesn't seem to have a system to mimic the real-time effect the kind of game Plant Tycoon needs.

Well, since I got engaged, my "dangerous" spare time have been reduced to game making... But I'm an MBA graduate with zero experience and skill, let alone knowledge of game making, so applications like game-editor is just what the doctor ordered for me.

[plinydogg]

Midi_Amp,

There's probably a way to accomplish what you're talking about using the getTime() function, which returns the computer system's time when called.

Here's what I'm talking about:

(1) When the game exits, save the plant height (or whatever it is you want to save) and the time;

(2) When the game starts again, get the system time again and then calculate the amount of time that has elapsed since the game was last played;

(3) Then determine the elapsed time's effect on plant height. For example, you could say that the plant height was equal to whatever it was before plus .1 inch per hour time that elapsed between game plays (e.g., .3 for 3 hours, etc.).

While it's not exactly the automatic sort of thing you're looking for, I don't see any reason that you couldn't eventually achieve the desired result.

In any event, welcome to the forums!

Plinydogg

[Midi_Amp]

Yes, that's exactly it. Thanks a lot... BTW, how to make the game recognizes the clock of the device? I want to set the background of the game so much so that it will reflect the actual time of the device.

[Game A Gogo]

check the clock demo in the documentation.