I've neglected to mention I'm currently applying to a ton of game industry jobs, of which one caught on a week or two ago. I've been spending the last few days extremely busy with a design test, but I can't say much more than that. I'm hoping to land the job--it's a design position for a game I'd love to work on. But if not, I do plan on securing a position somewhere in the games industry, and I'll keep applying until something works out. As such, development is more or less halted for another day or two as I work through this test.
Where the job I eventually land is may effect my ability to work on this game. Some larger companies have strict non-compete agreements, and I'm hoping any studio I get a job offer from won't impede my ability to develop or publish this project. As a designer I'm not very inclined to take a job at a studio that won't let me develop in my free time--development is practice. It's like telling a professional athlete they're not allowed to train. I also enjoy making games and other content, and not being allowed to do that is a big turn-off. Fortunately, most non-competes are nowhere near that strict. Non-competes are usually just to prevent the spillage of studio practices/methods to direct competitors, or to prevent the release of games that could compete with the studio's titles. This project is very different from the games these studios make, and I wouldn't expect it to cause problems. Added a settings menu. Not looking forward to having to make it scroll or figuring out how to make it scale cleanly with UI size. The whole custom screen size thing is troublesome to approach, but I think I'm going to approach it sooner rather than later. I've got a gauge on how I plan on doing it, and it's realistically not that complicated, but there's a lot of code that goes into setting up my GameMaker viewports and changing it isn't going to be fun. Currently the only setting is a little something I've wanted to add for a while. It changes the values when you harvest a crop to a more detailed breakdown that goes:
Here is the original implementation, and how it looks with the setting off (i.e. just the straight total value).
Moved the plot's UI to draw above crops, as per yesterday's aforementioned change. It's definitely a ton more visible, though it can lead to some visual clutter so I may eventually rethink how it looks (I do plan on making the opacity of this UI an in-game setting). Its current look is just what came to mind, but there are some principles I want to keep: namely the immediate difference in shape and color of the water/fertilizer elements, making them very clearly different from one another in more than one way (which helps prevent the information space from becoming muddy). I also extended the lifetime of the spinning icon about 25%, as it started fading a bit too fast. It's more visible/identifiable now and the colors pop out more, making harvesting a measure more satisfying. Hopefully this gif is more satisfying, too, as I stopped being lazy and making 10fps gifs (this one is 20). I'll try to keep their quality a little higher from here on out. I also spent a bit of time adding an upgrade menu: Looks just as barren as my weather system, but more will be added as it comes. I've been kind of dreading and postponing the upgrade menu because it's quite a fair bit of work, and I need to give good thought to how I lay it out (a tabs/submenu system is likely, which is why I say it's a lot of work. Even simple submenus for my crop encyclopedia were a bit of a pain in the ass to code).
I'm still brainstorming what exactly I want to be upgradable and how it all is going to work. Obviously, crop traits are the biggest upgrades, and I plan on likely splitting their access between monetary and participatory (i.e. some are bought and others are acquired by harvesting). I don't want money to be the only motivator to farming as that feels stale, so I currently have a "mutations" system that grants upgrade choices as you harvest crops--this is the "participatory" half. I'm planning on the value-oriented traits (affecting worth and combos) to be acquired by mutations, because paying money (the upgrades shop) to make more money (value upgrades) is somewhat bland and one-dimensional, and easily one of the most run-down core loops in clicker games. Instead, I want value to come from playing and engaging with the game, and quality of life (non-value upgrades like temperature hardiness) to come from purchasing. Of course, I'm not removing the value-for-value loop completely--core progression in incremental games is driven by spending money to make more money--I'm just trying to design a more engagement/gameplay focused game than a clicker/idler, as those games have run their race (and--in my design opinion--oft have weak gameplay diversity). Value upgrades also will feel much more monumental if they're on a variable ratio schedule (i.e. after a random number of interactions), as variable ratios are the strongest type of reward schedule. A lot of casino games are variable reward schedules--unpredictable and a direct product of interaction (not time), creating a strong (and addicting) reward feedback loop. On a different note, the last change of today was one I like almost as much as the time I improved my controls so you could harvest and plant/fertilize/water at the same time by holding both mouse buttons (yes, the game was miserable to play before that). Quality crops now ignore the crop's default combo cap, instead capping at 2x the normal amount (e.g. a crop with a cap of 20 can be harvested 20 times before capping, but harvesting quality ones can bring it up to 40). I tested it out very briefly, and it does wonders to the combo system. Quality crops are rare, so maxing your combo past the traditional cap takes quite a bit longer, drastically extending the buildup/investment phase of comboing (and commensurately the excitement). And the longer the buildup/investment is, the more you don't want to lose your combo (which can get juicy big with that doubled cap). It almost adds a complete additional dimension onto comboing itself, and the slower 1x-cap to 2x-cap build really draws out the tension. Another post today because "yesterday's" post was at 2am. A rudimentary watering system has been added. It is a gauge that depletes as you water, and recharges naturally over time: I expect water will be a rather static mechanic in order to force players to use it smartly. Soil plots will dry out over time, and you won't have enough water to wet them all in one go, which forces multitasking if you don't want to lose your combo. This multitasking is an important dynamic that defines the combo system and the game (i.e. how players approach problem-solving), and I'd like to bolster it with watering (but not overload it). I plan on letting the player manually replenish water by clicking, which opens up a way to get water (if you desperately need it) at the cost of valuable time. As such, it offers a choice players can make from moment to moment based on their priorities. Fertilized tiles now have an additional UI element dependent on the fertilizer quality (and watered state). This allows for information clarity, as water and fertilizer affect the visual appearance of a soil plot and the combinations of the two can create a muddy visual information spectrum, as seen below. The UI helps to differentiate at a glance. It's currently drawn below the crop layer, but I will move it above later so the information doesn't disappear beneath your plants. As expected, plants grow slower without water: However, manual click-growing is also less effective: And here is what growth speeds look like for all combinations of water and fertilizer: Maintaining water obviously becomes crucial to keeping a combo, even moreso than fertilization. An unfertilized, watered crop grows faster than a well-fertilized, unwatered crop. These are of course just rough values for now, but a crop with no water grows passively 30% as fast, and manually 25% as fast. I will fine tune those values when game balance and playtesting enter the scene.
With the addition of water (and eventually manual water replenishment), I'm starting to wonder what it would look like if someone were to write a script/AI to play my game automatically. Smaller progress today, as I spent an hour failing to get some calculus working in GameMaker. One of the changes does still involve some math, however: The left is the old, the right is the new. I slapped a simple sine curve over the icon's x-scaling and reoriented it with some math, and boom--it spins. This is one of the many small changes and additions that give the game "juice"--i.e. satisfaction. It's already more fun to look at, no? More will come near the latter stages of development, especially when polished art is a priority. Though, UI juice like this is often applicable very early, and the only limitation is your creativity. On that note, I would highly recommend a super entertaining talk I watched in college that simply--and quickly--goes over game "juice" in the most candid, visual way possible. This talk is a bit of the inspiration behind this particular change, and you can expect future additions to reflect similarly. (The combo multiplier swelling in size when you harvest a crop is another one of these juicy additions). The other thing, however, is a minor change to how the combo bar works: Those with a keen eye may notice right away--the combo timer is not exactly linear. It slows down a noticeable hair as it nears depletion, a small change that subtly lies to the player, but for a good reason.
This is an effect seen in a number of games, though you'll primarily notice it on health bars. Sometimes, gauges are coded to decay slower the lower they get to achieve a sense of suspense--i.e. prolonging the "danger zone" effect of the bar being low as well as giving the player a slight extra edge when they're at the most risk. This ultimately contributes to a stronger sense of accomplishment, as (to the unknowing player) the suspense hangs for longer and they can succeed when lingering on the precipice more often. Health bars often do this by slightly buffing the player at very low health--e.g. giving them a cheatsy extra hit or two to live before they perish. Games lie to players very often. As you play it's often hard to see, but as you design it is very often exercised. Games lie in a multitude of different ways from health bar second-chances to botched RNG, bending the rules in subtle ways to mainly provide a more satisfying gameplay experience. After all, your average player will not notice these subtle differences, but they will notice the positive effects they take on the gameplay experience whether they are aware of them or not. |