Updating a game with a wonky codebase - PhasR blog #1
a year and a half ago, I released PhasR, an infinite runner with vector style graphics of ye olden arcade games. Not a monetary success but that wasn’t the point and thanks to many itch.io charity bundles, lots of people played it while supporting a good cause (or two). As my first “published” game... thing, I’m quite proud of it.
As of 2~3 days ago, I started to work on an update for PhasR
This update is gonna be a big one. I’m looking at doing a lot of work on it, which might be hell considering just how I programmed the game (spoilers, it’s cringe).
Here are a few features I’m looking to implement, these are the bigger things I want to add but are by no means a definitive list:
Scalable window size
Controller support
Swappable colour palettes inc. player made palette
User customizable in-game music
The first item being worked on is scalable window support!
PhasR was initially developed on a 800x600px window and, being made in Processing 3.0, I assumed that window size was set in stone. I had found a way to get the game to full screen, but the way that was programmed required a restart, again because of how Processing 3.0 handles rendering, and that’s unfortunately not likely to change :(
Having recently found out how to change window size/resolution while the game is open and running, I feel quite a deal of shame for not having implemented window size options sooner. Still, work on it has been smooth so far. I have encountered an issue with changing to 1280x800 but it seems to have fixed itself, somehow. The biggest issue now is text not fitting on sizes smaller than 800x600 (specifically 480p and 720x576 sizes). I’m also looking at reworking the game logo to be an SVG so that it can appear crisp on bigger window sizes.
A lot to do. Hoping to keep these development blogs somewhat consistent but so far so good! :D
Made a new game for the One Button Contest! One Button Games are often accessible to people with various disabilities, and it was fun to put one together.
Hello everyone! I am finally back from my long absence and I should be able to start posting soon. I have good news too! Besides the multiple Eredin GIFs I have made over the time I was gone, I’ve also started on a non-profit fan-game about Eredin, taking place after the events of the Witcher 3 (following my mod in which he survives the battle), having also playable insertions of his past before the events of the Witcher games
It is of course still at the beginning, but, I am looking for a team to work with on it so if any of you would be interested (be it to work on it or just in its progress) give this post a like, leave a reply, or just send me a message and I will invite you to the discord server I made specifically for it.
And if not.... enjoy the GIFs I will soon be posting :D thank you to each and every one of my followers here for sticking around and following my blog in the first place.
Civilization V is the 5th game of a (currently) 6-game series which was released on Windows in September 2010, and later on OSX and Linux. The game was published by 2K Games, and developed by Firaxis Games. It is a turn-based strategy 4X game that allows you to build up an empire and win by taking over the rest of civilization.
THOUGHTS
I thought the game was very good in its aspects of balancing and making each and every mechanic in the game from moving units, capturing/allying cities, to upgrading technologies or policies very polished in terms of pacing. It is impressive to have so many features in a game and so many things to be mindful of all at the one time, yet keeping the player feel comfortable and not overwhelmed with information. They do this through making a lot of the processes which balance the game behind the scenes, making some features more simple and some more complicated - but only as much as it needs to be.
RESPONSE UPON RELEASE/COMMUNITY
There were many people in the gaming community that were aware of the Civilization series before the 5th game came out, but the release of this game was the high point in the series which gained the most attraction of any of the previous games made.
CORE LOOP
The core loop of Civilization V is:
Unit Orders → Purchase Units → Choose Production → Adopt Policy
MAIN MECHANICS
The main mechanics of Civilization V is giving unit actions, purchasing units, choosing production, and social policies.
Unit orders are the main point of actions in the game, each round you may be able to move any units that are currently not performing actions in order to build structures, attack other cities, create cities, and many other things. Some things that units can build are; roads, farms, factories, landmarks, or even cities can increase resource production.
Purchasing units is also a large part of the game in order to increase your army/production with many types of units. The main units in the game are; workers, settlers, religious units, trade units, great people, and many of the combat units.
Choosing your production in Civilization V is the procedure you use to increase the technology for your cities and attempt to be in front of other cities in terms of trade/culture/fire power which is the three ways you can achieve victory. Each chosen technology can help you assist with a current, or future option you think can help you win the game.
Social policies are helpful to increase the chance of you winning depending on which path you wish to take on the road to victory, there are some social policies that can favor the different ways of achieving a victory. You choose one option out of many in a skill tree-like menu which gives you better statistics depending on which strategy you wish to take.
INFLUENCES
The Civilization series has influenced many games, such as;
Endless Legend
Master of Orion: Conquer the Stars
Endless Space
CONCLUSION
What I took away from this game was that Civilization V was the best of the series so far, with a great and fun balance of all of the features/mechanics having some more simplistic than others, helping to make it one of the all time best turn-based games ever made. I think this is something I could use in the future for some of my games, to assist in creating a more enjoyable game without overwhelming the player.
