Game Update (Video and Screenshots)

For those who haven’t been following It’s a City building simulation game with a unique RTS twist. This is a very very very early form of the game. This simply consists of the foundation on which I’m going to develop my game. I have a few (poorly made) models but the real magic happens behind the scenes in the programming that simulates this world. Check out the Simulated City Game page (link above) to view about these stats and how the simulation works. I have created a video of the game (below) and took quite a few screen shots.

Simulated City Game video

If you view the video, make sure you pay attention to the stats, and how they change as I build the city. This video shows quite a few things.

Achievements: This video shows two achievements, Barter System, which is an economic achievement, and Community, which is a social achievement. Achievements are what define your civilization, and certain achievements make other achievements possible to get, and bar you from achieving others. The third achievement (not shown in the video) is Tribalism, which is unattainable when you get community. In the future, I may make this barring more flexible, as civilizations do change with time. Achievements also open up new buildings, techonology, and even new game mechanics. At a certain point, a civilization will be rewarded with an economic achievement (probably called currency) that will allow the player to enact taxes. Different tech trees will allow different forms of government, and there are further implementations that I haven’t even thought of yet! The achievement system really makes the possibilities almost endless!

Simulations: This is the bread and butter of my game. This is what makes the world change with time and what will (in the future, once I develop this game further) make the world interactive. Eventually I will have actual moving parts! I plan on adding civilians who will walk around (probably spawn at certain buildings, and un-spawn at others, perhaps going to work, going out to have fun, etc.) and a combat system. Right now, you can see this simulation unfold by watching the stats change as the player (me) builds different buildings. You can see how certain buildings depend on others (IE trade carts need goods to trade! so farms have to be built for people to start working at trade carts). I also simulate the global averages for other civilizations near yours. This will give a point of reference when calculating various stats about your city (like desirability, which uses the global averages), and in the future, determining things like trade agreements, war, etc.

Misc: The video also shows various other features of the game. I have a few sound effects in the game (some for buildings, general ambiance music, and error sounds (like when you try to build, but can’t). It also shows the GUI, which has menus for building, achievements, global stats, city stats, and a message system that hasn’t been utilized yet. It also has text alerts at the bottom of the page (for things like not having enough money, being blocked from building, etc.) The game also features 6 spiffy (read terrible) models!

 

The Future: For the future, there are several things I want to implement. As I stated above, in the long term future, I want to get a combat system, and a robust implementation of the achievements. The achievements will be one of the main game play mechanics that the player will interact with. In the near future, in addition to adding more content (buildings, achievements, etc.) I want to add some new mechanics. This includes:

• Simulate Wealth gain/loss
• Supply and demand
• static, low frequency population increase (due to births and stuff)
• Upkeep and revenue generation from buildings

And this game still needs a name! If you have an idea for a name, leave it on the Simulation Game page (link above!). Any other comments or questions, leave them below! Suggestions, and feedback is welcome!

View the screenshots below (which I started taking after I stopped recording the video)

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