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Lemon Rider261 days ago (1 edit)

Hey! :D I see you are a man of culture as well, my main areas of interest are platformers 2D and 2D related solutions. Im a programmer but i dont have nearly as much experience (i code and do stuff around games for like 1.5years 24/7 at this point) I also like strategy and the most citybuilding, althrough the best strategy game i ever found was actually working around games, as there is actually some level of depth and true complexity. 

As for design its very hard to judge as its always heavily mixed with preference, I for example couldnt handle the repetition in Kingdom 2 crowns and after 1st hour that was amazing i started getting bored to death and quit (same for ratropolis), northgard was better but after few takes i felt like solving some 5 dimensional equation and making random moves intead of just enjoying the game and also progression was too tightly capped at the endgame. As for my preference in platformers 2D (i chose them as i could release them even on my own) i would say exploration and arcading are my favourite with focus on action. 

The problems of design your proposing are very simple as limitations it imposes. Everything has to happen on one dimensional line so there isnt really many ways that those things can happen. With games progression shifting variety of tasks and games mechanics could be the most important element of design. 

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Retrominded261 days ago (1 edit)

Thanks for the reply, appreciate the in depth response!

For me the problem was not the repetition as i quite enjoyed the actual building of the kingdom, it was the lack of control over your units, for the most part, and the restrictions the game placed on me in terms of placing buildings down. Thats why i pulled Northgard into this, as we are now making the entire 2D worldplane into sections, much like in Northgard. Doing this, we decided we can freeplace buildings, of choice, within this section. Placing a farm on a farmlands tile is obviously smart, and maybe a house for villagers etc etc.

As for the problem with the Units, we are giving the player almost total control of where the Units will reside, until they are given orders to run left, right, follow or go home. So now they can be used to actually attack or retreat as necessary, but stil rely on timing and not to mention what enemies occupy the section the player wants to own. A quick little "ability wheel" that pops out around the player that allows for fast command issuing. Also, we want to make sure the non-military villagers go outside and die because they had a bad day, stuff like that.

As for the restriction of seeing everything in 2D, yes, that is a VERY complex thing to do and im daily testing and writing on the matter, but i think we got a decent enough idea of how it should work.

Here's a quick look at the overall vibe in the "normal" biome, some placeholders here, im just getting the grasp on the colors and contrasts.

EDIT: open it in a new tab since this site didnt support zooming, atleast i couldnt!


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Lemon Rider260 days ago (2 edits)

The idea itself is perfectly fine, it comes down to details of execution, freedom of choice how to play the game is surely a good move, nothing beats ability wheels, from campfire in the forest to castle-city with enemies heads on the spikes on the walls, you can add some special resources onto tiles so they can be upgraded with some special type of a building after the game progresses and enable some middle to late game upgrades 

Im a big fan of city building paradigm. I assume you aim at linear left-right open map? Are you considering for example as a one of game modes the arena that is open only to the right side? That would be the most simplistic and compact take with enemy kingdom on its right end. 

Some battles of armies where they crash into each other like waves of water (Asterix vibes), general goofines of how stuff happpens. Without seeing full gdd its kind of hard for me to discuss or come up with anything other than loosely tied ideas. Are you considering mobiles as a target platform? Because that also changes a lot of how stuff has to be aproached both in engineering and design.

Generally, everything is connected to everything else—it's just a matter of the level and the way it happens. Also you can add some small elements of simulation, like women, kids, families, people having and expressing emotions. It doesnt have to be strictly whack-a-mole type of game :P but thats just random ideations

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