Monday, March 28, 2016

Sea Trading Game- New Compartments, improve UI, new artwork, and possibly a name!

This week has been quite busy, and quite productive. The most noticeable thing is that instead of assigning numbers, each port now has a name. I've also done quite a bit to make that name more visible, as you can see below:


These names are not final, but quite likely many of them will remain. I intend to have the names come randomly from a list of historical ports throughout the world in the key time frame that I'm working through, namely the colonial period of time.

I've also added a number of types of holds, and have types of holds selected for each. Here's the names of each of the types of holds. The artwork is far from final, but I'm trying to get at least a sense of what I want, and this is definitely helping in that department. I suspect I won't change it much if at all until the game has progressed a bit further.


All of the dialogs were given a careful scrubbing, and while they aren't perfect, I feel they are an improvement over what was there previously. Here is an example of just one of these improve dialogs:


Last, but not least, I've been giving some thought to the name of the game. I haven't decided on it firmly, but the name I'm working with now is "The Crow's Nest". What do you think? I'd love to hear other ideas that you might have!

Monday, March 21, 2016

Sea Trading Game- Ease of trading, new hold types, hold system easier to manage.

This week has brought a number of changes, focused on making trading easier. For starters, I've decided that there needed to be a better way to find the cities to deliver goods. I decided for now I'm going to highlight the cities all the time, instead of the occasional blinking that would happen for the tutorial phase of the game. I also made that clue more obvious.
The ship has a mission to go to 14, which is clearly highlighted

Other areas include finishing the hold system. I now feel that it is much better, and more intuitive than before. Note that for now, stability doesn't do anything, but it will at a future date. This new system seems more intuitive than the previous system of adding/removing walls.
As you might notice, there are a few new types of holds in the above diagram. While they aren't fully implemented, I have created a different type of cabin, with hammocks, as was commonly used. I've also created a smuggling compartment, complete with a trapdoor. I'm considering a few additional types of holds as well, likely including a galley and a safe room.

Next on my list is to continue to work on the new types of holds, and polish a number of small UI type bugs that I have seen, hopefully improving that system considerably. Passengers, for instance, aren't quite where I want them to be yet. Then I plan to start some of the more interesting tasks, including storing supplies on the ship, that slowly are consumed. Then I will work on having more of a feel for the crew, which I know I want to have be a part of the game, but I haven't decided yet how I plan on that. I'm also going to work more on the task of naming the game, and maybe a few other tasks. Not there yet, but it is most definitely coming along.