Gamedev - Blog Posts

Turn down the volume before watching! Sorry I didn't warn you last time

Added settings menu

I have two variants of radio buttons and can't decide which one is the most beautiful (square will be used for checkboxes):

Working on the settings menu

War & Economy

"War & Economy" is my first big project. It's the game about two city-states at the war with each other. Nobody knows the reason for this war. For their rulers, it's just very exciting game. And you act in the roles of these rulers. But nobody thinks about habitants of these city-states...

Now the game is in closed alpha testing. To take a part, send me a private message.

I plan to start beta testing on Steam and/or Google Play this summer.

Added sounds. If you attack a non-empty cell, the alarm will sound in addition to the attack sound.

Added the first player selection menu and changed the main menu background

Added the main menu. Now its background is temporary.

Alpha test started!

I started alpha game test. If you want to take part, send me a private message. But currently the game doesn't have a tutorial, so you'll have to learn to play on your own.

Added victory menu. Now my game is fully playable. I plan to start locked testing of the game soon.

Added pause menu

Every building turns into an air defense system.

I noticed this strange bug when I started playing the game on my phone.

Added the ability to undo and redo actions. I also fixed some bugs with attacks. I don't know what color the buttons should be, that's why they are green.

Now I can play without mouse! I've also added tools descriptions and deleted attacks descriptions. I've deleted the mem label because it was showing false info and moved the fps label.

Now air defense system can repel enemy attacks but only if victim has force.

Do you mind if I use the keyboard to select a tool/attack and end turn?

will War & Economy support online multiplayer?

Yes, but not right away. Once the game is released, players will only be able to play on one device. I will add online multiplayer in future updates.

Added attacks and their descriptions. But I still can't decide on the names of stats.

Added an attacks menu but it is not completed yet

Results of the year

I started developing this game in early november. During these two months I managed to do:

Game interface

Build mechanics

Game localization system

For now, the game confirms the word "economy" in its name.

All gameplay at the moment:

My plans for the first half of next year:

Add attack mechanics and confirm the word "war"

Add pause menu

Start alpha game test

Add main menu and settings

Add sounds and ambient music

I'll try to spend as much time as possible developing the game and post to tumblr as often as possible.

Happy New Year!

Added different line of defense variants. Purely aesthetic change.

I've created my game text and localized it. To change language I temporarily assigned unused buttons. But when I've created my own file format for game text, I realized I could use json🤦‍♂️. This is that I decided to do.

I'm currently creating my own file format to use it for create game localizations.

File text:

Processing result:

I've added players stats. Now buildings generate growths which, in its turn, generate scores. But I have problems with the text.

I may not publish a new post next week because I'll be busy with other things and the workload, that I want to do, is very big.

War & Economy

"War & Economy" is my first big project. It's the game about two city-states at the war with each other. Nobody knows the reason for this war. For their rulers, it's just very exciting game. And you act in the roles of these rulers. But nobody thinks about habitants of these city-states...

I've synchronized buildings animations and drawn the explosion (demolition) animation. Am I the only one who thinks the new animation looks like pulsating membrane?

I've added the ability to build and demolish buildings. But I've some problems:

Animations aren't synchronized

I don't have demolition animation

This ability is currently useless

I've finished the construction menu: changed it a little and fixed bugs. I've also added a new tool and the ability to select tools using keyboard.

I've created the construction menu. But it has a lot of bugs yet. I've also added fps and mem statistics.

I've drawn animations of buildings and created game field but I can't build buildings on it yet

I started developing my game. At the moment I have created the non-working interface.

Beginning of development

Hi all! In this blog I'll tell how I develop games.

From what it began

From the beginning of this year 'til the end of July I was developing my game and by the end of July it was full-fledged and playable. But I became notice bugs I couldn't fix.

I wondered what the problem might be. I realized the problem was I wrote my game on Python, this language isn't intended for it.

Then I decided to learn a new programming language. It was originally supposed to be C#. But I couldn't run my code in the new language. I tried to do it for some days but eventually gave it up. Then I started searching the Internet for programming languages for games and came across on Lua. I learned it in just a month and started searching for an engine for it. In the Internet I knew about Defold. I'll rewrite my game exactly on it.

But I think I must introduce you to the original game first.

Initial game

Entering the game we see the main menu:

When we press the play button we see this:

I'll label the interface elements so you understand:

In construction menu players select building they want to build. Its description will appear on the right. Players can build it on the game field. Buildings affect on players stats. After enemies' turn ends player gets different points. Players can also attack each other:

Players can capture enemy buildings:

Gameplay can be very intense:

To win, player must capture or bankrupt enemy:

So I can to start development.

Interface creation

To Understand the size of game field, I drew it in Paint:

Its size - 436x220 pixels. I created the project, set it up and set size like a field in Paint but with padding around the edges:

I added a simple main menu and made the game opens when the button was pressed:

It's time to make the interface. I spent a lot of time on it. Since the system font only supports English, I added my own Noto Sans based font. It's what I made:

But whet I opened it full screen, I saw this:

Yes, I didn't add anchors on purpose, to interface elements don't blur to different directions.

My first post ends. If you have any ideas for improving the content, write them in the comments, I'll read them.

Goodbye!