Gameplay Analysis
At the early stage of the game project, design and analysis of the gameplay are important because the core gameplay is built upon it, audio-visual style, and the overall effect expectation of the game. This part of the work is generally completed by the director, in a "game design document GDD", which contains the starting direction and core goal of the whole game development team. The analysis of gameplay will mainly introduce the design process and production objectives of the game from four aspects: basic information about the game, core gameplay, game flow, and game features. Gameplay analysis will not only establish the core of the gameplay cycle playability but also will be helpful for the future iteration direction and scalable, increase the producers and investors' confidence in the project, and reduce their concerns. These aspects can make the development team share a unified and complete understanding of the gameplay.
Project concept logo
Introduction
Moderate Game Hardness
Not as hard as those serious games and core games
It doesn't take a lot of time to learn complicated mechanics, a lot of contexts, a lot of energy, and a lot of time to start playing.
It won't be as soft as a light sketch-level game on mobile
It's still worth sitting down at the computer for hours to play
The story background was comprised of Chinese elements
In this game, you can experience how to fight against a dust storm in northwest China the game
It is like the other popular science games
In this work, we can learn the scientific process and principle of fighting against wind and desertification
Tension and ease coexist in the rhythm atmosphere
In this game, you can experience the terrible atmosphere of a sandstorm attack
The player can also experience a relaxed farming life in the later stage
Introducing some of the gameplay from Dune makes the game more interesting
The chain events system allows the player to experience a solid and well-established event.
Game Loop
Core Mechanics
1. The game is presented to the player through audio-visual effects
2. Players input operations into the game through input devices
3. The game processes the player's input and gives the player audio-visual feedback again
4. The player understands the gameplay through thought
5. The player inputs again, goes back to step 2, and enters the game loop
Three Loop Mechanics
Production, construction, and resource management are the three main elements of simulated and construction games. Productive resources are used for construction, which consumes resources but generates more resources. This is the core gameplay loop of a simulated building game. The core gameplay of the project is also based on this cycle (left-hand side) of production, construction, and resources. In addition, the plot of the game is highly combined with the actual gameplay. The game map is composed of hexagonal blocks with three types of blocks: yellow (desert); Gray (Gobi); Green (grass). These three kinds of blocks can be converted into each other, and the greening rate of blocks determines the type of plots. Players need to build buildings, produce resources, and then use resources to build special buildings to slow down or even reverse the desertification progress. By changing the simple single loop into a three-loop dynamic balancing mechanism, I can make the game become more interesting and make the gameplay have more potential.
Prototype Design
Game projects in different stages of development will also use different development models to achieve the best efficiency. In the early stage of game development, the strategy is to focus only on achieving the game core, which is the three blocks and the building system. Later, when the game becomes playable, I will show this demo to the other player and designer seeking advice and help. As the project moves to the next phase of development, I start to rapidly iterate the project. Generally, it takes a long time for a game to be ready to be seen by the public, When the game is released, the development of the game enters the operational phase, starting to further develop the gameplay and gradually adding more details to the game.
Map Design and implementation
Storage of Maps
The map lattice of this project is all regular hexagonal, which is very different from the common rectangular lattice. Rectangular lattices can be easily stored by using a two-dimensional array and can be quickly searched based on coordinates and subscripts. Nevertheless, if you put the hexagonal lattice directly into a two-dimensional array; since the hexagonal arrangement is misaligned, the coordination of the hexagonal cannot be directly converted to the subscript.
Common work flows in game development
In general, rectangular lattices are using Cartesian coordinates, each hexagonal lattices have its own coordinates. In the figure on the left-hand side, direct Offset transformation of the hexagonal lattice coordinates is carried out to obtain two-dimensional array foot marks, which are called Offset coordinates. It can be divided into four types according to the shape and offset mode of the regular hexagon as shown in the figure below.
By rotating the Y cycle of the original rectangular coordinate system to an edge perpendicular to the hexagon, two hexagonal lattice coordinate systems can be derived, which are Cube coordinates and Axial coordinates. These two coordinates can be easily transformed by formulas. To eliminate the misalignment of coordinate hexagons on the 2D array subscripts, each coordinate system maintains only even numbers on the X-axis (apex) or Y-axis (flat top), the other axis offset and aligned as normal offset coordinates. This solves the problem of the alignment of the hexagonal mesh. However, the disadvantage of using this coordinate system is also obvious: there will be a large amount of space.
How to generate random map
RA randomization algorithm should be added to the map generation system in this project, which can generate a random block height and block type. It is easy to randomize the block type. It is necessary to use random number seeds to run a randomization operation at the boundary of the two blocks according to the map generation configuration in order to obtain a floating point value; similarly, the green rate of the block can also be generated in this way, and then randomly determine the other types of the block. Randomized blocks are not so easy. The block is highly randomized to make the terrain of the map rise and fall and look more natural. If not, the whole terrain will be bumpy.
Height map are generate through cell noise
Therefore, this project uses noise wave to generate gray scale map, and then sets the height of the plot according to the gray scale of the picture to achieve the effect of random natural terrain. Such a picture is often referred to as a height map in game projects because it records the height information of the vertices, and this operation is called height displacement. The size of the map of this project is about 100x100, and the height difference between the plots is about 10 meters. According to this requirement, it can be inferred that Cellular Noise should be used, and the output value should be cell value, and the noise intensity should be set at about 0.1. The resulting height map after some fine-tuning of the data is shown here.
This project uses noise waves to generate a grayscale map (0- 255) and then sets the height of the block accordingly based on the grayscale of the picture to achieve a random natural terrain. The figure shown above is often referred to as a height map in-game projects because it records the height information of the vertices, and this operation is called height displacement. The size of the map is about 100x100, and the height of the blocks is about 10 meters. According to the following information, the Cellular Noise algorithms should be applied, the output value should be cell value, and the noise intensity should be set around 0.1. The resulting height of the map after some fine-tuning of the data is shown above
This project uses noise waves to generate a grayscale map (0- 255) and then sets the height of the block accordingly based on the grayscale of the picture to achieve a random natural terrain. The figure shown above is often referred to as a height map in-game projects because it records the height information of the vertices, and this operation is called height displacement. The size of the map is about 100x100, and the height of the blocks is about 10 meters. According to the following information, the Cellular Noise algorithms should be applied, the output value should be cell value, and the noise intensity should be set around 0.1. The resulting height of the map after some fine-tuning of the data is shown above
Rendering single cell block
The game screenshot
