April 2020 Development Update Report: Progress made on the first world design, new music acquisitions, and planing for the first cutscene of the game.
UX Flow for the First World
As discussed previously, the overview of the first world needed to be drawn out, we were previously missing the housing area (right side).
The first world is designed to be very interactive, fun, and involved. However, I can not stress enough that most of the exploration here is completely optional.
My Goal
Since much of the world exploration is optional, there are a lot of details and lore that might be skipped over if the player chooses to pass.
My goal is to make the world so interesting and rewarding to explore that the player will do so out of their own fruition instead of being forced to do this in order to progress through the game.
What’s Left?
In order for the first world to be completed, we still need to do the interiors of these houses. The plan is to generate this through the game in an efficient way which doesn’t look boring, but this also depends on how complex and detailed the interiors need to be.
We are still trying to figure out the best way to make it detailed without having to hand draw every single house interior which will limit our time and creativity in the long run.
The Actual Levels
Of course, perhaps many already forgot that this is a tower defense game, and the actual levels need to also be designed!
So far, there is only 5 levels planned for the primary tower defense story.
There are plans for various side missions and optional levels, but these have not yet come close to the radios of my focus right now.
Gameplay Transformation
Back in 2015, when I had no idea what I was going to get myself into, this is what the game looked like:
As you can tell, even in the early days, I wanted to have a good outdoors presence by adding in light rays.
Lighting is everything! 🤗 pic.twitter.com/bqW3vWEzL6
— TinyWars (@TinyWarsGame) July 30, 2017
Later on, the game had another massive transformation around 2017 with a huge upgrade to the artwork, light spots, particles, and light ray effects. (All in 2D through gamemaker.)
Lighting really is everything when it comes to setting a good mood.
I have a feeling that the entire game will be filled with a nice atmosphere and beautiful aesthetic, but one thing I also know is that the look from 2017 is not how the final game will look.
Since that time, I had not really touched a single line of code as the game became much more complicated.
Growing Project = More Planning
When more people are involved and it’s no longer a one man show, I have to get the ideas out of my head and elaborated clearly for all to understand.
This is a very time consuming process as all the ideas no only need to flow out of my brain but also be partially created / illustrated accurately and described in detail for others to see and understand.
However, in order to make this a game worth producing, I need to be able to bring in experts from various fields ranging from concept art to animations and programming (I don’t intend to write all this code myself). I suppose you could say we are hiring, though I have already scouted some of the new team members.
Feel free to reach out if you are interested in contributing to this project and helping us finish the first world of this game!