{"id":2963,"date":"2017-01-25T09:11:38","date_gmt":"2017-01-25T09:11:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tinywarsgame.com\/?p=2963"},"modified":"2017-04-07T09:07:35","modified_gmt":"2017-04-07T09:07:35","slug":"building-a-i-s-virtual-currencies-and-collection-mechanics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tinywarsgame.com\/building-a-i-s-virtual-currencies-and-collection-mechanics\/","title":{"rendered":"Building A.I.&#8217;s, Virtual Currencies, and Collection Mechanics"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>For those who have been following our social media, you may have seen some posts about a side project that we started working on over New Years. MemoryWars: TinyWars is an android game which we built as an experiment, but ended up releasing as a full fledged anime game. You can download it <a href=\"https:\/\/goo.gl\/z6z4u5\" target=\"_blank\"><strong>here<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"1080\" height=\"608\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/kQpbHOjcT5k?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<h1>What is this project all about?<\/h1>\n<p>Don&#8217;t worry, we have not given up on TinyWars. What this project really means to us is the ability for our programmers to work on new features and ideas that we would otherwise not be able to work on with the main TinyWars project. There is no interactive A.I., and up until this point, we had never even considered any sort of collection or virtual currency method for repeat gameplay. (I still don&#8217;t think it would be appropriate for TinyWars, but we had the opportunity to experiment with these features in our mini project.)<\/p>\n<p>This is the first A.I. we have ever programmed; it&#8217;s quirky, stupid at times, but it works and is fun to battle against!<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-2966\" src=\"https:\/\/tinywarsgame.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/code.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"833\" height=\"517\" srcset=\"https:\/\/tinywarsgame.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/code.png 833w, https:\/\/tinywarsgame.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/code-300x186.png 300w, https:\/\/tinywarsgame.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/code-768x477.png 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 833px) 100vw, 833px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Now we can&#8217;t show off all of it (Not that it&#8217;s worth seeing anyways) but admittedly this is some of the sloppiest code we&#8217;ve done! &#8230;it works&#8230; and this is especially good practice for us! Having used some techniques in this project, I have looked back at the original TinyWars Tower Defense Engine and seen some very specific lines of code that could totally be optimized!<\/p>\n<h2>Collecting<\/h2>\n<p>While the primary objective of this project was to gain experience programming an A.I., collecting was added to the project for the very same reason: experience. We wanted to experience what it might be like to add virtual currency and collecting mechanics into the project. On top of that, the project currently had very little replay value. Play the A.I. a few times and get bored of it (Early players who tried the original android app testified to this in their reviews!)<\/p>\n<p>So we added the collection method to increase replay-ability of the game.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-large wp-image-2967\" src=\"https:\/\/tinywarsgame.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/collecting-PNG-1024x585.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"1024\" height=\"585\" srcset=\"https:\/\/tinywarsgame.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/collecting-PNG-1024x585.png 1024w, https:\/\/tinywarsgame.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/collecting-PNG-300x171.png 300w, https:\/\/tinywarsgame.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/collecting-PNG-768x439.png 768w, https:\/\/tinywarsgame.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/collecting-PNG.png 1080w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Here&#8217;s a screen of the collection room. Currently one of these cards, the most common one, does serve a gameplay mechanic for the game. Now we have had all sorts of ideas on how this game could really be revamped and improved, but we must return to the main TinyWars project. I admit that the downloads of this project on the GooglePlay store are slightly disappointing, and this is probably an indicator that we need to get back to the main project. If people really like this, then we might resume adding the updates and new features to this game.<\/p>\n<p>The &#8220;Beat All Levels&#8221; card can only be obtained after beating all the levels in the game.<\/p>\n<h2>Mysterious Menu<\/h2>\n<p>This was a chance for us to experiment with some other interesting elements such as a mysterious looking menu design. I believe when players are first presented with this menu, they will immediately recognize that these are levels which need to be played through. The red cards at the end should spark some curiosity and it might be obvious that these levels are supposed to be &#8220;hard&#8221; or &#8220;boss&#8221; levels.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-large wp-image-2968\" src=\"https:\/\/tinywarsgame.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/Memory-Menu-1024x576.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1024\" height=\"576\" srcset=\"https:\/\/tinywarsgame.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/Memory-Menu-1024x576.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/tinywarsgame.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/Memory-Menu-300x169.jpg 300w, https:\/\/tinywarsgame.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/Memory-Menu-768x432.jpg 768w, https:\/\/tinywarsgame.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/Memory-Menu.jpg 1917w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Regardless, there was a good amount of effort and thought that went into the UI design of this mini project in order to present this game as a full fledged project and not just some side project that nobody should care about. We&#8217;re not interested in releasing &#8220;throw away&#8221; projects to the public.<\/p>\n<h2>Should I Play It?<\/h2>\n<p>Yes. Even though we refer to this as a &#8220;side project,&#8221; it is still a fully featured, full game worth putting some time into. I feel like my memory has been greatly enhanced simply from playing this game over and over again. And those levels at the end are truly a challenge.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-large wp-image-2964\" src=\"https:\/\/tinywarsgame.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/MemoryWars-Ad-1080px-1024x1024.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1024\" height=\"1024\" srcset=\"https:\/\/tinywarsgame.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/MemoryWars-Ad-1080px-1024x1024.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/tinywarsgame.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/MemoryWars-Ad-1080px-150x150.jpg 150w, https:\/\/tinywarsgame.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/MemoryWars-Ad-1080px-300x300.jpg 300w, https:\/\/tinywarsgame.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/MemoryWars-Ad-1080px-768x768.jpg 768w, https:\/\/tinywarsgame.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/MemoryWars-Ad-1080px-200x200.jpg 200w, https:\/\/tinywarsgame.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/MemoryWars-Ad-1080px-90x90.jpg 90w, https:\/\/tinywarsgame.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/MemoryWars-Ad-1080px.jpg 1080w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>We would be very sad if nobody plays our new game, even if it isn&#8217;t the main TinyWars project!!!<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/goo.gl\/z6z4u5\" target=\"_blank\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-2841 size-medium\" src=\"https:\/\/tinywarsgame.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/Google-Play-button-300x89.png\" width=\"300\" height=\"89\" srcset=\"https:\/\/tinywarsgame.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/Google-Play-button-300x89.png 300w, https:\/\/tinywarsgame.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/Google-Play-button-768x228.png 768w, https:\/\/tinywarsgame.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/Google-Play-button.png 800w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Download it <a href=\"https:\/\/goo.gl\/z6z4u5\" target=\"_blank\"><strong>here<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>For those who have been following our social media, you may have seen some posts about a side project that we started working on over New Years. MemoryWars: TinyWars is an android game which we built as an experiment, but ended up releasing as a full fledged anime game. You can download it here. What [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2964,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[160,162,161,72,159,163,69],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tinywarsgame.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2963"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tinywarsgame.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tinywarsgame.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tinywarsgame.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tinywarsgame.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2963"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/tinywarsgame.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2963\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3110,"href":"https:\/\/tinywarsgame.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2963\/revisions\/3110"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tinywarsgame.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2964"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tinywarsgame.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2963"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tinywarsgame.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2963"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tinywarsgame.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2963"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}