LD#14: More Design Notes

I tried asking specific questions about what I would like the player to actually DO in the game. What’s the goal? How does he/she achieve success? What challenges does the player face, and what tools do I provide him/her to deal with them?

I had some baby carrots to tide me over until I’m ready to eat a meal again.

In this image, you can see that I’ve started sketching some GUI components.

When I start working on the game in earnest, I’m going to try to have the graphics ready before I write the code for them. And I need to remember not to worry about making them look fantastic. I waste too much time fiddling with each pixel.

Here’s a mockup:

In this image, you can see that Red and Blue just can’t seem to be peaceful in any game, and they are building walls to surround resources, claiming them. There will be a variety of resources, and those resources let you purchase more walls to build each turn and hire more soldiers.

Using 16×16 tiles means that there isn’t a lot of room for detail. Abstract is easier and faster for me, but it also provides the challenge of accurately conveying to the player what is happening. I’d like to get a game working as fast as possible. If the maps are too large, then I can try 32×32 tiles, which are much nicer for detail. But again, I’m not an artist, so I should focus on code and abstract art for now.

And I should get coding as soon as I can. The first day is almost over!