Aussenposten - base building game [1.6 out now!]

Aussenposten - base building game [1.6 out now!]

Postby oberhamsi » 18 Oct 2014, 12:48

Hi guys,
I built a base building game over the last year and finally have a playable alpha release.

Project homepage: http://aussenposten.gamejs.org/

--> (Old-ish) gameplay video: https://vimeo.com/109962515


I´m looking for feedback on:

* how is performance with lots of citizens?
* ideas for graphic style or assets

I wrote a bit more about possible art contributions on oga: http://opengameart.org/forumtopic/ausse ... ment-32231


---
license stuff:
* source is on the project page http://aussenposten.gamejs.org/
* my code is MIT
* the art is all from opengameart; i haven´t a complete list yet but everything should be CC-BY-SA-3.0 or CC0.
* the io.js engine has a ton of licenses, they are in the source download.
Attachments
aussenposten july 6.png
Last edited by oberhamsi on 04 May 2015, 20:12, edited 7 times in total.
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Re: Aussenposten - base building game [alpha 1 release]

Postby c_xong » 18 Oct 2014, 13:35

Nice looking game! Please consider hosting your code repository online as that makes it much easier for developers to collaborate. I recommend GitHub or Bitbucket.
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Re: Aussenposten - base building game [alpha 1 release]

Postby oberhamsi » 18 Oct 2014, 14:07

c_xong {l Wrote}:Nice looking game! Please consider hosting your code repository online as that makes it much easier for developers to collaborate. I recommend GitHub or Bitbucket.


thanks for the kind words :)

regarding VCS.. it's just easier to distribute as zip because the git repo is huge. i'll at least open git access if the need really arises.
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Re: Aussenposten - base building game [alpha 1 release]

Postby farcodev » 18 Oct 2014, 19:51

Good work :]
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Re: Aussenposten - base building game [alpha 1 release]

Postby oberhamsi » 20 Oct 2014, 08:52

farcodev {l Wrote}:Good work :]


thanks! I see you're doing something similar and I actually did see your project while searching for inspiration. I'll try your game.. seems to be on a bigger scale (multiple planets,..) and more abstract and data driven. Which I like too.
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Re: Aussenposten - base building game [alpha 1 release]

Postby farcodev » 01 Nov 2014, 16:20

Thanks to you too. I have many years of work before to have a full blown payable game, but step by step it progresses.
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Re: Aussenposten - base building game [alpha 1 release]

Postby oberhamsi » 24 Nov 2014, 14:43

i fixed some low hanging fruits and released it as alpha 1.2.

you can grab the new versionhere: http://aussenposten.gamejs.org/download.html

changes
* add shadows to buildings and units (sipmle effect but looks a ton nicer imo)
* more storage space (stacks are now 8 high)
* play sounds only for visible events (less sound cacophony)
* fix teleport worker picking up from teleport and immediatly dropping at the very same teleport
* refactor asset preload (dropping a few unneeded while i was at it)
* cleanup fetch/store worker AI

shadows.png
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Re: Aussenposten - base building game [alpha 1 release]

Postby oberhamsi » 28 Nov 2014, 22:34

I launched an online version which only works in chrome (sadly). Hosting it here for now:

http://oberhamsi.itch.io/aussenposten
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Re: Aussenposten - base building game [alpha 1 release]

Postby Akien » 28 Nov 2014, 23:32

How come it only works with chrome? I downloaded your source code and opened it in Firefox, it worked out of the box.
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Re: Aussenposten - base building game [alpha 1 release]

Postby oberhamsi » 28 Nov 2014, 23:51

Akien {l Wrote}:How come it only works with chrome? I downloaded your source code and opened it in Firefox, it worked out of the box.


thanks for the info.

that's interesting and good to hear. i loaded it up in my firefox, tried windows and ubuntu, and FF just crashed.

i didn' thourougly test it on firefox and i know the CSS isn't working 100% but i'll give it another try. i also feel it's a lot slower on FF but i would love to support them better.
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Re: Aussenposten - base building game [alpha 1 release]

Postby oberhamsi » 15 Jan 2015, 21:58

new version!

version one dot five α: http://aussenposten.gamejs.org/download.html

i changed the run-time from node-webkit to the new https://iojs.org/ based on chromium.

either because of chromium or maybe because the v8 engine is just newer.. it's a bit faster now. oh: and some minor bugs fixed.
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Re: Aussenposten - base building game [one dot five α]

Postby oberhamsi » 01 May 2015, 21:42

I have switched the building tile set. not 100% sure they fit. what do you guys think? i'm thinking of going all-medieval with the theme. it just seems so much easier to get decent art for medieval/fantasy theme.

aleonatales.jpg
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Re: Aussenposten - base building game [1.6 out now!]

Postby Danimal » 02 May 2015, 22:16

it looks better but some of them are too blurry, lately some very nice art has been poping into OGA so im sure you can replace pretty much anything
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Re: Aussenposten - base building game [1.6 out now!]

Postby oberhamsi » 03 May 2015, 16:41

Danimal {l Wrote}:it looks better but some of them are too blurry, lately some very nice art has been poping into OGA so im sure you can replace pretty much anything


yeah, lots of good stuff appeared on OGA. i will search for more.

it looks blurry because i blatantly rescaled :)
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Re: Aussenposten - base building game [1.6 out now!]

Postby oberhamsi » 04 May 2015, 11:01

i went back to tiling my own buildings with the stuff i get from oga. i added a bunch of detail to all the houses and made them overall bigger. imo better.

newoga.png
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Re: Aussenposten - base building game [1.6 out now!]

Postby qubodup » 04 May 2015, 22:30

Some of my gameplay:

youtu.be/YbFecMjE8p0

The game seems stable and runs well. The interactions work good (sometimes the green/red ok/notok build indicator lags behind with the correct color though). Some elements look browser-non-nice (pop-up, some buttons) and some of the UI looks very off (perspective resource counter, gradient at bottom)

As a game, it feels very empty. Animations and sounds for the resource-harvesting/processing buildings might do the trick. Although I would probably complain about the lack of a mission/goal if those were already in place.

A few personal issues I noticed:
- I wish there was zooming.
- Rock gathering is way too slow.
- It's easy to dead-end resource-spending wise.
- People are so slow. Especially the defensive ones.
- Buildings seem so huge.
- Menu/Reports buttons hard to hit/click
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Re: Aussenposten - base building game [1.6 out now!]

Postby oberhamsi » 05 May 2015, 18:20

qubodup, thank you for the thoughtful feedback.

You hit the nail on the head with "feels very empty". I notice that too when I play for longer stretches... I should work on that with highest priority. There's no point in improving the simulation if the game world doesn't reach the player's mind.

I will look at other base building games and how they make the world feel more alive. You mention one thing: animations for resource harvesting. That would definitely make a big difference because otherwise most workers just "disappear" for most of the day inside a building and the world looks even more static.

I like how this very similar game ("1849") solved it: the units working in a building are part of the building's "active" animation. In fact, the buildings are solely animated by overlaying the worker sprite: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OcAeI6_EXVo
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Re: Aussenposten - base building game [1.6 out now!]

Postby Vandar » 06 May 2015, 15:03

The world also will feel less empty if there are events going on which are not influenced by the player, but visible to the player. Some games also solve the problem by the inhabitants "talk" to the player, e.g. make messages pop up if they have problems or suggestions. This way the player will feel more involved.
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