Chroma Coders — Fun Game Dev Club :)

A discussion about the new text based game, The Trader Game

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VetRanch allows the player to purchase items. These can take the form of animals, decor, buildings, or even some extra land. Persistent data is becoming a growing trend in flash games, giving the player an in-game currency and allowing them the ability to purchase items and have them still there when they come back to play again the next day. It’s little things like this that increase the fun and replayability of the game.

The store in VetRanch offers the player extra experience when they purchase the item, this is one of the ways that the player can help raise their level in the game.

To trigger the building of an item in the store, we use the following IsoMap function:

setCurrentBuilding(ref:int, type:String, cost:int)

The reference is the unique id found in the itemlist.xml file talked about earlier, the cost is obviously how much should be deducted for building the item once it has succesfully been built. The type variable is what we’re interested in, this is what we use to determine how the item should behave.

For instance, if we set the type to “item” then it will behave exactly like a static item as we would expect. However, if we set the type to be “zoo” then it will take on the characteristics of an animal.

Placing an Item in the Store

Once we have inserted a new item into the game, we need a way to add it into the store so it can be purchased and placed on the players map.

The store currently loads the decoration information from the storedecorations.xml, which has a typical format of:

<items c=’decorations’>
<item fl=’3′ f=’5′ p=’500′ i=’isopics/statue1.jpg’ uid=’31′ box=’0′ xp=’1′ pt=” t1=’0′ t2=’0′ >Statue 1</item>
<item fl=’10′ f=’5′ p=’500′ i=’isopics/statue2.jpg’ uid=’32′ box=’0′ xp=’1′ pt=” t1=’0′ t2=’0′ >Statue 2</item>
<item fl=’1′ f=’0′ p=’10000′ i=’isopics/pool.jpg’ uid=’30′ box=’0′ xp=’1′ pt=” t1=’0′ t2=’0′ >Pool</item>
<item fl=’10′ f=’25′ p=’250000′ i=’isopics/mediumhouse.jpg’ uid=’43′ box=’0′ xp=’1′ pt=” t1=’0′ t2=’0′ >Medium House</item>
</items>

The two important attributes we’re interested in here are the “uid” field, which links directly back to the uid specified in the itemlist.xml file earlier, and the “i” attribute which links to a thumbnail image of our statue. “p” is also of importance, and refers to the price that the item will be sold for.

To add in our large statue, we could place something along these lines in the .xml file:

<item fl=’3′ f=’5′ p=’500′ i=’our_statue.jpg’ uid=’4′ box=’0′ xp=’1′ pt=” t1=’0′ t2=’0′ >Our Statue</item>

Now our item should appear in the decoration tab in the store, and can be purchased and placed into the game with no additional compilation of the main game needed.

The game also comes with a clothes store to give the player compete customisation over their appearance in the game. Feel like dressing your character in the style of a certain adventurous archaeologist? No problem.

By letting the player dress their character any way they please gives them the much needed ability to express themselves and this helps them to truly get hooked into the game. All of the characters clothing can be externally loaded, this means we can add hundreds of costumes into the game, giving the player no end to the possibile combinations to choose from.

The clothing store is fairly self-contained, and can be shown or hidden by calling the following two functions Main.as.

gotoClothingShop()
hideClothingStore()

If you’re wanting to play around with how the clothing store works, open up AvatarShop.as, this is also where we can set the prices of the various hair styles, tops, bottoms and shoes along with various other details.

The first thing to understand when working with an Iso World is how to generate an isometric grid. This will become very useful when it comes to developing items or flooring for the game.

As can be seen, Fig 1.1 is a 2D grid that we start off with. The first thing we need to do is rotate this grid by 45 degrees, then squish it in half in to what is shown by Fig 1.3. This will give us an isometric grid to work with.

The default size of tile we will be working with is 86.2×43.1 pixels, as specified in the IsoMap.as file. This can be obtained by taking a 50×50 pixel square, rotating it the 45 degrees and reducing the height by half.

In order to best develop a standard that we will work with in the Iso World, we will be placing the 86.2×43.1 pixel tile at the (0,0) point in a flash file. For larger IsoItem’s, these must be extended downward in the appropriate direction as illustrated here:

It is really important that these dimensions and positioning are followed in order for them to be displayed correctly when loaded into the game, and for the sorting to work as expected. We have now extended both the xlen and ylen to be of value 2, and have a 2×2 IsoItem basis to work with:

We can make this loose guide into anything we choose, for example this overly sized statue might fit perfectly into a 2×2 IsoItem tile slot:

Now all that’s needed is to delete our tile grid and we have a 2×2 IsoItem ready to be inserted into an Iso World.

In VetRanch, all items are loaded into the game when the Iso World is generated at run time, so we need to save this as a seperate .swf called our_statue.swf.

The next step is to upload this information to our .xml file, so that the game knows where to find the information on the new IsoItem we have just created. Every item in the game must have a unique identifier, and should appear in the itemlist.xml file. Opening the .xml file you will see lots of items listed, it should look something like this:

<items>
<item uid="1" type="item" loc="isoitems/1.swf" frameno="1" xlen="1" ylen="1">This is item #1</item>
<item uid="2" type="item" loc="isoitems/1.swf" frameno="2" xlen="1" ylen="1">This is item #2</item>
<item uid="3" type="item" loc="isoitems/1.swf" frameno="3" xlen="1" ylen="1">This is item #3</item>

</items>

The attributes of a single “item” is given by the uid (the unique identifier), loc (location of the item), frameno (the frame number that the item is on) and the xlen/ylen, these are the two values we’ve talked about. For our statue they will both take the value 2. Finally, this is followed by the items description.

Next, by taking the next unique identifier (we’ll take the number 4 for this example, assuming there are only 3 other items in the list) we might have something that looks like this:

<item uid=”4″ type=”item” loc=”our_statue.swf” frameno=”1″ xlen=”2″ ylen=”2″>Our statue!</item>

Now that the game knows our item exists, where to find the image of it and the size of tiles it will take up on the map, we will need to place this item in the store so that it can be purchased and placed in the game.

Over the following set of articles we aim to give you all of the information you’ll need to create your own flash based social MMO.

For the most part we will be targetting Facebook. Facebook’s 400 million active users makes it an ideal platform to target. Their Flash API allows us to connect with the player and encourage them to share the experience with their peers. Allowing the player to interact and solve problems with their friends can help make for fantastic gameplay.

VetRanch is an example of an open source MMO aimed at Facebook that takes part in an Isometric setting, where the player engages in the exciting role of being a vet. The player must raise animals, care for them and release them when they have been nursed backed to health. We will be taking a look at the VetRanch code, and the way the game is set up and then use this as a basis to help you create your own MMO.

Hey folks,

The “Build a Social Game in 3 Days: Make an MMORPG On A Social Network” book is now on Amazon.com
You can check it out here…

http://www.amazon.com/Build-Social-Game-Days-ebook/dp/B00322OO8C/

Overview: MiniPlanet is a group of programs hooked together around a world, and players can complete jobs, run a store, gamble, chat, and spend their earnings on lovely furniture for a home of their own.  Apropos to the name of the app, I suppose, is the fact that there is no central game here.  There is a central world, and games for relating to it.

What’s Good:

Avatar Generation: Particularly for a game as social-heavy as this one, a good avatar generator is key, and this game has it.  Players can make themselves look mostly like themselves, or as different as they like, on a whim.

Costumes: Somewhat related to the advanced avatar generation is the fact that the player can buy special clothes and outfits to customize his own look.  Having the ability to purchase something that travels with you to all your social situations is much more compelling than having the items for the personalized location, at least early on.  That more compelling ability translates into an increased desire to play the various games and earn the in-game currency.

Slick Look: Unlike almost everyone else, the slick look of this app extends even into the store, so that the player doesn’t feel like he’s walking into a sleazy alley to buy his merchandise.  There are still just a few bugs with the graphics, but they’re largely negligible except to the hardcore gamer, and the hardcore gamer is clearly not this game’s target audience.

Varied Play: With a decent repertoire of underlying games, this game could take off by having a little something for everyone.  It’s almost there.

What’s Bad:

No Core Game: My first impression of this game is that it’s like Maplestory without the game.  It provides a cute chat experience, a forum for people to talk, and a few benefits for selling things or playing a gambling game intelligently.  But the game never says “This is the goal.”  I have no idea how I gain xp (I assume I do, because the game tells me I am level 1 of 25).

Invisible Benefits: Visibility is highly important for anything that can give a bonus of any kind to the player.  In the cafe games, you can see what’s on the stove.  In the farm games, you can see your crops.  In the adventure games, you can see the countdown to your next encounter or the next time your hp will recover.  In this game, you can only see your products when you take the time to go into your store, and then you can’t see anything else.

Loading Times: This may be unfair, but it’s still true: Because other games have set the bar for loading times so low, this game feels like it runs slowly because it has screens and areas that take an entire four seconds to load.  Gasp!  If possible, it would be better to put me into the space immediately and then add people in once I’m there.  Then I feel less as if I’m waiting.

Tiny Store: The clothing store should be obvious and easy to find, possibly its own main tab.

Getting Around: More generally, it’s tricky sometimes to get from place to place, which it shouldn’t be in such a simple game.  Movement should be very intuitive.

What I’d Add:

More Games: This one is a no-brainer.  As more of a game-world than a game, MiniPlanet benefits from having more games in it.  If the games are designed in different ways, there really can be a little something for everybody.  Right now there’s nothing for someone who wants to do battle, and (see games like ZOMG!) a game-world like this can definitely include that kind of game.

More Leaderboards: If there are many games to play, there can then be just as many categories in which players can excel.  More competition with players of similar interests (see: those who play the same kinds of games, in my game-world) encourages and facilitates the social aspect of the world.

Mixed Price Plans: The inclusion of items that can be bought using either real money or in-game money helps fight the impression that you are denying content to non-paying players.  The occasional “payer-only” item is good, because it increases the prestige of owning it.  Still, items that cost both types represent a prestige to the non-paying player that can make them more excited about your world.

Hey folks,

Chroma Coders has now released a book about building your own Social MMORPG in 3 Days. It comes with a solid code base AND MMORPG Generator so you can get your MMORPG up and running quickly. It is based on all the stuff we’ve learned while running our MMORPGs

Here are the benefits from reading the book:
* It includes interviews from successful game developers that are running MMORPGs and they give you solid advice on running your own MMO

* Free Code and MMO Generator that allows you to quickly and easily create your own MMORPG on Facebook

It costs $49.99 and all profits go towards supporting Chromacoder’s mission

You can check it out here…
http://www.lulu.com/content/paperback-book/build-your-own-successful-social-mmo-in-3-days/6892202

Check out the front and back covers of the book…

Ok,

You’ve made a very rough MMO on Facebook. It is very rough, but the system is in place. For artwork of items, you went on Flickr and found pictures that are under the creative commons, commercial license.

For example, if you are making a simple MMO about players being movie stars and having to do quests to become a world-famous movie star…you may need artwork of sets and scenes to help set the mood and atmosphere. You may want to get pictures of the Hollywood Walk of Fame (the sidewalk with stars). If you are making an MMO based on traveling, you may want to gather scenes from interesting areas of the world.

The important thing to note here is that you do not need to spend thousands of dollars and lots of time to get custom-made artwork. Yes, it can help. Yes, later on it may be a good idea to get it. But we need to get this MMO out now. We need to keep things rolling otherwise the excuses will start piling up and slow everything down. Put the artwork in and think about upgrading later.

Ok, so you have a rough game, and it’s really rough. It’s not too great. It’s a good start, though. Now we need to release. Why do we release roughly? For a couple reasons…
1) We need to get something out and keep the momentum
2) We need to rely on early users to give us feedback. I’ve found it compelling and motivating when I have a user directly telling me something is not working instead of prematurely optimizing code and the game beforehand. The other thing is that this is your chance to show the early users that you’re dedicated to make this work. The faster you implement the feedback, the better your chances of having them stay.

There are folks doing simple MMOs that have grown…not because the MMO looks like World of Warcraft, but because the text-based MMO was updated quickly and constantly whenever a user made a request. It made the players feel like they were being listened to and that the developer(s) care.

Earning the trust of the players because of your high level of responsiveness helps to build a community in the game and keep people engaged in the game.

When you release your game, have a banner at the top that links to the application’s wall/discussion board and ask for specific feedback. It will encourage feedback and also demonstrate that you are committed to improving the game.

To release, send it out to friends. Get some preliminary feedback. After that, find groups on Facebook with topics/themes that resonate with the theme of your game. That will be a good way to attract more folks to the game.

Study other games on Facebook too. Note how some of them get you to invite friends into the game. Borrow those ideas for your game and also think of new ideas. You need to figure out a way to inspire people to invite their friends into the game. You can do this by traditional ways found in other apps and by new ways.

You can also use the game mentioned in this book to make your own MMO. We’ve created a mission in it that you can play to create an MMO in 5 days You can also get help from other players in the mission. Click here to start the 5 day mission