Cube Commander - DevLog

Hi Ladies and gentlemen!

This is going to be my dev log over the next year as i develop the game of my dreams :D.

I want to thank Ashley and the team at Scirra for making such a great product.

I can literary write pseudo code down on paper when something pops into my head, and understand what i need to do to put it into Construct 2.

At or around about the end of the week ill posting little updates of my progress :).

Interesting indeed. I attempted an isometric game a while back, but found it pretty tricky.

Best of luck to you.

Links for the lazy.

Picture 1

Picture 2

Picture 3

Looks pretty cool :D How far along are you? Are you able to place/remove blocks or is that all done in the editor? Also what do you plan to do with it?

So a quick introduction :)

My name is Tom Healy, 24 years of age living down under.

I first discovered game programming when i was around 13. The first ever program i used was Blitz Basic by Mark, a bit of java here and there until i discovered Construct 2 Release 59.

Ever since then i've been dabbling around with different prototypes and ideas and finally have settled down into Cube Commander(pending possible naming lawsuit) so i might have to change the name.

But what is Cube Commander you ask? Well in its most basic form its a mash of the Civilization turn based system, Settlers Complexity, and a graphics style of i suppose a Isometric Minecraft?

What have i done so far?

Well ive worked out a fairly easy z-ordering system, though it requires lots of clicking 'Add Layer' and absolutely kills the debug mode. Your a able to queue build basic 'cubes'. Builders will notice cubes to be built and will use the great 'Find Path' feature to get there in the quickest AND safest way.

Oh and I've gotten the z-ordering system working different layout angles, so people can see behind buildings or whatnot.

I'm hoping by Christmas to have a fairly working demo and i can start a kickstarter campaign :)

Once again thank you Ashley for giving me an opportunity to live my life dream of making games :).

Links for the lazy.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/mfp7txigjs8wci9/Screenshot%202013-10-29%2010.40.02.png

Looks pretty cool :D How far along are you? Are you able to place/remove blocks or is that all done in the editor? Also what do you plan to do with it?

Yeah you can build blocks and destroy them, builders will sometimes get stuck but should be an easy fix.

A while back i created a fully destructible terrain system using 3D arrays created from arrays, but ive put that on the backburner, its just too complex, and a resource hog. XD

You are still able to build and destroy environments, characters and monsters are limited a single plane due to pathfinding limited to a 2D Grid. Also the Campaign map HAS to be limited to a turn based format, once you start getting into the 1000's of blocks creating/destroying the pathfinding 'Regenerate Obstacle Map' function kills frame per second. Though the actual 'find path' is really fast. :)

Alpha 1 1/11/2013

* Completely re-written code around pathfinding function.

* Fixed bug of builders getting stuck on corners of structures

* Fixed bug of random ore nodes becoming impossible to mine

* Added miners to game

* Miners will seek out nodes to mine, once ore capacity has reached

they will head back to 'chest' and dump their ore and continue on as normal

* Regenerate path finding map will now only be called when a solid object has been destroyed, or when something is built 'during' the turn.

* Player building before turn will not call path finding function