Started working on my 4X Emperor game thing :)

I always enjoyed your 4x posts.

Good luck and keep us on the track!

First and foremost: Congratz Acharis. I couldn't wait for you to get started on this!

I'd also like to congratulate you on your approach. You've demonstrated a keen understanding of several principles of development and have been "ramping" project difficulty rather carefully up to now. Even your "4X game" looks like it will be sufficient simplified to make it a sustainable project (especially as a single player-only experience). So, congratulations are in order here.

With that being said...

- Sell via Humbe Store widget + GOG + Steam

I've had some traction/success using indieDB which I believe you are familiar with. It never hurts to get a constant stream of "free views" and a general landing area for people to view where you're at.

On that note, I'd also like to suggest you make a gamedev dev journal if this isn't already part of your plan.

- Budget (time) below 1 year

How much of this is put towards marketing your actual game? Or is this all a "make a kickass prototype and go to crowdfunding"?

Having an idea of how budget will get spent on day 1 is critical. You don't need to stick to the plan at all costs, but it should help you keep enough to finish and ship whatever you've set out to do.

- make a rough version with all core features ASAP (what's new here )

How do you envision your MVP currently? It's easy to say "all core features" but it implies you have a very good understanding of what is core, and chances are, that definition will evolve as well depending on the results you get as you develop it. It is worth taking the time and writing this down, multiple times, as you move forward. It forces you to focus and choose. It's not enough to "think you know".

Godspeed!

Got a name for it?

I always enjoyed your 4x posts.

LOL, I thought people got bored to death by these :)

How do you envision your MVP currently? It's easy to say "all core features" but it implies you have a very good understanding of what is core, and chances are, that definition will evolve as well depending on the results you get as you develop it. It is worth taking the time and writing this down, multiple times, as you move forward. It forces you to focus and choose. It's not enough to "think you know".

Yeah, a good point... Maybe I will start with it right now :)

Core of the core

- combat, including AI decision making (fleets, flotillas, very simplified shipyard (just building one ship type), ground defences, AI strategic level thinking (what to conquer, setting defence priorities), AI operational level thinking (where to exactly allocate forces and when), AI tactical level thinking (when to retreat, when to launch an attack)

- economy (taxes, population growth, planetary infrastructure growth (cities/farms/factories), probably very simple corporations & contracts system); the nice thing is the AI races won't build anything or almost anything and/or it will be greatly simplified (since aliens use different balance anyway)

- research (I was slightly hesitant if to put it as core, but well, I think it should be here)

Primary

- food system (food price, starvation, simple riot system)

- load/save, change resolution, polish of the interface

- appointing planetary governors (I know it should not be primary, but let's be realistic, I like that one sooo much I will implement it early no matter what I say :D So let's pretend that was the plan from the start :))

- more complex AI types (various special cases like parasite, extragalaxy invaders, respawn of overminds), more aliens as needed (balance of starting galaxy map)

Secondary

- advanced ship production (shipyard)

- appointing fleet admirals (because it's cute :D)

- imperial edicts, imperial level, prestige system (also maybe imperial senate but not necessarily)

- on map officials (imperial inspectors, tax collectors, special forces and other specialists)

- better reporting system (categories)

Trietriary:

- tutorial

- resources (rare ones)

- better combat system (maybe interplanetary missiles)

- pirates, maybe rebels (althrough rebels would most likely "be in expansion" :D)

- diplomacy (yeah, it's a low priority one since most aliens will not be interested anyway (you don't talk with food :D) and the war/peace would be based on current real situation not negotiations), tribute, acknowledge the empire, vassalization, military treaty

- intro, outro, game over, credits

- sound assets selection, probably UI improvement

- balancing, A LOT of balancing

- and many many other things I have forgotten (put here like 60% of the total features :D)

How much of this is put towards marketing your actual game? Or is this all a "make a kickass prototype and go to crowdfunding"?

Having an idea of how budget will get spent on day 1 is critical. You don't need to stick to the plan at all costs, but it should help you keep enough to finish and ship whatever you've set out to do.

I always do marketing and devlopment at the same time, simultaneously (actually marketing and design). I can't see it any other way. One funny example, once I wrote a marketing description and then redesigned the game to fit the description (I have added a princess to rescue and a dragon to slay - quite logical for an RPG) :D Thinking of marketing upon design results in a better game (at least in my case).

But overall, I rely on a 4X being a niche than a real marketing effort (I couldn't afford it anyway).

make a gamedev dev journal

I will go back to this topic later. But for now, how do you evaluate dev journal as a means of getting feedback (support during design stage)? Or is it only for marketing?

Got a name for it?

Yes, but I don't want to give it out just yet (I will need to upon FB page creation :))

Good luck hoping that it will lead to less topic regarding this from now on (jk btw :) )

Looking at GDD and your previous posts, I always get impression that you are chopping off large elements of strategy in game in order to have less workload. Or it is me as a micromanagement lover control freak :)

I am having difficulty to get USP and/or 'fun' part of playing this game, tbh

While I do not believe Acharis will post less it will undoubtedly interesting to see how posts change from theoretical to practical (possibly with screenshots) as per his previous project.
I, for one, care much more about applieddesign than ideas.

Also Unduli, I too am a micro-manager type of player so I can relate to your concern. There is however an undeniable crowd out there for soft 4x games so long as it is wrapped in a fun package.
Focusing on single player anf assymetry give this concept some appeal, particularly the Ai that Acharis discussed in another thread which exists moreso than it tries to win.
It puts the player in a game where they try to win but the enemy isn't like an opponent at chess, rather he is an obstacle.
There is a lot to be said of situations that arise when two players have fairly different goals (think of risk with its missions system for example) and I am curious what will come out of this.

This game smells of indie and risk and is not something large publishers would necessarily undertake given the risk involved, and it could lead to an interesting blend.

Hopefully my pep talk is boosting Acharis' will to get this done by now!
Afterall it will be interesting to know my nemesis is devving his 4x game at the same time I am if only to entertain a friendly and self motivating competition!

I don't have much to add to the actual discussion--I'm not really a strategy player, and so perhaps have relatively limited insight into such games--but I would like to say that I'm glad to read that you're making a start on the implementation of your game. ^_^

So I will say it--or rather have said it.

*ahem*

I hope that the project follows whatever path is best, whatever that may be, and good luck. ^_^

Looking at GDD and your previous posts, I always get impression that you are chopping off large elements of strategy in game in order to have less workload. Or it is me as a micromanagement lover control freak

Fortunatelly, adding micromanagement is far easier than removing it :) So, if all fails I should be able to simply add it... Well, it all depends on the prototype.

Anyway, I already lessened it, planetary defence most likely will be done manually (I have run the 50 planets empire and at the first glance it does not seem owerwhelming, especially since only frontier planets will be really of player's interest and due to starlanes map mechanics not all "outer" planets even connect to danger zones. So I try less automation/abstraction there at first (of course I will try to add some automation & priorities system there, like militia and ground troops - but these were automatized even in heavy micromanagement games).

But as for chopping of a lot of things (for whatever reasons), that's a correect impression :) I always try to desperately do it (in the end it still always ends up more complex that I originally planned :D).

BTW, it's interesting how it changes perspective and habits when it's not your first or second finished project... My attitude back then was completely different.

While I do not believe Acharis will post less it will undoubtedly interesting to see how posts change from theoretical to practical (possibly with screenshots) as per his previous project.
I, for one, care much more about applieddesign than ideas.

Less? Why I would post less? You mean more (now that I have a game to make and need to post even more to forge out details?) :D

Oh boy, I already feel sorry for some of the fellow forum members :)

As for switch in the topics mood, tell me afterwards if it changed (since it's interesting), but I doubt. I always (with very minor exceptions) post practical.

The game name will be "Pocket Space Empire".

Here is the very first public screenshot (note it's just a TECH DEMO! Everyting is programmer's art or placeholders)

https://www.facebook.com/PocketSpaceEmpire/photos/a.1518291948449273.1073741828.1518285091783292/1518290615116073/?type=1&theater

Also added FB page:

https://www.facebook.com/PocketSpaceEmpire

(I guess the simpliest way to follow this project is to like/observe it - so I could easily spam you later once it's ready or something :D)

Alternatively you can go with Twitter https://twitter.com/silverlemur (but I will post some updates there after I got the first follower :D and generally will update there less)

OK, that's enough for my minimalistic marketing I guess, time to go back to designing & coding :)

DESIGNER NOTES:

I could not resist and instead of coding combat as I planned I went for planetary governors :D I don't know, maybe it's just me being a freak of personel management (I even studied Human Resources, so I might be biased here I suppose), but I find these utterly cute. I think I will make the "administration of the empire" more important focus of the game (possibly at the expense of combat but not necessarily).

Governors have 3 stats: competence (how good they are at being governor - it benefits the planet), loyalty (how much they love the Emperor and how willing they are to betray him upon a rebelion/coup/etc), corruption (it affects the whole empire at a global level, the average corruption of all your officials determines the corruption level in the empire - it might affect various things like: taxes, how easily rebels could buy illegal weapons, population happines, justice).

(I even studied Human Resources, so I might be biased here I suppose)

That explains a LOT now :)

Governors have 3 stats: competence (how good they are at being governor - it benefits the planet), loyalty (how much they love the Emperor and how willing they are to betray him upon a rebelion/coup/etc), corruption (it affects the whole empire at a global level, the average corruption of all your officials determines the corruption level in the empire - it might affect various things like: taxes, how easily rebels could buy illegal weapons, population happines, justice).

Might be entitled its own thread? right now, I'd have a hard time circling back to this conversation based on the thread's title?

Is it me or is name "Pocket Space Empire" a bit odd for a (PC) game you can't have in your pocket?

Update (time management):

I have been using a method I used for the first game I finished, which is keeping a private dev journal. But I added now a twist to it. Originally I was just keeping a track of "work days" (days I worked on the game, ignoring real time) which is great for efficient use of development time (and to fight feature creep). But then I noticed the realtime become lagging behind. So I added another metric, which is a ratio of real days to work days. It helped me improve to dev pace.

Some stats: The game has been in development for 33 work days (83 real days has passed), the earlier part was at 0.35 ratio (so I worked once per 3 days), this month I improved it greatly to 0.6 (ideal being 0.71 which means 5 days per week), but the ratio will surely fall this month due to Christmast, New Year and so on.

And how you manage the time budget of your project? Any useful tips?

Might be entitled its own thread? right now, I'd have a hard time circling back to this conversation based on the thread's title?

Maybe. But at the moment I have no questions about governors, plus it will be rather late impolmented. So, maybe later.

Is it me or is name "Pocket Space Empire" a bit odd for a (PC) game you can't have in your pocket?

:)

There is a long story about the title. But the 2 most important parts:

- it kind of conveys a semi minimalistic feel, which is kind of compatible with the premise, althrough I'm not sure I want to focus on that part

- it helps me fight feature creep. Historically ALL my games turned out complex :D So, if I gave the game a title "pocket" it will help me focus that it should not be complex, so I will try to make it simple. Of course I will fail and the game will be overly complex (as usual), but at least this trick should make it merely complex not super super complex :D

My only worry is if this won't be confused with a mobile game.

You know, you could post some feedbcak on the project management or some design choices. I can still change many things at this stage.

I think I should sort out and organize the core of the game (think of it as both what would be on the "back of the box" (in the times when we had boxes ) and what would be the design direction). What you think about these?

1) No micromanagement (you are the Emperor not a logistics officer)

2) Grand strategy, no dealing with lowly tactical level (you have admirals for this)

3) Fast paced while complex & epic in scale

I'm not sure about the 3rd one...

3) Fast paced while complex & epic in scale

I'm not sure about the 3rd one...

You could have fast paced game with real time implementation. And the player can choose how fast or slow the player wants the time to run.

In essence it would be like a regular turn based game, only that the turns play out in parallell for each player and the turns tick on their own. Player just changes how fast the turns tick or they can completely pause the game if desired. Without knowing the usual actions within your game, one second could be the slowest interval between turns. Paradox Studio titles have that system working quite well.

If the player is inbetween a period where nothing happens, the player can just fast forward. If stuff gets intense, the player can then reduce the speed to a comfortable speed.

Do you catch my drift here?

You could have fast paced game with real time implementation. And the player can choose how fast or slow the player wants the time to run.

Well, I like turns and do not like so much realtime :) I understand what you say and see your point and see some logic behind it and even agree to some degree, but... It's personal :D I want it turn based :)

You could have fast paced game with real time implementation. And the player can choose how fast or slow the player wants the time to run.

Well, I like turns and do not like so much realtime I understand what you say and see your point and see some logic behind it and even agree to some degree, but... It's personal I want it turn based

Whatever floats you boat, mate. Cheers.

Also, another idea, you could put a nice little feature in your turn system. Automatic turns. Basically a button or a checkbox that keeps activating a new turn as long as it is activated. I envision it as a quick forward mechanic for when you are waiting for stuff(like prduction queues or smth) with nothing to do. Also the automatic turns should deactivate if something important happens(perhaps players could personalize the messages to set which one's are important enough to end the automatic turns).

Started posting screens on https://twitter.com/silverlemur (funny thing, I instantly got 5 followers - the FIRST followers ever - after I posted my first screen, so I say posting screens, even bad ones is the key to promotion, I think)

Also, since I joined #screenshotsaturday you might be able find the game screen/s on the "GDNET Game" if you play it

( http://www.gamedev.net/page/showdown/matchup.html )

Also, another idea, you could put a nice little feature in your turn system. Automatic turns. Basically a button or a checkbox that keeps activating a new turn as long as it is activated. I envision it as a quick forward mechanic for when you are waiting for stuff(like prduction queues or smth) with nothing to do. Also the automatic turns should deactivate if something important happens(perhaps players could personalize the messages to set which one's are important enough to end the automatic turns).

Each turn will be interesting and the player won't want to skip them

(personally, I have not yet played any turn based game so bad that it would make me want to skip turns )

Anyway, I think the "fast paced" here would be more about the total lenght of the game. Like you would typically need 5-6 hours to finish it (I know time is very subjective since some people play much faster than the other, what I mean is the game would be more "condensed" (especially late game which will not drag on for ages) than a typical 4X).

Also started a dev log http://silverlemur.tumblr.com/

(geez, all these Facebooks, Twitters, Tumblrs... I do learn a lot of these fancy social stuff just for the promotion :D I salute those who use these by their own desire)

I guess, with YouTube channel that would be all (I'm not making any more of these :D)

From methodology point of view I upped my workday ratio to 0.41 (when I think about it, anything less than 0.5 is nonsense, come one, if I'm making a game I should do it at least every second day). Also tried pomodoro for coding, works quite fine, I recommend trying it (I use "pomodairo" clock, 45 mins timer).

BTW, why don't you start a similar topic about your game in progress? Share your dev tricks and thoughts too...

Also started a dev log http://silverlemur.tumblr.com/

(geez, all these Facebooks, Twitters, Tumblrs... I do learn a lot of these fancy social stuff just for the promotion I salute those who use these by their own desire)

I guess, with YouTube channel that would be all (I'm not making any more of these )

You might want to sign up for one more: HootSuite (w/ the free account)

I've been following your design topics for awhile now, so I'm glad I'm now able to stalk you on twitter.

Some advice I wish I had when I started twittifying:

• Don't forget to use #hashtags, but don't over-use them (no more than two a tweet, IMO)
• Don't stupid-use hashtags for tags that don't make sense.
• Don't forget that Twitter isn't just game developers, so some tags are already taken by other industries. #indie is the indie music scene, not indie games (use #indiedev instead)
• When you reply to someone, or when you tweet to someone, if your tweet starts with the '@' character (or whitespace and then @), it's not broadcasted to all your followers unless the follow is following both you and one of the people you are @addressing. Instead, put the @username later in the tweet ("Hi, @silverlemur, etc... and stuff", or "That looks pretty cool, @silverlemur", so it's not the first character). Some people do ".@username" so a period comes first.
• Starting with an '@' doesn't make it private though. Just not broadcasted as widely. (Use DM's for private chat. However, the person must follow you before you can DM him. And be sure to follow him so he can DM back)
• At the same time, if you're just chatting back and forth with others, or addressing a specific user and aren't wanting to explicitly invite others into the conversation, starting with '@username' is a good way not to spam your followers' feeds.
• Try to tweet several times a day, if you have something worth saying. I have a suspicion that some followers use free online programs to auto-unfollow accounts that are absent for too many days in a row. That said, sometimes I gain alot of (legitimate) followers when I've been absent.
• Alot of twitter users are bots that follow you hoping for a follow back, and sometimes even tweet you in a robotic way.
• Some bots are useful though! Some bots retweet specific hashtags to help you reach a wider audience. #indiedev and #gamedev are some examples.
  However, there's a bot that likes to retweet my #gamedesign tagged tweets, and slap my avatar photograph across the tweet as well. That's dumb.
• Frequently regurgitating other content on the web can get you followers, but it annoys me so I'll stop following you. Occasionally tweeting or retweeting a cool link is fine and appreciated though.
• Tweeting hundreds of times in a day is also annoying (but again, tweets starting with '@' don't spam all your followers, so those are fine).
• Tweeting images that are embedded into the tweet instead of just a link is very eye-catching in a good way. (Hootsuite doesn't enable that unless you have a paid account, so just switch to twitter.com in a different tab for image-posting. It's no hassle)

Despite the limited space for tweets, I personally try to use proper punctuation and capitalization. Just like with text messages. People's personal preferences vary though.

I also second you starting a GD.net Journal.