Pollitica Blog
The official blog of the Pollitica
New start
Prologue
"Have to admit it has been one of the my longest dreams, to make this game." - ZeroGravity
Now I finally have time, enthusiasm and everything to make it happen. Most of all I have determination. I know it's not going to be easy, but I must try, otherwise I will regret it later in my life. I already regret that it has taken so long. This will be my only rant about the not doing it and doing it. Rest will be progress about the game and things in the game.
My current apporoach is console style, but final game I will be most likely be decorated with graphics. This will be done with Unity or something similar. I am not sure about the Unity, due this game is 2D game and Unity offers very little for extras to other libraries, and will contain burden of paying licences. The only thing is that I am very familiar with Unity. We will see...
Game language is C#, the language which I have learned to like.
So far ...
I have worked few iterations and now working on N:th iteration. Progress has been good, yet its hard to show what game is all about, when there is very little visible.
"Today I met my significant other, Susan. After one year, we got married. Now we have small apartment at town and one kid, a boy, called Roy. When I am not working at local pub, I spend my time with my hobby, hunting. I think my life is pretty good." - Robert B. Foster
These person images will be part of the game. So graphics will be retro looking graphics, two reasons: first, I cannot make any better, and two, I happen to like the style, and they in my opinion suit for the game (maybe that is three, I don't know).
Note: these person images are not originally created by me, but taken from there: http://opengameart.org/content/political-advisors (license cc0). I have created new characters based on those, but also preserved many old ones.
So currently what is working, countries are created ok (but lot of ideas are just stubs), map is somewhat ok, persons are created, they work, sleep, do other things, reproduce (if possible). The game part is still far from it, but I do have the idea how everything should be put together. There is lot to do!
New day
More explanation
Nobody ever did, or ever will, escape the consequences of his choices. (1)
"I died to lung cancer at age 52. It was due my bad habit, smoking. I tell you, if I could decide now, I wouldn't have started. My death left my wife and two kids mourning.
Sally, my daughter, started rebelling, and later joined to street gang. I think if I would have been there, that would not happened." - Francis D. Barnes
Towns hold the most of the interesting things in the game. They have the locations where people can reside, while people can also reside on rural. Town is divided in 9 town areas, which hold the locations. It is something like this:
The picture is made with mockup tool called Balsamiq. Very handy and very easy, fast to use. (2)
This is not what game will be looking for, its more picture to readers to understand how things are organized.
I have also made language resource so that I (or anyone else) can translate game to any language needed. This game contains lot of text and I think most people like to use their mother tongue, if possible.
1) Alfred A. Montapert
2) Balsamic has nothing to do with this game and is trademark of Balsamiq Studios, LCC. See more at balsamiq.com.
Gangsters
Extortion
All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing. (1)
"I am housewife, I got two sons and man who is working at local pub. I have nothing to do at daytime, I just keep raising our two sons. I don't even have money other than what my husband gives to me for food. I need purpose for my life." - Laura K. Robinson
Here is a picture what is simulated at the moment; people and local shops of the town. People go to work there and they get paid, they got money. They eat, they sleep, they have sex, and few other things.
The pairing of the people is still random. With small changes it could be more interesting, but I leave it for time being.
I can see that this guy, Roy, is not yet married with Laura, as her family name would have changed if that would have happened. Also I think married couple should have common bank account, so then this woman who was homemaker (housewife) could also have money on her purse.
However, today I am going to work with gangster groups. They are not the "main thing" in this game, but I want to simulate them to certain level. They extort the neighbourhood and do other illegal stuff. You can also play one of the gangster group member character.
Help, call cops!
Cops and Food
"I wake up. Do nothing, then eat, then do nothing again, beg money for food from my husband, eat, do nothing. If I am lucky, its the day I do my hobby, acting. That gives me lots of pleasure. My life is dull, I need purpose for my life. Maybe I should go to work." - Amy D. Sanders
Okay, when there is gangsters and criminals, we need also police. Well, criminals dont do anything yet, any of criminal actions are not implemented, so in gamewise we dont need cops, but someday we will need. I was going to implement cops, but I need to fall back to basics. People need food, and food system needs to be revised. Also people have rental homes, and those need to be handled.
To be honest, I dont know if I am getting too detail in this game, but time will tell. Now food has meaning, you need to get food from somewhere, and then cosume it. Using too old food you might get food poisoning etc. Its still unfinished, as spouses dont work (at the moment) and they need to beg money from spouse for food. Also kids needs money from parent for food. And after all this all food thing, I dont think that players want to spend their time for getting food from market and then eating it. I am trying to simplify things. So I am thinking that players can somehow bypass this when wanted. Also these people sleep, players probably dont want to spend their time to "sleep".