Ratopia DevDiary #1 – New Challenge

Hello everyone! 

It’s Cassel, developer of <Ratropolis>

This time, I am back with DevDiary for <Ratopia>, our new project.

To be honest it’s been a year and half since we began the project….

But until now, we had to  manage <Ratropolis>, and develop the new game <Ratopia> simultaneously, 

no time for other works were spared at all. 

However, since I can focus bit more on our brand new project, I will diligently write DevDiary from now on.

So thank you for your love and interest!

On the DevDiary for a while, I’ll focus on our past development process of how we got until current point.

I would like to keep our whole process of the project, from the beginning to the end, 

so that this could be helpful to some of the other indie developers, and also for us see how we have leveled up.

Introducing <Ratopia>

To begin with, I would love to tell you what kind of game <Ratopia> is.

<Ratopia>is a sandbox city builder simulation game focused, on managing people.

Unlike <Ratropolis>, it's not a card based game, sadly

For better understanding,

Become a leader and tour the world to collect materials, and build a great city - <Minecraft>, <Terraria>, <Factorio>

Protect the citizens safe, manage them, and supply the needs of the people - <Rimworld>, <Oxygen not included>

In addition to these, we’ve added economical ideas such as: 

trade between citizens, diversity between rich and poor, and applicable taxes and related policies.

Background Ideas

When I was young, I loved playing city building simulation games.

So I dreamed that one day, I sure will create a city managing game,

But could not try it out because, I thought it was way too difficult to make.

Nostalgic games that I enjoyed playing

But last year, I was brainstorming what to make, what genre of the should we make for the next project. 

Then, <Oxygen not included> popped up within my mind.

I suggested our teammates that adding battles or defensing features on <Oxygen not included> could be a great idea for the new game.

Gladly, all the teammates agreed making such game, 

and decided to enlarge the world of <Ratropolis> to create the new simulation game.

<Oxygen Not Included> - A creative survival game, building base in the asteroid

After fixing the genre to make, we had to think about what hooking points we should make players interested.

This agony was to make a main fun element of the game. 

For example, <Oxygen not included> focused on scientific world with chemical components and aerodynamics.

The first ideas were as mentioned, battles and invasions.

Just like <Rimworld> and <Ratropolis> did; games that expansion of the ally base could bring stronger enemy invasions. 

Spreading without a caution would result catastrophe, so the players should consider it with detailed strategy.

But this is the idea that many survival games already followed, 

and we’ve realized again, the limitation of the game on 2D side view does is quite huge.

When units collide, they all mixed up and cannot be checked clearly :(

The second idea was putting vast amount of active rats in the game, with breeding system.

When we were developing <Ratropolis>, though I wanted to, but we could not really put the features of rats in real world.

So this time, I wanted to make a city overwhelmed by tremendous number of rats.

However, after some research, the reproduction ability of the rats was over my expectation. 

Even if we adjust the probabilities, this could cause massive calculation overload to the game, resulting unwelcoming experiences.

This idea had to go through so many obstacles even from the brainstorming stage, thus could not be installed, yet.

The third and also the last was concentrating bit more on economic aspects of managing the city.

This idea followed up after looking around the real world, 

seeing modern and recent issues such as gab between the rich and poor, rise of cryptocurrency, pandemic disease, etc.

These events made partial collapse of the world, resulting people to have more interest on economic matters.

Moreover, though there are many games with economical aspects, they were more focused on managing the capital strength. 

So I thought concentrating on basics of economy, such as human resources and distribution of products, 

could be an Interesting element of the game.

However, the method to make players clearly experience those was quite hard to create, 

since as mentioned, many games were focusing more on the other aspects.

Thus the goal is to overcome this challenge and make those enjoyable to play.

Flow chart of the game at the early development

Console playing consideration

As <Ratropolis> did on mobile and PC, on this project, 

we’ve decided to develop the game for both on the console and PC markets.

The reasons were that now S.Korean console market is getting a bit bigger due to the success of Nintendo Switch,

and since we always wanted to make a game run well on console platform.

But opinions on this idea were not narrowed down fluently.

The main oppositions were based on the ideas such as, 

many of the city building games were controlled mainly with keyboard and mouse, 

our inexperience on launching the game on console market, 

and many more things followed to consider on developing for both platforms than developing the game solely for PC.

Still, we agreed that let the possibilities opened up. 

So we have added playable character that could be easily controlled with gamepads, 

and modified layout of the game screen fit on both ways.

Slowly, our game was getting its specialties.

Preparations

After setting up a rough direction of the game, 

we’ve checked things to be prepared before the beginning of the development.

We’ve updated software, engines, and tools we were using to develop to the newest versions,

Organized missing points that we regret about the previous project,

Made teammates to play city building simulation games for better understanding on the genre,

Scheduled rough plan to develop the game and when to release.

By doing so, we could measure the volume of the game, and considered hiring new teammates.

We also began to use new research tools, development rules, and processes

For smooth making process, I think we did have considered many new things.

Notion

Notion is the tool that we have begun to use for this new project.

I thought it was only a simple note program to leave a memo, 

but found out that there are quite many of the companies using it as cooperation tool.

Before using it, I was worried about whether we will be able to adapt to this new program or not, 

but it was quite easy to use. Now I am really satisfied with many of its functions.

So here, I would like to share how we are using Notion for the team project.

Team/Development Rule Statement

We have written down rules to keep between members and while developing the game, using it as a manual.

For a long-term project, I realized clarifying the rules is really important. 

This could be also really helpful when the team members got changed, or outsourcing some works.

Keeping Project Proposal

Project proposals got simpler and clearer than suing ppts or word documents.

Moreover, changes are shared directly to teammates, so I could comfortably handout the newest directions.

Work product management

When paid, uploading files on Notion page becomes limitless, so we are use it like Google drive.

Thus whenever needed, we can keep the record of works and find when and what of the works are done, 

so we can easily check the data not only for development, but for writing DevDiaries like this or making an art book.

Bug report

Just as managing work products, records or screenshots of bugs could be shared simply.

Keeping References

Collecting screenshots and videos of other games for references got much easier, so we could use it when we have meetings or organizing ideas.

Simply relocatable by drag & drop

In addition to the listed above, we could embed outer programs and administrate development schedule,

and this is only what I’ve heard, but I heard that we can link the data in Notion to the game developed through Unity engine.

Yet we are not 100% fully using the function of Notion,

but I felt our efficiency greatly improved, so I really would love to suggest you try using it.

Well the diary got really long, guess it is because of there was long time no writing.

For the next diary, I’ll write how we have decided the concept of the graphic style of <Ratopia>.

Unsure how this project will be done in the end, but I believe we will do great.

Please cheer us up!