Watsup! It's me Cassel, the lead developer of Ratropolis.
So I'm going to introduce 2 new units.
The Lunar New Year is already starting next week. I wish you all good health and good luck.
I hope I can make my parents proud at the family dinner.
More work to do!
Anyway, let's write down the elements we have developed.
Ratropolis has 25 different buildings that can be constructed.
In the alpha testing days, these buildings were more like sim city, decorating and developing the city.
Focusing on the real-time defense, urban development has been neglected.
Urban development factors include territorial expansion, building construction, and building upgrade.
Such building upgrade has not been implemented in the game yet.
So this time, I developed a system to reinforce a built building.
- Building Expansion(Reinforcement) -
Building expansion is a system that increases the effectiveness of a building by using the same building card.
Space is needed to build a building, but if you build on top of an existing building, you can save space.
Less area to cover means better defense as well.
< One plus one is? >
The stats that are increased by expansion are simply added to the stats of the card.
It is not necessary to display the changed value.
.In other words, the result is the same whether you share multiple building cards or add one building.
So at first glance it looks like there are only space saving benefits,
There are a variety of cards that interact with the building, so taking advantage of them gives you additional benefits.
< Use work(8), warehouse(40) card for a maximum synergy. Save time and money. >
But there was a problem with the expansion.
All buildings including defensive wall were designed to be expanded to three levels.
Pre-tests have identified the following issues:
1. Play style in Fixed Spot (starting point)
After building using up all the spaces in the initial spot,
You need to use defensive wall card to expand space.
However, as expansion was added, the expansion timing was delayed due to the heavy use of space.
The need to move the screen has been reduced, and the vast areas created for expansion have been abandoned.
No one cared about expanding territory, and this made game monotonous.
< We don't have to go outside the tree shade to take the risk>
2. Limited building card selection
As expansion is made possible, users tend to select building card based on what they have already built.
Of course, this gameplay system was intended for players to reinforce the building.
It was not intended to avoid choosing a building card that was not yet built.
Even in the Late game, only three or four of the 25 building cards were used.
I didn't want players to feel stuck in play as they re-roll for a specific card.
< Hesitant to choose a building card that has not been built yet >
3. Inefficient use of resources
It is not intuitive to change only the numerical value, and leave the appearance when expanding.
By changing the appearance of the building, the user can easily recognize the reinforced building.
In later game, we designed it so that users can see an overview of the city.
Therefore, two additional image resources are needed for each building to show an overview, small and regular sizes.
We already have additional image resources due to three level expansions.
Also, Level 3 expansions require a lot of luck.
It was premature to invest so much development resources to images.
< Process of creating expansion images of farm building>
Due to these problems, we thought about eliminating the expansion system.
Instead, we decided to limit the system after reducing the expansion to only 2 levels.
Due to the high performance of outcome,
We changed expansion to be available only in certain conditions.
- Builder leader –
At Ratropolis there is a player character called the "leader."
Leaders are chosen at the start of the game, each with a different personality and play concept.
The ability in the game, the skills used during the game, and the initial card configuration are different.
Among them, the Builder leader is the leader who uses various building cards to solve the game.
< Leader selection screen>
The passive skill of the architect was that the buildings they built increased the maximum population.
However, this was less attractive than the newly added expansion system
So what if we replaced it with an expansion system?
Could it be an attractive leader with a different play-style?
So, the extension system is a new passive skill for the architect's leader.
In addition, in order to use the expansion system properly, tons of building cards must be supplied.
Resolved a card supply issue by enabling the ability to obtain random building cards.
Building cards from abilities can be removed when not in use
Guided the player to choose whether to build a randomly acquired building card or give up selection.
After playing it a few times, it became my favorite leader.
We went through a lot of trial and error,
Fortunately, a good solution was found, and I'm happy with the result.
Next, we are planning to develop bonus elements such as artifacts from 'Slay the Spire' and items from 'The Binding of Isaac'.
I hope you have a happy holiday~ Squeak!
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CasselGames/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/CasselGames
Watsup! It's me Cassel, the lead developer of Ratropolis.
So I'm going to introduce 2 new units.
The Lunar New Year is already starting next week. I wish you all good health and good luck.
I hope I can make my parents proud at the family dinner.
More work to do!
Anyway, let's write down the elements we have developed.
Ratropolis has 25 different buildings that can be constructed.
In the alpha testing days, these buildings were more like sim city, decorating and developing the city.
Focusing on the real-time defense, urban development has been neglected.
Urban development factors include territorial expansion, building construction, and building upgrade.
Such building upgrade has not been implemented in the game yet.
So this time, I developed a system to reinforce a built building.
- Building Expansion(Reinforcement) -
Building expansion is a system that increases the effectiveness of a building by using the same building card.
Space is needed to build a building, but if you build on top of an existing building, you can save space.
Less area to cover means better defense as well.
< One plus one is? >
The stats that are increased by expansion are simply added to the stats of the card.
It is not necessary to display the changed value.
.In other words, the result is the same whether you share multiple building cards or add one building.
So at first glance it looks like there are only space saving benefits,
There are a variety of cards that interact with the building, so taking advantage of them gives you additional benefits.
< Use work(8), warehouse(40) card for a maximum synergy. Save time and money. >
But there was a problem with the expansion.
All buildings including defensive wall were designed to be expanded to three levels.
Pre-tests have identified the following issues:
1. Play style in Fixed Spot (starting point)
After building using up all the spaces in the initial spot,
You need to use defensive wall card to expand space.
However, as expansion was added, the expansion timing was delayed due to the heavy use of space.
The need to move the screen has been reduced, and the vast areas created for expansion have been abandoned.
No one cared about expanding territory, and this made game monotonous.
< We don't have to go outside the tree shade to take the risk>
2. Limited building card selection
As expansion is made possible, users tend to select building card based on what they have already built.
Of course, this gameplay system was intended for players to reinforce the building.
It was not intended to avoid choosing a building card that was not yet built.
Even in the Late game, only three or four of the 25 building cards were used.
I didn't want players to feel stuck in play as they re-roll for a specific card.
< Hesitant to choose a building card that has not been built yet >
3. Inefficient use of resources
It is not intuitive to change only the numerical value, and leave the appearance when expanding.
By changing the appearance of the building, the user can easily recognize the reinforced building.
In later game, we designed it so that users can see an overview of the city.
Therefore, two additional image resources are needed for each building to show an overview, small and regular sizes.
We already have additional image resources due to three level expansions.
Also, Level 3 expansions require a lot of luck.
It was premature to invest so much development resources to images.
< Process of creating expansion images of farm building>
Due to these problems, we thought about eliminating the expansion system.
Instead, we decided to limit the system after reducing the expansion to only 2 levels.
Due to the high performance of outcome,
We changed expansion to be available only in certain conditions.
- Builder leader –
At Ratropolis there is a player character called the "leader."
Leaders are chosen at the start of the game, each with a different personality and play concept.
The ability in the game, the skills used during the game, and the initial card configuration are different.
Among them, the Builder leader is the leader who uses various building cards to solve the game.
< Leader selection screen>
The passive skill of the architect was that the buildings they built increased the maximum population.
However, this was less attractive than the newly added expansion system
So what if we replaced it with an expansion system?
Could it be an attractive leader with a different play-style?
So, the extension system is a new passive skill for the architect's leader.
In addition, in order to use the expansion system properly, tons of building cards must be supplied.
Resolved a card supply issue by enabling the ability to obtain random building cards.
Building cards from abilities can be removed when not in use
Guided the player to choose whether to build a randomly acquired building card or give up selection.
After playing it a few times, it became my favorite leader.
We went through a lot of trial and error,
Fortunately, a good solution was found, and I'm happy with the result.
Next, we are planning to develop bonus elements such as artifacts from 'Slay the Spire' and items from 'The Binding of Isaac'.
I hope you have a happy holiday~ Squeak!
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CasselGames/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/CasselGames