GPSM - Race Simulation . Overtaking & Accidents

This week, I'm finally starting to get some good work done on the race simulation part of Grand Prix Super Manager.

I've added basic overtaking to the game which, depending on many different variables, has currently has 4 outcomes ( a successful pass, an unsuccessful pass, a slight off circuit moment and a big crash). I'll eventually add more.

I've also added the possibilities of a random accident, with the probability depending on the weather, tyres, car condition, driver command, driver abilities. The current possible results are: locked tyres, a moment going off the circuit or a complete spin or crash. (Again, more will be added).

The bodywork and some parts of the car will also be damaged to a random amount after a crash.

Grand Prix Super Manager, Update

I'm back working on my F1 management game.
Unfortunately, progress has been very slow again, as I've been very busy. To be honest, I can't say when this will be finished as I don't have a lot of time to work on it, and there's a long way to go.

I've been working on the race simulation part, and mainly the overtaking, updating the car condition and the transition between the qualifying and the race.  As well as the in-race messaging system, which will provide text updates of what is happening in the race to the user (although the graphical display of the text isn't complete).

The screenshot shows a race in progress and some temporary output in the debug console.

Grand Prix Super Manager

Just a small update.

Yesterday and today, I'm back working on Grand Prix Super Manager.  

As mentioned before, I'm working on the grand prix weekend engine. 

I've implemented weather conditions, and lap times worked out from the tyre choice / condition, driver skills and car condition.

The screen below will look different in the final game, but it shows lap times, and the effects of having the wrong tyre (even though the times need to be changed). Also, I haven't implemented AI yet, for when the teams send out their drivers.

Grand Prix Hero. Follow the leader

Since the last post, I've only got back to working on my games today and have been working on Grand Prix Hero.

I've now got the computer cars to follow the checkpoints exactly, and all face the correct way!  Obviously, I'll want to make their movement feel more natural, but I'd like to work on other parts of the game first.

This is not my first time trying to make a racing game.  

The first one was in Klick & Play when I was 13 or 14, where 2 player controlled cars would race around a small circuit that fitted inside the screen.

I then 3 attempts using Blitzmax (screenshots below), although at the time my programming skills were far too low for an ambitious project like this:

An early blitzmax game (2006?).  I managed to create a level editor, but I gave-up after not being able to get the computer car movement correct.

I even did an expirement with a 3D game last year in BlitzMax.  I made the circuit myself and was quite pleased, even though the feel of the circuit (and look) felt like driving on ice.  I gave up after realising my 3D modelling and texturing skills weren't up to the job.

Grand Prix Hero. They Move!

After a weekend rest, I'm back working on my games.

Today, I've worked on Grand Prix Hero for two hours.  

The computer cars now move around the circuit, following the checkpoints, although I haven't sorted out the computer cars rotation yet.

Grand Prix Hero Progress

Grand Prix is a 2D 1960's F1 based overhead racing game that I've just started making as my secondary project, (Grand Prix Super Manager is my main project).

Yesterday, I added the grid positions to the editor and the game, and added the computer cars to the game. Although, they are not perfectly lined-up yet (as shown in the screenshots below) I'm happy with my progress.  I've also added checkpoints to the editor and game, although the computer cars don't follow them as of yet.

The game can be played at different zoom levels, although, I'm currently not sure if I'll keep them both or select one of them:

Still alive. Update. Two F1 Games

I'm still alive.

Since my last post, I hadn't done much work on any games until this last week.  I'm working on two games, Grand Prix Super Manager, which is a F1 management game for Android, PC, flash and also Grand Prix Hero a top-down 2D classic F1 racing game...


Main Project Update: Grand Prix Super Manager

I restarted (GPSM) my F1 management game last month, and have started working on it again.  To be honest, I'm not going to make any promises about when it will be finished.  All I can say is that it will be finished when it's finished. whether it takes a month or a few months.

All screens will be redesigned, and I'll be focusing on the Grand Prix weekend simulation first, as that is the part that stopped me in the past, and once that is finished, I'll just have the easier parts to do.

Here are some screenshots:

The beginnings of the Pre Race Press Screen, where you can select how much promotional work you want your drivers to do.  Hopefully this will be more interactive eventually.

The team select screen.  I'll eventually include more detail and maybe graphics and make the HRT team editable, but for now it works and is functional.

The current state of the Grand Prix weekend session screen which I'm currently focusing my efforts.  It will eventually look better, but I just want to get this monster finished first.

Second Project:  Grand Prix Hero
I'm also working on a small 1960's F1 racing game called Grand Prix Hero.  Hopefully it should be available for Android mobiles and on the internet via flash.
Right now, I have the beginnings of a basic track editor, and also in the game you can drive a car around the track.  

The current state of the game.(Graphics are temporary)

The current state of the track editor.

Zombie Rush a small game + gpsm small news

I'm nearly finished another small game, it's taken two afternoons and is called Zombie Rush.

It currently looks like this,
with 5 different zombies (including zombie Nazi) and 4 different weapons, quite fun so far:

Hopefully, It should only need one more afternoons work to finish and release it for Android and flash. I'm really enjoying using the Monkey programming language. So very happy with my investment.

As for my main project, Grand Prix Super Manager.

I've been working on the race engine, trying to be as modular as possible so I can work on a small area at a time, without it affecting the other areas of the Grand Prix weekend simulation, I've hopefully got all the sections and modules that will make up the Grand Prix weekend set-up.

I've also been playing a bit of Pole Position 2012, which has some really nice things in it, such as I like the merchandise and the driver training parts, but it really does seem like it was a half-finished game, which is quite buggy.

F1: Grand Prix Super Manager News

After a brief diversion to learn the Monkey programming language  by creating casual game Rocket Croc for Android and in Flash, I'm back to working on Grand Prix Super Manager (which I've started again in Monkey).   I've worked on it for three days, as well as creating a definite plan of what each screen in the game has and does and what features will be in the finished version.  This will help me finish the game, instead of adding new ideas all the time.

One addition to my plan is the addition of news.  Anything that happens to any of the teams will appear in the news.

The current screen (shown below) is a bit basic, but it works and updates correctly.  I'll probably change the layout later on.

GPSM and new beginnings in monkey

I made another small game to get to know monkey and see if it's right for GPSM (my Formula 1 management Game), and I really like it, it's certainly helped my code to be more organised and more modular based.

so, now I'm back to making GPSM,
One change is that I've separated the garage screen into two, so as seen in the screenshot below, there is a garage screen , where you will be able to see the condition of each of your cars, make repairs and decide whether to use a different engine or gear box.

The R&D will be for the pure development of this and next years car.

Screenshot (please excuse the terrible font and the location of the 'continue' button, I'm still not sure where to put it)

Grand Prix Super Manager: Transfering to Monkey Language

 I've decided to continue experimenting this week using the Monkey programming language in making GPSM (Grand Prix Super Manager) so I'm trying to transfer all the progress I had made in Processing to Monkey.

If the transfer is a success, Monkey will hopefull allow it to be easier to include more graphics in the game, such as flags and images of the cars and their parts.  It will also allow me to hopefully port the game to more systems (I'm currently aiming for Android / Windows / Linux and maybe flash).

I'm also changing the style of the buttons and interface, while they are still created programmatically, I prefer them over the older buttons

New v Old

Inspirational Indie Success

I've been inspired by the amount of money Grey Alien Games has made, being an indie developer, $145,000 from 3 games in 6 months.  You can read about the success here:

http://greyaliengames.com/blog/143000-from-3-casual-download-games-made-in-6-months/

I find very interesting that most of the money is from the downloadable casual PC and mac games market as opposed to the mobile market.  Which as improved my belief of trying to target both pc and mobile targets with my game.

I'm currently trying out monkey, which is a nice games programming language from the inventors of blitz3D and blitzmax which I love. It makes porting the game to different targets, such as (windows, mac, mobile targets) very easy.
So, I'll be testing it out in the next few days and consider whether to continue the development of GPSM (Grand Prix Super Manager) in that or to stick with Processing.

Now, I've got a lot of free time, so will really get back into developing GPSM and hopefully try and finish it in the next couple of months. Fingers Crossed and Start your engines....

Twitter or blog for tiny Updates?

I'm not sure whether I should continue to post on my blog for tiny updates to the Grand Prix Super Manager game or just on my twitter account:

https://twitter.com/sionco

My theory is that in a time like this, when I haven't had time to do major work on the game, I'd still like to keep the blog looking active, as this helps to attract new people and also to show anyone who is kind enough to follow the blog that I am still continuing the game.  However, I don't want to release too many blog posts which only reveal a tiny update.  Any opinions are welcome...

Anyway, I've only had 2 hours to work on the game, so I've fixed a couple of small issues today, and also added a value for the teams public reputation (as shown by the green bar on the team select screen below):

This statistic will affect things such as which sponsors and drivers are willing to talk to your team.    Your teams reputation rating will be affected by things such as your race results and championship position, breaking contracts, sponsor and marketing days, the drivers you sign and any fines. 

In the future I'd also like to introduce a media/journalism section, where the player can release stories to the press about the team, drivers, other teams, which could affect the teams reputation either way.

small update: Season results

As mentioned before, I'm still busy with my real life job, so I'm only able to work on the game for a little time each week until Christmas.  But, even though development has slowed for the mean time, it does allow me to work on and complete the little parts of the game.

Today, I've added a basic season race-by-race table to the stats screen:

One thing I need to do, is to sort the drivers who haven't scored points by the results and also add the points to this screen.

GP Super Manager home screen update

I've been playing with many different ideas for the home screen, some displaying a lot of data from the game and some more simple.  Anyway, for the time being I've decided to use the following style for the Android version (whether I'll also use this for the Windows and Linux PC version is still undecided).  The colours and theme could change in the future, but for now I'm happy with the layout.

One step back, two steps forward (hopefully)

I've was working in my real job last week, so I didn't have anytime to update the game.

But this week I'm back to work.

I've completely changed how the different screens or sections (such as drivers screen, R&D screen) are setup by making the code more modular and this has also saved a nice of bit of memory when the game runs.

The theme of the game is now easily editable so I can easily change the colours or GUI in the future, if I think they need improving.

Also, I'm now started to redo the R&D in the game. Changes and Ideas:

• There are now 9 different parts that can be improved.
• You will be able to set how much of the budget is for this years car and how much for next years.
• For both this years parts and next years, you can set how conservative or radical you want to be with design.  A conservative approach means steady progress depending on the budget and team size.  A radical approach means a bit more of a gamble, in that the new part/car may turn out to be a massive improvement or simply may just not work.
• an improvement in reliability comes with either going to test sessions or taking part in each session in a Grand Prix weekend.  So there will be more failures at the start of a season.   (I'm also considering small improvements in reliability depending on the technical facilities a team has, but this is only a maybe).

I'm still considering how to show all this data, but the current R&D screen is here (but as always, it'll probably change sometime before I 'hopefully' finish this project)

Grand Prix Super Manager

Due to the fact that it was pointed out to me that there's another game in development with similar initials to mine, I've decided to change the games name.

It will no be called Grand Prix Super Manager

In development news, I've been mostly fixing bugs and reducing the memory footprint of the game.

GP Race Manager: Lots of updates.

Wow, it's been just over a month since I restarted this, so, I thought that I'd write some a post with what has been updated since version 0.2, which was released for testing.

Hopefully, I'll have version 0.3 ready any day soon to test, once I have added the championship tables and give points at the end of each race (even though the race result, is currently decided by the total rating of the car and driver).

Major:
*GAME: Can progress through all races.
*RACE: Started the race weekend engine with temporary screen framework for setup,racing and results of each session, which can be navigated through.
*RACE: before FP/Quali the drivers best possible lap is worked out.
*EDITOR: can edit/delete/create drivers, engines.
*EDITOR: can edit teams names,engines and who're their drivers.
*GAME: Added option of 13th team to the game,not used if not selected.
*GAME: Created the start of the season database, which will store each season.

Minor:
*GUI: on team's drivers screen, now there's only 1 button (options) which brings up an options screen for that driver
*GUI: now drivers market screen displays 2 columns of drivers
*DRIVERS: Added driver potential, but a better formula could be made
*DATA: added description of variables in each data file for drivers, teams,engines,circuits.
*DATA: Upto 200 drivers.

Fixed:
*UPDATING: problem with drivers not being released when their contracts ran out.
*UPDATING: teams and drivers and contracts not being updated on a race weekend.
*GUI: Fixed problem of last driver not being displayed on driver's market.
*GUI: Fixed problem of drivers market screen not wrapping around
*GUI: backgrounds now display properly on all resolutions.
*GUI: many resolution fixes for text, graphics.


And some screenshots

Beginning of the race weekend (and yes , I know that secs and milliseconds less than 10 are being displayed as .9 instead of .09, it's on my list of minor fixes).

The current home screen:

Two columns for drivers market screen:

New Forum for F1 management games

I've created a forum to discuss F1 games (more specicifally F1 management games):

www.sionco.com/forum

The forum has been created for two reasons:

1.  To discuss Grand Prix Manager 2
2. For people who create F1 games (management or arcade) to come together and discuss their projects, share resources, etc..


Please come, sign-up, and help grow the community!

Update

For anyone who actually reads my blog, you will have noticed that I've deleted two blog posts, that's because I was going to create a small 'Track & Field' like olympics game for Android phones, but I have been busy in my real life and ran out of time.  To the right you can see the progress I got to.  I only managed to semi-complete one event (the 100m), where the player had to hit buttons on the screen as quickly as possible to run.  So this looks like it's one for the archives of failed or uncompleted games (for which I have many folders and games on my hard-drive).

So, I won't really have anytime this August to continue programming, with starting a new job, so my plans are to programme whenever I can.

I think I'll continue my top-down shooter, and maybe when I have free time create a proper design for the Grand Prix management game for Android phones.

So, in regards to sionco.com and my games development, these two months have been and will continue to be disappointing due to me having no time.  I hope that at the end of August I can really get back into things.  As, also the revenue from ads in my games has really slowed and I'm just about making enough to pay for the months food shopping.  (whereas for one month before, I had enough to pay rent, the bills and have a nice amount left over).