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

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 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:

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.

An image of my F1 management game coming in 2013

Grand Prix Super Manager, my ultimate goal as a bedroom coder to create an F1 management game.  Hopefully, I can finish it in the before March and want to set myself a visible deadline.

So I've made this image of my Formula one game, which I've set as my desktop to motivate myself:

I created the whole image myself (well except for the Windows, Linux and Android logos)

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:

GP Race Manager. Slowly getting to where I was previously.

As mentioned before, my full attention isn't currently on my F1 management game, so I'm only working on it a couple of hours a week, and only doing small things.

But, I'm slowly getting to the stage of development where I was the previous time I attempted to make a Formula 1 management game.  But, it's a lot easier going this time, because I still remember freshly how I did things in the previous project, so for the moment, while I haven't started programming the actual race day engine, I don't have to think HOW I'm going to program a certain feature. Also, again as mentioned before, I'm only using one programming language to program the game for Android and PC (Windows and Linux) called processing, although I do miss programming in BlitzMax, which is great for making PC games.

Anyway, today, I have implemented some buttons that allow you to resign your drivers for next year or sack him (although, they will be improved in the future).
Also, I've added the third or test driver to each team, these updates can be seen in the screenshot below, which shows the game running on an Android mobile.

Finally, I've found a couple (not many) images of Ferrari and Toyota F1 cars which are royalty free.  One is shown in the screenshot of the game running on a linux PC below:

GP Race Manager. Garage Screen

Today, in my restarted project GP Race Manager, I started to do the R&D
screen.

As shown in the screenshots below, currently you can:

• Set the budget of how much money goes into R&D
• View the quality of each part.
• Click the parts to get the designers to start trying to improve that area of the car.

Eventually I'd like to improve this screen, maybe have a graphical representation for each part and also be able to set how much resources go onto next years.


Current screen on an Android mobile phone:

Current screen on a PC running Linux:

F1 Manager Game

Don't worry I haven't given up on neither the Android or PC version.  I'm just concentrating on making small mobile games as I said in a previous post, which will hopefully increase my weekly income, so I'll have more time to develop the games this summer.

Grand Prix Race Manager (PC day 5 & Android Day 11) Update

Today, I've spent a few hours on both the PC and Android Versions of my (hopefully) up and coming Formula One Grand Prix Management game.
I've spent the day working with the championship tables, making sure they work with no problems and include drivers that are sacked / fired half way through the season.  I've also had to redo the development of new parts for the android version.



A screenshot from the current state of the PC Version:

Hopefully, soon I will have a 'current development' version for Linux and Windows PC's.  I might also let people keep upto date with an android development version.


Current Development Comparison:
Here's the current functionality of the game:
 Select team to manage (PC - YES) , (Android - YEs)
Fire and renew your drivers contracts (PC - YES) , (Android - Yes)
Sign other teams drivers (PC - YES), (Android - Yes)
Sign free drivers, (PC - YES), (Android-Yes)
View car part development ( PC - YES) ,(Android -YES)
Develop new parts, (PC- YES) , (Android- YES, more basic)
Increase engineering team (PC - No), (Android - YES)
Work out lap times depending on diver skill /car / engine, (PC - YES), (PC - YES)
Basic lap by lap race, (PC - NO), (Android - yes)
Give points depending on race result, (PC - YEs), (Android - YES)
Show updated championship tables, (PC - YES), (Android -YES)
Advance time onto next grand prix, (PC, YES), Android -YES)

F1 Race Manager PC Day 5

Ok,
Today, I've only had 2 hours to work on the PC version of the game but I've added the ability to improve parts.  You can select which parts you want to improve, and they are improved after every race depending on the amount of parts in development and the number of staff. Although, eventually, I do hope to improve the graphics of this, and have a clickable car, here is a screenshot.

GP Race Manager

Don't worry, I'm still alive.  I haven't had time to work on the PC or Android version for over a week, but today I've got back to them for an hour or two.

No real progress to report.
For the Android version, I've been editing the screen that shows the championship standings.
For the PC version, I've been playing with the order in that the screen is drawn, as this works differently on Windows and Linux, and I had some buttons semi-hidden behind labels.

F1 Manager Game (PC version) Day 3

Yesterday worked for a couple of hours on the Windows/Linux version.  A lot of that was spent testing the game on Linux and Windows, realising that the order in which the GUI components are coded really affects the layout on the Windows version, sigh!   I code in Linux, so hadn't tested it in Windows, when I did, the buttons were half visible and different parts of the GUI were overlapping other parts badly.  

Anyway, as the screenshot above shows, I've started making the race screen, and the cars are given times automatically, depending on the car  and driver ratings.

F1 Android Manager Game (day 10)

I haven't been able to get a lot done today (don't worry, I'm still very motivated!)
I was able to implement the effects of using the soft/hard/wet tyres in the race and qualifying, with the soft tyres wearing down quicker, yet giving a faster lap time. The amount of fuel goes down each lap (also affecting lap times).

I will have to change the numbers in the future, to get the right  balance as the condition of the tyres and amount of fuel doesn't affect the cars lap time enough.  I'm pleased with the differences in time between the soft, hard and wet weather tyres, such as a driver using the wet weather tyres will definitely be at the back of the field.

I also have reorganised the race screen a little bit.

Finally, I've made a start on the PC version (Windows and Linux), which I'm using Blitzmax to create.  Even though it's a different development language, converting and changing the code I've already written isn't taking too long, although I do have to rewrite every line, and coding the GUI and buttons will add some time.

Today in the PC version, I managed to get the navigation buttons working, and load and display all the drivers.   However, I'm 90% focused on the Android version, and will only do the PC version, when I only have half an hour to programme or I need a rest from the Android version.


Although, as mentioned, I have changed the layout slightly, I've also added some screenshots of the current progress of the race screen to the previous post.

Android F1 Manager Game (Day 7)

I haven't had much time again.  But, I've finally completed the drivers signing/sacking section of the game, with todays updates bringing the ability to sign drivers from other series or unsigned drivers.  I still want to improve the look, such as to sort the drivers somehow, but I'm relatively pleased.

I've also made a start on what will be the hardest part, the race screen, calculating the car's and driver's level of performance, and displaying the players two drivers stats at the bottom of the screen, as well as the top ten drivers, positions to the left of the screen.  


Finally, if I manage to get this released for Android, I'd love to make a version for Windows and Linux PC's, and I've been testing various, visual basic style GUI programming languages, such as Lazarus and Free Pascal and wxWidgets.  But, I've decided that I'll use my old favourite BlitzMax, and have started making my own gui library, so in the future I can quickly create the layout and buttons, and worry more about the game programming.

However, at this moment a PC version is just a thought, as the mobile version is hell of challenge, and I'll concentrate on that at the moment, as a PC version would have to be even more detailed, and maybe futile for a one-man team.

F1 managament Game for android, (Day 6)

For the first time, I'm starting to feel that this big project might actually be possible. But, from past experience, I know that the hardest part will be simulating the races, and that is where this project will succeed or fail. Anyway, as I said I'm feeling quite positive and today I've focused on getting a basic system for improving/developing new car parts.

The screenshot shows the new garage/factory screen so far. I've added the ability to decide on the size of the workforce, (a bigger workforce meaning that work gets done quicker and the possibility of larger improvements).

Also, a different part (as shown in the screenshot) can be selected to be improved. Improvements are shown after each race weekend.

I've also fixed a few things with signing and sacking drivers. I've added a button that allows you to re-sign a driver for next year.

Finally, I've previously been planning the game bit by bit as I've been going on, as I have been being pessimistic about the chances of finishing the game. But, with two sections (drivers and development) having their basic functionality completed, I'm being optimistic, so have started to plan all the tasks that I need to do in a spreadsheet, rating them by time/importance and difficulty. Which will help me to decide on which part of the game to focus on depending on how much time I have and how tired I am. So, if I have only 30 minutes I can pick a smaller task and complete that. I will go on adding to the spreadsheet everyday, and if I can complete the most important tasks, I can then decide which of the less important tasks I should do before releasing the game.