Thanks, that is a good suggestion. The basic objective "make money" is probably alright, but looking at it this way it becomes clear that there should be more objectives.
A few came to my mind:
- Customers show up with quests for the shop keeper - provide item sets at a gioven time, e.g. to equip a party for a planned raid.
- Have a sort of a museum, and collect ancient/rare/magig items to show there, just for the fame to have them, or maybe to attract more customers to the shop.
- Someone had items stolen and gives the shopkeeper a quest to retrieve the items, and track who sold them.
... maybe some more will come to my mind. But it was definitely a good idea to look at it this way.
@MedicineStorm:
The running costs are a good idea. While I hate them in real life, it's the sort of basic challenge that such a game needs. I'm sure there can be added enough variation to make it interesting. I particularly like the idea of heating. A freezing cold shop won't see many customers.
Also a good idea to restock the shop on a nightly base, and then serve customers next day from the shelves. Selecting the right items for the next day is a nice mini-game in the game.
Thieves - like the monthly rent, I hate them, but I see the game needs such. Maybe a shop also needs an assisten who keeps an eye on the waiting customers while the keeper is negotiating prices.
Shop ugrades - I like the idea, but unfortunately it also put a a sort of "end" to the game, when a player has bought all available shop extensions. But it is a good idea for sure.
@Malifer:
I like the idea that orders take a while. This allows a some strategy, but also challenges - e.g. if you order more than you currently have in copper/gold, and pray that your shop will be earning enough till the order arrives. That should be quite thrilling for some types of players.
Thanks to all, that are some quite sound suggestions :)
Many, particularly the older isometric games use pre-rendered art (or drawn), so that there are sprite sheets with the animation phases. Basically you draw or render each character in all the required poses and directions, and then just draw the correct frame on screen at a given time.
This is easy to code but ends up with fairly lareg sprite sheets.
The correct height depends on the viewing angle. Usually I don't dive into the math for that though, but chose a height that looks good, e.g. shows nice proportions.
if you have example screen like the one shown, you also have examples of good character proportions and can use them as templates for your own art.
If you are into 3D modelling, many tools like Blender or PovRay offer an orthographic camera, which you can use to render isometric views. This is the approach that I used most in the recent years.
Nice to see that the black hole comes to use! Took a while to get up with an idea how to show a black hole against a black background, but the acrretion disk does the trick.
@Arcanorum:
Thanks, that is a good suggestion. The basic objective "make money" is probably alright, but looking at it this way it becomes clear that there should be more objectives.
A few came to my mind:
- Customers show up with quests for the shop keeper - provide item sets at a gioven time, e.g. to equip a party for a planned raid.
- Have a sort of a museum, and collect ancient/rare/magig items to show there, just for the fame to have them, or maybe to attract more customers to the shop.
- Someone had items stolen and gives the shopkeeper a quest to retrieve the items, and track who sold them.
... maybe some more will come to my mind. But it was definitely a good idea to look at it this way.
@MedicineStorm:
The running costs are a good idea. While I hate them in real life, it's the sort of basic challenge that such a game needs. I'm sure there can be added enough variation to make it interesting. I particularly like the idea of heating. A freezing cold shop won't see many customers.
Also a good idea to restock the shop on a nightly base, and then serve customers next day from the shelves. Selecting the right items for the next day is a nice mini-game in the game.
Thieves - like the monthly rent, I hate them, but I see the game needs such. Maybe a shop also needs an assisten who keeps an eye on the waiting customers while the keeper is negotiating prices.
Shop ugrades - I like the idea, but unfortunately it also put a a sort of "end" to the game, when a player has bought all available shop extensions. But it is a good idea for sure.
@Malifer:
I like the idea that orders take a while. This allows a some strategy, but also challenges - e.g. if you order more than you currently have in copper/gold, and pray that your shop will be earning enough till the order arrives. That should be quite thrilling for some types of players.
Thanks to all, that are some quite sound suggestions :)
Many, particularly the older isometric games use pre-rendered art (or drawn), so that there are sprite sheets with the animation phases. Basically you draw or render each character in all the required poses and directions, and then just draw the correct frame on screen at a given time.
This is easy to code but ends up with fairly lareg sprite sheets.
The correct height depends on the viewing angle. Usually I don't dive into the math for that though, but chose a height that looks good, e.g. shows nice proportions.
if you have example screen like the one shown, you also have examples of good character proportions and can use them as templates for your own art.
If you are into 3D modelling, many tools like Blender or PovRay offer an orthographic camera, which you can use to render isometric views. This is the approach that I used most in the recent years.
Is there any hope for on-site search to be repaired?
If not, is it possible to provide a google based search by a link, that only searches this site, like Arcanorum uses to do?
I keep discovering a lot of good art, but rather randomly.
Works fine again. Thanks!
Wow, that looks awesome! Thanks for sharing the screen :) Also, good work on the glow effect!
Nice to see that the black hole comes to use! Took a while to get up with an idea how to show a black hole against a black background, but the acrretion disk does the trick.
Thank you :)
Excellent work!
Well done!
Very nice, indeed.
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