Completed HTML5 Games Contest
Microsoft finally announced the results of the HTML: dev: unplugged application contest with a delay of 2 and a half weeks from the initial deadlines. But almost every hour I updated the browser from May 23rd in the hope of finding out the results =) but the article is not about that ...
Our project of the browser strategy The Fate of Nation got a place among the “Honorable Mentions”. Top winners can be viewed on the competition website .
Regarding the end of the competition, I want to tell you a little about our game, the history of its creation, the features of browser games, bots, "multi-breeding" and our plans for the future.
')
The idea of ​​creating a browser game arose after I played such games, such as Travian , and I thought that there was nothing particularly difficult in creating such games - you just need to sit down and do it. Even to be a mega programmer is not necessary - single-mindedness solves a lot, if not everything. I decided that I can make the game better and more interesting than the existing analogues. In addition, Civilization was and is one of my favorite games, starting with the first version I played under IBM 486, and there was nothing more interesting for me than creating my own Civilization - my world.
I even started drawing graphics myself! But it looked awful and I spent a lot of time on it. He began to look for an artist and just met a new designer with a designer, whose abilities, as it turned out, were much wider than what he was doing in the company. As a result, despite the catastrophic shortage of time, the graphics acquired the look that can be seen today. I couldn’t dream about the best at the beginning of development, although now I’m already used to it and I want to improve a lot.
We have discussed the problem of lack of time and energy many times to complete the game alone. But all the same, they came to the conclusion that we did not want to become paper managers in the future company, but wanted to develop and create. Therefore, the idea to assemble a team of like-minded people from several programmers and designers has disappeared. Do it yourself and enjoy the process. =) And apparently not in vain, judging by the fact that they got to the competition.
They didn’t focus on HTML5, either, because it’s better than a flash; on the contrary, it doesn’t hold out to say the least. But still interesting to use something new. In addition, I know flash worse than Javascript. Now we use canvas in several places, video on the site and there are ideas to make a video reference where to show game moments in short videos. Also tried to apply Pinned Sites for IE9 Win7, but most features did not have a decent application. The only thing that is really useful is highlighting when a new message arrives.
During the creation of the game, I watched as EA , Ubisoft, and even Sid Meier himself entered the market of browser games. But I was perplexed about the fact that they created almost clones of the same Travian with their plots and graphics. Of course, I am exaggerating, but I just wanted to see the units on the map, and study the map, and they have "again twenty-five" what gamers have already seen 100 times. True, they have no bugs as much as we have and everything is improved - you will not deny this. We immediately see that they did not want to risk experimenting on the web. Created what others brings money.
Integration into the social network is planned, but for this you need to seriously interface the interface and at the same time adapt for androids. Nothing important for social networks will not change in the game. Require access to friends or else where I see no reason - we will only make convenient access and registration with one click from the social network interface. And we will recommend using our site instead of the version from the social network.
We plan to monetize or rather dream) at least to begin, but now there is only a psd file with the design of the payment page. We have not yet found investors and are not looking for much, but like everyone, we want to make money on the project.
What is the game at the moment?
At the moment we are drawing the antiquity and making an in-game mini social network for communication in the game.
The first show of the game was a couple of months ago on the forums of the civilization fans civfanatics.ru and civru.com. The people there were quite skeptical about the game in the beginning. Then a flurry of suggestions and accusations about the fact that FN only looks like Civilization, but inside Tamagotchi fell down. Yes, of course, I answered - the transition from “step-by-step” to MMORTS did not go unnoticed. As a result, several fundamental changes were made that shifted the game to peaceful development, rather than to military action, and also reduced the effect of Tamagotchi, due to which the game had to be watched every 10 minutes. And the most important thing is that the project acquired the first couple of hundreds of players and the criticism of experienced gamers.
A limit on the number of troops was introduced. Now it was tied to the population and it became much more important to develop cities than to build an army - because without developed cities you cannot build a good army. Prior to these changes, he was defeated by the one who “riveted” more troops, as in C & C strategies. After these changes, the game became like Warcraft - with the restriction of slots for the troops, which made the players go to war when they reached the limit and bound the endless construction of the troops. Now you need to think what to build on free slots of units: workers and quickly develop the infrastructure, protective troops to "clog up" and sit quietly in the city or attacking troops - to rob the neighbors and bring good to your city?
There were other changes as well, for example, the starting positions were spread out - now each player can build many cities nearby, and not 4, as before. The speed of the game was reduced, and the movement of units became much easier to play, it was immediately felt that the tension from the control of the units (tamagotchi) had subsided.
Now the most unpleasant problem is that players still have to often go into the game and put the building in the city - otherwise the production is idle and slows down the development of the player. It is necessary to make a construction queue in the city, or introduce indirect management, so that the cities themselves build what they need, as with research. And the player intervened in extreme cases when he knows exactly what he needs at the moment. In my opinion, this will be another step towards a good game, not annoying the player.
Recently, several players using bots have appeared. I wonder how they make them ?! I had to urgently write a log of all actions of the players. I saw in the log that one of the players didn’t load the card at all (doesn’t look at it) - but the units go back and forth, back and forth =) Blindly. Probably a telepath. Yes, and the speed of sending units he has 5 pieces per second! Some more suspicious ones load the map constantly in the same place. Either they are not interested in what is happening in the district, or something is not right with them.
In general, I am against bots. The game with bots turns into something incomprehensible. Want to be in the top? So you need to download or even buy a bot, figure out how it works, think about the strategy, set up the bot accordingly, think about not burning down, and so on. Players will not want to do it all - and in another way not to win - you will not make it to the top 100. I know this from Travian’s experience. There, every second bot) We plan to deal with them using captcha. We see a suspicious player, put a tick in the database. Then, people with checkmarks with these randomly issue a captcha 3 to 5 times a day - if they don’t respond, we look at its log and understand.
It is worth noting that many players do not see anything bad in the bots - they say that the bots do not violate the rules and use only those features that the engine provides. Also about “multi-breeding” - creating several accounts aimed at helping one main one. Some players believe that everyone manages to the best of his ability - if you have enough strength to control 10 accounts - then you control 10. You can agree with the latter, but only if these accounts are completely isolated, and do not merge resources and so on to just someone.
There is also a problem that some play 24 hours a day, and some only during working hours and in the evenings. This is also unfair and not humane - because you need to sleep ?! We plan to make a mandatory interface blocking for 10 hours a day in order to give everyone rest and maintain equal conditions.
Now the game has a logical ending - the one who first builds Megalith wins. For some players, it was a surprise that we restart the game every 3 weeks and it all starts over. But I think that this is the only way out when only the stone age is made, and nothing new happens after 2 weeks of play. It is also worth noting that few people are experiencing more than 2 restarts - to play the same thing is also boring. We, in turn, do not bother players with sending letters in the hope of keeping them, when we make at least antiquity we will notify registered users about this and many are sure to return to play a much more interesting and developed game than it is now.
Our project of the browser strategy The Fate of Nation got a place among the “Honorable Mentions”. Top winners can be viewed on the competition website .
Regarding the end of the competition, I want to tell you a little about our game, the history of its creation, the features of browser games, bots, "multi-breeding" and our plans for the future.
')
The idea of ​​creating a browser game arose after I played such games, such as Travian , and I thought that there was nothing particularly difficult in creating such games - you just need to sit down and do it. Even to be a mega programmer is not necessary - single-mindedness solves a lot, if not everything. I decided that I can make the game better and more interesting than the existing analogues. In addition, Civilization was and is one of my favorite games, starting with the first version I played under IBM 486, and there was nothing more interesting for me than creating my own Civilization - my world.
I even started drawing graphics myself! But it looked awful and I spent a lot of time on it. He began to look for an artist and just met a new designer with a designer, whose abilities, as it turned out, were much wider than what he was doing in the company. As a result, despite the catastrophic shortage of time, the graphics acquired the look that can be seen today. I couldn’t dream about the best at the beginning of development, although now I’m already used to it and I want to improve a lot.
We have discussed the problem of lack of time and energy many times to complete the game alone. But all the same, they came to the conclusion that we did not want to become paper managers in the future company, but wanted to develop and create. Therefore, the idea to assemble a team of like-minded people from several programmers and designers has disappeared. Do it yourself and enjoy the process. =) And apparently not in vain, judging by the fact that they got to the competition.
They didn’t focus on HTML5, either, because it’s better than a flash; on the contrary, it doesn’t hold out to say the least. But still interesting to use something new. In addition, I know flash worse than Javascript. Now we use canvas in several places, video on the site and there are ideas to make a video reference where to show game moments in short videos. Also tried to apply Pinned Sites for IE9 Win7, but most features did not have a decent application. The only thing that is really useful is highlighting when a new message arrives.
During the creation of the game, I watched as EA , Ubisoft, and even Sid Meier himself entered the market of browser games. But I was perplexed about the fact that they created almost clones of the same Travian with their plots and graphics. Of course, I am exaggerating, but I just wanted to see the units on the map, and study the map, and they have "again twenty-five" what gamers have already seen 100 times. True, they have no bugs as much as we have and everything is improved - you will not deny this. We immediately see that they did not want to risk experimenting on the web. Created what others brings money.
Integration into the social network is planned, but for this you need to seriously interface the interface and at the same time adapt for androids. Nothing important for social networks will not change in the game. Require access to friends or else where I see no reason - we will only make convenient access and registration with one click from the social network interface. And we will recommend using our site instead of the version from the social network.
We plan to monetize or rather dream) at least to begin, but now there is only a psd file with the design of the payment page. We have not yet found investors and are not looking for much, but like everyone, we want to make money on the project.
What is the game at the moment?
- - 2D map like Civilization 3. On the city map, units, resources and improvements.
- - the map is hidden, you need to go explore to see the territory as in Civ3
- - units move freely around the map
- - you can build improvements: roads, crops, mines, pens
- - you can mine strategic resources: stone, clay, horses
- - in cities you can build troops and buildings
- - buildings can accelerate population growth, accelerate the growth of cultural borders, increase the protection of the city, increase scientific output, increase the maximum number of inhabitants and the capacity of resources, increase the maximum possible number of troops and other
- - You can attack and destroy enemy units and rob cities.
- - it is possible to collect food and sometimes “production” by hunters and workers in the forests
- - in order to gain access to new types of troops and buildings, it is necessary to research technologies.
- - implemented only the stone age.
At the moment we are drawing the antiquity and making an in-game mini social network for communication in the game.
The first show of the game was a couple of months ago on the forums of the civilization fans civfanatics.ru and civru.com. The people there were quite skeptical about the game in the beginning. Then a flurry of suggestions and accusations about the fact that FN only looks like Civilization, but inside Tamagotchi fell down. Yes, of course, I answered - the transition from “step-by-step” to MMORTS did not go unnoticed. As a result, several fundamental changes were made that shifted the game to peaceful development, rather than to military action, and also reduced the effect of Tamagotchi, due to which the game had to be watched every 10 minutes. And the most important thing is that the project acquired the first couple of hundreds of players and the criticism of experienced gamers.
A limit on the number of troops was introduced. Now it was tied to the population and it became much more important to develop cities than to build an army - because without developed cities you cannot build a good army. Prior to these changes, he was defeated by the one who “riveted” more troops, as in C & C strategies. After these changes, the game became like Warcraft - with the restriction of slots for the troops, which made the players go to war when they reached the limit and bound the endless construction of the troops. Now you need to think what to build on free slots of units: workers and quickly develop the infrastructure, protective troops to "clog up" and sit quietly in the city or attacking troops - to rob the neighbors and bring good to your city?
There were other changes as well, for example, the starting positions were spread out - now each player can build many cities nearby, and not 4, as before. The speed of the game was reduced, and the movement of units became much easier to play, it was immediately felt that the tension from the control of the units (tamagotchi) had subsided.
Now the most unpleasant problem is that players still have to often go into the game and put the building in the city - otherwise the production is idle and slows down the development of the player. It is necessary to make a construction queue in the city, or introduce indirect management, so that the cities themselves build what they need, as with research. And the player intervened in extreme cases when he knows exactly what he needs at the moment. In my opinion, this will be another step towards a good game, not annoying the player.
Recently, several players using bots have appeared. I wonder how they make them ?! I had to urgently write a log of all actions of the players. I saw in the log that one of the players didn’t load the card at all (doesn’t look at it) - but the units go back and forth, back and forth =) Blindly. Probably a telepath. Yes, and the speed of sending units he has 5 pieces per second! Some more suspicious ones load the map constantly in the same place. Either they are not interested in what is happening in the district, or something is not right with them.
In general, I am against bots. The game with bots turns into something incomprehensible. Want to be in the top? So you need to download or even buy a bot, figure out how it works, think about the strategy, set up the bot accordingly, think about not burning down, and so on. Players will not want to do it all - and in another way not to win - you will not make it to the top 100. I know this from Travian’s experience. There, every second bot) We plan to deal with them using captcha. We see a suspicious player, put a tick in the database. Then, people with checkmarks with these randomly issue a captcha 3 to 5 times a day - if they don’t respond, we look at its log and understand.
It is worth noting that many players do not see anything bad in the bots - they say that the bots do not violate the rules and use only those features that the engine provides. Also about “multi-breeding” - creating several accounts aimed at helping one main one. Some players believe that everyone manages to the best of his ability - if you have enough strength to control 10 accounts - then you control 10. You can agree with the latter, but only if these accounts are completely isolated, and do not merge resources and so on to just someone.
There is also a problem that some play 24 hours a day, and some only during working hours and in the evenings. This is also unfair and not humane - because you need to sleep ?! We plan to make a mandatory interface blocking for 10 hours a day in order to give everyone rest and maintain equal conditions.
Now the game has a logical ending - the one who first builds Megalith wins. For some players, it was a surprise that we restart the game every 3 weeks and it all starts over. But I think that this is the only way out when only the stone age is made, and nothing new happens after 2 weeks of play. It is also worth noting that few people are experiencing more than 2 restarts - to play the same thing is also boring. We, in turn, do not bother players with sending letters in the hope of keeping them, when we make at least antiquity we will notify registered users about this and many are sure to return to play a much more interesting and developed game than it is now.
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/119840/
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