New Game: (WIP) Make Like A Tree and Leaf

Game Ideas
#1

Hello All! I just want to introduce myself and kind of come out of the shadows a bit. I participated in the second Kickstarter, and I’m super excited to receive my Blinks in September! :crossed_fingers: In the meantime, I’m working on a game idea. I hope to have it mostly done by the time I receive my Blinks. I considered waiting to share my idea until I was done with it, but I’m just too pumped up about it. :blush:

I was curious what people’s thoughts are on a static play setup with a set number of Blinks for this very dynamic platform. Bad idea? Intrigued? Let me know! Rough details are in the readme. :grin: I would greatly appreciate any / all feedback!

Thanks,
~Alfred

4 Likes
Welcome New Members!
#2

Welcome to the forums! Make sure you stop by the New Member thread and introduce yourself to everyone :slight_smile:

Liking the sound of your concept so far! It sounds like you’re aiming for this to be more of a cooperative game. Do you have an idea for a “Win Condition”? Or will it be mostly about keeping the trees alive as long as you can before they die? I’d be glad to playlets this for you but I’m currently only rolling with 6 blinks… Hopefully someone else on the forums can give it a try!

On a side note, there is someone on the forums exploring a similar concept, though it’s less of a game and more like a simulation (Terrarium). Might be worth taking a look at!

3 Likes
#3

These are some great questions. The closest idea I have for a win condition is that the team who can keep their half of the tree alive the longest wins. I like the idea of being cooperative to keep the whole tree alive, though! Maybe there can be two play modes? Thanks for the offer to play test, but right now the idea is for 18 Blinks. I don’t know how my game could work with 6, but I might explore that eventually. :slight_smile:

Terrarium looks amazing and intimidating from a coding perspective! Wow! I’ll keep my eye on it for sure.

Thanks for the warm welcome!

1 Like
#4

Welcome Alfred! It’s always exciting to have another developer join the community. I think your game idea is pretty cool! While there are some theming similarities with Terrarium, I think that the scope and gameplay mechanics of your game will definitely help to differentiate the two.

One aspect that I think has a lot of potential is the multi-phased gameplay with a “planning/setup” phase involving the trunk and the “gameplay” phase involving the leaves. It would be awesome if you could find ways to make trunk design/layout materially affect the gameplay portion. That way players can make tactical decisions during the setup phase that might give them advantages/disadvantages during the game phase and allow for different strategies.

Another idea would be to give the game a sort of tug of war mechanic. If one side let’s enough leaves die they loose a branch piece and the other team connects it to their side to sprout a new branch. Eventually one side will completely die out and the other side will be flourishing.

Feel free to use or discard any of these ideas as you see fit. It’s your game, so the important thing is that it meets the vision that you have for it. Best of luck in your development, and I look forward to seeing how your game grows going forward.

2 Likes
#5

Love the idea. I’m always into gameplay involving plants :slight_smile:

Before visiting your github page and reading the README I was trying to envision what a competitive tree growing game might look like.

My first thought was for 2 or 3 players, or 2-3 teams. There would be a central “soil” tile and each team would place one tile as an initial trunk sprouting off of that towards them. For 2 players/teams they would be placed on opposite sides of the soil. For 3 players/teams they would be evenly spaced around the soil.

Gameplay proceeds from there to grow your tree. Having everyone connected to the same constellation of tiles makes win conditions easier and allows for one team to directly impact another team.

The downside is that you are growing your tree towards yourself, which is totally upside down relative to what you’d expect. So maybe not the best idea!

Can’t wait to see what you come up with.

[EDIT] Also, the plant growing algorithm in Terrarium is somewhat simplified in order to conserve code and data space. I’m excited to see what a game dedicated to the idea might add gameplay-wise.

1 Like
#6

Thanks for the feedback everyone. :smile: I’m starting to hit a wall as to what I can simulate in my brain based on what I’ve coded. I’ll need to have my blinks in hand before I can do more of the timing and complex stuff.

Question if anyone is reading this: How quickly does a handshake occur between two blinks for the following scenario?

  1. Press Blink
  2. Send message
  3. Read message
  4. Send ACK
  5. Receive ACK
  6. Stop sending message

Let’s say I have a different color for each step 2-5 and off for steps 1 and 6. Would it be imperceptibly fast? My gut says I need to artificially slow it down, but I won’t know unless I see it or if someone can tell me. TIA!