Game Mechanics

#17 Q1 Updates

 
 

SECRET

DigiMastered Works LLC

Office of Development

DMW107IB1017

Date 04/29/2023 6:00 PM

THIS IS FINALIZED INTELLIGENCE

 

To: The People
From: Tanner Fry
Subject: Q1 Updates

 

AI Systems

    Welcome readers. Latest updates on development pertain to 4 major categories. AI systems, the quick action popup wheel, researching different technologies, and a game world mechanic that many of you are probably familiar with; fog of war.

#14 Agent Actions

 

SECRET

DigiMastered Works LLC

Office of Development

DMW107IB1014

Date 09/04/2022 12:00 PM

THIS IS FINALIZED INTELLIGENCE

 

To: The People
From: Tanner Fry
Subject: Agent Actions

 

Operation Actions

    In the quest for improvement and the need for additions, operations have had a few changes. As talked about in our previous article, actions are a large part of any stage within an operation. Actions, currently, are the only way to make strategic and tactical decisions on a grand scale. If you've been following this developer blog, you'll know that we've talked about how operations allow players to assign actions to agents within their agency. Through creating different stages within an operation a player can strategically segment different actions for different needs. 

#11 Progress is of the Essence

 

SECRET

DigiMastered Works LLC

Office of Development

DMW107IB1011

Date 05/31/2022 11:02 PM

THIS IS FINALIZED INTELLIGENCE

 

To: The People
From: Tanner Fry
Subject: Progress is of the Essence

 

Director's Operation Board

    Fantastic developments have occurred regarding the Director's operation board with more to come next month! The purpose of the operation board is to allow you, the Director, to create operations for your agency. These operations will play a vital role in helping you keep track of what's going on and what you'd like to take action on.

#10 Advancing the Agency

 

SECRET

DigiMastered Works LLC

Office of Development

DMW107IB1010

Date 04/30/2022 11:22 PM

THIS IS FINALIZED INTELLIGENCE

 

To: The People
From: Tanner Fry
Subject: Advancing the Agency

 

Building Construction

    This month's edition of updates will include agency building construction, agency research, music, and additional sounds. We've previously talked about enhanced lighting, how details can be added to buildings through it, building selection and information, agent's entering and exiting buildings, and more. Today, we will be talking about utilizing buildings to enhance your agency.

#9 Pathfinding

 

SECRET

DigiMastered Works LLC

Office of Development

DMW107IB1009

Date 03/20/2022 11:29 AM

THIS IS FINALIZED INTELLIGENCE

 

To: The People
From: Tanner Fry
Subject: Pathfinding

 

Route Finding and Optimization

    A Director's agents will be using A* pathfinding algorithm in order to move from their current location to a new location. Things to consider when implementing pathfinding into a game are the size of the game, the entities using the algorithm, and other objects as that can change how A* should be implemented. We implemented A* pathfinding with a small 16x16 grid that is placed around an agent. When an agent is told to move to a location within the agent's grid, a path is calculated from the current location to a new location.

#8 Lighting the Path

 

SECRET

DigiMastered Works LLC

Office of Development

DMW107IB7008

Date 02/22/2022 08:48 PM

THIS IS FINALIZED INTELLIGENCE

 

To: The People
From: Tanner Fry
Subject: Lighting the Path

 

Complex Lighting With Normal Maps

    In our last article we talked about adding "Dynamic Shadows" for clouds. Today we will talk about dynamic lights and how the implementation works. With Unity, lighting and shading from lights can be introduced in many different ways but how we created it within a 2D space was through normal maps. Normal mapping is a texture mapping technique used for faking the lighting of bumps and dents and is an implementation of bump mapping. Many developers use normal mapping to add details without having to use more polygons for a given model. This increases detail without the performance hit from the extra polygons.

#7 Dash of Love

 

SECRET

DigiMastered Works LLC

Office of Development

DMW107IB7007

Date 01/26/2022 09:58 PM

THIS IS FINALIZED INTELLIGENCE

 

To: The People
From: Tanner Fry
Subject: Dash of Love

 

Dynamic Cloud Shadows, Not Really

    Shadows are nice to have. Even in a 2D game the sense of depth is important. So, I've implemented "dynamic shadows" for my clouds in order to create a more realistic effect. However, it's very basic in its approach. There is no light source that is used to calculate where the shadow should be. Instead, cloud shadow placement is based on game clock time. Again, not really dynamic shadows, just some simple math to make them "dynamic" based on the time of day. 

#6 Director/Agent Structure

 

SECRET

DigiMastered Works LLC

Office of Development

DMW107IB7006

Date 12/20/2021 05:29 PM

THIS IS FINALIZED INTELLIGENCE

 

To: The People
From: Tanner Fry
Subject: Director/Agent Structure

 

Director Design

    The holidays hit different and that shows in the progress of the game. So... The Director. A fundamental person and component of AIA. Head honcho and the lead architect of operations for the intelligence agency, the Director is an extension of yourself while playing AIA.

#4 UI and Game Mechanics

 

SECRET

DigiMastered Works LLC

Office of Development

DMW107IB7004

Date 10/10/2021 08:34PM

THIS IS FINALIZED INTELLIGENCE

 

To: The People
From: Tanner Fry
Subject: UI and Game Mechanics

 

UI Enhancements

    As mentioned in the our second dev update, the UI has received a major overhaul from a 1940s WWII color scheme to a more modern day design. It was very much needed in order to fit the general theme of the game, which we haven't really talked about yet. The new theme brings together a dark contrast from the in-game scenery, buildings, and map design while also allowing for a minimalist design.