0.1 Progress and Menus

Greetings every one!

We've been hard at work here at Half Heart Games. We also had a week of great news for both Tristan and George. Tristan had graduated from his university and will soon be returning for his Masters. George on the other hand had just received a new job that he is very thrilled about.

They both worked hard to get where they are and deserve all the achievements they accomplished!

As for Fleet Calamity we've been hitting all our milestones and quickly coming up to the next part of development.
Here's what is completed:
1. Start and end turns
2. Draw cards
3. Shuffle cards
4. Implement options menu

Now we just need to:
1. Skip phases that you don't want to do
2. Complete match UI
3. Be able to enlarge a card to view it better.

Once these three tasks are complete - and they are just about done - we'll begin testing what is there and fixing any bugs. Once we feel we tested it thoroughly we'll move onto our next phase. The next on our to-do list is basically implement actual game play.

In the mean time here are a few screen shots of the game thus far. Take note that this is very early, but it is usable.

Main menu

Options menu (from main menu screen)

 Pre-game screen where you choose your deck and what opponent to play against

In game.


The in game screen looks the most empty because this is where that "Match UI" task is. We need to add things like the cards, the battle log, enemy flotilla, end phase button and the like.

To get an idea of what the GUI will look like in the game I created some examples to help point out the various GUI elements. In the images below the gui that is used in the given phase is left on the screen while all the other GUI is removed. It also retains all the base GUI such as the header, your resource pool and the skip phase section.

To begin with you'd draw your hand. This is done automatically for you so your turn will actually begin after this initial action.

Next you'll choose to warp or continue your turn. I'll be making a window that will appear, but the flotilla info will still appear to help you decide what flotilla you'd like to warp.

Thirdly you'll be able to discard cards and play cards. This will require you to use your hand and possibly any flotilla HUD.

Fourth phase is your move phase. This allows you to move any or all of your flotilla one space. You may want your flotilla HUD to help decide where to go.

Lastly there is the attack phase. This will only happen if you are in combat. If you are in combat you'll also have all this GUI displayed all the time - aside from the active Flotilla which will only display if you select it.

And of course when it is not your turn you'll still have GUI. The battle log and enemy fleet info help you know what your enemy is doing. It also allows you to react to an action your opponent may have done. You'll need your cards displayed so you can choose from them to do your reaction.





Well I hope this cleared up some of the GUI. Much of the GUI that is displayed can be hidden. The only GUI elements that can't be hidden are your resource pool (bottom left), the header (top), phase hub (bottom right) and your hand. However, if you use up your hand then you won't see any cards displayed.

Don't forget to keep checking in on our progress as we build up Fleet Calamity. Also, don't be afraid to ask questions or leave comments.

Lastly you can follow us and connect with us on Facebook and Twitter.
https://www.facebook.com/FleetCalamity/
+HalfHeartGames
 @HalfHeartGames

Building up

Hello every one!

Thanks for checking in once again on the progress of Fleet Calamity.

This post will be a short one as there still isn't much to show visually. As I mentioned last time we are working on the backbones and inner workings of the game, thus there isn't a lot of visual detail as far as game play goes.

The most recent work has been focused on implementing card functions, such as drawing cards, discarding cards and gaining resources from that. We also have been working on various menu's so we can navigate through the game properly.

Speaking of menu's here are a few images of the menu's as they are now. Keep in mind as the game progresses these may change to accommodate the any new features or functions we need. The look may change as well to ensure everything blends well together.

 

Above is the options menu, you'll be able to open this menu from just about any menu using the gear icon shown in previous images of the GUI. Here (from top to bottom) you'll be able to alter whether the game is full screen or windowed, what aspect ratio your screen is, affect the volume of music and sound effects, the sensitivity of the camera rotation, camera zoom and your mouse. Lastly you can alter the key bindings for the keyboard and mouse.

Above is the pause menu. You'll be able to open this while in game and be able to return to to the main menu, exit the game to your desktop or resume the game.


I'll be sure to inform you all as we progress with the game play and any other aspects of the game.

In the mean time we are being sure to keep in constant communication to inform each other of up coming personal obligations as well as what we've been doing on the project.

Once the back bones are finished there will be more to show, but we need to make sure the backbones are made properly so it won't make more work for us in the future. This is one of the biggest aspects of the game followed by the card implementation. By "card implementation" I mean programming all the various unique aspects of the cards. This will take a lot of time with very little to visually show, but it is a core aspect of Fleet Calamity.

Until next time feel free to follow us on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/FleetCalamity
And/or follow us on Twitter @HalfHeartGames

We're back!

Hello once again every one!

I apologize for the long period of silence and I'll be working on making sure that doesn't happen agian.

But let me catch every one up on the Fleet Calamity game and what has been happening with Half Heart Games. Some time ago the programmer I was working with started to get overwhelmed with life and work, as many of us do. Over time he couldn't help as much as he would have liked and also ran into a few road blocks, which I couldn't help with. Ultimately he decided to take a break from Fleet Calamity and eventually left the team all together.
Don't worry though, we didn't have a big fight or anything. He simply had more important things to worry about such as family, work and life as a whole. I still think he is a great guy, and I look forward to see what he does in the future.

As for Half Heart as a team and Fleet Calamity as a game I have some good news!
I put out some more feelers and wanted ads for programmers and this time I made sure I got more than just one person to help. This time I also used a great site called Teamup and through them I found some amazing people. I got a bunch of people who replied to my ad, but I eventually went with two programmers who are both very smart, fun and excited to see this project through.

This time I also wanted at least 2 programmers so I wouldn't run into some of the issues I had before with just one programmer. Now if one of them has an issue and doesn't know how to resolve it they can ask the other and talk it out. I personally don't know much -if anything- about programming so I often couldn't help with technical issues. However, now the two programmers are able to fix issues almost as soon as they crop up.

Having more people on the team, especially when they live half way across the world, requires a lot of communication to ensure we are all on the same page. To this end we often communicate on Skype nearly daily just to check up on each other and see what we all are doing, whether it is development related or just to see how we all are doing. If a big topic comes up we will then schedule a meeting at a time where we all can attend and express our opinions.
So far this set up has been working very well and we are plugging along pretty quickly. Having two people help out also makes the development process much faster.

As of right now we don't have too much to actually show as we are currently starting the programming all over from the ground up. One of the programmers is setting up all the states and ensuring everything is talking with each other while the other builds up those scenes and prepares all the cards to be used, such as the deck editor, shuffling and dealing cards.  Right now we are moving into the actual game play as all the back bones are set up and functioning.

Here is a gimps of what we have thus far.

 

Above is the temp main menu. As we move forward we'll implement more of the correct GUI and functions, but for now this allows us to navigate the game and get to what we need.

 

Above is the temp deck editor. Most of this scene is ready to go, but as you can see some of the gui elements are not positioned correctly. Again, this allows us to work with what we need to, but doesn't give us all the bells and whistles. Currently you can just move cards from the overall library and place them into your deck. You may also save decks and use them in the main game.

 

Lastly, above here is the starting of the main game. The menu before this allows the player to choose between a human or AI enemy (although AI won't be implemented for some time). It also allows you to choose your deck, name your opponent. 

Like I said there isn't much visual content to show off as much of the work thus far has been behind the scenes, including setting up the team, getting the team all on one page, organizing the assets, getting version control up and running and of course programming the base of the game.

As we continue I will show off more of the game as it is built. I'll also share all the details of how we make decisions, solve problems and what we plan on doing next.

As I move forward I will attempt to update this blog weekly or bi-weekly depending on how much actually gets done.

Until then take care every one!

Make sure to join our facebook group @ https://www.facebook.com/FleetCalamity

and on Twitter @HalfHeartGames