CITY^3 by Wizcas

[raw]
made by Wizcas for LD 41 (COMPO)

title.png

A city building simulation + 2048-like puzzle hybrid. Try to merge for larger buildings and keep resources balanced.

day2-1.gif Gameplay Video https://youtu.be/2Tp5Cp0Y1w8

Controls

  • Drag blocks into the grid and make merging patterns.
  • Left mouse button for dragging and clicking the Merge Request Orb :lol:
  • Right mouse button for orbiting the camera
  • Scrollwheel for zooming in and out

Tips

  • Resources are consumed when blocks are merged into higher level ones. They are produced by blocks.
  • Note that blocks cost resources when producing them! Lack of 'ingredients' makes blocks stop producing.

Have fun!

Pattern formulas are at the end of the thread. Check them out if you have no clue of how to make higher level blocks


POST SUBMISSION UPDATES

UPDATE 2.5 HOTFIX on 4/24/2018 0:14

A quick fix of the block placement system. The camera's pitching angle is increased to 90 degrees top-down. Every cell is visible so there is no need for any 'mouse ray penetration'.

The drag & drop feel should be much nicer now, hopefully.

UPDATE 2 on 4/23/2018 19:38

  • As I realized that most people would like to learn with the in-game process, I extented the tutorial a little bit. I hope that makes the gameplay more understandable.
  • I got feedback that it's kinda difficult to drop blocks on desired positions, as the game track mouse position as ground position(i.e. where the pointer projects on the ground along the camera direction), rather than the piled up blocks. So some extra codes are added to make the drop & drop easier:
    • When pointing to the lower half of a pile with 2 or more blocks, or to a 0-or-1-block pile, mouse position is projected as GROUND POSITION (same as before)
    • When pointing to the upper half of a pile with 2 or more blocks, blocks are placed at the pile's top.

UPDATE 1 on 4/23/2018 14:16

  • Reduced the lightmap size on MAC
  • Fixed the 'BIG ROUND CIRCLE SHADOW' problem on MAC
  • Fixed the issue that 'block stacks' may not update merging status when stacks around are merged.
  • Fixed the issue that sometimes the terrain and grids cannot be loaded properly

Available Patterns

Blocks: - A = the wooden shelter with stone grinder - B = 2-story pig pen - C = purple-wall block with green roof - D = tallest red-wall block with golden roof

Patterns below is from a top-down perspective. Multipliers means the number of certain blocks in stack.

To make B: A*3

To make C (all blocks must on the ground) ``` B-B-B

Or

B B B ```

To make D (all blocks must on the ground) C C-C-C C

There are quicker ways to make C and D. I'll leave that for you to discover

Ratings

Overall 91th 3.841⭐ 24🧑‍⚖️
Fun 172th 3.591⭐ 24🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 123th 3.773⭐ 24🧑‍⚖️
Theme 249th 3.795⭐ 24🧑‍⚖️
Graphics 101th 3.909⭐ 24🧑‍⚖️
Humor 320th 2.7⭐ 22🧑‍⚖️
Mood 197th 3.357⭐ 23🧑‍⚖️
Given 24🗳️ 22🗨️

Feedback

katie
23. Apr 2018 · 06:30 UTC
Screenshot looks amazing! Any chance of a Linux port?
🎤 Wizcas
23. Apr 2018 · 06:49 UTC
@katie Sure! I'll make a build in few hours. I don't have a Linux OS so u can give it a try and see if everything works well.

(Actually I do have a Linux as I recall...But it's on a really old laptop. I don't want it explodes for running such a 3D game. XD)
🎤 Wizcas
23. Apr 2018 · 11:47 UTC
Hi @katie ! The linux build is available now. Hope you enjoy it ;)
Alen Loeb
23. Apr 2018 · 14:27 UTC
It a great game! THe only things you should fix is object placement system, because you have to sometimes place in different places than you cursor is pointing at. Otherwise, good job!
Marchmain
23. Apr 2018 · 14:51 UTC
I really enjoyed this one, there really is a strategy to which kinds of buildings to build when/where. The constrained grid reinforces the "2048" genre, but I'd love to see this expanded with a larger world, special tiles that give bonuses, et cetera. Great job!
🎤 Wizcas
23. Apr 2018 · 15:20 UTC
@Alen Loeb Thank you for the feedback! I just made a quick fix of the placement system in UPDATE 2.5. Now everything is what they should be, hopefully.
MilkShake
23. Apr 2018 · 16:36 UTC
The game was a lot of fun! Its like a 3D 2048 + simulation game. I didn't figure out how to build the building that could generate the 4th resource though. A list of formula could help a lot.
🎤 Wizcas
23. Apr 2018 · 17:19 UTC
@MilkShake hi, I've just added the Patterns in the post.😆
GoldRanger
23. Apr 2018 · 23:58 UTC
Great job! That feeling is good when I found a new pattern.
and I found all the pattern by myself! great job to me as well!😎
🎤 Wizcas
24. Apr 2018 · 00:04 UTC
@GoldRanger oh gosh YOU ARE AMAZING! You are the first one who made it. Congrats! 🥂
rainysolar
24. Apr 2018 · 04:38 UTC
My best Score is 24716.
It's a great concept.I like the "2048" genera.
One problem is the resource system is not very clear.
I still enjoy it.

(逃
🎤 Wizcas
24. Apr 2018 · 04:50 UTC
@rainsolar Sorry for the resource system not tuned very well. I think I should've think more about how to represent the relationships and income/expense concept in a more clear way.

(追
rayriver
24. Apr 2018 · 13:24 UTC
Good concept. It's amazing that you finish a game like this in 48h.
Chao
25. Apr 2018 · 12:29 UTC
Fun game, and a very interesting take on the theme.
I dunno how optimally I played, but I managed to get 53457 as my final score.
Maybe consider adding some kind of cost to placing buildings, as currently the best strat seems to just be spam every possible building and worry about upgrades later. This seems to emphasize ability to quickly drag the buildings more than strategy. But hey, it's hard to tackle these kinds of design issues when you're madly trying to finish a project.
I also really liked the way you incorporated the Asian setting into the art. It was subtle enough to not take attention away from the game play, but at the same time helped to back up the whole city building theme.
I had a great time playing it and even went back for multiple tries to see if I could beat my scores. Well done!
🎤 Wizcas
25. Apr 2018 · 15:47 UTC
@Chao I appreciate your advice and feedback. 53457 is a rather high score indeed!I can only get myself just over 47000... :face_palm:

I did think about costing resources for placing block, though not quite figured out how to make it simple and fun in a short time. It's my first time trying these genres so I'm lack of experience. Actually I'm think about making it into a complete game, with more features like synergy between 'buildings', a complete resource economy system (including 'construction fee' for sure!), and perhaps even multiplayers support. See if I can make it :thinking:
maskinmask
26. Apr 2018 · 06:01 UTC
有意思有意思,不过我一直往上放一直往上放,直接造出了屏幕,还能放。。。
🎤 Wizcas
27. Apr 2018 · 00:09 UTC
@maskinmask 是。。。这个没来得及处理哈哈:face_palm:
🎤 Wizcas
27. Apr 2018 · 00:09 UTC
@maskinmask 是。。。这个没来得及处理哈哈:face_palm:
saoi-games
27. Apr 2018 · 06:55 UTC
I’m not sure if you were able to see it, but I played your game on my stream at https://www.twitch.tv/saoigames tonight.

I liked the concept but I wish I had a cheat sheet for what the combos were. If I hadn't worked to memorize the patterns I'm not sure I'd have been able to create the matches.

I had a real pig shortage. I am not sure how balanced the game was. It was hard to get everything lined up to make the big plus sized building. I made a mistake early on and was unable to turn the middle into a High rise, and thus my board was clogged all because I started in the corner.

Overall though it was a fun little game, with room for expansion if you'd like to add new things buildings can turn into.
JeffChen
27. Apr 2018 · 15:52 UTC
好玩好玩,感觉你真的蛮擅长做这种数值向游戏,哈哈
🎤 Wizcas
28. Apr 2018 · 08:33 UTC
@saoi-games Sorry I didn't see your comment until now. Too bad twitch is very very poorly accessible from China, so I couldn't watch your stream anyway..:( Thanks for giving so much insight and advices!

This game is not well balanced as I didn't have much time figuring out all these numbers. But I'm trying to complete the game and make the economy system better! Thanks for support! <3
🎤 Wizcas
28. Apr 2018 · 08:34 UTC
@JeffChen 谢谢谢谢~画面效果大佬我还要多向你学习哈。数值设计还很弱还需要不断实践 :worried:
Aaron Nemoyten
29. Apr 2018 · 07:06 UTC
That was fun! I did a bunch of timed runs in a row, and I really love the idea of a city builder/resource manager that has a countdown timer. It's cognitively demanding, but in a good way. I do agree that it feels a bit imbalanced, but it also might be that the resource consumption rates just aren't clear enough.
darthone
29. Apr 2018 · 23:14 UTC
Great juicy game! I think instead of clicking and dragging every piece that a keyboard shortcut would greatly increase the playability
🎤 Wizcas
30. Apr 2018 · 05:26 UTC
@darthone great idea! The dragging thing annoyed me as well and I'm trying to solve it. I'll give it a try in later dev for sure, and new mechanics may just pop out!
Relsqui
02. May 2018 · 06:40 UTC
Cute! Reminds me of Triple Town, which is also a great game. In part for that reason, I think leaning a little more into the 2048 mechanic would've helped it stand out -- actually sliding buildings around would be silly but that's kinda what appeals to me about it, haha. Looks fantastic though, and the snappy placement feels really good.
🎤 Wizcas
03. May 2018 · 03:29 UTC
@Relsqui thanks a ton for the feedback! Actually I thought about the sliding control but didn't really wanna make another 2048...I did hope players focus on building a make-believe city, which requires more effort on layout. Though I guess that part wasn't implemented or described quite well :tongue:
TheMonsterFromTheDeep
03. May 2018 · 22:40 UTC
Neat game. I managed to find both secret combinations, although I'm not quite sure what the one for D is (I just got it accidentally at the end).

I think an improvement would be to make it clear what your score is based on, so the player can put more strategy into getting a higher score.
🎤 Wizcas
04. May 2018 · 01:47 UTC
@TheMonsterFromTheDeep a score sheet is a nice idea. Thanks!
Jupiter_Hadley
07. May 2018 · 19:03 UTC
Neat game! I included it in my Ludum Dare 41 compilation video series, if you’d like to take a look. :) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XzOZLoFym_o
cristiano.m.garcia
07. May 2018 · 19:11 UTC
I loved the game, a lot of fun. I had difficulty identifying the colors. Congratulations for the game.

I left my rating of your game, if you can leave your feedback in our game, Witch's Escape.

I hope you continue with the project.

https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/41/witc
🎤 Wizcas
09. May 2018 · 11:22 UTC
Thanks @cristiano.m.garcia ! Sorry for the color issue. I should've made the building's profile more distinctable. I'm working on this project with better graphics, more features and a whole new architecture (for less bugs and better extensibility). You can follow me on [twitter](https://twitter.com/wubiFun) if you prefer :smile: