With "beginners" I didn't mean total noobs. Of course it is impossible to make advanced code accessible to everyone. I'd focus more on the advanced users if I had to choose. Consider the fact that there are tons of beginner tutorials out there but it is hard to find something suitable for the beginner wanting to become a pro. There are to less advanced courses with easy to read code. I'd call it a gap in the market and I'd not dumb it down to fit everyones needs. Everybody asks for basic beginner solutions but there are more than enough answers to these questions. What people really want are the tricks and knacks of the pros to make there code more efficient.

A good idea! It will help newcomers and advanced users as well. Metroidvanias are becoming more and more popular. I think you will hit the nail on the head with this. I'm also interested in the pricing range.

Congratulations!

Text objects? Really? I wasn't aware of this! This information will help me a lot. Thanks for pointing that out!

Yeah, treated individually those buildings only store a comprehensible number of variables that influence the game. But they also influence each other which makes the whole thing quite complex. You will have to work out functional statistics on economy and population growth: How much people need how much food, water, dishes, marble, weapons, etc.... How fast will what commodity be consumed. How much tax payers' money do you need to keep the whole city going and how much have your people to earn to pay it. It is hard to make a game that is fun to play out of all of these variables!

So, I would start like the game itself started: A empty map with the possibility to create roads and basic houses. Then I'd toss in some people based on the population growth variable which depends on the free houses - from now on population growth increases very slowly. Also when there are no more houses available - which forces the player to build more. One important aspect of those games was the fact that it forced you to plan ahead and keep going with the city since there was never a point of stasis.

The people should have basic needs: Water, Food, Jobs. I'd skip the risk of fire for a later state of development. I'd use counters for the needs. It always counts backwards until you build something to stop it. For example it counts backwards on the water variable until you build a well. I'd use instance variables for every house. You will need it to restrict the movement of the inhabitants to a certain area.

Hence the player must be able to build the basic structures: Wells and farms. The people will work on the farms, earn money and pay taxes. Now you have a working cycle: The player receives new money which he can spend for possibilities to get more money and so on. But it has to work! I'd experiment with these basic settings until it is balanced enough. You will also have to restrict the movement of the inhabitants of one house to the area around that house. This should be easy since you tell the Computer to use only the variables provided by the tiles near the house for that house.

Now I'd give the inhabitants the option of public unrest and to leave the city if it doesn't fit their needs. I'd experiment again until it works fine. Then I'd work on the more complex themes.

Say, what culture do you want to depict?

The first article discusses classic, unjustly forgotten game genres, the second one rare new concepts.

http://gamedevelopment.tutsplus.com/art ... -cms-23172

http://gamedevelopment.tutsplus.com/art ... -cms-23171

I found them quite inspiring. I learned also about some games I wasn't aware of.

What do you think of these concepts? What genres should be explored more? What abandoned?

I think there are always possibilities to get out more of the tactical genres like the real time tactics and the new heist genre. There should be more of these - especially with non-violent, clever ways to solve the missions. I also miss good flight simulations like my all time favorite Pilotwings 64.

And I will avoid railshooters like the plague! They are as bad as quick time events.

So, what is your opinion?

sizcoz Thank you very much for the capx! Concise and easy to read. I can't think of a better solution for this kind of problem.

Yeah, looks like cola! Makes me thirsty. This could be useful for every ocean/beach fun themed game. The gold one looks also very good. You got talent.

Hi, you mean the Impressions Games/ Sierra Classic? Wow, seems to be a real challenge! Do you have experience in game programming, because for a first project this can become quite confusing.

Hi, I have played your demo. Here is my opinion:

The graphics are an eye catcher and I liked the story very much. The whole concept gives a quirky, lively impression. For this early stage of development not bad.

But the gameplay - so far - is to sloppy. Is there a possibility to reload my skills? I was unable to kill off the big pixs because I was soon out of ammo.

I would also put a description of the game objectives into the demo itself.

— Did you know that they made a remake 2013 called Speedball 2 Evolution? Link here:

http://www.vividgames.com/games/game_de ... hp?gid=576

It seems to be an exact copy of the classic game but it wasn't received to well since it had no online multiplayer mode and the AI wasn't improved.

http://www.mobygames.com/game/windows/s ... d/mobyrank

On the other hand: Classic games are often more fun to play. The game objectives are more creative and the gameplay is often better developed. In modern games one has often either to many possibilities like to many options - upgrades, downgrades, enemy types, enemy options, tech tree options, etc. - or you the whole thing is repetitive and dull with tedious game mechanics. I'd prefer a good remake to a new game.

— I haven't played the original but I just watched a gameplay vid on youtube. Looked fun to play! A remake with the opportunities modern physics offer would be great. I will play it!