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AppGameKit/AppGameKit Studio Showcase / [WIP] Diversion [Win/Android]

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Ched80
14
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Joined: 18th Sep 2010
Location: Peterborough, UK
Posted: 26th Jun 2014 00:35 Edited at: 22nd Aug 2014 17:47




Diversion is a turn based, tile placing strategy game about bad traffic management.



Four players compete to route as many roads and drive as many cars to their side of the board.

Available on Google Play now!

Features
Multiplayer - the game will be able to host up to four players, on separate devices, over a LAN.

High-score - the game will include a local and global high-score table.


Expansion packs
I also intent to include expansion packs, such as road-works, traffic lights, bigger play areas, etc. will be available for purchase through the game.

Here are some WIP screenies.







The game is built in AppGameKit v108 Tier 1.

Change log:
6 [2014.08.20]
3 expansion packs added:
i - enables Traffic Lights to be placed on junctions.
ii - enables road works to block junctions.
iii - enables the map size to be customised up to 15x15.
added ability to spend points to switch off adverts for 24 hrs.
added flag to stop tutorial text appearing every game.
many bugs fixed.

5 [2014.07.27]
made direction arrows bigger.
added small tutorial text.
fixed Facebook name not being used by game.
fixed bug when no cars are possible.
changed player scoring images.
added credits.
prevented blank names.
added win ratio.
added Facebook Post to Wall with achievements.

4 [2014.07.21]
fixed Facebook login
adjusted how AI place tiles
fixed diversion tile not working at edge of map
made scoring cars change to the correct direction
changed how arrows are shown

3 [2014.07.19]
changed start tile graphic
added prompt at the start of the active player's turn
added player name
added alternative adverts
fixed multiplayer bug with AI players
start of settings menu added
added method to record user stats

2 [2014.07.15]
fixed how AI see diversions
improved car interaction
fixed multiplayer bug with starting tile
fixed moving cars onto brown tiles
changed how cars are scored.

Matty H
16
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Joined: 7th Oct 2008
Location: England
Posted: 26th Jun 2014 12:25
This looks really interesting, has anything like this been done before to your knowledge? If not then I like the way you think, great idea

baxslash
Valued Member
Bronze Codemaster
17
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Joined: 26th Dec 2006
Location: Duffield
Posted: 26th Jun 2014 17:52
I'd really like to play a game like this. Totally my kind of game. Like the gfx too
Ched80
14
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Joined: 18th Sep 2010
Location: Peterborough, UK
Posted: 26th Jun 2014 18:12
Cheers Matty,

I'm not sure if this exact game has been done before, but tile placing strategy games have been around for a while in board games such as Carcassonne or Turbulence.

I tested Diversion as a board game before I started coding so I could see if the the mechanics worked or not.

Cheers bax! I'm still not overly convinced with my pixel art - and I have re-drawn the elements 3 times now

Anyway, here is a short video of a typical game.



Ched80
14
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Joined: 18th Sep 2010
Location: Peterborough, UK
Posted: 17th Jul 2014 23:20
Diversion is now available on Google Play.

There are some improvements still to come, but the basic game works so I'm happy to release it.

The expansion packs will come a bit later after i've finished tweaking the main game.

Anyway, if you can - give it a try and let me know what you think.

Ched80
14
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Joined: 18th Sep 2010
Location: Peterborough, UK
Posted: 3rd Aug 2014 16:55
I've made some improvements since the initial release. The majority of changes have been minor tweaks here and there, but the main changes have been:

Changing how cars are scored. Originally a car was scored when it reached your side of the map, but the car would sit there for the rest of the game. Now if a car is on a winning road at the start of your turn, you score 1 car point and the car is removed from the map.

The game also records all the car and road points you score. At the moment they don't mean anything, but in the near future you will be able to spend these points to trial an expansion pack for 24 hours. In the future you will be able to purchase the expansion for an unlimited duration via IAP.

Full change log:
5 [2014.07.27]
made direction arrows bigger.
added small tutorial text.
fixed Facebook name not being used by game.
fixed bug when no cars are possible.
changed player scoring images.
added credits.
prevented blank names.
added win ratio.
added Facebook Post to Wall with achievements.

4 [2014.07.21]
fixed Facebook login
adjusted how AI place tiles
fixed diversion tile not working at edge of map
made scoring cars change to the correct direction
changed how arrows are shown

3 [2014.07.19]
changed start tile graphic
added prompt at the start of the active player's turn
added player name
added alternative adverts
fixed multiplayer bug with AI players
start of settings menu added
added method to record user stats

2 [2014.07.15]
fixed how AI see diversions
improved car interaction
fixed multiplayer bug with starting tile
fixed moving cars onto brown tiles
changed how cars are scored.

Ched80
14
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Joined: 18th Sep 2010
Location: Peterborough, UK
Posted: 22nd Aug 2014 17:43
Diversion has received its first major update to expand on the original concept.

The previous 5 updates focused on adding the core functions, improving stability and refining the game play, but version 6 introduces 3 expansions.

The Traffic Lights expansion provides a new tile set that can be placed onto existing junctions. When used, the traffic light sequence will only allow cars to move in one direction, simlar to a standard Diversion tile, but after each player has taken their turn, the traffic light will turn 90 degrees counter-clockwise.
So if the traffic light was originally pointing up on a cross-road tile, after one complete go it would point left, and after the next complete go it would point down. And so on.Traffic lights cannot be over ridden with any other tiles.



The Road Works expansion also provides a new tile set that can be placed onto existing justions. When used the road works block all travel on and off the affected tile for between 2 and 5 complete turns. The number of turns left for the road works is shown on the tile.Road works cannot be over ridden with any other tiles.



The Custom Map expansion gives the player the possibility of playing on a map size of up to 15x15. The legal map sizes are 7, 9, 11, 13 & 15. This expansion does not modify any of the game rules, but increasing the map size will increase the challenge and the typical game length.

All three expansions can be trailed for 24 hours by spending in-game points. Permanent activation of the expansion will be available in a later update via in-app-purchasing.The expansions can be switched ON and OFF, so that you can combine sets of expansions for different game experiences.

A forth option is also available via the settings, although this is not an expansion pack, the ability to turn off the in-game adverts can be trailed for 24 hours by spending game points.



The update is available now, for free, via Google Play (for Android) and via SlideDB (for Windows).

As well as adding these expansions, the update also includes:

:Tutorial flag added to prevent tutorial text from appearing every play-though.

:AI logic for tile placement has been changed to increase difficulty and fix some bugs.:Added tree image.

nly first name is used for in-game name when signing in via FB.

:Various bug fixes.

fog
21
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Joined: 5th Oct 2003
Location: Newcastle, England
Posted: 8th Sep 2014 12:32
Neat idea. I kinda like the basic look of the graphics too, kinda hand-drawn effect.

Just a suggestion. As the play area is essentially square wouldn't it have made more sense to turn the whole thing 90 degrees and play in portrait mode? That way those horrible ads (all ads are horrid ) could have been placed neatly at either the top or bottom of the screen without overlapping the play area?

Naphier
14
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Joined: 2nd Oct 2010
Location: St Petersburg, Florida
Posted: 8th Sep 2014 21:26
Even ads displaying games for fellow AppGameKit developers are horrid?

Anyway, looking neat Ched, thanks for using the AppGameKit Community Ad Network in your game

fog
21
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Joined: 5th Oct 2003
Location: Newcastle, England
Posted: 9th Sep 2014 00:33
Quote: "Even ads displaying games for fellow AppGameKit developers are horrid?"
No, but they are when they overlap the gameplay area.

Promoting other AppGameKit games is a good idea. I promote my other game releases too. Directly targeting people already playing your games is the best free promotion you can get.

Ched80
14
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Joined: 18th Sep 2010
Location: Peterborough, UK
Posted: 9th Sep 2014 07:47
Hi fog, I understand the suggestion, and I thought about it myself, but I concluded that games feel more natural when the device is held in portrait mode. I also felt the Ui was better placed on the side rather than the top or bottom.

I know what you mean about the ads. For the AppGameKit ads I made them semi transparent so they weren't so obstructive. I also introduced the possibility to switch them off, but you have to spend you game points to do so.

Placing ads is always an issue with games.

Thanks for the feedback.

fog
21
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Joined: 5th Oct 2003
Location: Newcastle, England
Posted: 9th Sep 2014 14:24
Hi Ched80, yeah there are a lot of things to consider

My worry would be that people in general don't like adverts, especially on the gameplay screen. And if they are annoyed by them then they are much less likely to click on them and, unfortunately, it will also make your own game suffer.

I'd bet that just showing the ads on your title and menu screens and not in-game would benefit everyone.

More people would enjoy your game so more people would play it and therefore more people would actually see the ads.

Sorry for the ramble

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