Game Development So Far
Last week I managed to get the systems in Gym Empire to a fit enough state whereby I could start to test them out a little. Most of the work was done in Visual Studio using Windows Forms. This has been great for providing a pure number simulation with some very basic interaction enabled to change clients into members and to link staff to clients for training. It’s started to give me a feel for how the gameplay will flow and I think it’s looking good so far. Initially there has been more micromanagement than I had envisioned but I think that if this is balanced well then it will be enjoyable in the early stages of the game. As the player progresses and build their gym, they will be able to take on more staff. The player will be able to delegate most of the small level interaction to the staff enabling the player to focus on more of the general management of the gym, if they so desire.
Other Developments
A nice little bit of feedback I got from reddit was from someone who expressed an interest in developing an MMA focused gym. That got me thinking. It would be a really nice mechanic if the player can choose to specialise in a certain gym type and depending on the gym type attract different types of clients. I think that would be nice to give an extra personal feeling to the gyms people create.
Time Management
From a development point of view I’ve started moving the code into Unity. Having next to no experience with Unity it’s taking a bit of getting used to with how GameObjects, Script, monobehaviour work etc. It’s nothing too difficult, it’s just a case of learning the tool. I’m keen to keep the Model, View, Controller design I have in place as I believe that it will make the game much more manageable and easier to update in the future. It means there’ll be more code to make it all work but I ‘m happy with that.