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Alpha Square City Builder (Final version in Made with GameMaker forum)

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djmgames

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Build the tiny pixel city of your dreams! From the classic games city builders, Square City Builder allows several ways for custom your gameplay, from build houses, power plants or roads, to face random events. In this game, you are in the control!

CHOOSE YOUR WAY

You want play a strategy game, managing resources, adapting services, taking care of problems as pollution or unnemployment? Yes, in this game you can. You just want to relax and build more and more buildings without problems using cheats (this is not allowed in alpha version)? Yes, you can too! Square City Builder has a dynamic gameplay that fits each player's profile.

BUILD, BUILD AND BUILD

There are so many buildings in this game that provides hours of gameplay. You can place many levels of residential, commercial or industrial buildings, each one with your own features.

A NEW SCORE WAY

In this game you will not manage money, rather it you use city value. Buildings don't have costs to build, but have for destroy. So, you need take care the city logist system, managing the buildings problems before they be destroyied, otherwise, the city value is decreased and your score become small...

A CLASSIC CITY BUILDER AESTHETICS!

Yes, in this game you can remember the old times when 2d city builders ruled this game genre. It's a very inspired aesthetics pixel art what looks bring back this good feels!

CURRENT FEATURES

  • Random map generator.
  • 10 events to face and handle during gameplay.
  • Several buildings as Power Plants, residences, farms, roads, and more.
  • Score save
  • Environmental things and buildings
  • Portuguese and English languages added
The game is in development. follow the devlog and provide feedback!

EDIT:
Now the game has a steam page!




 
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djmgames

Member
I released a free alpha version (little content, just for test gameplay and features). I would like if you can download this version and provide your feedback. Thanks!


NEW FEATURES:


CURRENT FEATURES


  • 8 Technologies;
  • Several buildings including houses, commerce, industry, police, power, and more;
  • 12 soundtracks;
  • Several Terrain objects, as threes, stones, rivers, hills and more;
  • Several problems to manager, as pollution, crime and power provided.
  • Total compatibility with xbox controller.
 

djmgames

Member
Week Devlog:

  • Fixed some bugs as police car routes;
  • Added a scoreboard on main menu;
  • Added a menu for choose city name;
  • improved performance, mainly when map is more than 80% full of buildings;
Sooner I am released a new version free to download in itch.io. The goal is add new 6 technologies and new 6 buildings before.
 

djmgames

Member
Hello everyone. Last month happens several updates in the game project, so, next we have an new alpha version!
Bugs fixed, sandbox mode, scoreboard, new buildings, city name choose and more are coming.
I will upload the new version soon.


 

djmgames

Member
Which assets have caused your game to be 142MB ? I wanted to check it out and the file size has me curious
Hi, this is because the game has several unused audio files attached in content, I had imported them to engine and forgot remove them. So, I will fix it next and release a new update.

I added new features too, as transport, bus, and more. Check the new updates next.
 

djmgames

Member
Hello everyone! After a substantial time since the last update, I am proud and motivated to proceed this game project.
I would like tips and opinion about everything in the game, which features should add, gameplay improve, graphics tunning and so on.

Thanks all.
 

woodsmoke

Member
Neat! I like the graphics. Looks like you put lots of work into the menus. OoO

Will there be disasters? (godzilla, hurricanes, fire, earthquakes, ...)
 
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djmgames

Member
Neat! I like the graphics. Looks like you put lots of work into the menus. OoO

Will there be disasters? (godzilla, hurricanes, fire, earthquakes, ...)
Yes, everything in menus are made using UX concepts, mainly usability, ease access to information.
About disasters, you read my mind, that gets a top backlog position, so it's very feasible it will be added next update. :)
 

djmgames

Member
Copy the entire Sim City 1? Or 2?
I love Sim City classic (the SNES version is the better), but I think this game can introduce new features to city builders, the tech tree is the better example (yes, very very inspired on 4x strategy games, civilization feelings).

About the RPG style chat/messages, what do you all think? keep them in next updates, adding new characters (beyond the mayor) or shrink this feature?
 

djmgames

Member
After rebuild every my city builder game, it is next the alpha version

So, several times I restart this project. Now i am happy because in this way the project becomes a "game".
I would like any feedback about the video:
Thanks.
 

Yrbiax

Member
Just gave it a try. Here is some feedback.

I feel like seasons changed too frequently. It was confusing when game's appearance kept changing constantly.
It would have been good if you could hold mouse to build multiple tiles of road.
At some point i was unable to build residence. I was still able to build other buildings, so i dont know what happened there.
Tabs on left side should be more visible. I didnt even notice them until much later.

It was bit unlear what was happening when none of the scores were visible in UI unless you opened tab. Looking at your older videos. I would have preferred that kind of UI.
 

djmgames

Member
Just gave it a try. Here is some feedback.

I feel like seasons changed too frequently. It was confusing when game's appearance kept changing constantly.
It would have been good if you could hold mouse to build multiple tiles of road.
At some point i was unable to build residence. I was still able to build other buildings, so i dont know what happened there.
Tabs on left side should be more visible. I didnt even notice them until much later.

It was bit unlear what was happening when none of the scores were visible in UI unless you opened tab. Looking at your older videos. I would have preferred that kind of UI.
Thank you for the feedback!

Several thing will be improved in the next updates, the gameplay is the main goal.
 

dannerz

Member
I just downloaded the game.
So far so good.
No music yet.
I can help with that if you like.
Right now there is no money system?
 

djmgames

Member
I just downloaded the game.
So far so good.
No music yet.
I can help with that if you like.
Right now there is no money system?
There is no money system in the game. The idea is to manage the score and not allow it to drop too much. Building costs nothing, but destroying is very expensive (score), this is the gameplay mechanic. I would really appreciate it if you could help with music, especially if it was based on the 90s, Sim City SNES could be a good sound reference.

EDIT: more updates are coming this week.
 

BenRK

Member
Maybe it's because I'm playing it on my M1 Macbook Pro using CrossOver, but I have had a lot of success with Game Maker made games running through CrossOver flawlessly. The screen resolution and aspect ratio don't seem to scale properly, so no resolution I've found looks right. Everything looks distorted rather than pixel perfect as I'd expect.

Again, maybe this is just because I'm playing it on my Mac. I'll give it a try on my PC later today or tomorrow. In the meantime, I'll try to find a resolution that works.
 

djmgames

Member
Maybe it's because I'm playing it on my M1 Macbook Pro using CrossOver, but I have had a lot of success with Game Maker made games running through CrossOver flawlessly. The screen resolution and aspect ratio don't seem to scale properly, so no resolution I've found looks right. Everything looks distorted rather than pixel perfect as I'd expect.

Again, maybe this is just because I'm playing it on my Mac. I'll give it a try on my PC later today or tomorrow. In the meantime, I'll try to find a resolution that works.
Can you post a print from the resolution problem? The game current support aspect ratio 4:3 and 16:9, should be works fine in any resolution that proportion, but you may get better result using 640x360, 1280x720, 1920x1080 and so on.
 

BenRK

Member
I've determined that the issue was on my end. Looks absolutely fine on my gaming PC.

I'm confused how the game is supposed to work. I pretty much have a full map of residential and industrial and commercial, but the "score gain" is a tiny fraction of what "score down" is. Not sure how the game is supposed to work.
 

djmgames

Member
I've determined that the issue was on my end. Looks absolutely fine on my gaming PC.

I'm confused how the game is supposed to work. I pretty much have a full map of residential and industrial and commercial, but the "score gain" is a tiny fraction of what "score down" is. Not sure how the game is supposed to work.
Ok, the goal of game is get the best score possible. Build it's free, but destroy is very expensive. You don't loss score when build, but when destroy yes. This is the game core and all other mechanics (technologies, events, tips, seasons, jobs, etc ...) work around this.

I have uploaded the new version of the game. It has a improved ui with more descriptions about game happenings. You can download it here:

 

BenRK

Member
I'm still struggling to even understand how to balance the score or what things are costing me a ton of score. Could you add some explanation on how this stuff works to the thread? Playing it like how I'd expect (putting houses and industry and connect roads between them while scattering commercial buildings around) just leads to hundreds of thousands of score lost and maybe 2000 points gained, leaving me with just... 8 points for some reason?

Also, if you could, could you have the game start in windowed mode? With a reasonable starting resolution of course (720p windowed works well for me personally for this kind of game)
 

djmgames

Member
I'm still struggling to even understand how to balance the score or what things are costing me a ton of score. Could you add some explanation on how this stuff works to the thread? Playing it like how I'd expect (putting houses and industry and connect roads between them while scattering commercial buildings around) just leads to hundreds of thousands of score lost and maybe 2000 points gained, leaving me with just... 8 points for some reason?

Also, if you could, could you have the game start in windowed mode? With a reasonable starting resolution of course (720p windowed works well for me personally for this kind of game)
Check the technology menu, there you can get any insigths about how the gameplay works.
Basically in beggining all it's envirovment building is very costly, you need unlock technologies related to them what allows you build with no loss score. Try get technologies faster to protected you city from events (as fire hazards and overflows) that made you loss tons of score and destroy your gameplay.

Edit: about windowed mode, it's available in options menu. Resolutions mode too. You can adjust brightness, contrast, saturation ...
 

djmgames

Member
I try a play in clear map now and here is the timelapse my movements in the game:

1 - Choose clear map putting tutorial name ... Game beggins with a bank loan, the goal is get road maintenance tecnology (boost score and avoid destruction roads level 2).



2 - Clear map is the best option to learn the game because there is no loss score by destruction water tiles (all other map types have them). So, I building three coal power plant, because they provides power what is bonus for jobs earn score. Beyond them, I built some industries to generate jobs.


3 - After industrial zone at top the map, generating pollution problem, I build residences at map bottom. Industries generate jobs e houses provides population, so, this drop people e cars to work e generate score.




4 - After city turn bigger, I put commerce, this provides jobs nearest to citizens work, speedup and boost the score.


https://imgur.com/kKOiRFl

5 - 2025 some exodus event destruct half residences and I lost tons of score.

https://imgur.com/eAFEByU

This is the core gameloop. You need earn score faster to unlocks technlogies that allows new buildings / ways to earn scores and protect your city from disaster.

I will improve the UI, I am thinking add some as Civilopedy (civilization series) to explain game features in the game and a tutorial map for the first time the player open the game.
 

djmgames

Member


The island map is the hardest mode. Destroy water tiles are very costly at inner game. The strategy suitable to balance score is build small (because tiny place size) and get technologies step by step, seems a "marathon game".
 

dannerz

Member
I finally figured out how to get a positive score.
Now I want to see a high-score table, where I can leave my name on the accomplishments.
 

djmgames

Member
I finally figured out how to get a positive score.
Now I want to see a high-score table, where I can leave my name on the accomplishments.
Yes, your city name is inside scoreboard now!!!

Last days i am working new map types, I count 12 new default templates.
Post some printscreen from your gameplays cities.
 

djmgames

Member
I made some new changes in the gameplay. Add the options to player choose the costs of each resource. Added a sandbox mode too, where no events happens and score is no count. Some small things as disable tips, sound , hud and more are inside this update.

The "new" new game menu:

menuMode.png

menuMode2.png

Metropolis on desert map (sandbox mode):

sanboxMode3.png
 

MeBoingus

Member
I made some new changes in the gameplay. Add the options to player choose the costs of each resource. Added a sandbox mode too, where no events happens and score is no count. Some small things as disable tips, sound , hud and more are inside this update.

The "new" new game menu:

View attachment 54241

View attachment 54242

Metropolis on desert map (sandbox mode):

View attachment 54243
Firstly I gotta say that I really like the UI theme you've gone with. The font could use a bit of scaling, as some of the text is a bit condensed (like the 'y' in 'Adjust the destroy cost'), but other than that, it looks good. The pixel art is nice, and even with the low shading, you can tell exactly what you're looking at.

That being said, please try to refrain from posting multiple times within the same 48-hour period. Not specifically with this specific reply, but just in general. It's part of the forum rules https://forum.gamemaker.io/index.php?threads/community-guidelines.4/. You can edit your previous post to include any new updates if it hasn't been long enough.
 
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