Autarky - proof of concept. Help me make it interesting

Show off your games, demos and other (playable) creations.
User avatar
togFox
Party member
Posts: 764
Joined: Sat Jan 30, 2021 9:46 am
Location: Brisbane, Oztralia

Autarky - proof of concept. Help me make it interesting

Post by togFox »

This is a village building game with a small difference and based on a fiscal policy called "Autarky".

You start with a small number of villagers in feudal times and you need to grow your village into a bigger village. You don't collect resources or build structures. You have just one option: for each villager, you need to assign an occupation.

The villagers will collect resources
The villagers will build structures
The villagers will buy and sell goods
The villagers will rest and work

The villager make all the choices - except one - their trade. That's your choice. If you get the balance between the occupations wrong then your village won't thrive. Too many farmers and they won't thrive. Too many soldiers and they won't be able to farm. Not enough craftsmen and you won't have enough luxury items. Get the right balance and adapt to growth and your small village becomes a town - a town the villagers built with your help.

This is a functional proof-of-concept but I'm really canvassing peeps to see if this has potential. Is it an original idea? Could it be fun? It is not very interactive so not sure if that's a problem. Some people like to watch fish for an hour - would you watch this village for an hour?

It uses a behavioral tree with some randomness to make the villagers act a little more human.

Sounds and graphics are basic and place holders.

Four occupations with many more to come:
Image

Villagers hard at work:
Image

Watch villagers go about their virutal life:
Image

Socialising around the watering hole (literally):
Image

Each villager keeps a diary of their travels (WIP):
Image

In response to feedback on this forum, on-screen instructions:
Image

Perlin noise map:
Image

There is a full economy running under the hood that drives the success, or failure, of your village:
Image

I have a lot more planned and will add over the next few weeks. :)

https://togfox.itch.io/autarky

Really looking to see if this has potential. Good and bad comments welcomed. Thanks.
Last edited by togFox on Sun May 29, 2022 9:19 pm, edited 4 times in total.
Current project:
https://togfox.itch.io/backyard-gridiron-manager
American football manager/sim game - build and manage a roster and win season after season
User avatar
togFox
Party member
Posts: 764
Joined: Sat Jan 30, 2021 9:46 am
Location: Brisbane, Oztralia

Re: Autarky - proof of concept. Help me make it interesting

Post by togFox »

Behind the scenes is an economy. Each villager has an occupation and a wealth. If they don't work then they don't earn and they starve and die. Villagers working in the village contribute to the success of the village. They can produce food, luxury items (happiness) or physical defense (soldiers). A village that is not balanced will not grow.

So, it's not visible, but working creates wealth and that wealth is shared through buying and selling. When key targets are hit then the village will attract more villagers and the economy and village grows.
Current project:
https://togfox.itch.io/backyard-gridiron-manager
American football manager/sim game - build and manage a roster and win season after season
User avatar
veethree
Inner party member
Posts: 874
Joined: Sat Dec 10, 2011 7:18 pm

Re: Autarky - proof of concept. Help me make it interesting

Post by veethree »

I can’t test it atm due to being on my phone. But this sounds like a good concept for one of those idle games. Where you just open it every now and again and see how your village has progressed.

Those tend to work better as mobile games.
User avatar
dusoft
Party member
Posts: 482
Joined: Fri Nov 08, 2013 12:07 am
Location: Europe usually
Contact:

Re: Autarky - proof of concept. Help me make it interesting

Post by dusoft »

I created a farmer, a cotton farmer and a healer, but nothing seemed to be happening, e.g. no more people spawning.

I also wasn't able to convert anybody once I set their occupation.
User avatar
Gunroar:Cannon()
Party member
Posts: 1085
Joined: Thu Dec 10, 2020 1:57 am

Re: Autarky - proof of concept. Help me make it interesting

Post by Gunroar:Cannon() »

Hmm, nice. Are raids implemented yet or... because i saw it commented out. Any way it got pretty boring, because it seems the rules to spawn a new agent is pretty strict (food, water?, etc) so I modified it to spawn an agent every second :rofl: (also added ui in gooi for mobile and camera to move around, pretty rough :P) more game-istic, less realistic, more hectic.
Every second might not be too good but maybe lighten the rules and/or start with more people.

Funny thing is that I once recently wanted to do this text based thing where you just accept who comes into your clan and agree or disagree (kind of like that dungeon rollcall ...if you recall but simpler), where people will fight, have different emotions, dislike and like others and ask you for permission to do actions (like kicking out or marrying other members) but I didn't want to have to make a whole buying system due to time :ultrahappy:, so good verk.

I understand they have little options because it's early, but so far it seems if you added more options for the AI to do (fight between people, fight off raids, steal) then it would be *really* fun.
Attachments
My little village
My little village
Screenshot_2021-10-12-00-47-10.png (962.35 KiB) Viewed 8949 times
The risk I took was calculated,
but man, am I bad at math.

-How to be saved and born again :huh:
User avatar
togFox
Party member
Posts: 764
Joined: Sat Jan 30, 2021 9:46 am
Location: Brisbane, Oztralia

Re: Autarky - proof of concept. Help me make it interesting

Post by togFox »

Thanks for the feedback. A farmer + 2 other occupations will eventually spawn a new villager. 2 farmers will do that faster. Converting is not possible to give importance to that one choice you have.

There are intended to be raids. I didn't realise I disabled that. Bad ppl will come and you'll need soldiers to protect your village. Soldiers are paid by taxes which, I note, on your screenshot the taxes collected should appear in the top left corner but has been cut off. I'm not sure why.

I had another play-tester say they had 18 villagers reasonably quickly so that's an opposite experience.

Adding a more "mundane" interactions might give more interest.

I wanted to see if I can prove the economy will work and to see if I can create occupations and then prove there are occupations that rely on other occupations (weavers need cotton growers). Finally - a tax system lets the whole village fund for something that benefits the whole village - soldiers.

Thanks for the feedback. I shall think and ponder.
Current project:
https://togfox.itch.io/backyard-gridiron-manager
American football manager/sim game - build and manage a roster and win season after season
User avatar
knorke
Party member
Posts: 237
Joined: Wed Jul 14, 2010 7:06 pm
Contact:

Re: Autarky - proof of concept. Help me make it interesting

Post by knorke »

At start I made 3 farmers and then nothing happend for a while. I went back to this thread and read "A farmer + 2 other occupations will eventually spawn a new villager."
So I thought that I had messed up because I thought spawning new peoplers needs 2 farms plus something else - which I did not have.
I was also unsure if the game had stopped responding because pressing F/H/C etc did not do anything anymore.
But when I went back to the game, there was a fourth peopler.
I played until 12 villagers, which took 20mins or so, did not always watch the game.

Random notes:
Only show GUI parts that are currently relevant:
It says "Press F to make farmer" but actually that does not nothing unless a peopler is selected. So this conversion-menu should only come up when someone is selected.

I think this kind of games do have an audience.
It depends a lot on the presentation and game mechanics details.
For example currently it is not that interessting to watch the peoplers do their thing or watch the village grow because it is too random. The peoplers just randomly float around their work, float to the water and randomly float somewhere to rest.
-rest at certains spots instead of random (near water, near fire,at a "home" building" ?)
-show the work more: around the farm huts spawn fields and then have the peopler go back&forth between farms and hut.
-less random building placement: make cotton farmers prefer location close to water or "fertile ground", then make weavers prefer locations close to farms. Then make peoplers build their resting-huts next to their work and so on. So that players can watch their village grows in a random but organic and natural looking way. Imo that is a BIG part of these games.
-Maybe have one other option to control the village: Like building paths. Peoplers could move faster on paths. By buildings paths you can control how and where the village grows, it is still indirect but would help to make it *your* village.
User avatar
togFox
Party member
Posts: 764
Joined: Sat Jan 30, 2021 9:46 am
Location: Brisbane, Oztralia

Re: Autarky - proof of concept. Help me make it interesting

Post by togFox »

I know the last post was October, but I thought and thought and stewed and left it and thought some more and it is resurrected and far more polished. See the original post for refreshed graphics. It's a 60 meg download due to six - yes six! sound tracks I bet you've never heard before (maybe).

I've taken all the feedback on-board and hope this labour of love turns into something many people will sit and watch and perhaps learn a little bit about economies. :)

Happy for feedback. The game is not really balanced and starts off slow. Lets face it - the whole game is slow - but it's all WIP.

(Attaching a love file failed but it is linked in the OP).
Current project:
https://togfox.itch.io/backyard-gridiron-manager
American football manager/sim game - build and manage a roster and win season after season
User avatar
togFox
Party member
Posts: 764
Joined: Sat Jan 30, 2021 9:46 am
Location: Brisbane, Oztralia

Re: Autarky - proof of concept. Help me make it interesting

Post by togFox »

Maybe. Do you think that might be fun?
Current project:
https://togfox.itch.io/backyard-gridiron-manager
American football manager/sim game - build and manage a roster and win season after season
Post Reply

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 15 guests