IslandCamper - Design Your Island (Working Title)

General
1

Hello everyone,
since around January of this year I’ve been working on a „life simulation“ game. While there are still a lot of things I’d like to add, I’m confident enough with the game’s current state to share a first trailer. I hope it’s fine to use the forum for this. The game was entirely programmed using Codea with all assets (sprites, music) being created on an iPad. :slight_smile:

https://youtu.be/SbiAMgv6Ufw

New Video:
https://youtu.be/hHAEtKKqBlc

https://youtu.be/2xXttmcHHVc

You start on an uninhabited island and cut some trees to gain the resources you need to build a shovel and a watering can. By planting and harvesting your first crops, you earn some money, which you can then use to purchase a fishing rod or a net. This gives you several possibilities to earn money, which you desperately need for decorations such as benches, fences, mailboxes, chairs and streetlights or plants like flowers, bushes and trees that embellish your island.

The main features are:
1. -Start on an abandoned island and design it however you like using flowers, bushes, trees, palms and a variety of such as chairs, tables, benches and fences
2. -Grow and harvest crops or plant fruits trees to earn money
3. -Catch and collect different species of insects and fish to complete your encyclopedia
4. -The game is tied to the system clock, which means that crops and trees grow in real time. You can plant and water them, then leave the game and check back later. Moreover, the game features a day-and-night cycle. I’m still trying to find a good balance
5. -A dynamic weather system changes between sunny, cloudy, windy, rainy and stormy. When it is rainy, torches and bonfires don’t provide light at night. However, you don’t need to water your crops. Depending on the weather, the wind, which impacts all plants, might be lighter or stronger
6. -You can interact with some your island’s decorations

Planned features:
1. -Smaller tasks as well as long term goals for the player to complete
2. -NPCs for tutorials and challenges
3. -Ability to enter and design your tent
4. -More decorations

Here is the trailer I made, I would appreciate any feedback :slight_smile:

2

@Leon Looks interesting. You put a lot of work into it.

3

@dave1707 Thanks :slight_smile: Yes, I’ve been working on it for a couple of months.

4

looks good, tons of work!

5

@leon, i like the wave effect on the beach and the sound effects. A lot of work, bravo!

6

@RonJeffries, @piinthesky
Thanks, I really appreciate it :slight_smile:

7

@Leon Wow, amazing work so far. Love it!

8

@John Thanks :slight_smile: I’ll post another update in 1-2 weeks. I’m trying to add NPCs that visit your island from time to time and give you small challenges/tasks.

9

In the past couple of months, I’ve been working on the game quite a bit. Check out the new video:

https://youtu.be/2xXttmcHHVc

I’ve implemented a tutorial, NPCs that can give you challenges, daily tasks, new decorations and fixed a lot of bugs. I would appreciate any feedback :slight_smile:

10

Hey everyone! I’ve been updating the visuals quite a bit in the last few weeks. Would really appreciate it, if you could give me some feedback:

Graphics:
https://youtu.be/Dtyyujm6JRg

Gameplay:
https://youtu.be/hHAEtKKqBlc

11

@Elias I think it looks great!

12

@Elias It looks amazing!

I’m not sure if it’s just me but I do think everything looks a little too flat colour-wise. I feel like it could potentially do with a dash more contrast across the board to make the ‘shading’ you have in the textures give it a better sense of depth.

That’s my only real piece of feedback but other than that bravo!

13

I think it’s great work, and for me the palette works, especially with the day/night cycle. I would agree that it’s too flat on the inventory UI though, I’d personally put some shadows behind the items so they don’t get lost in the white.

14

@joaquin Thank you!
@Steppers and @UberGoober Thanks for the advice! I’ll have to redo many of the sprites anyway, I can try to give them more contrast as well. Putting shadows behind the items also seems like a nice idea.

15

@Elias did you ever consider putting your 2D stuff into MagicaVoxel? Without very much effort you could have a pseudo-3D effect. You could make full models if you wanted but you could also just leave everything one layer deep and have a 2.5D look.

16

@UberGoober That sounds really interesting! Do you have more information on this? I only know that MagicaVoxel can be used for SpriteStacking, which creates a 3D-effect. But your approach sounds different.

17

Oh I’m not talking about anything fancy, just simply dragging-and-dropping all your png art into magicaVoxel, so you get something like the attached—a flat image rendered in 3D voxels—and then converting it back into a flat png that has a slight little 3D edge on it.

Probably not worth the trouble, but it might be a cool effect, and it would to some degree work against any flattening effect caused by your color palette.

18

@UberGoober That sounds like a good idea! I’ll definitely give this a try.

19

This may very well be the most ambitious Codea game ever.

Amazing work so far, and good luck to you as you continue polishing it up. I imagine the codebase is getting quite large :smiley:

Reminds me of Animal Crossing and Minecraft - not a bad thing :slight_smile:

20

@Elias how long did this take you?