New exploration mini-game.


This week I worked on implementing the new exploration mini-game. Once you enter a sector and decide to explore it, you will see a small section in the middle of the screen where you will be able to direct your explorer to discover what the sector contains.

Besides finding entities like in the previous version, you will also find new terrain tiles, for now they only show graphics, but in the near future they will have different effects on the explorer. That way it will be more interesting to explore, having to evade some terrains that are hard or dangerous to traverse. Some could be too hot, like lava, or be walls that can be climbed with the right tools.



The things I implemented in this new sector map are:

  1. Fog: when you enter a sector it will be covered with fog, which hides the contents of each tile, when you get close enough, the fog disappears and it reveals what is underneath.
  2. Terrain depends on the biome: on the planet map you can see all the biomes of the planet. When you enter a map sector, you enter in its biome, which contains a specific terrain set for that biome. All other sectors of the planet that share the same biome will have the same terrain types.
  3. The sector is big: it can change its size too, some sectors can be bigger than others. If you hold your mouse button, and if you move the scroll bars, you can see more of the sector being explored.
  4. The sector has entities: like the previous exploration screen, the sector has entities you can inspect and gather its resources. Just choose an entity when you find it, click the "inspect" button, and wait until the entity is revealed.
  5. Click on the "return to robot" button to go back to the planet map screen.

I think this version of the exploration is much more interesting than the previous one, and has the potential of more possibilities, please try it and let me know what you think.


Files

Planetary Exploration Company v4.zip 15 MB
Jul 09, 2021

Leave a comment

Log in with itch.io to leave a comment.