Foundation of Civilisation

Foundation of Civilisation is a civilisation-building management game. Inspired by numerous titles such as Sid Meier's Civilisation series and Shining Rock Software LLC's 'Banished' among others. Foundation of Civilisation is a project built with the purpose of providing a civilisation-building experience that is more organic to the way human history evolved.

This project is no longer being worked on and was in heavy development. The following is all 'Work-In-Progress' material when this project was being worked on.

dESIGN gUIDELINES

Foundation of Civilisation became both an exploratory project in terms of technical skills, but also in relation to its design. The core game-play loop's aim was to identify what components could benefit from depth, without adding needless complexity. Identifying the correct components was instrumental - as they would be a major guide to how the project's game-play would evolve.

Other objectives also guided the project's design philosophy - the project needed to feel 'organic' in its game-play; whilst not being completely authentic to human history, there was to be an attempt to capture the development of human civilisation. Civilisations that preferred fishing over farming, would develop in different ways. 

Aesthetic Guidelines

As a leader of a civilisation may look at a map at his desk to try to be able to comprehend the scale of their nation, and how to potentially solve an issue at hand; the aesthetic of Foundation of Civilisation is aimed to mirror this. The game-map reflecting a calligraphy drawn map, and information displayed on parchment - all aimed at portraying the image that the player is overseeing their nation, and the lands surrounding it - thinking and planning on what to do next.

Game Technology

Work on the project began using Game Maker Studio 1 [GMS] - upon the release of Game Maker Studio 2 [GMS 2], the project was moved over to the new GMS 2. A major part of the project is continuous learning in various aspects of development - this includes the technology the game is built on. Along with the challenges that stem from the design of Foundation of Civilisation, is the challenges that stem in implementing the project. GMS 2 was a major improvement over GMS 1 - it provided a number of features that aided in furthering the development of Foundation of Civilisation, such as the new 'Room Layers System'.

Play Testing

Play-testing is a major aspect of game development as a whole - it is something that Foundation of Civilisation as a project will require ample amounts of. As of the 1st of November 2017 - Foundation of Civilisation has experience one play-test with the Prototype v0.1 Build. This was a highly informative and useful experience - a huge thank you to the first group of play-testers who provided their time to help test such a work-in-progress project!

Should you wish to try the Prototype v0.1 Build for yourself, it can be found below. Please note that there are numerous issues with the build; including bugs and little in the way of content.