Ten Years Left - coming end of 2014

Discussion in 'Upcoming iOS Games' started by jonmulcahy, Sep 5, 2014.

  1. jonmulcahy

    jonmulcahy Well-Known Member

    #1 jonmulcahy, Sep 5, 2014
    Last edited: May 26, 2015
    I've been working on this game for the past few months. It's been on hiatus with the birth of my son, but I'm starting to get back into it, and I figured what better way to build momentum than to show some screenshots of the latest design of the game (it's 7th).

    The game is designed to have massive replay-ability with little to no repetition of outcome.

    Each run through will take 5 minutes from start to finish.

    [​IMG]

    [​IMG]
     
  2. Disco Driscoll

    Disco Driscoll Well-Known Member

    Jan 10, 2012
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    Looks intriguing - how about a bit more info on what sort of game it is?
     
  3. jonmulcahy

    jonmulcahy Well-Known Member

    Well, it's been a long while, but Ten Years Left is finally back in active development. I had hit a mental roadblock back in October, mapping out a large number of potential outcomes and different opportunities to mitigate them was difficult. At last count there were 980,179,200 different combinations.

    The game is actually about 80% complete. I'm not ready to give out too many details yet, since I am a one man operation it takes awhile for me to accomplish anything, but it's going again. I'm hoping to boost the total different combinations to over 1 billion, which I should be able to do pretty easily.

    Once I have those combinations nailed down, I have to work out how certain combinations can be mitigated depending on what the user does. Think of a giant choose your own adventure game where are presented with choices that will directly impact the path you are on. Sometimes for good, sometimes for bad.

    There is also a server side component that needs to be designed. This game will upload the combination that was generated, along with what options the player chose, to a giant infographic online.

    I've been playing the alpha of the game, and I think it'll be pretty fun.
     
  4. jonmulcahy

    jonmulcahy Well-Known Member

    I managed to get it up to 1,069,286,400 different combinations!
     
  5. triggywiggy

    triggywiggy Well-Known Member

    Jan 24, 2010
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    Freelance writer, Student, Casually employed in re
    Perth, Western Australia
    Jesus! Thats a huge amount! Well done
     
  6. jonmulcahy

    jonmulcahy Well-Known Member

    thanks! but it get's even better. I added a 10th level of options, there are now 6,415,718,400 possible combinations.

    Today I'm working on coming up with the % chance of each option occurring, and what their effect will be.

    I'm doing this partly because I want to make the game as replayable as possible. It'll get boring awfully quick if people keep getting the same scenario every time. The other reason I am doing this is because I am afraid of the logic it will require in the back end :)
     
  7. jonmulcahy

    jonmulcahy Well-Known Member

    Ten Years Left is designed to be brutal, not in difficulty, but in their chance to survive. There is an end goal, but the odds of you actually making it there are around 50%.

    To greatly over simply things, from start to finish there 9 different 'stages' you have to pass to be successful. Each stage has a number of different outcomes, many of which can be mitigated or outright bypassed based on your decisions earlier in the game. These stages are randomly generated at the start of every game, and you don't know what will happen when you are making your decisions (more on that later).

    Like I said earlier, there are over 6 billion different combinations of these outcomes (including the epilogue options), but some of these outcomes are weighted to happen more often than others. The actual order of the stages can be switch as well, which increases the total number of combinations by some magnitude I can't comprehend :). So, the odds of someone playing the exact same game twice is pretty small.
     
  8. quantumsheep

    quantumsheep Well-Known Member

    Jun 5, 2009
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    The Head Cheese, Top Dog, Numero Uno Honcho, Quant
    London
    I enjoyed 'Long Way Home' and I'm intrigued by this - looking forward to seeing more details emerge(nt) :D

    QS =D
     
  9. jonmulcahy

    jonmulcahy Well-Known Member

    Thanks! As you know I've always loved your games :)
     
  10. jonmulcahy

    jonmulcahy Well-Known Member

    I did a bunch of work on the logic last week, still have a few major hurdles to cross however. There are three main sections of logic that happen when the game ends

    1. selection and order of hazards
    2. application of user choices to those hazards
    3. display the outcome

    Number 1 is just about done. I have a few bugs to work out but that should be done today.
    Number 3 is almost done as well. It was actually finished a few months ago before I took a break, but since then I've added a few major new features which I need to address.

    Number 2 is going to be the hard part. I have a massive visio diagram that maps out all the choices available, but this was before I doubled the number of options, so not only is it out of date, it's not even close to as complex as it should be. But it gives you some idea of the logic/choices behind the end game.

    That's it for this update. I'll post again when something changes.

    [​IMG]
     
  11. quantumsheep

    quantumsheep Well-Known Member

    Jun 5, 2009
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    The Head Cheese, Top Dog, Numero Uno Honcho, Quant
    London
    In my mind I'm picturing something FTL esque - close, maybe? :)

    Also, I love that your diagram has the text obfuscated - In my mind, all the red boxes say 'Yikes!' in them :D


    Good luck - look forward to hearing more!


    QS =D
     
  12. jonmulcahy

    jonmulcahy Well-Known Member

    close enough, every red box is a catastrophic ending. :)
     
  13. ImaDerpopotimus

    ImaDerpopotimus New Member

    May 27, 2015
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    Looks like a very addictive decision-based game! Numbers are great but I would love to see some screenshots of the gameplay. The images we have now are beautiful already.
     
  14. jonmulcahy

    jonmulcahy Well-Known Member

    they are coming soon. I'm trying to workout the design of the actual gameplay screen, as well as the epilogue screen. I'm about 80% there.

    Once I have the game feature complete I am going to put together a teaser video of how you play it.
     
  15. jonmulcahy

    jonmulcahy Well-Known Member

    Well I finally dove back into this project after an extended hiatus. I was dreading tackling the logic that makes the game so replayable, and I was right to be afraid. I've been working on this every night for a few hours, and I've gone in circle after circle :). I finally made a breakthrough last night and was able to display a number that is generated through options pulled from 5 different databases. It doesn't seem like a lot, but you should see the connection string...

    there is a light at the end of the tunnel!. It's just a pinprick right now, but it's there!
     
  16. number111

    number111 Well-Known Member

    Jul 11, 2015
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    Please add a gameplay video, this game looks really intersting tough
     
  17. jonmulcahy

    jonmulcahy Well-Known Member

    I will, hopefully soon. I'm waiting for the game to be 100% functional. It thankfully has not happened to me, but I know a few indie developers that posted a gameplay video of their game, only to have someone with more time bust out a clone before they could finish their original game. Since I'm a one man show over here, it can move slow at times when my life's other priorities come knocking :)
     
  18. kripa1415`

    kripa1415` Well-Known Member

    Nov 30, 2012
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    Would like to have a look at the game play.
     
  19. jonmulcahy

    jonmulcahy Well-Known Member

    I hired a writer on upwork this week, i tried to do it myself, but I am not a writer :). Once that's complete I need to rework some of that crazy logic above to make it a little simpler, and the game will be almost done!

    so instead of the end of 2014, it's looking like the end of 2015 is might actually happen!
     
  20. jonmulcahy

    jonmulcahy Well-Known Member

    I can't believe I'm actually writing this post, but that massive pile of logic is finally done. I'm on the other side of the mountain.

    The writing is done.
    The artwork is done.
    The logic is done.

    I have a few kinks in the epilogue to work out as some button presses are registering multiple touches. I also have a few UI issues to sort out, but it's so close I can taste it!
     

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