Topia: Age of Creation by Crescent Moon and the co creator of Populous!

[dwx882]

Any word on when this game will be coming out? I've been looking forward to this and Paper Monsters for months and with PM coming out last week, I'm hoping this will be out soon.

[Estupendo1]

Like the small amount I've seen so far, as well as the concept of ecosystems and malleable world.

Have you thought of adding meteorological system to interact with the land, plants and animals, perhaps post-release?!

[Alienmario]

This has been in making way too long.

This is how I like it

[Estupendo1]

Originally Posted by Alienmario

This has been in making way too long.

This is how I like it

Yes, but are they 7 productive months? I like the approach with simulations to get the systems running underneath, then creating where the real game emerges/fits in. A 'bit different' from having a core gameplay first then adding around that?

I'm just so intrigued to see how complex an ecosystem Glenn Corpes can create. Some RL eg's for inspiration!:

1) Californian Sea Otter - keystone species: Eats sea urchins -> eat kelp. No sea otters, Urchins eat base of kelp forests, the are washed away by the sea -> whole habitat/ecosysem is removed.

2) Wolves in Yellowstone National Park: Scare the grazing caribou away from grazing on young willow saplings in the meadows (they hide in the forest from the wolves more), allows willow to grow, these are then felled by beavers and dam the river course -> leads to increase in wetlands habitats -> whole additional ecosystems (local) emerges from presence of wolves.

Not saying we'll see this in Topia, but I like the possibilities a great deal at least with the predator - prey - plant, food chain so far & any world manipulation can be intrigueing.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keystone_species

[Snozberry]

I really hope the devs release this soon and continue to add updates to build it into a better game over the years, like minecraft, instead of making it huge and perfect from the beginning..

Im an average/casual girl gamer, and this really appeals to me..I think this would appeal to the masses..everyone could enjoy a game like this.
And later on, who knows how much it could evolve..
It'd be good if there was a way we could buy the game but as more updates come, pay more to help support the developers costs.. I don't really know how that'd work..but maybe like pocket gods updates, constantly bringing out new islands, etc, so maybe a new feature could be added, and if you'd like to unlock that feature it'd be an extra 99c..I really think it could gain a massive cult like following..and the possibilitys to extend the game are endless,
Not only breeding and planting different trees, flowers, and shrubs, but later on itd be so cool if things like building and harvesting could happen.. Kinda like a 3d world version of minecraft, but not so much focused on the building side, more focused on the nature side and keeping your planet healthy otherwise facing an apocalypse or something..And having to manage natural diasters, etc


We would have to grow wheat, harvest it, sell it or use it as feed, replant grass on farms for cows to eat, harvest wood, plant all kinds Of fruits, plants and flowers,build a flower market to sell them, to then buy more farms and statues, and stuff like that..
but maybe make it so there's a limit to how much can be built so the game won't turn into farmville,,
it'll still be about managing the herds and feeding them, making money and having a few things you can build to make money, breed animals, maybe even making potions with certain flowers and shrubs you must grow, and maybe even having to chop the horn off a rhino and the blood of an albino pigeon for the potion..
Then I'm not sure what the potions will do? Maybe create new magical animals like giving a horse a potion will turn it into a unicorn, but it's really hard to do and will take weeks to accomplish.

when you start out you can only plant oak trees and dandelions, basic grass, etc, then after you level up your world, you can then gain access to a few more seeds like roses, apples etc, you also unlock new herds of animals,maybe start off with africa and continue to unlock different countries animals at a time, you keep playing and unlocking plants and animals until your world is full of heaps of different species of life..and building your empire, farms and food, harvesting fruit and maybe even meat, to build your perfect planet.

Itd be cool if snow and ice were added to the game too, so we can have pooar bears, penguins, etc.
A fishing system wouod also be wicked.
And having the option to build a fish market, a fishery which you can upgrade and it automatically puts out nets and catches fishes each day, different areas catch different fish, as well as lures, etc.
A fish farm where you breed fish and sell them.
Maybe even be able to build an giant aquarium to keep some fish of your own.
A milk farm where cows are kept and milked, and the milk is distributed for money.
A flower market where flowers are distributed
A wheat farm where you grow wheat and other crops
A flower farm
An abattoir for harvesting meat
Maybe even a zoo..breeding animals in captive and making a zoo to gain tourists and more money.
Science lab where you research cross breeding and breeding mythological creatures with potions and maybe even cloning as a last resort if you've only got 1 animal of a certain species left.
(once an animal is extinct there is NO way of getting it back, and maybe the game should end? Or maybe you can keep playing but it'll be annoying for the player because further quests might need that animal, ie creating a unicorn in the science lab may need a rhino horn, and if your rhinos are extinct, no unicorn for you!
I think mythological creatures should probably be introduced way into the game though, first normal animals, and plants, slowly building your way up with herds and flower markets, farms etc, then saving enough money up for a fishery, then hitting a certain level which unlocks a fish farm, and buying that, and when your pretty far in that's when the laboratory should be unlocked and that's when you get to experiment with potions etc, to keep the game fresh and fun constantly bringing in new gameplay elements and features..
Maybe even further on, you can make a dragon, and level up the dragon and have it battle somehow? (other dragons through wifi or in game dragons like your "rival" or something.



I don't know whether or not people should actually inhabit the planet..or if the people are simply a number, like "Africa" has a population of 3000 people"
Antartica has a population Of 30 people etc
Or maybe not broken up into countries. Just the planet as a whole..

At the beginning the game should focus more on the herds but as you progress it should become more about managing your own planet and watching it evolve, keeping the balance, not allowing any animals to become extinct, maybe get a warning when a certain species is getting low, and building certain buildings but not to be overdone, no towns and overpopulated shops everywhere like typical town building games.. Maybe just have a limit of only 1 of each building can be built, so the main focus will still be the animals and not town building.



I'd just die of bliss if a game like that came out,,it'd be amazing..it'd be like actually being god of your own planet!
I've never played a game like this but my brother used to play god finger and I was kinda amazed by that game but I never played it, really would like to now though..might go try to find it!
I know the things I suggested would be really difficult to implement and I'm not ignorant thinking someone can click their fingers and this could be done! I understand it's a lengthy process and it may charge the games direction too much for what the devs had in mind...but still..it's fun fantasizing ! It'd just be amazing if someday this game did exist though..I really think it'd be huge.. Who wouldnt want to manage their own planet? Itd be like a hybrid of every good game imaginable, a cross between a god finger type game, mixed with minecraft, mixed with farmville, mixed with lords of the realm, mixed with pokemon and dragonvale, etc god it'd be cool..I'm actually surprised angame like that doesnt exist yet since managing your own town is so huge right now, that managing your own 3D planet Would be heaven compared to a crappy 2d farmville property!

But anyway..I'll stop ranting now, I just think that would be A,Maze,ZING!

[GlennX]

Wow, there are a lot of points in that post, i'm going to address a few of them.

Originally Posted by Snozberry

I really hope the devs release this soon and continue to add updates to build it into a better game over the years, like minecraft, instead of making it huge and perfect from the beginning..

Something like this is looking like a possibilty because what we have now is already a lot of fun while not being anywhere near the game we want it to be, let alone the epic you seem to want it to be

Originally Posted by Snozberry

Im an average/casual girl gamer, and this really appeals to me...

...And having to manage natural diasters, etc.

Natural disasters are quite high on the task list.

Originally Posted by Snozberry

We would have to grow wheat, harvest it...

...it'll still be about managing the herds and feeding them, making money and having a few things you can build to make money, breed animals, maybe even making potions

There won't be money or building things, you are playing a 'god' and can only effect nature, build landscape, move herds around, squish animals, potions?, not exactly but you will have spells that have more widespread effect on the ecosystem.

Originally Posted by Snozberry

...stuff about fish farms, science labs and dragons ignored ...

I don't know whether or not people should actually inhabit the planet..or if the people are simply a number, like "Africa" has a population of 3000 people"
Antartica has a population Of 30 people etc
Or maybe not broken up into countries. Just the planet as a whole..

One of the most rock solid aspects of what we are aiming at is that the creatures are individual creatures and not representatives of groups. This is why we've spent so long working on making it fast enough to move several thousand creatures around at 30 FPS. I post info on the progress of this in my blog and on twitter (see sig) if you're interested.

Originally Posted by Snozberry

....Who wouldnt want to manage their own planet? Itd be like a hybrid of every good game imaginable, a cross between a god finger type game, mixed with minecraft, mixed with farmville, mixed with lords of the realm, mixed with pokemon and dragonvale, etc god it'd be cool..I'm actually surprised angame like that doesnt exist yet since managing your own town is so huge right now, that managing your own 3D planet Would be heaven compared to a crappy 2d farmville property!

But anyway..I'll stop ranting now, I just think that would be A,Maze,ZING!

It'll be some of those things, building, moulding and (eventually) sharing your planet will be a big part of it. Thanks for the feedback and I hope you aren't too offended by my heavy editing of your points!

[Will-SmarterApps]

I never played Populous but I did play Evolution: The Game of Intelligent Life by the Discovery Channel back in 1997. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evoluti...telligent_Life

This game sounds and looks a lot like it - though I suspect you guys will have found a way to make it a bit more fun than Evolution was ;-)

[Ezak]

Hi Glenn,

After reading through your blog, I just completely fell in love with the look of the game, it's the most charming i've ever seen, so cute i want to hug it !

I had never heard of this rendering trick before, it's just absolutely fantastic, yet so simple.
For fun, practice (and personal wow factor), i started building a mini topia-like landscape building engine on my pc (using fixed pipeline so it's clearer in my head).
I don't know if this is the place, but out of curiosity, is there some smart trick to apply... the trick ?

I'm using a simple "for loop" to change the raw values of my vertices (translating x/z to simulate spinning the planet, and adding the equation to y, the height of the terrain, for the actual planet illusion). It's not pretty, and I don't feel like this is the way to go... I know you are only using ES 2.0, but maybe you know of an "old school" way ?

Finally, I did not see this video posted outside your blog, so here it is for more to see, although it's pretty "old" now.
(Look at the texture up close at 1:27 ... so gorgeous)

Youtube link | Pop Up


Cheers

[GlennX]

Originally Posted by Ezak

...I'm using a simple "for loop" to change the raw values of my vertices (translating x/z to simulate spinning the planet, and adding the equation to y, the height of the terrain, for the actual planet illusion). It's not pretty, and I don't feel like this is the way to go... I know you are only using ES 2.0, but maybe you know of an "old school" way ?
Cheers

I imagine it would get pretty ugly in fixed function. Topia does all of the 'pseudosphere' stuff in the shader. I'm not sure but I think to do it in fixed function you'd have to generate geometry in warped space every frame, the fixed function transform just being used for projection and maybe a little rotation. I suspect that's what you are doing already. The only other time this was done, to my knowledge, was Populous the Beginning but that was in the days when we didn't even use a 3D API for transforms so had as much freedom as when writing a vertex shader when writing the custom transform stuff.

[Ezak]

Originally Posted by GlennX

I imagine it would get pretty ugly in fixed function. Topia does all of the 'pseudosphere' stuff in the shader. I'm not sure but I think to do it in fixed function you'd have to generate geometry in warped space every frame, the fixed function transform just being used for projection and maybe a little rotation. I suspect that's what you are doing already. The only other time this was done, to my knowledge, was Populous the Beginning but that was in the days when we didn't even use a 3D API for transforms so had as much freedom as when writing a vertex shader when writing the custom transform stuff.

Yes that's what I'm doing already, I guess it does the job
Thanks again for sharing so much on your blog, I love finding out new tricks !

Anyway, I cannot wait for this to come out, best of luck !