Genesis et Civitas
Overview
This game is the combined result of two different student projects working in parallel, each with
their own goals and focal points.
To allow for the freedom of both projects to work in tandem, it was necessary to implement a certain
separation within the game. This separation is presented as follows in Genesis et Civitas:
the player begins with creating an earth for their creations to live on,
before moving on to guide and influence the development of their civilisations.
Both phases originate from the same idea: play god and watch your own world form.
With that idea at the core and 8 team members on our hands, we decided to split this project into two,
each one working on one of the two core modes of our game.
The first phase, created by the sister-project Genesis, was the generation of a world map.
Their primary goal was to create a procedural generation where each processing step is
more and more dependent on the previous ones. For that, they simulated the individual steps of
earth’s creation, from the forming of tectonic plates and their movement, to the influence of ocean
currents on the climate and appearing of rivers, forests and animals, all while trying to use as
little randomness as possible and instead emulate real geological and meteorological processes
in an abstract matter. Check out their
project page for more details.
At the end of the Genesis phase, a finished world map has been created, which is then exported
with all its parameters: A heightmap, temperature-maps, ground types, flora and fauna.
Then, at the beginning of Civitas, the world data gets imported and converted to be further played on.
Our main goal was the simulation of multiple parallel civilisations, which need to compete or cooperate
with one another for the resources the land offers in order to survive and thrive. At the same time
however, we wanted to allow the player to influence the world's development, guiding the civilisations
to keep them alive and happy. Check out our
project page for more details.
Personal Responsibilities
Many challenges derived from the separate systems between the Genesis team and the Civitas team.
It was quite advantageous to create player interaction, connectivity with the map and NPC logic separately,
while ensuring that our systems stayed up to date with each other's.
In this project I had two major responsibilities: The import and conversion of Genesis map data, and
the NPC design and implementation. Additionally, I was responsible for the cross-team communication.
- Game Features (Design and Implementation)
- Currency System
- Shopping System
- NPCs
- Pathfinding and movement across a hexagonal grid with varying traversing costs
- Civilisation behaviour: seeking resources, settling, splitting, merging, dying
- Civilisation stats design and implementation
- Genesis Collaboration: Map Generation from Genesis Map Data
- Production and Advertisement
- Design and implementation of the Website
- Fair Poster Design
- Coordination and organisation between Genesis and Civitas
- Production and Advertisement
Gallery
Tree-chopping animation |
Farming animation |
Mining animation |
Walking animation |
Saviour Preaching animation |
Various dancing animations |
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