Game Design Archive - Games:Tech:Blog

Finally! Notes in Network Traders (DevBlog # 32)

This was probably the most often requested feature for my mobile game Network Traders, and finally, here it is. Personal notes which you can add for each player you have traded with, are now available in version 0.5.2. In order to prevent abuse, I had decided early-on to use random city names for all players. The downside is, that it is difficult to remember who was behind, e.g., Oberwestingen. By adding a note that only you can read, this will now be much easier to keep track of.

Wheelwright Building Released (DevBlog #30)

As promised in my previous post, I have kept the next release of Network Traders really small. Version 0.5.1 allows you to build a new building, the wheelwright. This building increases the transport capacity of your merchants, and allows them to trade more goods with your fellow traders.

Milestone “Alpha-Test-Ready” Reached! (DevBlog #29)

Today, I finished the last remaining features for release 0.5.0.0 of Network Traders. When I defined this milestone more than one year ago, this was what I wanted to have for my Early Access or “Alpha” release. Well, I got impatient and went into Early Access in September already, but here it finally is: a major milestone on my long indie dev journey!

DevBlog: Two Years an Indie Dev on Network Traders

Exactly two years ago today, I started working on Network Traders. The first revision in my repository dates back to January 3rd, 2021, as well as my first task in JIRA: “Setup project”. A lot has happened since – I will give you a summary of some milestones in this post. But most importantly, I published Network Traders in early access on Google Play, and people are playing it!

DevBlog: Three new Buildings in Release 0.4.5

So far, only one type of building was available in Network Traders. With the latest release 0.4.5 (“base buildings”) this Friday I added three new buildings which represent three more categories. These are transport capacity (basket maker), trade route information (town hall), and information gathering (tavern). Read on for more information on how these new buildings play together.

DevBlog: Books on Game Design and Production

If you think about starting a career in the gaming industry – be it as an Indie dev or in an established company – it’s a good idea to do some reading first. Here are a few books which helped me not only during my career in gaming, but specifically with my current project, Network Traders.

DevBlog: The Merchants in Network Traders

As I outlined in The Idea behind Network Traders, the core mechanic of the game are merchants that travel from one device to the next. The concept is simpler as it may sound, but requires some explaining nevertheless. So please bear with me while I explain.

DevBlog: The Idea behind Network Traders

If you have followed my DevBlog, you know that my current game project Network Traders is about directly trading with your fellow players. “Directly” as in “personally” or “face-to-face”, i.e., being in the same room. This is achieved by using Bluetooth to connect the players’ mobile devices. But how does the core game loop actually look like? Read this story about agents, money, and the pandemic to learn more about the idea behind the game!

Coopong For Kids is online!

Quite a while ago I decided to introduce my daughter to the world of classic video games. Obviously, the best game to start with was the first video game whatsoever, Pong. However, the Pong implementations I found on the Google Play Store all had some design problems. So I started to implement my own version. The result, Coopong For Kids, is now available in the Play Store. The following article takes a closer look at the main game design decisions involved.