Scratch

UPDATE: History Part II out now!

Firedrake969 wrote:

Borrowing your idea.

woo! give credit please, n what about???

I think Cities should have a way to visit other cities by town name so you can name cities and share them.

Borrego6165 wrote:

Martiscratch wrote:

I think Cities should have a way to visit other cities by town name so you can name cities and share them.

I'll try to include that! Btw, with the online resource trading what should you be able to trade?

how about making it that money buys resources and you use them to build and not cash so you can trade them (bricks,cement,stone etc.)

Update: New Post Added!

November 2nd 2012: Generation:X History
  The first ever thread containing information about the development of Generation:X (formally known as SimCityDeluxeGold) was on August 14th 2011; it is presummed that at this point the project had already been started. By the 22nd of August, it was online at ModShare. It is now under the name G3000 Classic for when G:3000 became popular and I wanted people to see the prequel. If I had called the project SCDG, they might not know what it was. The link has been removed from the project notes of G:3000.

A screenshot of a small city in SCDG:


  On September 4th 2011, this thread was made after there were difficulties uploading a new game to the ModShare website. This is the first clue of when Generation:2000 (formally known as Free City Designer) came available to the public. The link will not work. This was the first game to have a drivemode and disasters. It also came with a newly designed interface, however the mod Panther that was used to create this game was very glitchy in itself, and there were many problems as a result, especially with the variables.

  Free City Designer's new interface was far more improved, as the original was too large and still could not fit all of the needed buttons. Also, a snap-to-grid for buildings was introduced, and many buildings which were not functional in SCDG were programmed to have an effect on the city. The same sprites for the buildings were used, with new sprites being created for new buildings. Free City Designer was met with favourable reviews for its action-packed bonuses and it's in-depth gameplay, and was featured on ModShare before being accidentally removed by a mod.

A screenshot of Free City Designer showing some variable glitches:


  There was a considerable gap between early September and late October whilst I was busy making games such as the unsuccessful "Bash & Boom!" multiplayer arcade game, where you had to work together in a large 'play room' of traps and obstacles to collect coins. The coins could then be used to buy upgrades, which then could be used to access even more coins in other areas before finally reaching 100% and entering a new world.

  Entertainment Inc 1.4 was very successful, a cinema tycoon game that boosted my confidence so much that I decided to stick with designer games and create Generation:3000.

  On November 12th, the official first advertisement came out for Generation:3000! It made it's debut on the scratch website at last, with vast improvements.

G:3000 included a menu for a more welcoming start.


  It included a menu, an in-game tutorial, a sleek and neater interface, a research mode, a UFO disaster, a super-speedy hover-car and it made even more buildings function properly. There were around 50 objects available to place, but the land space was small; it only offered a total of 97 tiles to build on compared to the hundreds in the previous installments.

G:3000 introduced many new settings at the start.


  Generation:3000 started off with a tiny amount of views, so after I had a break off of city builders (when I was working on a hospital tycoon game called Mega Hospital Inc with DewleafWolf) I got to work on fixing glitches, and finding a way to improve performance. Performance was greatly improved (although it is still too laggy in my opinion) and a new soundtrack was fitted, and roughly 7 months and 4 weeks ago (based on comments on the project posted at the time) it was curated and came to a moderatly high success.

  However, it was welcomed by scratchers with mixed reviews. There were mainly complaints about performance, glitches and even the flash player crashing completely. This was mainly due to the fact that the engine was similar, almost to similar to the one used in the previous installments. The previous two could utilise the cloning system offered on the mod Panther, whereas G:3000 had to have numerous sprites duplicated to do a poorer job. Nevertheless, it was praised for being a decent simulator itself, and yet again for providing fun bonuses.

The tornado used in Free City Designer and G:3000


  There needed to be a change, a big change. The graphics were terrible, the music was ripped from SimCity games, the performance was poor and I missed the advisor from my International Inc game. So, if you put all of them together I wonder what you'll make?

  During the months between February and May I was busy making Rayman 4, a glitchy and disappointly small game. Nevertheless, it's poor quality made me realise yet again that I should not be making games like these, just like when "Bash & Boom" was so poorly rated I moved back onto tycoon games in the previous October. After some heavy thinking, I decided to finally create what would be my most successful project and what would also have an influential impact on how building games (and their engines) are built.

  On August 28th 2012, Generation:4000 was released. It was not easy though, as it required a complete makeover from the original triology that shared the same graphics, music style and engine. G:4000 used an engine of a scale that was never heard of before. The building engine allowed the player to build and view isometric graphics, whilst stopping buildings to appear to hover on top of each other, and it allowed the player to build on over 11000 tiles!

The advisor returned from International Inc, but this time with priortised tips.


  On top of the technical and graphical aspects, there were also new features (some of which were not added until G:4001 Gold) including an advisor, a terrain editor, four save slots, every object being functionable, demolision tool, music playlist, an over-head map, multiple game speeds, shadows on buildings based on the sun's position, loans, and a separate build mode.

The terrain editor allowed basic terrains to be created:


  I worked out that if everything was flat, then an isometric building engine would work as well as just an isometric viewer. I wnated this because, when I played on SeanCanoodle's City Creator, I would ahve to build a city in top-down view, then when it got converted I used to get lost in my unrecognisable isometric city. It was like all of my buildings had been shifted and mangled. So, I wnated to make sure that both the editor and viewers were the same.

The build mode and terrain editor used flat symbols:


  Along with the new isometric graphics, I smoothened the day/night transitions to replace the old switch. I even allowed the player to move large interfaces and to hide almost any that got in their way.

The blueprint above has been converted in the view mode:


  Generation:4000 recieved favourable reviews, with some complaints about glitches and some graphical flaws. However, I would have to wait another four months before I would be allowed to get front paged because of my curated Air Traffic Controller game from 2 months earlier. So, I had 4 months spare, and a whole 6 weeks of holiday to do something.

  During this period, I developed Generation:4001 Gold! It was an 'expansion pack' that made the game feel polished. Before this, there was no smooth day/night transition, the interfaces had no 3D borders (making them less noticable and therefore harder to use when the player needed instant access), the music was poor and there were many glitches.

  I found a youtube user called Max05Thirteen who was a fan of SimCity. He created some fan made music specifically for SimCity, which sounded perfect for the new expansion pack. So, I asked his permission and then used four of his songs!

  The expansion pack was critically acclaimed and commercially successful, reaching a staggering 1500 views whilst it was featured, and still continues to grow with over 1800 views at the moment. It was praised for it's graphics, huge building area, wonderful music, addictiveness and it's cool features. Unfortunatly, the disasters and the drive mode had to be removed, and the game was critised for it's long loading times and the sometimes confusing interface design.

So, you now know the entire history of the Generation:X series! Please ask any questions down below about the history!

November 11th 2012: Exciting News Folks!

Due to popular demand, Generation:2000 has now been re-patched and uploaded to the ModShare website! So, if you would like to play Generation:2000, either in it's original condition or with it's new patch, you can play it now!

WARNING: The online player at ModShare is only compatible with Scratch 1.4's blocks. That results in any project not made in Scratch 1.4 will not work 100%, because the new blocks will be skipped/ignored. So, please download!

Generation:2000 Classic
Generation:2500 Patched!

Last edited by Borrego6165 (2012-11-11 16:13:17)

maxdoss wrote:

Whats modshare. I didn't understand about half of the thigns you said

well modshare is a site for sharing projects created on mods such as BYOB 3 & Panther. What didn't you understand?

maxdoss wrote:

Borrego6165 wrote:

maxdoss wrote:

Whats modshare. I didn't understand about half of the thigns you said

well modshare is a site for sharing projects created on mods such as BYOB 3 & Panther. What didn't you understand?

tiles and stuff like that

so basically everything?

fair enough    how would you like me to help you?

maxdoss wrote:

Borrego6165 wrote:

fair enough    how would you like me to help you?

well, i dont understand them.

this is a blog showing the history of the Generation: X series (a series of games) and also the development of the new game in the series, Generation: Cities. Tiles are basically places you can put buildings down, and the more tiles than the more space the player can have to build their cities.

Please feel free to give feedback on the menu!