This month I’ve been busy working on visual changes based on season, terrain generation and many other smaller details. Also drawing objects to the screen has been optimized (the game runs 50% faster!). Here’s some more information on how the natural world in Tribe Of Pok functions.

Seasonal effects – Seasons are implemented and will have varying effects on your tribe. In general, fruit will grow plentifully in Summer and Spring but plants will be barren during Winter. This makes it important to consider when to harvest plants to make sure your food supplies will last the Winter. Harvest too early and all the food may decay before Spring arrives. Harvest too late and there might be nothing left to collect.

Soil properties – The type of plants that can grow in a certain area is affected by factors such as soil level, fertility and humidity. Every time a new plant sprouts, it absorbs fertility from the soil beneath it. When the plant eventually dies, it will return that fertility to its surrounding soil. The net effect is that over time, forests will grow bigger if left alone. However if you cut down trees/bushes, they will not return their “stored fertility” to the soil. If the soil’s fertility level drops too low, then new trees will stop growing on it and you have a deforestation effect. Animal carcasses left to rot will also increase an area’s fertility.

Data overlay – greener areas are more fertile

Temperature variation – Each map has an ambient temperature affected by the time of day and current season. This ambient temperature is offset by current weather conditions and local map features (E.g raining will make it cooler, areas near water bodies tend to be cooler, while a fire will heat up an area). When it gets too cold, your people’s health will start falling. They may even catch hypothermia as a disease if exposed for long enough. To prevent this, keep tribe members close to a source of warmth such as a fire. Protective clothing such as fur boots and gloves will help reduce the rate of heat loss.

Winter

As a side note, a few weeks ago I heard about the recently released Banished. It’s a game that simulates the environment in a similar way to what I’m trying to achieve (your town gathers supplies to survive the Winter, but altering the environment has consequences). I’m really glad there is demand for these types of games, and it gives me all the more motivation to get Tribe Of Pok finished!

You start the game with a small tribe on the edge of a procedurally generated map. The first thing to do is designate a meeting area for your people to hang out. Once they make their way to the meeting area, they will decide on the best thing to do next. The first complaint is that their waterskins are empty. Humans can drink directly from a water source, but prefer to drink from their waterskins if possible.

Your people need a water supply

We need to designate a water supply for our tribespeople. One thing to watch out for are mosquitoes in humid areas (the black dots on water). If you guide your people too close to a water source infested with mosquitoes, they risk catching malaria.

Watch out for mosquitoes

Once waterskins are filled, your people will complain about their dirty water. They can still drink it at the risk of catching typhoid (or a variety of other waterborne diseases). Water can be cleaned by bringing it to a fire. To make a fire we need wood, which can be obtained by a woodcutter chopping down trees. Fire also keeps the tribe warm during winter.

A fire provides many benefits

As a side note, currently I’ve reduced the number of professions to two – hunter and woodcutter. Both of these need specialized tools (hunter needs a knife and woodcutter needs an axe). All other activities can be performed by any tribe member.

Also, I’ve implemented a simple scheme where objects that are being carried/worn by a human show up on their body as a replica smaller version of what they look like when placed on the ground. I thought this was pretty cool, and saves the work required to draw two sprites for every wearable/carry-able item. Hope it doesn’t look too bad.