Tools

Due to our high ambitions regarding the project we quickly realized, that we needed some additional tools to optimize our workflows and reduce efforts. Some aspects that were essential to evaluate the game’s overall balance weren’t visible as a whole in the game itself.
The main goal was to conceptualize and implement a variety of partly connected tools to ease the development process and reduce redundant tasks to a minimum.
While automating tasks can be helpful, a lot of the times I also had to evaluate whether or not the workload of developing a specific tool was worth the work. I also considered the tool’s reusability as well as the involvement in development further down the line, while deciding which tools we needed.
As a result I have developed several Editor Tools and also added Gizmos and Custom Inspectors to ease the team’s development process.

Click the dots under this text or use the arrows to have a look.

Item Creator

As the name suggests, this tool is used for the creation of new items. While it would be possible to create them in different ways, the tool allows us to only create items when specific conditions are met.
Viewing possible item images without browsing the project window enables us to only choose suitable item images for the chosen type of item.

Item Manager

Instead of browsing the project window to search and edit values of items, the Item Manager shows all items currently available in the game. Items can be found by filtering for specific categories or values as well as by searching for their name. This enables us to edit item information and reference other items and their values at the same time. The Item Manager is also the first place to check and see if a specific item is indeed in the game.

Mechanics

To keep all of our game mechanic’s values easily accessable I implemented the Mechanics tool. It's possible to quickly find, change and adapt values without having to look for different scripts within the project. Additional information can also be provided next to the regarding input field. This was especially helpful for the economy’s cellular automata values.

Gold Manager

Similar to the Mechanics tool the Gold Manager gives an overview of the values, that influence the distribution and flow of the gold within the game. This way they are easily accessable within one window and offer additional information. For example: Calculations with example item prices help with determining the impact of the percentage factor within the item’s price calculation.

Item Images Importer

Due to the high variability of combinations of character, armor and weapons, we decided to use a layering approach for the adventurer representation. Every item has three specific display layers to allow for different effects. This way item parts can be shown on top of or behind other items and body parts.
The different images of an item are combined into Item Images, which also define, what item type is represented in the images.
The import of the images can be automated via the Item Images Importer. During the image export in Illustrator specific artboard names are used to define, what the item is representing as well as the layering positions. Depending on the file names the images get added to their specific item images file.
If files are missing or other errors occur, the automation for the specific item images is cancelled, else the item images as well as the item images are moved to the correct folder within the project.

Cellular Automata Tool

The game’s economy is based on a cellular automata, that changes each tick. Due to the way the cellular automata is influencing the settlement’s prosperity and thus the spawn rate of items as well as the item prices, there is no visual representation of the cellular automata in the game itself.
The Cellular Automata Tool was developed to change this and provide an overview of how the cellular automata influences the game’s economy.
It’s possible to easily get information about a settlement’s prosperity as well as it’s inventory, without browsing the project window and searching within the inspector. The start prosperity values of all settlements can also be adjusted.
Due to the possibility of changing the tick length we can also check, how the game’s economy is progressing without actually playing the game itself.

System Controls

The System Controls window allows us to reset single aspects of the game as well as the game itself, without having to search through scripts or change multiple values. A few functions for debugging and testing were also added. The goal was to keep specific functions in one place and easy to access for troubleshooting problems.

Statistics

One of the main problems we faced was that we had no way of checking specific values e.g. how much damage an average Tier 1 Weapon deals.
The Statistics tool allowed us, to check for those values and e.g. use them as reference for new items or other game elements. Some sections also feature graphs to visualize distributions. In combination with the Cellular Automata tool the distribution of prosperity over time can be viewed which gives additional insights into the game’s economy.

Map Gizmos

The game’s roadsystem is made of nodes, that are connected to each other. Checking those connections for errors and solving problems like wrongly connected nodes or wrong orientations can be though, if you are dealing with Scriptable Objects on their own.
A roadsystem tool was implemented that has multiple options for displaying information in the editor. Especially for the nodes, that aren’t settlements or dungeons, this is handy e.g. when checking for a specific node name.

Custom Inspectors

Before implementing any tool the classes Adventurer, Item and Monster received custom inspectors to ease adapting their values and get familiar with GUI and EditorGUI methods.
The main goal was to structure the information to give a more organized overview and make the search for informations easier. Related informations were grouped together and boxes and titles further emphasized categories.
Unlike using Property Attributes to change the existing inspector, the custom inspectors allowed for much more flexibility and better organization of elements.
Every value change can also be undone.