Need advice about 'Clicker' games..

MarpCark

Hey guys! Because im pretty much nearly done making my second game (hope to have it finished by the end of the week), I've already started planning my 3rd game, which I've decided will be a 'Clicker' game. Ive already got loads of fresh ideas to put into it, as well as a pretty decent concept. But the part im struggling with is the Upgrades - more specifically - how many points each upgrade should cost and how much each upgrade increases your point yield by. Do i just play the game and keep adjusting the numbers accordingly? Or is there a basic formula out there that i can use as a guide to calculate this? Im aware this is a very vague question, because the answer will vary depending on lots of different factors. But if anyone has any experience with Clickers, id love to hear how you came up with your point system and numbers (im looking at you here @BigDave - 'Mighty King of Clicker Games' ) Thanks!

MarpCark

gonna give this a quick bump - I've got most of my game is already planned out, but this is the one part im really struggling with. honestly can't figure out how much to increase each upgrade by, the increase in points each upgrade will give, etc. any help will be greatly appreciated!

BigDave

You can do it by an equation via excel sheet. Thats how we did it when I was a full time hired game designer.

But for my clickers I set the first values manually by test and feel.
After setting the first 10 levels of each type of upgrade I scale in the same ratio to each other, for the following numbers.

The last couple levels are set manually again to make them hard to get.

RThurman

Here are some sites that might help.

http://www.gamasutra.com/blogs/TinoVanderKraan/20131028/203336/The_recipe_behind_Cookie_Clicker.php
http://www.dailydot.com/gaming/cookie-clicker-julien-thiennot-incremental-games/
http://www.reddit.com/r/ClickerHeroes/comments/2hsxrf/collection_of_game_formulae_and_misc_information
http://clickerheroes.wikia.com/wiki/Formulas
http://forums.sploder.com/index.php?topic=373096.0

MarpCark

@BigDave @RThurman hey guys, thanks for responding. Sorry this is a late reply, been a bit busy. Ive taken what you've both said and created a decent outline for my upgrade system. Might need a bit of tweaking though. I have one more question if you don't mind?
Its about how to actually implement the upgrade system. I downloaded GSInventions Cookie Clicker template to get me started, and they're way of upgrading was to put each individual upgrade in a rule inside the actor, which doesn't seem the best way to do this, especially if you have hundreds of upgrades.
Im assuming you will have to use tables, but the only problem is...i suck with tables
Could you guys possibly explain to me how to code to create the upgrade system with tables, maybe give an example too? id really appreciate it. Thanks guys

MarpCark

Hi again just gonna give this one last bump, simply because its an issue im really struggling with. This is what im doing at the moment for my upgrading system:

I have a table with 5 columns; level, cost, new click number, current money, current click number. This is the table for upgrading how many points you get per click.
Then in the upgrade actor, i have this rule for each individual level:

Im am modifying this rule for each level. The problem is, this is a ridiculous amount of rules! Does anyone know a simpler way of creating the upgrade system? Or is this the only way? Thanks!

BigDave

i did not knew you can make more columns in the change table value behaviour O_O
guess you never stop learning.

yeah but your approach is too much work as you noticed.
You can refer to a saved table value, which will change as you level up.

Table 1: So I got a table for "save values" containing all upgrade levels.

Table 2: And one Table for "prices + benefits" containing each price and benefit.

Than the specific cell from Table 1 determines which Cell to look at in Table 2, which Price player currently has to pay. The same for the benefits.

Example:

Table 1
Cell 1 Row 1
Axe Upgrade Level
2

Rule for determining the price(fake)
tablevalue(Table2,1,(tablevalue(Table1,1,1))

So it looks based on the current level on the right Cell.

but there is many ways to do it.

MarpCark

@BigDave hey, thanks for helping me out . Im kinda turning to you for help because i know you're very experienced with Clicker games (im currently hooked on Orcs haha). Ok so I've began doing what you said and made two tables with the info i need on them:

Im just currently trying to figure out EXACTLY what i need to put in my rule 'when touch is pressed etc etc' to make it change to the next row down on the Levels table when you have enough money, and also when abouts to actually put the
"Rule for determining the price(fake)
tablevalue(Table2,1,(tablevalue(Table1,1,1))" as well. Thanks for the help so far though, really appreciate it!

EDIT: Ok I've been playing around with what you've said, and I've come up with this. instead of having a separate table for levels, im using a game.integer instead, which shouldn't be too bad as i only have 3 things that you upgrade (points per click, points per second, and cosmetics). I've then put this in the upgrade actor:

i haven't tested this out yet, but hopefully it will work. might need some tweaking.

BigDave

Table 1

Table 2

Your table 2 looks good.
Table 1 you don't need that much rows since you change the number within the cell.

MarpCark

@BigDave ooohh i didn't realise that you were just changing the one Cell in the levels table, ok i get it now, this will make things a lot tidier Does it matter if i increase the cost/benefit through columns or rows? I see you've done columns, but i think id prefer rows.

BigDave

i think your approach of rows is better. I will also do rows in my next game.