Zombox

So with the successful release of my mobile game Bean Boy (get it on iOS or Android), I’ve been putting all of my efforts into Zombox again, getting all of the kinks worked out of the crafting system.

Last time I discussed the method I’m using to greatly reduce draw calls in the game world, and this time I’d like to talk about the actual implementation of the crafting system in general.

There are currently three ways to craft items in Zombox:

* Static crafts – these are your basic player-made crafts, as well as crafts created by constructable objects whose crafted results appear instantaneously. A static craft is just a craft that allows you to input ingredients, for an immediate output result. Ie, drag your ingredients into the crafting window and *voila*, your resulting item appears instantly.

*Dynamic crafts – these crafts take time to produce their result. Imagine if you planted a seed in the ground — the tree would not appear instantly! The same goes for these crafts. They have a measurable time it takes between inputting your ingredients, and getting an output result. Usually these crafts involve the production/cooking of food.

*Automatic crafts – these crafts are produced by constructable objects that generate resources automatically. Water collectors, solar panels, etc…basically anything that doesn’t require input ingredients in order to produce a result. Like the dynamic crafts, they take time to appear. They also have certain stipulations. For example, solar panels will not generate electricity at night, a water collector won’t collect water when it’s not raining, etc.

It’s taken a lot of work to iron out the bugs, but I’m *nearly* done working out all of the different crafting systems, methods and objects. Right now there are currently *hundreds* of things to craft in-game, and many of the crafting stations are upgradable, allowing players to craft increasingly awesome stuff!

Here are some example .gifs showing the basic interfaces…

To craft, you click the move/rotate icons to place your object, then click the checkmark to build it:

Grilling some fish and growing some plants….note the progress bars that appear on these dynamic crafts letting you know how long it’ll be before it’s done:

Here we see the fish finish cooking…time to eat!:

Here’s a water collector gathering some dirty rain water, which can then be filtered and used for cooking: