gr4Xity is in an early alpha state. Gameplay prototypes are being refined and integrated. Nothing is in its final form. Share the journey here.
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Data-Driven Prototyping
The challenge of video game development isn’t just making functional, usable software. Games need an additional special ingredient: fun! Not only is fun subjective, it often takes exploration, feedback, and iteration to find. gr4Xity itself emerged from several failed prototypes and is still deep in discovery. My favorite example: the addictive one more turn mechanic…
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Graphecs: the graph-first entity component system
While firmly rooted in the 4X genre, gr4Xity doesn’t look, feel, or play like anything else. The focus on emergent systems-based gameplay warrants taking a fresh look at data structures, execution models, and even the style of programming itself. This is especially true to support the complex interactive economy and artificial intelligence systems in development.…
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Pythagorean Roulette
Last time we derived the gravity-based equation that powers interstellar travel in gr4Xity. The “jump distance” to another star is determined by a square root function that captures diminishing returns. Square-root distance functions arise in many different contexts. In this article, we’ll apply another example that’s critical to crafting variation and risk in the world…
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The Force of Gravity
Newton’s law of universal gravitation describes the force of attraction between two bodies at non-relativistic velocities: proportional to each mass relative to the distance each way. In gr4Xity, ships travel to other star systems by “jumping” into the target star’s “gravity well”. Plotting a course requires sufficient gravitational attraction between the ship and destination star…