Blockopolis – Prototype 4 Devlog

Hey everyone,

We're excited to announce that Prototype 4 is finally out, and this one is a big update for Blockopolis. Compared to Prototype 3, this release we were focused on improving upon Prototype 3 on every aspect of it. From visuals and camera controls to balance, UI, and overall flow.

This update represents a lot of iteration, polish, and rethinking how the game should feel like.

New Features

1. Buildings now have a maximum level.

When a building reaches its max level, you unlock a new choice that lets you specialize it further:

• Residential: Gives a major population boost to the city.

• Office: Upgrades all the exiting an new goals rewards. Increases them so that goal completion is more rewarded.

• Factory: Provides extra bricks and workshop abilities to make your game interesting.

Each specialization has its own distinct visual look, which helps make the city feel more varied and lively as it grows. Think what type of building you need in your city.

2. New Tutorial System

Tutorial did not exist in Prototype 3 and this made it confusing for new players at what to do. So we had added a city mayor character to respond to player's actions to give the appropriate context and guidance, while mostly not getting in the way of gameplay and not breaking the forth wall as much as possible.

The goal was to keep the game flowing while still making sure players understand why they’re doing things, not just how.

3. Off-Screen Goal Markers

We added off-screen goal markers that show the building goals outside of camera view, which are also selectable with the mouse. Added ease the workload of the player from having to memorize and look around the city everytime to know which building goals are available.

They are sorted based on the lowest goal number on top, to the highest on the bottom.

This makes planning placements and future moves much easier, especially when the city gets large.

4. City Camera Upgrade

The city camera was revised and updated to be more intuitive to move around the city and be more responsive.

We wanted to avoid people being nauseated from the camera constant movement whenever you switch from building view to city view, so we removed the camera `Building View -> City View` animation, and sped up the opposite  `City View -> Building View` animation.

The camera now also focuses on buildings near the edge of the screen when you hover over them, making navigation much smoother.

5. Faster Access to Shops and other Special Buildings

• Now shops like paint shop, combo shop or stash can now be interacted with without having to select and enter the building. You can now modify your bricks directly from the city view.
• Special buildings, like paint shop, combo shop, stash or construction site can now be entered directly from the UI, without having to search for them with the camera. Simply select their icons on the screen with the mouse, or use the number keys on the keyboard.

6. Overall Balancing and more Challenge

The game now leans more into resource management and planning, making you feel less like you’re reacting to randomness and more like you’re deliberately shaping a city. We have added more variety both in the buildings and in the map.

Major Visual Improvements And Polish

Prototype 4 brings a large visual overhaul that represents our vision of the game we want to make:

• The map and environment have been heavily reworked.
• Lighting and style has been improved to give the city more depth and atmosphere, while keeping a simplistic cel shaded low poly style.
• The UI has a more blueprint inspired style, which reinforces the idea that you are a city architect in this world.
• The special buildings like the shops, the stash and construction site have now their own silhouettes and visual identities separating them from each other
• New sound effects have been added for better feedback and polish
  
• New background music that fits our game desired feel. It's still rough and temporary and will undergo many changes later on

Engine Upgrade

We have moved from Unity 2022 to Unity 6.2. This helped us improve stability, performance, and gave us more flexibility to push visuals and systems forward.

Final Thoughts

Prototype 4 has gotten us closer to the vision that we share for the game and are hoping and excited to share with you.

As always, this is still a prototype, and your feedback is incredibly important as we are transforming our game into our dream come true one.

If you play Prototype 4, let me know what works, what doesn’t, and what you’d like to see next. We would also like to know your secret strategies and exploits that made the game more fun for you ;)

Thanks for playing and supporting our small indie game Blockopolis.