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THE GAME IS AT A STAGE NOW WHERE THINGS SHOULD START PROGRESSING FAIRLY QUICKLY SO I NEEDED TO ORGANISE MYSELF BETTER

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Game changes

Game changes so far, I will update this post as I implement changes in the look & layout of the game.

Below is a screenshot of the updated rider information screen, showing Jorge Lorenzo's details. His stats aren't accurate yet as I'm still in the early stages of data setup and game testing. A new feature I have added is the riders pit crew. This was something I was originally not going to do, but I think it is a very important part of running a race team, so the player will now be able to hire different pit crew as well as different riders. In the future the player will also be able to sign contracts with different chassis, engine & electronics suppliers if they choose to manager a CRT team. Finances will play a big part in this feature.

Each rider also now has an injury, fitness and morale status which will affect his performances.

14/10/2013

Rider information screen now shows current machine details & machine details for the following season. If the player chooses to manage a team with production bikes or CRT bikes, then they will be able to negotiate different suppliers for chassis & engines. The electronics for these teams will be the the Spec Dorna supplied electronics kit.

Season calendar is now setup, currently based on 2013 season.

20/10/2013

Rider database is finished for the riders currently in the game.

Also, team home screen is updated to show the Team Championship standings

There is also now a Facebook page for people to follow where there will be further screenshots.

Click HERE

National flag of chosen rider now displayed - here is Jorge Lorenzo rider info screen

25/10/2013

Riders home screen now shows any changes to riders stats as a result of testing or race practice. Below is the rider information screen for Dani Pedrosa.

Game review so far

Since this project began at the end of March, I have learnt alot about coding, and this has led to me doing a review of Motogp Manager, what I had done so far, and also how I did it.

I am now in the process of re-writing alot of game code, in almost all areas of the game, but mainly database, data handling and data processing as this makes up the bulk of code so far.

I am hopeful that the re-write won't take too long to complete. Once this is done, the game will be alot more streamlined and should run much better as I am trimming alot of processes, mainly database related. The core elements of the game will remain unchanged, and visually may not look alot different.

From now on I will also be focusing on only 2 teams, as before I had included every team / rider from the 2013 season, which was very time consuming when I had to test something as it meant ensuring that every team/rider was working correctly. This is something I should have done from Day 1, but I guess this is just one thing I have learnt in the past 6 months working on the game

Once I have completed my game updates, I will continue work on the game from the pre-season testing phase onwards, and as always will post updates and screenshots with new features.

See you soon !

A challenging time

I have now spent over 3 months working on my race engine, which I feel is getting pretty good. Shown is a screenshot of a very early example of a test session involving just the Repsol Honda & Factory Yamaha riders.

It produces some convincing and believable laptimes. I now have to incorporate this into the main game.

Update 21st September 2013

I'm progressing with implementing this part of the game, once this is done and the first test of the season works with all riders, I will be adding a test summary screen.

I also plan to add quite a few new features into the game, such as more detailed machine specs, and also the ability for the player to make different deals with chassis, engine, electronics suppliers for the following season, as long as they aren't managing a full factory team.

Updated rider stats

I have decided to change some of the stats for the riders in the game. This is because I will be starting to develop the session screens, practice sessions, races etc and with the way I want to be able to interact with your team riders at each session I felt I had to change stats to reflect this.

This will become clearer the further I get with this stage

Season Calendar

I'm now happy with the way the system for approaching & signing riders is working, and also the championship points table.

I'm now working on the racing calendar for races & test sessions. Again, this is more complex than I first thought, however I feel it will be easier to work with than last months problems

Below is an early screenshot of the team home screen, with updates next event feature

2 Months In.............

29/6/2013

Not alot has changed visually with the game this months as I have spent the time getting the rider transfer system working correctly. This has been quite a large job, but it is working perfectly now.

I have also just got the championship points table working correctly as I have had a problem displaying riders with equal or zero scores, but this is working now also.

I am now going to start work on the season calendar, and work out how best to display this in game.

Rider Transfer System

This is an early screenshot of my rider transfer system. This is proving to be alot more complex than I first thought, with so many variables for riders contracts, happiness, likelihood of moving teams, team reputation affecting happiness and chance of signing a rider, and loads more.

I'm getting through it though, so should have a fully functioning system up and running soon for Rider1 & Rider 2 position, salary demands and a system for pre-saving any rider moves for initialising at the end of the current season.

Update - 11/6/13

Almost there with the rider transfer system, you can now offer a contract for Rider 1 & Rider 2 in your team, the game will not allow you to offer multiple riders a ride at the same time, there is a salary system in place where the rider you approach will decide whether or not to accept your offer based on his current salary, happiness in his current team and his level of ambition. More updates and new screen shots to follow soon.

Update - 15/6/13

I now have a system whereby you cannot approach the same rider for both seats in your team. Also, the rider decision making system for accepting contracts is getting deeper.

More updates to follow

Update 23/6/13

I now have a fully working rider transfer system in place. In my test shown below I signed Marc Marquez and Aleix Espargaro for the Yamaha team for next season ! As you can see, the rider details have updated to reflect these changes.

All the other rider stats also update to the new team for next season. 

26/6/13

I thought I had the transfer system finished but have found a couple of more things I need to do to fine tune it so it works a little better, will sort this out before moving the next stage of development, screen shots to follow when I finally get the transfer system done.

29/6/13

Rider transfer system now in place. New screenshots below

This is working just like I wanted it to, the game also sets up any rider moves in advance so at the start of a new season it will setup the teams with any changes.

Rider Interaction

I have started work on a rider interaction system so you can hire or re-hire riders for your Motogp team.

I have also made a system for the player to browse all the riders in the game, I now have to add some new ridres from WSBK, Moto2 etc to populate the game with new potential signings.

One Month In

I have been working on my game now for a month, so I'm interested to compare what I started with at the end of April, to what I have now.

So here are some screenshots of Motogp Manager V1 to V1.9

V1.1

V1.2

V1.3

V1.4

V1.5

V1.6

V1.7

V1.8

V1.9

So as well as looking alot better, I have done so much work on data strorage, loading, displaying etc that the first version is a million miles away from where I am at the moment.

The main things I have been working on is inputing team & rider data (not finished yet), game initialisation, loading speed, information display, screen layouts, clickable text instead of info buttons and alot of other things. I plan to work on rider interaction and the race calendar next.

Look foward to seeing the differences next month

Team finance display screen

New financial display screen for the chosen user team, and a slightly different rider details screen. I have also alot of 'behind the scenes' work on the database so far.

Rider happiness system, basic finance system and game date in place

Rider happiness system, basic finance system and game date in place, again seem simple but have taken a while to implement.

The rider moral/happiness calculations were tricky to figure out but I've got it working pretty well. Also the Team finances are in place, with sponsor income and salary outgoings adjusting balance of team funds.

And the game starts on 1/12/2012.

Updated Team & Rider screens

Done a bit more work on the layout and display of the Team & Rider details screens

Now I'm working on the riders championship table layout and sorting the points into descending order which sounds simple but is proving more difficult than I thought.

Rider display screen

Done alot my 'under the bonnet' work on data. Set game start date, rider ages and retirement ages, also various browse info screens

Here is a pic of the current rider info screen, I still have to add a championship table to the rider screen.

I also have some work to do the team info display screen.

Also I plan to setup the season calendar with tests & race schedules and add this to the team home screen somehow.

Game Data and Game Screens

I have settled on a method to create game data (teams, riders, staff etc), and also a good way to access, display and update any data as required, such as rider stats that may change.

I have also made a start screen, a choose which team to manage screen, rider stats screen and more. It has taken along time to do, but most of that time has been spent with data structures, and finding a good way to deal with an ever growing amount of information.

Here I have made some choose team bike graphics:

Here is the choose team menu screen:

I seems that I get everything to a point where I am happy, then I find some more stats to enter and process, but I guess thats part of the process. I will probably be going back to game data creation alot during my time trying to make this game the game I would want to play.

Ideas and beginnings

I have thought about making this game for a long time, as I am a massive fan of Motogp, yet there has never been a 'proper' Motogp Manager game, where the aim is to take over a Motogp team and through rider & bike development hope to win races and ultimately the Motogp world championship. There are few web based online games of this type, but I find them 'clunky' and not what I want.

There have been a few F1 manager games released in the past, but only a couple of these were really any good, and they were also made a while ago so they are quite dated. There are always rumors of a new modern F1 manager game but as yet no game has been released. 

I am using the GameMaker V8.0 program to make my game. I am fairly new to using this but it is perfect for my needs. I have taken many ideas from Football Manager games, as I don't plan on using many graphics yet, but to design my game in a 'FM' way. I will track my progress and include screen shots of the game as it progresses. At the moment I am using actual teams & riders names, I do know that if I want to do anything commercial with it in the future I will have to use fictitious teams & riders, but for now its easier for me to test if I recognise the people in the game.