| Dev Diary #2 - Time Flow [message #184] |
Sat, 28 October 2023 16:12  |
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Horemheb
Messages: 86
Registered: October 2022
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Member
Administrator |
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Hello everyone and it's time for our second developer diary for School Builder. Today I'll be going over the passage of time in the game, which has been implemented this past week.
When we started planning School Builder one of the first things we considered was how to show the passage of time in game from a single period to an entire school year. Let's be honest, the vast majority of an average school day in just about any school in the world is very mundane. We very quickly discarded the notion to simulate every moment of a 180-200 day school year.
In the world of School Builder the academic year consists of two fifteen 'day' terms; fall and spring. There is a winter break between terms and summer holiday between academic years.
Each day in game play is intended to roughly represent a school week. After days five and ten there will be an extra day representing weekends. If your school has boarders some students will stay on campus while others will go home; certain events such as sport matches might only take place on one of these two weekends.
Each school day in game is divided up into fourteen part as follows (following a 'block scheduling' schedule):
1. Wake Up
2. Homeroom
3. First Period
4. Morning Break
5. Second Period
6. Lunch
7. Third Period
8. Afternoon Break
9. Fourth Period
10. End of School Day (Dismissal)
11. Club & Sport
12. Night Study
13. Night Break
14. ---Overnight---
As shown in this screenshot the academic year, term, day and period are shown on the top status bar (along with your available cash):
Students and staff will have their own schedules and you will see them scurrying around campus, or even being naughty like cutting or smoking during break times... or worse.
Now each part the day is allocated the same amount of game play time (right now two minutes, but that value is subject to change as development continues); that means first period class is the same length as the morning break. As I mentioned earlier we are not trying to capture or depict the mundane moments in a school which would fill up 99% of the game if it was in literally real time; it's that minute or two where the teacher drags a student into the hallway for three solid licks with the paddle that this game is about. We're by and large here for the memorable moments, not the drudgery.
I also wanted to mention grade levels. There will be three grade levels; analogous to roughly the senior year of an American high school and two years at a junior college. Most students will stay all three years, but as in all schools some students will leave the school or transfer in at different points for various reasons.
Lastly a word about the terms and seasons. During fall and spring terms the gameplay will be in real time (of course you can always pause the game); while in the winter and summer break time does not pass; you'll simply tell the game when you are ready to begin the next academic term. Major construction is limited to the winter and summer breaks; as are the implementation of major policy changes (such as an all boys school becoming coed).
That's all for today. So what’s next? We’ll be working this coming week on core policy decisions for your school - i.e. are you all all boys school, etc. In the game once you have completed initial construction and enacted your initial policies then you may then open the school for the first fall term. More on that next time.
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| Re: Dev Diary #2 - Time Flow [message #185 is a reply to message #184] |
Sun, 29 October 2023 08:16  |
darwin
Messages: 5
Registered: August 2023
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Junior Member |
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a great start!
I have always thought about how I would let to set up a high school if I have the chance, although I dun have the skill to build a game like that.
The closest thing I play was the game HHS+ with mod that let you adjust ages, geder ratios and some policies.
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