I’m planning to do a simulation game in the future. I’m new to Unity but not to code in general, my first projects will be some rather simple stuff to get in touch with Unity, after that, I want to start a real project. To be well prepared I already want to start reading about it.
So, basically, I’m wondering about what’s important when doing a simulation game (like a city simulation, rollercoaster etc.). Especially the maths/coding behind the. The simulation engine. Wondering how to go about optimizing it so it isn’t very very easy but also not difficult as hell. Is it just try and error or should I do some calculations using real maths?
Are you talking about balancing the difficulty? That will depend on what type of simulation it is - you need a basic design before you can calculate results. I don’t think there’s any universal formula for it.
If you’re talking about how to implement it - that’s a very broad question, and again it depends on what your basic design is.
Of course, you are right. Wha I meant was the difficulty. ANd I want to know about the approach, not about a forumla.
How to plan something like this? E.g. you could make a complex mathematical theory and try to calculate it and then finetune it in beta tests. Or you could just “guess” the first settings and then finetune it.
Implementation and what to care about in the simulation shouldn’t be part of this question. Just thought, there might be some good articles, books or whatever about this topic. Asking doesn’t hurt
I’d go with an agent based approach (simulate individuals based on how you think they should act). No need to simulate every single individual you can simulate 1% or 10% or 0.1% and extrapolate to your population size. Refine the behaviour so its realistic. Refine it again so its fun. Then chop it down so it performs. Rinse and repeat.
It would depend on what your needs are for a simulation. I’ve made a quadcopter simulator and a fishing simulator in Unity and I asked myself how detailed I needed to get.
With a simulation for entertainment purposes you only need give people what they expect from the real world scenario how you get there is your choice. If it were a scientific simulation then it’s a whole different ball game.
Emulation is much easier, gives the user the feeling of working right but its only faking it behind the scenes. With emulation you also need to actively structure your code so it scales. With simulation, the scaling is by-design.
Don’t forget that your first priority is to make a game that is fun, rather than a simulation that is completely accurate. Its very easy to get wrapped up in making an accurate simulation. Then we you come to make decisions about gameplay you’re always tempted to say “but that’s not realistic”. For a piece of entertainment the aim is to make something which feels realistic rather than is realistic.
If you consider a film like “Gravity” - to most of us it really feels realistic because its a step more realistic than most films which have come before. Neil deGrasse Tyson pointed out several factual errors with the film but changing those wouldn’t have made it a better film, more the opposite because the story would have suffered which would have made it a less successful piece of entertainment.
Of course it’s rather a fun emulation! I don’t want to make it realistic. There is a very big fun element in it and it’s an fantasy emulation. I will have something like a city/rolelrcoaster park.
It’s also a mobile game, so I’m limited in some areas. I absolutely can’t care about every little peace of information. Just some basic things.
But thanks you helped me!
@gigiwoo
I won’t make a very big game, I’ll make it small and simpel. Simulation was really the wrong word. So I won’t overtake myself.
I think, my starting post was written very bad. sry about that.
The first step would obviously be educated guess and then refine unless you are going for a realistic simulation in which case you then model the real life situation as closely as you can.
