It is with great enthusiasm that I finally get to (officially) spill the beans on Subpixel’s next project, Gold Tycoon! Gold Tycoon will toss you onto an Alaskan mining claim and allow you to go from a novice gold panner to a self-made millionaire, or an utter failure.
With gold mining shows such as Discovery Channel’s Gold Rush and Animal Planet’s Ice Cold Gold riding high, it seems like a pretty ample time to strike while the iron is hot. One thing is made painfully clear in both shows: there ain’t nothing easy about pulling gold out of ol’ Mother Earth.
Here are some of the major details:
- Releasing for Windows, Mac OS, Linux, and potentially Android/iOS
- 2D top-down graphics
- Massive claims to scour, survey, and build on
- Varied terrain elements such as forests, rivers, and mountains
- Procedurally generated terrains to provide endless amounts of content
- Upgradable bulldozers, haulers, loaders, excavators, wash-plants, and more
- RPG-like elements such as leveling, experience gain, and skill management
- Story mode with some simple but compelling progression
- Plenty of things to go wrong to make you glad you’re just playing a game
This project is currently very early in development, but here are a few screen shots to give you an idea of what I have so far.
Bulldozing some trees!
Using the ATV to scout my claim.
Procedurally generated forest.
As you can clearly see, I’m tinkering with unit and terrain functionality, and I’m using my 5 minute programmer art to get started. I will be continuing to work on unit and terrain interaction, and I should be able to provide very regular updates if all goes well.
You can follow updates for Gold Tycoon on this blog, as well as on Twitter: @BrandonSPX