I NEED YOUR HELP
Pocket City already exists as a game. I know this is stupid and I should have checked this before starting since I had the intention of publishing it to steam but here we are.
If you want more details, or more knowledge about the game check this video out: Video
Oops…
I NEED YOUR HELP
Pocket City already exists as a game. I know this is stupid and I should have checked this before starting since I had the intention of publishing it to steam but here we are.
If you want more details, or more knowledge about the game check this video out: Video
Oops…
UFOs in an Alien Invasion 💔💔
The second rare event addition to Pocket City!
Get a chunk of your population zapped up by some not so friendly aliens…
Any more ideas, let me know below!
But it was pretty neat to implement. 3D modelled it and everything.
3 hours of doing god knows what. Tried to figure quality settings out and probably did smth else but was too busy with the World Cup to remember what I did. Probably bug fixes and stuff.
Oh yeah and you see a pretty cool ripple pulse thing that propogates through the map.
Although it is a little weak right now but i’ll fix that next time. Super tired. mb
UFOs in an Alien Invasion 💔💔
The second rare event addition to Pocket City!
Get a chunk of your population zapped up by some not so friendly aliens…
Any more ideas, let me know below!
But it was pretty neat to implement. 3D modelled it and everything.
3 hours of doing god knows what. Tried to figure quality settings out and probably did smth else but was too busy with the World Cup to remember what I did. Probably bug fixes and stuff.
Oh yeah and you see a pretty cool ripple pulse thing that propogates through the map.
Although it is a little weak right now but i’ll fix that next time. Super tired. mb
Microsoft Authentication + Firestore DB
I’m currently working on my school website, which I decided to completely recreate and make it run for free indefinitely instead of just carrying on maintenance from the previous year because I had the know how and talent I guess to do so.
But I can’t be asked to deal with frontend. Designed something up in figma, sent it over to claude and let it cook. It actually did a decent job although touch ups were required. (But if you’re new to frontend do NOT do this - learn it first)
I’m mostly learning about the dev environment here, and if I really would enjoy the vibe and stuff. Also learning how to use git branches and collaborate with other devs, so this is pretty cool and a really new experience for me for the first time in like 10 years.
So below you can check out the old prod [here](UCGS Maths Society).
This is very maintainer design oriented, and I feel like this is the closest I’ve been to real production environments.
+3-4 hours working on firebase + azure
Genuinely the worst thing ever. I STILL can’t figure it out but I had to post my weekly devlog anyways. Can you believe we’re 28 weeks into 2026??!
Here’s the chaos where I accidentally created a “Pocket Empire” (Day 1105)
Watch the video (click the title) if you wanna see how I ended up here and a minor crash out. very minor.
Genuinely the worst thing ever. I STILL can’t figure it out but I had to post my weekly devlog anyways. Can you believe we’re 28 weeks into 2026??!
Here’s the chaos where I accidentally created a “Pocket Empire” (Day 1105)
Watch the video (click the title) if you wanna see how I ended up here and a minor crash out. very minor.
Yeah thanks stardance. 10 hour limit for what. Probably spam filter.
Also MASSIVE BUG(s). One is that the game just randomly deletes all the buildings from a chunk. No idea why, I’ve been at it for so long. Another issue is the stupid vacancy counter which has been broken FOREVER but atleast now it doesn’t go negative. I have a serious feeling I will have to spend a week just POLISHING the game.
Whatever, Currently working through a new feature of allowing you to use your money that you spent so long accumulating to try and fix the chaos that you went through.
This is done through the “Council FX” which I may rename if you guys can think of a better name, and you can see the countless things to do such as:
… and many more as well as the ??? at level 100… who knows what that does. £2.5 million btw. Of course, those levels are the XP, which has finally given that a use.
And no you wont be at level 11000 just like that, i’m just being lazy for testing.
Also rebalanced so that all of the commercial buildings have ~10-15% of their previous employment caps. So that you’re not just spamming residential. It also makes industrial more useful as they have more employers even though they produce less money.
Yeah thanks stardance. 10 hour limit for what. Probably spam filter.
Also MASSIVE BUG(s). One is that the game just randomly deletes all the buildings from a chunk. No idea why, I’ve been at it for so long. Another issue is the stupid vacancy counter which has been broken FOREVER but atleast now it doesn’t go negative. I have a serious feeling I will have to spend a week just POLISHING the game.
Whatever, Currently working through a new feature of allowing you to use your money that you spent so long accumulating to try and fix the chaos that you went through.
This is done through the “Council FX” which I may rename if you guys can think of a better name, and you can see the countless things to do such as:
… and many more as well as the ??? at level 100… who knows what that does. £2.5 million btw. Of course, those levels are the XP, which has finally given that a use.
And no you wont be at level 11000 just like that, i’m just being lazy for testing.
Also rebalanced so that all of the commercial buildings have ~10-15% of their previous employment caps. So that you’re not just spamming residential. It also makes industrial more useful as they have more employers even though they produce less money.
I added Arson and added a Police manager that goes out and solves these crimes. Lots more to come, let me know of any ideas you have!
But before that let me teach you ALL something.
I had a bunch of scripts that all did ABOUT the same thing but with different.
This was FindClosestHospital, FindClosestFireStation and the thing I was adding which was FindClosestPoliceStation.
It felt quire redundant to copy the same lines but instead of Hopsital it was replaced with FireStation or PoliceStation.
//Generic functions
private T FindClosestReachableService<T>(Vector2Int targetPos, Func<T, bool> hasAvailableVehicles, out List<Vector2Int> bestRoute) where T : Building
{
T closestBuilding = null;
bestRoute = null;
int shortestRouteLength = int.MaxValue;
bool foundBuildingOfThisType = false;
foreach (var kvp in gridManager.GetMapGrid())
{
GridManager.GridTile tile = kvp.Value;
if (tile.buildingScript != null && tile.buildingScript is T serviceBuilding)
{
foundBuildingOfThisType = true;
if (!hasAvailableVehicles(serviceBuilding)) continue;
List<Vector2Int> testRoute = CalculateRoadPath(tile.buildingScript.gridPos, targetPos);
if (testRoute == null || testRoute.Count == 0) continue;
if (testRoute.Count < shortestRouteLength)
{
shortestRouteLength = testRoute.Count;
bestRoute = testRoute;
closestBuilding = serviceBuilding;
}
}
}
if (!foundBuildingOfThisType)
{
bestRoute = null;
return null;
}
return closestBuilding;
}
Above is an example of the C# generic.
We have “T” type, and I think this is a good place to learn about them.
Instead of defining the function as returning something like Building, we make T a type. and you can see it passed in a little <T> after the function name. We can also pass in entire functions like Func<T, bool> which is utilised as shown below:
Building bestStation = FindClosestReachableService<PoliceStation>(building.gridPos, ps => ps.HasPolice(), out route);
you can see ps => ps.HasPolice() calls that out. And finally, to define what T is meant to be, I’ve added where T : Building.
You can do this many times, such as by having both a T as well as a U! and you’d have a repeated where T : Building where U: PotatoChips or something idk what U is meant to be bro.
This was my first time using it but it’s pretty cool and if you’re using C# I’d recommend learning it as it saved me like 200 lines of code and changing something 3 times to change the same thing!
And yes, I added a third thing which is Arson! which is a crime based thing, and you have a visual that shows up as a timer. if a police doesn’t solve the crime it sets on fire. It’s not too bad but it adds a use for the police, with much more to come for the police to deal with in the future!
Also added asteroid BOMBARDMENT as a debuff. Yeah it’s brutal. 3 strikes… thats up to 108 tiles DESTROYED and set on fire.
I added Arson and added a Police manager that goes out and solves these crimes. Lots more to come, let me know of any ideas you have!
But before that let me teach you ALL something.
I had a bunch of scripts that all did ABOUT the same thing but with different.
This was FindClosestHospital, FindClosestFireStation and the thing I was adding which was FindClosestPoliceStation.
It felt quire redundant to copy the same lines but instead of Hopsital it was replaced with FireStation or PoliceStation.
//Generic functions
private T FindClosestReachableService<T>(Vector2Int targetPos, Func<T, bool> hasAvailableVehicles, out List<Vector2Int> bestRoute) where T : Building
{
T closestBuilding = null;
bestRoute = null;
int shortestRouteLength = int.MaxValue;
bool foundBuildingOfThisType = false;
foreach (var kvp in gridManager.GetMapGrid())
{
GridManager.GridTile tile = kvp.Value;
if (tile.buildingScript != null && tile.buildingScript is T serviceBuilding)
{
foundBuildingOfThisType = true;
if (!hasAvailableVehicles(serviceBuilding)) continue;
List<Vector2Int> testRoute = CalculateRoadPath(tile.buildingScript.gridPos, targetPos);
if (testRoute == null || testRoute.Count == 0) continue;
if (testRoute.Count < shortestRouteLength)
{
shortestRouteLength = testRoute.Count;
bestRoute = testRoute;
closestBuilding = serviceBuilding;
}
}
}
if (!foundBuildingOfThisType)
{
bestRoute = null;
return null;
}
return closestBuilding;
}
Above is an example of the C# generic.
We have “T” type, and I think this is a good place to learn about them.
Instead of defining the function as returning something like Building, we make T a type. and you can see it passed in a little <T> after the function name. We can also pass in entire functions like Func<T, bool> which is utilised as shown below:
Building bestStation = FindClosestReachableService<PoliceStation>(building.gridPos, ps => ps.HasPolice(), out route);
you can see ps => ps.HasPolice() calls that out. And finally, to define what T is meant to be, I’ve added where T : Building.
You can do this many times, such as by having both a T as well as a U! and you’d have a repeated where T : Building where U: PotatoChips or something idk what U is meant to be bro.
This was my first time using it but it’s pretty cool and if you’re using C# I’d recommend learning it as it saved me like 200 lines of code and changing something 3 times to change the same thing!
And yes, I added a third thing which is Arson! which is a crime based thing, and you have a visual that shows up as a timer. if a police doesn’t solve the crime it sets on fire. It’s not too bad but it adds a use for the police, with much more to come for the police to deal with in the future!
Also added asteroid BOMBARDMENT as a debuff. Yeah it’s brutal. 3 strikes… thats up to 108 tiles DESTROYED and set on fire.
BETTER UI + XP
At the top of the image you can see a little progress bar… yep I’ve added XP now. Got plans for that, probably going to allow you to unlock stuff later. Like the lockdown ability etc.
The UI has been overhauled. The actual images are a touch on the placeholder side apart from the road but it looks pretty good. You cycle between road, zoning and special building placement with 1, 2 and 3. Use R to rotate between the modes like residential, commercial and industrial zoning as well as Utilities & Emergency for the special buildings. Then finally T to rotate between those specific buildings.
Complicated? Maybe? But it’s also a lot faster. I have completely lost my muscle memory of spamming R like the “good old days” though.
Looks good? Bad? Horrible update and the game should never be changed ever again? Best update in the world and I should win £1 trillion? What do you think?
BETTER UI + XP
At the top of the image you can see a little progress bar… yep I’ve added XP now. Got plans for that, probably going to allow you to unlock stuff later. Like the lockdown ability etc.
The UI has been overhauled. The actual images are a touch on the placeholder side apart from the road but it looks pretty good. You cycle between road, zoning and special building placement with 1, 2 and 3. Use R to rotate between the modes like residential, commercial and industrial zoning as well as Utilities & Emergency for the special buildings. Then finally T to rotate between those specific buildings.
Complicated? Maybe? But it’s also a lot faster. I have completely lost my muscle memory of spamming R like the “good old days” though.
Looks good? Bad? Horrible update and the game should never be changed ever again? Best update in the world and I should win £1 trillion? What do you think?
MAKE IT RAIN ASTEROIDS
Pretty long run honestly.
But before that, let’s talk about retrofitting your buildings. Earthquakes are pretty bad. Very bad when you loose your 100k building in a moment. So upgrade it. Yes it’ll cost you 35 to 55k now. But is your peace of mind worth that?
And I added asteroids! These fly down and annihilate everything in a 3 unit radius and then set everything else in the 6 unit radius on fire.
Lots of minor bug fixes as well, trying to get the game really polished now. Some rejigging of the game’s back end, such as creating a new abstract class for employer and reworking the systems to ensure that they run more smoothly and I believe almost finally fixing the unemployment/vacancy problem. I say almost because every 5 runs I see the game yell at me that it didn’t count something correctly but honestly I’ve spent so long on this I don’t even know if it’d be harder to just rewrite the entire employment system.
For more detail, see my video linked below! See if you guys like it, my first proper long form
I Added ASTEROIDS that ANNIHILATE your Adorable City
And boy will this thing cook your economy.
MAKE IT RAIN ASTEROIDS
Pretty long run honestly.
But before that, let’s talk about retrofitting your buildings. Earthquakes are pretty bad. Very bad when you loose your 100k building in a moment. So upgrade it. Yes it’ll cost you 35 to 55k now. But is your peace of mind worth that?
And I added asteroids! These fly down and annihilate everything in a 3 unit radius and then set everything else in the 6 unit radius on fire.
Lots of minor bug fixes as well, trying to get the game really polished now. Some rejigging of the game’s back end, such as creating a new abstract class for employer and reworking the systems to ensure that they run more smoothly and I believe almost finally fixing the unemployment/vacancy problem. I say almost because every 5 runs I see the game yell at me that it didn’t count something correctly but honestly I’ve spent so long on this I don’t even know if it’d be harder to just rewrite the entire employment system.
For more detail, see my video linked below! See if you guys like it, my first proper long form
I Added ASTEROIDS that ANNIHILATE your Adorable City
And boy will this thing cook your economy.
POLITICS!! + Debugging Hell v2
I mean I guess it is? Not too sure.
Event Manager completely overhauled. Double events now no longer have the chance of repeating the same event.
Created a new GameEffects script which just takes a bunch of simple code away from EventManager and plays the basic functions such as the “tax revenue increases” which you see below.
This was quite a headache to create, and I severely underestimated how much time this would take. I have 2 extra nested classes inside of EventManager for Political Question and Political Scenario.
[... inside EventManager.cs ...]
public class PoliticalQuestion
{
public string Question;
public TaskCompletionSource<bool> TaskCompletionSource = new TaskCompletionSource<bool>();
public Action onAccept;
public PoliticalQuestion(string question, Action onAccept)
{
Question = question;
this.onAccept = onAccept;
}
}
public class PoliticalScenario
{
public string description;
public Action runnable;
public PoliticalScenario(string featureDescription, Action functionality)
{
description = featureDescription;
runnable = functionality;
}
}
[Header("Political Question Variables")]
public List<PoliticalQuestion> PendingQuestions = new List<PoliticalQuestion>();
public event Action onQueueChanged;
private PoliticalScenario[] goodFeatures;
private PoliticalScenario[] badFeatures;
The political question is sent off to the UI manager, which displays it as shown below. Then it handles user input pressing Y/Enter or N/Esc to accept the user choice, and returns it back to the Event Manager. Seems simple enough, yet there are many ways to do it but I think that the above implementation works the best out of all the ones that I tried. I attempted to use Game Manager as a middleman but that did not work out - so I resorted to passing an entire class.
The political scenario allows for the string to actually do something, so that the game knows what to process and what the user agreed to without creating a bunch of variables, and can allow for stacked political question events which is nice.
Game’s looking really neat, and the multipliers and stuff can make the game go very crazy very quickly.
Too much of a good thing is a bad thing!!
Debugged the entire system for like a solid 3 hours it was actually bad.
Came first in the UK tho!! I’m back after those 6 exams are done.
Yes I know the UI looks pretty bad but it’s good enough for pre-beta testing.
Oh yeah, speaking of UI everything is more bold. Figured out how to do that.
