Janticity is an ambitious project with an idea that has been in development for the past 8 years. It is a 2D platformer roleplaying game that aims to combine platforming elements with deep roleplaying mechanics. The development team has recently started sharing the progress of the game publicly and is determined to continue working on it.
What is Janticity?
Janticity is an exciting 2D Platformer Roleplaying Game that combines platforming elements with immersive role-playing experiences. In this game, players navigate through a captivating world, overcoming challenges, and making impactful choices.
The gameplay features a blend of platforming and side-scrolling mechanics, allowing players to explore diverse levels and hidden areas. While platforming plays a significant role, the focus is on creating a well-rounded gaming experience with a mix of gameplay styles.
The role-playing aspect of Janticity is a key component. Players take on the role of a protagonist who is tasked with helping others in the game world. However, the game also presents players with the freedom to make morally ambiguous decisions, where they can choose to do the wrong thing and face the consequences of their actions.
What is Janticity about?
Janticity introduces players to a unique world inhabited by a peaceful people known as Janties. Unfortunately, their peaceful existence is disrupted when a criminal organisation of a different type of Janty, called Bandies, invades the city and establishes The Brotherhood of Qasim.
Bandies are characterised by their maniacal nature and their desire for social control. They believe in achieving peace through power and control, often resorting to disruptive tactics to recruit new members and maintain their influence by disguising their operational infrastructure through the means of “Hideouts”. To consolidate their power, the Bandies seize control of the telecommunications network, intercepting calls for help and thwarting any attempts by Janties to seek assistance.
However, there is hope. Certain Janties possess exceptional strength and abilities, making them capable of resisting the Bandies’ tyranny. This is where the player’s journey begins. Starting as a regular Janty, the player must earn a reputation by assisting others in the community. Once they gain enough recognition, they can apply to become an emergency helper authority – known as a Jubba.
As a Jubba, players receive Calls For Help (CFH) from fellow Janties before the Bandies intercept them. Using this new system, players can thwart the Bandies’ influence and reveal their hideouts. By infiltrating these hideouts and shutting them down, players can eliminate the Bandies’ control and restore peace to the area. Successfully completing these missions allows players to progress to new areas with increased difficulty, offering fresh challenges to overcome.
Game Development and Current Progress
We’ve been using Construct 3 as our development tool for creating Janticity, and we’ve been actively streaming and recording our progress on Twitch.
You can check out our Twitch channel here to see the latest streams and updates! We believe in transparency and have been sharing our development journey with the community.
One of the challenges we face is determining how much content to include in the playtest. We strive to strike a balance between providing an interesting game loop for players to explore while managing our limited resources and making progress on other aspects of the game. We constantly evaluate our task list to ensure we allocate our resources efficiently.
Development Milestones
The Beginning
We began the development process by setting up a canvas and implementing basic elements such as platforms and walls.
The initial game development area, showing the walls, and the physical platform.
These serve as boundaries for characters and ensure they don’t wander off the game screen.
The Player
Next, we introduced the player character, allowing them to move and jump.
This foundational step was crucial for establishing the basic gameplay mechanics. Adding the player character was relatively straightforward, enabling us to progress quickly to more complex features.
AI Characters
One of the exciting milestones was the implementation of AI-controlled characters with distinct behaviors and roles.
An early screenshot of the player (left), Bandy (middle) and Janty (right).
These characters include:
- Janty: Innocent civilians who roam the game world, going about their daily lives. They can call for help if they are in distress.
- Jubba: Emergency helper authority who can respond to calls for help from Janties. They engage with Bandies and play a crucial role in maintaining peace.
- Bandy: Minions of The Brotherhood of Qasim, a criminal organisation that has taken control of the city. Bandies can disguise themselves as Janties but have a more menacing appearance.
- Coppa: Police officers responsible for arresting Bandies. They rely on Jubbas for assistance and operate from Coppa Hubs (police stations).
- Smokey: Firefighters dispatched by Jubbas to handle fire-related emergencies caused by Bandies.
- Meddy: Paramedics sent by Jubbas to provide medical evacuations and healing services.
While we haven’t showcased all these characters extensively in our development blogs, the game world of Janticity is rich with diverse characters that will gradually reveal themselves as we continue development.
Player Interactions and Features
To enhance player engagement and provide important information, we implemented various user interface elements and features:
1. Profile Info UI
We added an area in the game where players can view detailed information about a character, including their name, status, and other relevant details.
The profile UI system after clicking on a character and seeing their details in the bottom left corner.
This profile UI system helps players understand the characters better.
2. The Call For Help (CFH)
This feature is a complex and integral part of the game. When Janties call for help, the call is sent to all Jubbas, and players can view these calls via the Jubba Alert inbox system. Inspired by Habbo Hotel’s Hobba Alert system, we designed our own robust and flexible system for handling calls.
The Hobba Alert Call For Help inbox from early Habbo Hotel.
The Jubba Alert inbox displays the conversation between the caller and the Jubba, allowing players to interact and gather information.
The initial version of the Jubba Alert system.
My first idea for this system was to think of a way that the player can ‘communicate’ with the caller. The design around that was simple – have an area of the Jubba Alert that represents what the Janty is saying, and another area that represents what the Jubba is saying, and then we can start putting buttons underneath this area that can give the player control over the call.
Making the design layout of the Jubba Alert inbox system neater.
Laying out everything else we need for the Jubba Alert inbox system.
The gameplay demonstrating a call for help being received.
Now we can receive calls and read about them in the order they are received.
3. Call Log feature:
The Call Log feature provides a detailed record of the call, including updates on the Janty and Bandy involved.
The initial design of the Call Log window.
However, I think we needed to make this bigger, so we can fit more text on it. Otherwise, we’d be scrolling on forever:
The Call Log system with a bigger window.
Effectively, we can log any information for the player to read about, not just including everything that is being said in the call between the Caller and the Jubba, but also anything that happens to the Bandy and the Janty calling.
4. Alert Notices
We have also introduced an Alert Notices system to display pop-up alerts for important events.
A pop up alert notice that will appear for the player to read.
This window is cool. We can put anything we want in there for the title or the body of the alert and it will change width accordingly, so everything looks nice and neat!
5. Improving Chat Functionality
As we developed, we made significant enhancements to the chat feature on the call. Originally, I had planned to create a separate dialogue window, but I realised that it could make it difficult for players to effectively communicate with the caller. To address this, we implemented a new system that includes multiple chat buttons on the Jubba side of the call.
Integration of Chat Buttons
The new chat buttons were added to enable players to engage in conversations with the caller with less difficulty. However, it’s important to note that chatting with the caller is only possible after picking up the call.
6. Picking up The Call For Help
When you pick up a call for help, it not only enables interaction with the caller but also initiates the logging process. From this point onward, all your actions will be meticulously recorded under your profile.
Player interaction: Picking up the Call For Help.
7. The Significance of Chatting in Call Handling
Chatting plays a crucial role in effectively handling calls for help. When a call comes through, you won’t have all the necessary information about the situation, including the details, location, and the trouble-causing individual. By engaging in conversation with the caller, you can gather this vital information. It’s important to be mindful not to repeat the same questions and annoy the caller, as it may lead to them hanging up on you. This is also why we included logging chat in the call log to keep track of the conversation. If you’re curious to know more, why not give it a try and see what happens?
In future updates, we may introduce additional features that make it easier or more challenging to obtain information, depending on the circumstances. However, for now, these improvements have significantly enhanced the call handling experience by allowing players to effectively communicate with the caller remotely.
8. Dispatching Emergency Services
Players have the ability to dispatch different emergency services, such as Coppas, Smokies, and Meddies, to handle specific situations. Each service has its own hub, such as the Coppa Hub, where Coppas are dispatched from to address Bandy-related incidents. We have implemented AI behaviors for each service.
The initial development version of the Coppa Hub has been added to the game.
Coppas spawned from the Coppa Hub and dealt with the Bandy before going on their way back to the Coppa Hub with the arrested Bandy.
Considerable effort was invested in perfecting the detection mechanism to ensure accurate identification of the Bandy character. Additionally, the Bandy character was programmed to display visual cues of arrest while being escorted back to the Coppa Hub.
While our work on the Smokey and Meddy Hubs are still in progress, we have successfully designed their respective hubs. Similar to Coppas, these characters can emerge from their hubs and navigate the game world, albeit with significantly reduced search times.
The Smokies and Meddies being dispatched from the Jubba Alert system.
9. Efficient Call Management: Closing Calls and Evaluating Results
Our game incorporates a streamlined call management system that allows players to close off calls instead of leaving them in the inbox indefinitely. To ensure a satisfying gameplay experience, we have implemented a wrapping up process for concluding calls.
The player wrapping up a call.
During the wrapping up phase, each call undergoes evaluation by the system to determine the player’s effectiveness in assisting the caller. Based on this evaluation, players are presented with an appropriate result, including corresponding rewards. In the example provided, failing to address the caller’s needs results in a deduction of 10 points from Jubba’s reputation, along with no monetary reward.
Upon pressing the close button, the call is removed from the inbox, and the system automatically selects the next available call that has been picked up, opened, or wrapped up but not yet closed.
Closing the call results in the disappearance of the Jubba Alert, and with all calls closed, it makes it impossible to open additional calls until a new one is received.
It’s worth noting that calls are intentionally not opened automatically, despite what may have been seen on streams during development. Instead, they remain hidden within the Jubba Alert located at the top left corner of the screen. When a call is received, the Jubba Alert flashes, providing visual cues that differ depending on whether the player has an unread call or if the Jubba Alert is open or closed. This behavior is intuitive, and players can quickly grasp its significance. Additionally, players have control over the Jubba Alert’s display by using the designated button to open or close it. They can also utilise the X button in the top right corner of the Jubba Alert’s window dialogue to close it or use the mouse to click and drag along the top of the dialogue to move it around the screen. These fundamental features have been carefully developed to provide players with seamless control over dialogues, ensuring they do not disrupt the game screen visually.
Drawing Inspiration from Popular Games
Throughout the development of our game, Janticity, we constantly seek ways to enhance and refine its features. Taking inspiration from early classics like Habbo Hotel and SimCopter, we aim to create a unique blend of their elements while introducing our own innovative twists.
Join the Janticity Community!
We invite you to join us on this exciting journey! Stay connected with the development process by tuning in to our live streams on Twitch and reading our insightful development blogs, available on our website here at Luke Wolf Games.
Engage in Discussions and Share Content
To foster community interaction, we have established dedicated categories on our forum where players and enthusiasts can explore, share, and discuss various aspects of the game.
Exciting Updates Await!
We look forward to providing more information in our upcoming entries, including detailed discussions on graphics. Be sure to stay connected for the latest updates and insights!