SCMF devBlog: Mobile Pop Ups

There is a world where things work.

Let it be known that I’m very casually coming at this new game: SCMF Simulator. I had a great day today, after wondering if I was going to ruin it by over-fixating on actual work problems. Thankfully, I played guitar, ran, ate, hung out, and then realized, I had time to work on the game! When I last attacked this thing, I had battled to get a pop up system going, but I did get it to work.

I almost caved and used AI design work for my pop up window and then, true to its cons, the AI generated art didn’t let me adjust things like I needed to, so the session stalled out.

After a few days on ice, and doing other things like practicing guitar or living life, I finally picked up my ipad and drew out the pop up window you see above. I felt very excited about this but I new it wasn’t quite worth blogging about yet.

So I came back yesterday and brainstormed. I basically smack talked Patch and made him smack talk me so I could challenge some of the concepts I’ve been trying to implement. it was a good session for gabbing, but zero coding or unity work got done, from what I can remember.

Tonight however, after probably 4-5 hours of on and off developing I an one of those wondrous evenings of exponential growth that doesn’t often come unless you’re building something new. I realized my prompting was short sighted and my scope was too large. So I slowed down, calmed down, and got what I needed:

1. Implemented character-anchored popups.

2. Popups now follow moving attendees and residents.

3. Added top-left popup placement logic.

4. Implemented attendee and resident popup nudge controls.

5. Added separate popup prefabs (ZoneWindow, ResidentWindow, AttendeeWindow).

6. Fixed popup closing via outside click (scrim).

7. Enabled popup follow toggle system.

8. Implemented CharacterClickLogger interaction layer.

9. Built CharacterPopupLibrarySO for character dialogue.

10. Wired characterId → title + randomized dialogue lines.

12. Cleaned up prefab inheritance issues and rebuilt popup prefabs.

So what you are seeing is very raw art backgrounds that are placeholders and proof that I’m using unique systems for attendees, residents, and zones. I have a pop up library that let’s me control what gets said, and that excites me because I’m pretty sure I’ll be able to expand that rather infinitely.

I didn’t think it would be so easy once I got things going. I’m realizing that the difference between java, css, and html game design and Unity is that I am now building the tools that let me tweak the game in a more UI friendly way. before I would hard code a function, but now I’m planning ahead, and saying, here’s what I want to control, and then Patch makes that for me.

I’ve got live pop ups! they even float by the chracter. I know I don’t have video to prove it, but things are looking good in motion. I’m still going to have to iron out what gets clicked and when, because if the user wants to hit the zone buttons and they keep hitting the characters (and vice versa) that could cause frustration, which is not what this game is about.

I’ve certainly got games that I would compare this to, as I’m clearly placing it in the simulation genre, but at the same time, this feels different. The pop ups are going to get buttons soon that will allow you to zoom in and see the festival economy better. I’m still figuring out the lore mechanics as well. But that was really the crux of my conversation with Patch last night.

He kept saying to think about the gamer, think about what makes THEM want to play it. So I immediately invoked my inner Siskel and said, “I don’t care what the players want! It’s about what I want! I’m making this game for me and that’s all I’m paid here to say!” And while that’s not entirely true, for right now, it has to be. No one is going to play this game right now and be blown away by it. This thing is still so young. I’m still testing it.

I really like my 24/7 moon and sun and hourly rotation of the residents. Eventually I think I will give the user control of a character or two, but for now, we are just watching a fishbowl. I have a new dinosaur I want to introduce to the mixup of characters, but he will have to wait. Right now the art department (me) is responsible for crafting two new pop up window pngs. One for the residents, which I have no ideas about, other than it could look like a ticket. Then the attendees (ghosts) need a window; I imagine it will be sort of ghostly.

Very exciting stuff! Finally something worth blogging about!

Don’t forget SnowCone MathFest all started here!