Hi!
Johan visited me this weekend and we had plenty of time to discuss Rising Empires and even write a few lines of code. One or two beers went down as well... We had very good discussions and talked through the last features that we need to complete before we can publish Rising Empires on Google Play. These discussions were detailed as we talked through each step of, for example, the process when setting up a new empire. We also took the opportunity to discuss stuff like price levels on subscriptions. The next time we'll meet 'in person' to discuss Rising Empires will be in the middle of September.
All new empires will start in a trial (or test) world where they can play up to 20 turns (with one turn each day this equals a month) for free and without encountering any other empires. Yes, that's right, no interaction between empires is possible during the trial period. During this period players will be able to start developing their empires, explore their neighbourhood, research technologies and build military companies. Then, when the player start his first subscription, his empire (and starting map) will be transferred to the game world. After 20 turns of game play his empire will be prepared for encountering neighbouring empires...
We also had time to work a little on the code and it's now possible to create empires in the app. When the player (i.e. you) have selected race and religion type as well as entered name and password the empire is created together with a starting map. Then the player can issue his first set of orders immediately and do not need to wait for us to process a new turn. When the player uploads his first set of orders details about the new empire as well as the starting map is sent to our server allowing us to add the empire to the game world. I'll post some screenshots of the 'Create empire' screen when Johan has tidied it up a bit. We also got some work done on the map generator (see screenshots) and it's near completion. The only thing remaining is to create corridors between the different caves and to add rivers.
All in all we were very satisfied with the weekend.
Cheers!