I finally released my digital implementation of the classic Stock Ticker board game (1937), with support for several rule variants, local multiplayer, and AI agents. The Insider Knowledge card variant was designed by myself. The game is free without ads.
The goal of the game is to buy and sell shares in a stock market that changes according to dice rolls. After a certain number of turns, the player with the greatest fortune wins.
The game files can be downloaded from multiple websites. Windows and Linux versions are available.
Game Store
Personal Website
The game too more work than expected. I estimated 130 hours according to gitlab for the programming plus the time to make the asset and manage the store. I had to do a lot of graphism for the game's banner. The results were still satisfying in the end. Its a lot of work because each platform has its own image format that does not display the same way on each store. I have not timed my asset creations, but its certainly not under 20 hours.
Glymmer 0.5 now released
At the same time, I was working on Glymmer 0.5 to add database support and all the necessary features for Stock Ticker to work. So I delayed the release until the game was complete and functional.
I think more than half of the work consisted in refactoring the library to make the addition of new features easier in the future. I still had to put a lot of time, again, on software construction. Chat GPT helped with that, at some point I had to revert to Claude to handle Raylib, its really stubborn. It seems that Raylib can never be found, Its almost a running gag. I also trying to make the build and dependencies script reusable by simply copying files. So new projects should be easier to build.
Next steps
I will take a programming break. I have a lot of personal things to manage in the weeks to come. So the next phase will try to make some you tube videos then I could try making commercial games. Even Chat AI recommended making videos on how I implemented certain features of the game that could be interesting. For example, how I programmed the AI players in the game. It could be a way to monetize that free game.
Else for the game programming projects, I have 3 options available from the least favorite to the most favorite:
- Tech corp game: An 18xx and rolling stock inspired game. Latest modifications has made it possible to play digitally using only database. It won't be playable as a board game, or at least, the payout will be complex to calculate. This game should not require any new dialogs.
- Card shop manager: If I do not design any other game engine, I must rely only on menu, so this game would be the best fit so far. I will need new dialogs like the distributor for handling card inventory.
- Administrative maze: Simple maze crawler, with pickup deliver mechanism. Required re-implementing Mapper 3D maze engine with Raylib. This game is also short to make so its a good option for fast releases.
- Cyberspace hacking: This is an autobattler roguelike cyberspace hacking maze crawler. I also need Mapper engine for this game idea. This idea is much bigger, and have more mechanics, but there should be little menus, since its an autobattler (that is the point behind this idea).
I could also go the other way around using Love 2D, I have a few games I can make with this platform. It might be more board game friendly, but that means learning a new language and library. I will see.
Enjoy! And have fun.
Eric Pietrocupo