FYP(Sem B) Week 7: Figuring Out the Maths Behind the Game

Okay this week was a reality check. We had pretty wireframes and a clear user flow but when someone asked "so how does the city score actually get calculated?" we all just looked at each other. Nobody had properly defined the game mechanics yet.

So we spent the whole week on the logic — the stuff that happens behind the scenes that the player never sees directly but affects everything. We had to figure out how City Health, CO₂ Emissions, Budget, and Uncollected Waste combine into a single performance score. We had to decide how fast waste generates in each district, how much processing at the MRF reduces CO₂, how broker trades affect the city budget, etc.

We set up a shared Google Sheet where we put all the formulas so everyone could poke holes in the numbers. There were a lot of "wait that doesn't make sense" moments. Like at one point the formula made it possible for a city to have negative health which obviously shouldn't happen. Small stuff like clamping values between 0 and 100 seems obvious but you only catch it when you actually write it all out.

We also defined what each role can and cannot do. The Broker sets prices and negotiates. The MRF processes raw waste into recyclables. The Municipality handles collection routes and budgets. Each role has constraints — you cannot sell what you do not have, you cannot spend what you do not own.

Not the most glamorous week but probably one of the most important ones.