Wednesday, July 2, 2008
Long time no updates.
Here is one, this time it’s not a rant. Just an idea, introspection, or something similar.
I recently got asked to join a team to make a game, mind you this was an independent thing with zero budget, something similar to a Mod Project. Such projects are dime a dozen, perhaps even cheaper, but that isn’t what this post is about. No what this post is about is ideas that got into my head after some discussions with person working on that project.
Now they don’t quite know what they want to make, aka they are suffering from “Wouldn’t it be cool if” syndrome. Where designer/team decide they can do better than those getting paid for their work, because they are game players and as such know what other gamers really want. It has other names too, pop culture might call is “Homer’s Dream Car”.
Hmm got side tracked there. Anyways conversation was about one of the “cool” gameplay concepts they were throwing around. Idea in this case what to make a game where player’s objective was to defeat Alien Queen (think Starship Troopers). However difference is that Player is in control of only One spaceship, no ground combat. So essentially your player character is replaced with a spaceship. However this concept Isn’t for a Shooter, it’s for Strategy game.
That conversation got me thinking, how would one create a strategy game where all you had was your Ship. There would be no tech tree, as it doesn’t make sense for a Single ship to have sufficient manpower to conduct new offensive/defensive research, you could have something similar to Mechanics Modifications, but that would only be a minor improvement. There would not be any resource collection, again if you are going off to fight the Queen Bug, you are going to want to take a Warship into battle, not a Mining Frigate. Resource would have to be supplied to you by the universe thru some other means. Lastly what about personnel, people that work on the ship along with you, the navigators, the gunners, the mechanics, et al. it is reasonable to believe that when a battle happens there would be causalities, how would they get replaced.
I am of course mixing both the way the universe works and gameplay. Looking at both from a perspective, where both cannot exist independently. Rational being that in order for the gameplay to make sense, it has to fit within the norms of this virtual universe. If it’s a sci-fi setting, you can all of a sudden expect Magic and Demons from hell, kind of breaks the immersion. I’ve read many times before that for a game, only important factor, and I used to subscribe to that philosophy, given that almost ALL multiplayer games have no narrative, no reason for two teams to be fighting it out.
Strategy games however aren’t very multiplayer oriented, yes there are multiplayer strategy games that are extremely popular in some parts of the world. And there have been games where Two sides have had vastly differing techs/magic trees. Although I haven’t seen any game that combines those elements. So in interest of being thinking about idea in its clearest sense I think I’ll focus of Universe 1st and have the gameplay be based on norms of the universe.
Feel free to let me know where my thoughts on this are wrong.
So what does out universe look like? We’ve already established that there are Spaceships, so the Universe exists sometime in far future, where humanity has gotten access to FTL drives. We’ve also established that Humanity is in a state of war with another race/species. And that the player is participating in this war. Player is also in command of a Spaceship of some kind, however this Spaceship is NOT a space fighter. It is akin of Naval Battleship/Cruiser/Frigate. So the Ship in question is probably good at long and medium range attacks. Quite possibly has Fighter squadrons.
Since idea is to be a Tactical Space Combat game, it would be reasonable to for the “Government”/Allied Force to help with supplies for the player. Fuel/Ammo/Repairs/Personnel et al. Physics works same as in other places (i.e. Newtonian), that way we don’t have to worry about things being TOO strange.
Now that we have an idea of the Universe we can think of how gameplay should/might work, I don’t think secondary details matter that much. It is obviously better for the game to have those details as squared as possible, since that will increase immersion for the player. But from Gameplay Math perspective not that important.
So how would the gameplay work, we could go overboard budget is no concern route. Or not. Every time I’ve read one of those budget is no concern route, it has been immediately apparent to me that it is one of those “Wouldn’t it be Cool if” thought processes. So I will constraint horses of my mind. Gameplay has to be achievable by very small team, 2-3people. And it has to produce results quickly, talking less than a month. If it takes more than a month to see any visible gain than chances of completing the game will drop considerably (they would if I was making the game). So it would be essential to reduce the strategic part to its very bare essential, the most basic and minimum possible.
What are these essential elements? Well I haven’t compiled a list yet. But I do know where to look. I have compiled a short list of games which are either Tactically Oriented or Present missions where player has similar universe constraints or has some elements of what I think I am looking for (yes I know its fine line between what I want and “Wouldn’t it be Cool”).
List follows
- Nexus
- Ground Control
- Strange Adventures in Infinite Space
- Starflight
- Protostar
- Homeworld: Cataclysm
