Monday, November 19, 2012

Growing with the Players

So I was doing some thinking today, where all my ideas happen, in the bathroom.  I have a lot of game code from various projects laying around.  Some of it Unity, some of it web based.  Most of the web based code has led to working projects like Arsenal of WAR, Dev Spy and Sites with Benefits.  The game side, not so much.

Part of the reason is, of course, making games is hard work.  Another reason is it can take a lot of work and time before what you made is actually usable.  People using what I make is a big motivator for me. The web projects are often quick to get going and easy to build upon.  So why can't I do this with games?

So my idea was to try and take that approach with game development.  Make a nugget of a game, get a few players and build the game as they play the game.  I'll ignore the technical challenge of database wipes and such for now.  The direction of the game would be heavily influenced by the players playing it.

In my example would be a space-based economic game.  At it's core it would need:  a Travel system and a Trading system.  Now, I have both of those completed in several different projects.    The idea behind the game would be basically the same.  You're in a new age and stellar trading has just gotten started.

Do players want more to explore, build new ships, and so on?  That is what would be added as they play the game.  In an ideal world, it would all be laid out before the player.  But much like the game itself, it would instead grow with the players.

My initial thought is to make it web-based to start, but develop it in a way that Unity can be used as a front end (aha, all that Unity code could be used!).  Web-based is very quick in comparison, and much better suited to displaying lots of information.

Just an idea I had and wanted to get written down.