Half a Year No Update

This is a post I have planned to write for quite some time now. After being euphorized to have found a game theme and genre I would like to make, the motivation ceased rather fast. Family business, job, all was somehow getting higher prioritized than hobby game development. Additionally, two existent games made me realize how complex the game I planned to make would likely be.

To give a rough outline, the game I planned was sort of a simulation about a country failing to solve its growing amount of protesters and drifting into a police state. The player would play the government, sending police troops into cities, while the turn-based simulation would resolve the effects like citizen movement from city to city or even abroad, or growing violence (protesters and police).

Only this mockup to show
I only have this mockup to show.

Continue reading “Half a Year No Update”

Some more ideas

Due to focussed progress on my PhD thesis this month, I haven’t made any progress in my gamedev project. Nevertheless there are still some ideas coming to my mind which I would like to store here:

  • Add some additional information/intelligence mechanic: This will influence how soon the player gets reports about what is going on in the cities
  • Make a threshold for when a true oppisition forms. Maybe even add factions that will work together or split after some time or events
  • Add the possibility to invite opposition for dialogue or refuse to negotiate with them

These features would probably add a lot of depth but will also make the development and gameplay more complicated. So rather something to add after the first prototype.

Success Stories

For some self motivation I’d like to sum up my success stories regarding game dev so far:

One conclusion to draw is that it helps to have a game with an outstanding artstyle (Bottlecolonies) or development story (Watercolor Wheel Evolution). The other conclusion is that the Experimental Gameplay Project was a good place to generate visibility. Unfortunately this project seems to be no more.

That’s it. Guess I should keep up making small, interesting games once in a while.

Next Idea Dump

This is an idea I had today: Add some special action to the game that the player can use only once a play.

  • Bribe opposition leader
  • False Flag operation in city
  • Offer concessions

Most probably I’ll get some more ideas for that. I plan to start programming this wekend and will keep you updated.

Basic Ideas for The New Game

Instead of writing my ideas on different sheets of paper, which I tend to mess up anyway, I’m going to use this blog to dump my ideas. Maybe this will cause some feedback in the early sketching phase. Don’t expect the most eloberated blog post here. Just lists.

Basic concept:

  • Political topic
  • Manage governmental decisions of a modern country at the start of uprising/revolution
  • Black/Red/White colour palette
  • Turn based
  • Interact with the main cities of your country
  • Some transparent and some important hidden statistics
  • No randomization
  • One round equals one week
  • Different endings
  • Population can flee to other cities or countries
  • Python with pygame as the tools to make the prototype
  • Self recorded music (Punk Rock or similar)

Stuff to do in game and consequences:

  • Reinforce police in city; threshold to cause denial and uprising
  • Withdraw police; threshold depending on different statistics if approval will rise or uprising spreads
  • Declare state of emergency in city; may increase violence in uprising in other cities – prevents population from fleeing the city – massive impact on denial/approval
  • Close the borders; prevents population from fleeing your country
  • Talk to protesters; may calm population down / raise approval – politicians could be attacked or even taken hostage

These are the basic ideas so far. Feel free to add some suggestions in the comments.

Five Months Break – What’s Going On?

Opposite to my plans, I didn’t continue my game development projects the last five months. Instead, my gamedev ambitions almost completely ceased during the course of last year. So with this blog post I want to give some insight on what has been going on and what I’m planning to do this year regarding my gamedev ambitions.

The initial momentum of 2013

After a pretty succesful 2012 with my game development projects, I was quite motivated to contribute to the OneGameAMonth idea. I was convinced that trying to make a game a month would not only amplify my game development skills but also keep me motivated to keep on making games throughout the year.

The opposite was the case. Continue reading “Five Months Break – What’s Going On?”