ID:96947
 
Keywords: design, motivation
I meant it when I wrote back in this entry, "it's not in my nature to have put up that hub entry unless I was pretty confident there'd be a game there eventually."

However, I realized something when I couldn't see my GSDC'10 project to completion, that my ultimate goal is to create a virtual world experience. The way Planetbreakers is set up, it's too detached, it feels like a real time strategy game. This is just not going to work.

What I've been trying to do since almost day one is marry two different things together:
  1. Meaningful interaction/fun - Where a player can feel really involved and enjoy playing.
  2. Virtual worldliness/immersion - Where a player feels like their actions within a virtual environment really matter.
I've been getting closer and closer with my experiments in perspective and whatnot, but I'm not quite there yet.

I think my new focus is going to be this: make the game tell a story. In other words, I'm probably going to be making a proper roleplaying game with a lesser focus on accumulation. Think Roguelike, maybe even a Gauntlet-like take to Spelunky.

I'll probably go back to Project Shock, but blow it open a bit - make the maps randomly generate and be persistent.
"it feels like a real time strategy game."

And what's wrong with that? ;)
I've nothing against strategy, but making such a disconnected perspective seem virtual worldly is tricky. :P