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A SimCity inspired city builder where you design an MMO RPG

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Re: A SimCity inspired city builder where you design an MMO RPG

#3

Post by rl3 »

This is one of these fairly simple, yet brilliant ideas that make you go "Why didn't I think of this?" Granted, tycoon-style game ideas are a dime a dozen, but few are this novel or meta.

Superhot is another recent game that also meets the criteria; time advances only with player movement. Dead simple core concept. I suppose Minecraft probably stands as the most famous example though (which is ironic considering this game's art style and game mechanics appear to have been heavily influenced by it).

Re: A SimCity inspired city builder where you design an MMO RPG

#4

Post by PhasmaFelis »

The concept reminds me a bit of Majesty: The Fantasy Kingdom Sim, in that you're loosely overseeing a bunch of AI adventurers running around and getting into trouble. Of course it's coming at the idea from a very different direction. Mostly it's just that Majesty holds up astoundingly well for a 15-year-old sim game, and I've been thinking about it lately. :)

Re: A SimCity inspired city builder where you design an MMO RPG

#6

Post by egeozcan »

I always dream about an RTS where one gets to be the DM (God, Gaia... whatever you call it) where computer players fight against each other. I love scripting maps to make current games (especially AoEII and C&C Generals) work like that. I'm hoping this is, in a way, something like that. I know an RPG is played in the map (city) you design, but still. I'll give it a try.

Re: A SimCity inspired city builder where you design an MMO RPG

#7

Post by hacker_9 »

rl3 wrote: post #3

This is one of these fairly simple, yet brilliant ideas that make you go "Why didn't I think of this?" Granted, tycoon-style game ideas are a dime a dozen, but few are this novel or meta. Superhot is another recent game that also meets the criteria; time advances only with player movement. Dead simple core concept. I suppose Minecraft probably stands as the most famous example though (which is ironic considering this…

True, though really you could say this of any game. Ideas are cheap. It's the execution of the idea that draws the crowd.

- Superhot actually took the stop time mechanic from Time4Cat [1], a free flash game. With guns added, and a unique art style, players were drawn in. It also helped that the game was originally created for the 7DFPS challenge where it received initial interest.

- Minecraft gained popularity originally because it added enemies that came out at night, something the world building genre hadn't really seen before (and so the reviewers jumped on it). Voxel engines weren't new, but it was unprecedented to use them to give creative ability to the user like so ('user customization' being a common theme in many successful games, see: TF2 hats!)

- Same again with Portal, the mechanic was neat, but the story is what people always talk about.

- Monument Valley strikes me as another, great idea with the isomorphics, but also great art style and animation regardless. The progression of puzzle difficulty is what keeps the player interested though, as the learning curve is subtle enough to work in the casual games mobile market.

- Here is an example [2] of a good idea on the scale of Portal, but so far poor execution, resulting in lackluster gameplay. It is Pillow Castle's First Person Puzzler where picked up object's are re-scaled depending on your perspective.

[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-gO5hjxRsfo

[2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HOfll06X16c

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