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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

#11

Post by HCIdivision17 »

hacker_9 wrote: post #7
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 origin…

The Museum of Simulation Technology may actually turn out pretty good [1]. There's a sort of paradox with game development that revolves around a gameplay mechanic. The mechanics really have to be rock solid, so that gets polished out first; polishing takes a long, long time. But it also has to be engaging or else it isn't worth playing. The direction taken for SuperHot is so unexpected (to me at least) that I was hooked.

The jury is still out on tMoST, but it's still rather early in, and you can already see a lot of improvement and style between the early tech demo and the small trailers. Notably, I think there is a bit of a genre trap, where this kind of mind-warp game is stuck playing out in certain stories. I'm utterly a sucker for this sort of game, so I'm getting it no matter what. But it'd be nice if it knocks it out of the park.

[1] https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=rN1jmsnq-iM

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

#12

Post by tomtoise »

hacker_9 wrote: post #7
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 origin…

At first with that Pillow Case game, I wasn't too impressed, it seemed to have one gimmick.

But holy hell, as it went further on with the person resizing/fourth wall escaping I was interested.

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

#13

Post by aaronjb »

Hey everyone, dev here. Just got wind of this thread on twitter. Happy to answer any questions. If you're interested you can find out more here:

https://itch.io/t/9883/mymmo-design-your-own-mmo-city-builde...

https://twitter.com/aaronjbaptiste

https://www.twitch.tv/the_alchomist/profile/highlights

https://www.reddit.com/r/mymmo

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

#14

Post by nyandaber »

Reminds me of Dungeon Keeper, a old PC game where you have to build your own dungeon, with rooms for your monsters, treasure room, magic room to research spells, etc. Heroes try to invade your dungeon, and you also have to fight neighbouring dungeons. One of the cool feature was that while monsters were controlled by an AI, you could take manual control of one, going to a first person view and playing like a FPS game.

So yeah, seeing this feels like Dungeon Keeper meets Minecraft. Which could be very interesting if executed properly, but it's not going to be easy.

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

#15

Post by thedaemon »

nyandaber wrote: post #14

Reminds me of Dungeon Keeper, a old PC game where you have to build your own dungeon, with rooms for your monsters, treasure room, magic room to research spells, etc. Heroes try to invade your dungeon, and you also have to fight neighbouring dungeons. One of the cool feature was that while monsters were controlled by an AI, you could take manual control of one, going to a first person view and playing like a FPS game…

Dungeon Keeper is still one of the best PC games ever. I still play it to this day. I wish they would come out with an updated version, like DK1.. not DK2.

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

#16

Post by rl3 »

HCIdivision17 wrote: post #11
hacker_9 wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 origin…

The Museum of Simulation Technology may actually turn out pretty good [1]. There's a sort of paradox with game development that revolves around a gameplay mechanic. The mechanics really have to be rock solid, so that gets polished out first; polishing takes a long, long time. But it also has to be engaging or else it isn't worth playing. The direction taken for SuperHot is so unexpected (to me at least) that I was ho…

>Notably, I think there is a bit of a genre trap, where this kind of mind-warp game is stuck playing out in certain stories.

My thoughts as well. The trap you mention is typically a linear environment with a solid-yet-comical (or whimsical) narrative, ala Portal. That allows the featured game mechanic to be introduced at an optimal pace, effectively realizing more milage out of it. It's also the safer and more conservative route.

As a little thought experiment, I wondered how the perspective mechanic in tMoST would work in a completely different genre, and I figured it'd be pretty entertaining in say—an agent-based MMO simulator. I mean, just imagine watching a bunch of simulation agents wander about the map, trying feverishly hard to properly size objects to their liking. That seems as if it would at least be amusing. Bonus points for proper physics so they can accidentally crush each other with giant, oversized objects.

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

#17

Post by MattSteelblade »

PhasmaFelis wrote: post #4

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. :)

That was my exact same first thought as well.

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

#18

Post by robocaptain »

thedaemon wrote: post #15
nyandaber wrote: post #14

Reminds me of Dungeon Keeper, a old PC game where you have to build your own dungeon, with rooms for your monsters, treasure room, magic room to research spells, etc. Heroes try to invade your dungeon, and you also have to fight neighbouring dungeons. One of the cool feature was that while monsters were controlled by an AI, you could take manual control of one, going to a first person view and playing like a FPS game…

Dungeon Keeper is still one of the best PC games ever. I still play it to this day. I wish they would come out with an updated version, like DK1.. not DK2.

Try KeeperRL: http://keeperrl.com/

Started getting some attention in the roguelike world but it's really not a traditional roguelike... just an awesome Dungeon Keeper-esque game.

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

#19

Post by enraged_camel »

nyandaber wrote: post #14

Reminds me of Dungeon Keeper, a old PC game where you have to build your own dungeon, with rooms for your monsters, treasure room, magic room to research spells, etc. Heroes try to invade your dungeon, and you also have to fight neighbouring dungeons. One of the cool feature was that while monsters were controlled by an AI, you could take manual control of one, going to a first person view and playing like a FPS game…

Check out War for the Overworld, the unofficial successor to Dungeon Keeper. They even brought in the original narrator!

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

#20

Post by agumonkey »

nyandaber wrote: post #14

Reminds me of Dungeon Keeper, a old PC game where you have to build your own dungeon, with rooms for your monsters, treasure room, magic room to research spells, etc. Heroes try to invade your dungeon, and you also have to fight neighbouring dungeons. One of the cool feature was that while monsters were controlled by an AI, you could take manual control of one, going to a first person view and playing like a FPS game…

Not abandonware it seems http://www.gog.com/game/dungeon_keeper (5$)
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