Oh, boy. I know exactly what you're talking about, and it sits decently between the concepts of an idle game and a the strategy genre. I think the best approximation I could draw is something like Age of Empires, or Civilizations- maybe even Sim City, but with more AI abilities to take cues from your initial commands.

I love the Tactics genre of strategy games, and I've been thinking for years about how I would adapt it to an MMO environment- the biggest pitfall was always the allocation of time, and active size limitations to a persons ability to command multiple units. I then went on to think about how Final Fantasy Twelve handled their AI, where the player would be able to adjust it by setting the parameters for certain actions, assigning priority and target preference. I had a ton of fun with that game! Basically, I got around to thinking about how coaches in sports movies will inevitably pull out that whiteboard- "this is the formation, here are the plays" and start drawing lines to show the progression.

How cool would it be to combine all of that into a game concept, I thought? You program specific parameters, assemble your troops, survey the field, decide on the progression- then you sit back and watch it happen. Then it hit me again- that would still require people to be on their toes, managing and trying to keep track of things as they developed. I'd considered whether it would be better handled in 'rounds', where time freezes for a minute or two for you to quickly assess the situation and adjust your troops parameters, then the next round would begin and all of the decisions you'd made would play out in front of you. I'm still working on what type of basebuilding for a players area I'd want to go with, though- AoE had a "Place premade structures and watch your villagers build them" vibe, whereas current market strategy MMOs like WarCommander have the same thing, but more restricted. Come to think of it, basically all the strategy games that let you build have the same vibe to it, with different flavors of premade structure.

Quick breakdown: Troop class AI creation- set your units up, decide how their AI behaves in as many situations as you can imagine up, then mix and match your platoons. Take the field- start of a round, survey the field, make decisions, draw the guidelines, hit ready, watch, repeat- Learn from the experience.

We already kind of have those types of games in existence, but aside from a few like Starcraft they've never gained much of an audience that I could recognize, and they give you pre-decided AI and a few basic gamemodes.

That being said, I never actually got as far as you guys in trying to learn how to code- I briefly dabbled in gamemaking through the RPGmaker software disc for the PS1, because my brother had found a copy of it at a garage sale and we'd basically try to outdo each other in making things with the default resources it provided. It was fun, a lot of fun actually, but while my brother went on to learn computer sciences and actually knows things about computers now, I gravitated away from that medium of creativity. Mapmaking, loremaking, worldbuilding- all of those had gotten through to me, and I put all of that to good use... for tabletop RPGs. Reading, writing, sharing the experience directly in a way that wasn't meant to be presented to an audience at all.

/That/ being said, I think I'd still like to take a stab at learning that sort of thing, but the way my life is going I don't believe I have that sort of time, unless I somehow decided that I wanted to turn it into a career and change the path that I'm on now.

...Tabletop RPG's you say? Dost thou, mayhaps, enjoy the game of Dungeons and Dragons?

D&D, text based group roleplay, cooperative fanfiction, you name it. If it gives me an excuse to think about and interact with lore in any form, I'm usually game.

Even Scrabble technically counts!

Technically!

I am also one who enjoys board/tabletop games, though I can get rather... ruthless. I'm very competitive. D&D is awesome, and I used to play with my family, but it was time consuming and stressful for my Dad, who was the GM, so we eventually stopped, to my disappointment. I haven't really written any fanfiction (or read it either,) cooperative or otherwise. Something about it just... puts me off, I guess? I tried to read a fanfiction a friend of mine wrote and I couldn't get through the first chapter. It wasn't even sexual!

If you like lore, then I would think that you would be a fan of Skyrim?
Also, have you played a bard? They're usually the storytellers/lore-knowers, after all.

NinjaKitten wrote:

...Tabletop RPG's you say? Dost thou, mayhaps, enjoy the game of Dungeons and Dragons?

I'm a big fan of Critical Role and I DM for a group of friends myself.

NinjaKitten wrote:

Technically!

I am also one who enjoys board/tabletop games, though I can get rather... ruthless. I'm very competitive. D&D is awesome, and I used to play with my family, but it was time consuming and stressful for my Dad, who was the GM, so we eventually stopped, to my disappointment. I haven't really written any fanfiction (or read it either,) cooperative or otherwise. Something about it just... puts me off, I guess? I tried to read a fanfiction a friend of mine wrote and I couldn't get through the first chapter. It wasn't even sexual!

If you like lore, then I would think that you would be a fan of Skyrim?
Also, have you played a bard? They're usually the storytellers/lore-knowers, after all.

I've sunk so many hours into Skyrim I'm thankful that Steam can't peek into my console history.

I actually spent a few years in highschool editing fanfiction for extra pocket change- I only lost some of my faith in humanity as a result (I've met people who can't spell the word 'the'. More than one). I stopped doing it after I got the job I'm currently working now, mostly because it was time consuming and didn't fit elegantly into my schedule anymore, and it's been a while since I've even visited those sites at all.

I've gotten to play a bard on two occasions, one of which ended in a merciless death by poetry-hating drunken wizards that wound up burning down the tavern my party was loitering at for that session. The second time didn't get very far as a result of the group just... crumbling. Time constraints, how they ravage ones' social life.


And Westbrook, I just googled Critical Role. You just supplied me with a purpose for these next three days off I've obtained. Thank you.

PretenseAndPoison wrote:

And Westbrook, I just googled Critical Role. You just supplied me with a purpose for these next three days off I've obtained. Thank you.

It's one of my favorite things these days. Hang in there; the whole setup and audio is kinda bad for the first few episodes as they're all getting set up, but eventually they hit their stride and OH MY GOD it is the BEST. Enjoy!

Ooooooooh, exciting! I'll give it a watch too!

Well then here it is; enjoy!

Hurray, thank you!

Critical Role seems pretty cool, though I'm probably gonna skip it cause of the length and I have other things I need to watch that I haven't been watching for a while haha.

Anyway, I don't really think tabletop stuff fits the category of gamedev, so I suggest moving the topic to the gaming general thread if you guys want to talk more about Critical Role and other such tabletops.

Yeah, that's probably a good idea.

Although ironically, last night I was thinking of that watching game idea again and I thought of another way that it could be kinda successful is by making the player be kind of a Dungeon Master. Where like, a story/adventure takes place, and you're overlooking everything and you're only able to try and nudge the characters in the right direction. If you want them to be strong, have them fight giant monsters, if you want them to be treasure hunters, then have them go after the gold.

But there would be some unpredictable events that happen. In a DnD like game though, I'd rather most of them happen because of the characters in the party. Where their traits and decisions influence how they react and "play" the game, so you have to keep that in mind when you choose what dungeons they go through. These are just some thoughts though.

There's a genre that's kind of like that on Kongregate- reverse tower defense. Like this one
[ http://www.kongregate.com/games/kendric/dungeon-defender ]

That does seem like an interesting concept though that I'd love to see get tackled on a larger scale, more in line with the method you described.

I was suppose to reply to this after I played the game haha oops...

I don't know how that's a reverse tower defense game. Like I mean, when I think about it, you're some evil guy and you're trying to attack a village and rise to power in the storyline, but when I read reverse tower defense game, my brain instantly thought you meant like reverse gameplay mechanics. My bad.

Unrelated, recently I've been going from game project to game project and just it's kinda disheartening. I don't really know what I'm searching for when doing this, but I got kinda fed up and just sat down and thought about what would be an almost perfect game for me. What I really like is a bunch of random generation, but I also like games where you can get strategic if you want, but you don't have to, it's just gonna be a little bit more difficult if you dont strategize. I aslo think that the difference between me wanting to play an rpg or tower defense game is if I want to feel like I'm the character and a part of the action, or I want to do cool stuff while kinda sitting back and chilling/watching.

I currently have a tower defense game thought out that is kind of inspired by 2 different games and smashed together. But all I have is the game mechanics kinda thought out. I want an rpg-like story, but I don't have much of an idea of what  that story would be. Also I'm probably gonna be more passive on this one and just brainstorm on it until I have a solid idea of what I want it to look like before diving into making it.

UniversalMonster wrote:

I was suppose to reply to this after I played the game haha oops...

I don't know how that's a reverse tower defense game. Like I mean, when I think about it, you're some evil guy and you're trying to attack a village and rise to power in the storyline, but when I read reverse tower defense game, my brain instantly thought you meant like reverse gameplay mechanics. My bad.

Unrelated, recently I've been going from game project to game project and just it's kinda disheartening. I don't really know what I'm searching for when doing this, but I got kinda fed up and just sat down and thought about what would be an almost perfect game for me. What I really like is a bunch of random generation, but I also like games where you can get strategic if you want, but you don't have to, it's just gonna be a little bit more difficult if you dont strategize. I aslo think that the difference between me wanting to play an rpg or tower defense game is if I want to feel like I'm the character and a part of the action, or I want to do cool stuff while kinda sitting back and chilling/watching.

I currently have a tower defense game thought out that is kind of inspired by 2 different games and smashed together. But all I have is the game mechanics kinda thought out. I want an rpg-like story, but I don't have much of an idea of what  that story would be. Also I'm probably gonna be more passive on this one and just brainstorm on it until I have a solid idea of what I want it to look like before diving into making it.

I admit I had a very specific game in mind when I mentioned the reversal, then after ten minutes of searching thought "Nah, fuhgeddabowdit" and grabbed an 'okay' replacement.

Still can't find the other one, had something to do with turtles, and... primitive graphics.

Ah. The one you linked me was an ok game. Strange thing is that I was able to download it to my phone, put it on my computer, and them play it. It made me think "huh, maube I can download other games from this site" but every game I tried didn't have a download link at all! It's like a miracle I was able to download this one!

Sorry for the double post, but I'm kinda excited and wanted this to show up as a new post since there's no option to make posts be "unread" after editing them.

Anyway, I was basically in a game slump. No game or game idea I have seemed enjoyable to me, and I was confused as to why. I had a random thought that just came and went that maybe the game I play or work on doesn't have to be a serious piece of craft, as long as I have fun it's all good, like with my Maggie ABC doodle project. I didn't maul it over at all, but a couple hours later I got an idea for a game to make that would aloow me to have fun and be goofy! So I'm guessing what I needed to get myself drawing is similar to what I needed to probably commit to a gamedev project.

Now if you're wondering about the project idea I got, it's a tower defense game where you play as a kinda strange and energetic little girl who is kindof an outcast for how she behaves. A boy moves into town and starts hanging around her despite what other people say, the girl has a tree house man! So the 2 of them have adventures. The tower defense comes in cause the girl is always like "You wanna go?!" and challenges people and monsters to it. That description may be a bit jumbled, but that's ok, I just woke up from a nap so my thoughts aren't organized. Sorry.

So this project is gonna be called "So You Wanna GO?!", and right now I'm working on making a schoolhouse for the town they live in.

Nice! Let us know when it's playable; might be interesting to give it a go.

Well uh, some good and bad news I guess about it. I kinda got deflated on this project too. ;w; This time really got me wondering why I keep project jumping though.

I'm a bit sleepy, so I might be remembering this wrong in places, but I'll try my best. I knew that I wanted to make games that I thought I would like to play and be fun for me. These projects and ideas would usually become big, and working on the tedious stuff to have things be just right or perfect and not have the fun stuff just made it really unappealing. But I don't think that fun is the problem, my gamedev videos idea counters that, and even though I could record myself and have fun with it, my commitment gets smothered out with some kind of worries.

So I would like to play these game ideas, but I didn't have the commitment to make them. Then somehow my thoughts transitioned to the ONLY game level/stage I made that was fun. Some stage where you had to collect colorful eggs while X-eggs try to hit you, so you have to dodge them. I may have talked about this before, but the point is that I had fun playing it, and what was it? It was just a simple game. No story, not really serious, just gameplay.

So basically, I don't need to make a big and serious game. I am a beginner, and I need to meet myself where I'm at. My first game can have sucky graphics and everything, as long as it's fun for me to play and work on, it's good enough.

So, I've started another new project. This time, instead of "whatever I want it to be big-game", I'm trying to stay a little more focused on stage 1. Any new features that would be fun would be cool and all, but I'm not that far yet. I'll just leave them lingering in the wind, and any that sticks around is probably what I'm gonna go with.

So yeah, me right now reflecting on these thoughts and stuff: I think what it is was that I was focusing on things that I couldn't work on at the time? Maybe that's what's been deflating my motivation and commitment. Either way, I'm gonna focus more on getting stage 1 done before other things. I can still come up with ideas for later, but they aren't that important right now.

TL;DR: I got bummed out and didn't want to work on the project no more. Did some thinking about why I project jump and how to fix it, and after remembering the only fun game stage I made like 6 years ago, I realized I dont need to make a full-fledge serious game with storylines. I need to meet myself where I'm at and focus on what I can work on now.

Also the game project I'm making now is some dungeon survival game. When I first thought of it, I thought of it as a kind of tower defense game, but you live and move on the paths while setting traps for monsters to trigger. Now the idea is kinda the same, but with crafting and digging up the walls to place traps (or travel if you want) the game idea feels a bit more like mincraft haha. Anyway, I'll try to find a way to upload the first level once it's playable.

That sounds pretty cool- there are certainly worse ways to go about game design than experimenting with mechanics and trying a proof of concept approach first.

Heck, my current favorite game is Stardew Valley, and that got developed by one guy over a three-year period as a hobby.

It's a shame that you haven't been able to find an idea you can stick with. You seem to be doing pretty good now, though, so keep doing you!

I think it's really cool when something some guy did on their own or as a hobby turns into something huge that everyone likes. It was kinda like that with the Binding of Isaac, wasn't it?

Yeah I dont know right now. My feelings and thoughts are kinda just really confused right now. Focusing on one game project is great and all, and you actually make a game eventually, but that approach just doesn't seem to be doing it for me.

There's always some kind of fear and unsatisfiedness that I feel deep down when I try to focus solely on one project to make into a game. I don't really know what my problem is. I have lots of ideas about what it could be, but for some reason my brain just freezes up when I try to think about them. Like if my brain is tramatized by the thoughts or something.

I think I'm just gonna work on games for fun, like, it doesn't matter what project I work on at all as long as I'm enjoying myself.

With that said, some updates on games and such. Ill put these in spoilers so this post dont look too long

Dungeon Survival trap game:

Quest Dungeon Marathon:

Sounds good to me! Both of those games sound like they'd be a lot of fun to play. I think that it's good that you've decided to just have fun and not force yourself to do anything you don't want to do anymore.

Ugh like I dont know. It just seems that me working on one game project isn't doing me good. Somehow my mindset and feelings on it has shifted into something where if has to be perfect and blah blah. Back when I started game making, I was more like "Hey, games dont need this, games dont need that, you're not trying to make a perfect game or even a good game, just make something and have fun, make the main character into a clown for no reason, make it where the moon has 1/1000th chance of having a huge derpy face on it, do whatever you want, have FUN -sparkles-"

Haaa the good old days.