The last I wrote, I mentioned the Real-Time Strategy genre, which might have created an inherent false perception of the overall idea; at least, from the stand-point of playing against an opponent with the intent to defeat said opponent through genocide. Now, before I continue working over the weekend on this, let me unveil a few important factors to this idea.
#1 - Economic simulator
Perhaps the most important tid-bit of information to point out is the specific genre I would define this game, which I have decided on the (at least temporarily) title of Autarky. The overall premise of the game will revolve around establishing one's own economy and attempting to stimulate it in order to attain profits. Now, the specific goals for victory will change depending on a number of different "scenarios" that can be at play, but the most notable of these scenarios will be to "attain X profits" or "attain Y population" with potential add-ons such as "the current economic status must at least be average."
#2 - Difficulty Settings
The other notable point of interest is how I intend to manage difficulty levels. Since the economy is such a difficult system, I imagine the game might seem overwhelming to newcomers until they are capable of managing little pieces of the game mechanics at a time. Rather than throwing the entire economic system at a player, the difficulty settings will allow for players to play through a scenario with more or less things to micro-manage.
Say the player decides to play on the Easy difficulty setting. In this setting, the player may only have to worry about creating new buildings and controlling what the individual citizens become in order to get jobs at those newly-created buildings. Such things as the controlling of taxes -- sales or otherwise -- wouldn't be editable by the player, but would be placed on an automatic control to be changed depending on the player's current economic state. As the player chooses more advanced difficulties, there will be more options that the player will be required to handle on his own and less that will be automatically controlled.
#3 - Your Own Opponent
Autarky stands for a self-sustaining economy, and in the beginning the player will have no choice but to be self-sustaining. The way the game works, the player's citizens and their needs constitute as a valid opposition, so the player will not have any other players as an opposing force. At least, this is how it will stand in the beginning.
#4 - Multi-Platform?
I've been seriously considering working this out in both XNA (what I am currently working it out on) and Processing. An XNA version would perhaps find its way on Xbox Live or Community Games, whereas a Processing version would find itself on Facebook. Certainly the Facebook version wouldn't be profitable (at least, from what I've read about Facebook development, which could essentially be wrong), but it would also be a little different. Mechanically similar, but visually not similar. Still something I'm just tossing around right now and am uncertain as to whether or not I'll step forward to work on. Being just me, the chances are a little slim of both.
#5 - Expansion-worthy?
As I have been coding, I have been keeping in mind flexibility for the future. I have been striving to make the code malleable enough to allow for expansions to become a possibility in the future. I have also thought up potential expansions that would revolve around an entire subsystem within the economic theme. Both expansions would revolve around having an opponent, adding this whole multiplayer complexity to the mix (and both are also unnamed. The following are just descriptive titles).
Multiplayer Economical Conquest - Ruin an opponents economy by buying out their buildings and expediting your citizens to temporarily work in their territory (nets you tax income that will not go to them). Just the basics, but a whole lot of other subtle ways to sabotage your opponent shall exist, too.
Multiplayer Military Conquest - Adds a military aspect to the multiplayer. From an economic standpoint, military is not very cost efficient and would take a lot of time for a player to set-up in order to work. Currently, I'm uncertain as to how this could work out, since it could make for ridiculously lengthy games, but...
"But" we'll have to see if I can keep my interest long enough in just the normal game before I put more considerable thought into expansions.
Until next week's update.
-Trevor
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