Design questions and answers

From PEG wiki

On this page we keep all the design questions that we think should be answered upfront or that we should at least be aware of. Note that no one in their sane mind would require you to give definitive answers this early. The goal is to have some loose, but concrete ideas and turn them into words, so that there is food for thought. The format should be similar to that of a Discussion page - indent your comments by using colons and sign and time stamp them by using --~~~~.

1. What is the game's pitch line? (as much as I hate marketeers and their weapons of mass distraction, I like inventing pitch lines for my projects, because it helps me understand my goals better).

I think we should wait with the pitch till we have a few more people, so that it is something a whole team can identify with. --M64 02:14, 14 December 2009 (UTC)

2. What kind of fun is this game going to be?

In order of importance: Challenge of running the settlement; Fantasy of being a ruler in a distopian, destroyed world; Discovery of new things, rules and their implications; Sensation of seeing your settlement in action; Narrative as a story of individual characters and Expression through being able to influence these stories. --M64 23:20, 2 January 2010 (UTC)

3. What are the most important challenges presented to the player?

I think the main theme of the challenges should be survival - sort of like economical tower defense. A simple example: a mission starting in October where the only openly stated requirement is "survive through the winter". Or one where you start out with a famine in the settlement and you have to stop it by any means necessary while retaining some minimal population. In longer missions such challenges could be scripted to happen in series. I like that type of challenges because I feel they give the player more options of solving them - for example famine can be solved both by improving hunters effectiveness and by deliberately reducing the population to a sustainable level. On the other hand I am not sure whether the players will like such challenges. --M64 02:14, 14 December 2009 (UTC)

Personally, I believe any challenge or theme can be made playable and fun. The one thing to be careful about is forcing player to act "evil", unless you're trying to make a point (e.g. if this was a zombie survival game, sacrificing someone so that others may live would belong to the convention). --Nierozpijable 13:26, 21 December 2009 (UTC)

Some more elaboration. The idea behind the survival type mission objectives is as follows: an economic game, if it is to be more than a sandbox, needs some raison de etre for the whole economical machine the player is building. There are a few typical solutions. Plot imposed goal of gathering resources, like "gather 20 units of meat and 40 of wood" - this is quite artificial, limiting and stinks of tutorial. Making a certain amount of money - variation on previous option seen in business simulations - this is more serious and freeform as there are typically many ways of earning and saving money. Waging a war - like in Settlers or Stronghold - gives player significant freedom as it is up to the player to decide how much army, of what type and how fast is needed. The last option I know is fulfilling the needs of the people, so that they will not die (challenge) and become more efficient giving you more options (discovery) - as seen in Anno series, Tropico and uh... Sims (if you think of it as an economic game). We don't want the game to stink of tutorial, money does not make mcuh sense in post-apocalyptic (and this is not a business simulation) and we don't want to create a complex combat aspect, so the needs fulfillment seems like the best raison de etre for our game. If it is presented as a problem of survival, it also fits the intended mood of the game.--M64 00:17, 3 January 2010 (UTC)

3.1. What kinds of threats does the settlement face?

Figuring out what threats there could be will help us figure out what kinds of resources and mechanics need to be present. For instance, "famine" threat implies there is an in-game resource and a mechanic involving food storage and production. --Nierozpijable 13:26, 21 December 2009 (UTC)

Famine,

4. What is the game's general structure? (does it have missions? is it a sandbox? is it intended for short or long play sessions? how does the ultraepisodic character of the game influence its structure?)

This is something I am a bit torn apart about. I think that for technical reasons we will start from using rather small maps and thus more mission like structure. Once we have more gameplay implemented we can experiment with more sandbox-like maps and we will see how fun they are. --M64 13:15, 14 December 2009 (UTC)

That's a good point. It makes sense to focus on small maps and missions first, because first prototypes will be small, too. So, once you have prototyped a piece of game mechanics, you can build a sample mission around it. Once a sufficient amount of mechanics start to feel solid, we may or may not try and add another layer on top of the existing content. --Nierozpijable 13:26, 21 December 2009 (UTC)

5. Since this is an experimental project, what kinds of experiments will there? What would you like to experiment with?

With everything. But seriously, if there is any feature or design choice that we are not sure about, then the best way to be sure is to plan an experiment. Obviously we can't experiment with everything upfront, so some features will either be decided by acclamation or just implemented in the easier way and left open for experiments once we have time for it. --M64 13:15, 14 December 2009 (UTC)

6. The scope of the game seems wide - from single persons to entire settlement. This means there may be some micromanagement. Does the game avoid it or is it part of the fun?

7. What kind of focus on characters is there going to be? (Do they have personalities? Needs? Morale? Individual agendas? Or just stats? Are there interpersonal conflicts? Is there any kind of social dynamic, e.g. does the player need to secure the support of the population?)

This is a very difficult question. It would be great to have all these options, but at the same time you don't want to overwhelm the player with data that he needs to manage. I think we could start with some simple set of stats and needs (this would be easier to implement too) and then experiment with how much can we add. I guess this will also have to be balanced out with the populations size. --M64 13:56, 14 December 2009 (UTC)

True. Is managing the needs of the people supposed to be another challenge? I wonder how this relates to the goal of Mutually Exclusive Choices. The challenge of Survival is a bit one-dimentional by nature - you have to survive, otherwise you lose the game. If there is more than one threat at the same time, you may decide one is more pressing than another, but eventually you need to handle them all. Having another kind of challenge would create the space for tough choices (e.g. do we eat the hunter's grandmother or the butcher's wife today?). But I definitely agree that it would probably be best to try out small pieces of gameplay, one at a time, rather than trying to do too much. --Nierozpijable 13:26, 21 December 2009 (UTC)

As I have written in point 3, fulfilling the needs should be the challenge - if you don't do this, people will suffer and die. How much the needs and threats will be limiting is the question of how many options to deal with them we will have - Sims is a pretty good example of doing this. --M64 00:30, 3 January 2010 (UTC)

8. What is the general feeling of salvaging? Is it more about gathering? Lateral thinking (i.e. finding new, non-obvious uses for objects)? Inventing new items? is it more like "I have this specific need, and I have to find an improvised solution" or is it more like "I have found these specific resources, and I have to find a use for them"?

9. Assuming there will be mutually exclusive choices - what kind of choices (i.e. development paths) could the player possibly pick?

10. Other than people, does the player manage any resources directly? For instance, in case of famine, does the player hand out food rations manually, or do they just make sure there are enough food gathering teams?

11. Is player capable of producing new goods? For instance, is all food gathered or salvaged, or does the player have the option to grow their own food?

12. Is it possible for the settlement to achieve self-sustainability? Or does the player always rely on salvage? If, hypothetically speaking, the game could last long enough for the player to run out of things to salvage, would the entire settlement die?