Okay, time to figure out exactly what I’m going to do next. I feel that I’ve got three options:
1. Star Revolution Redux. Finish Star Revolution, but with fewer features. The ground combat will be cut because it will require the most resources. Trade and alien interaction would be abstracted to menus. Players would land on planets solely to mine them or capture lifeforms. The game would then feature space combat (based on the combat prototype I’ve already written), contact with alien races, mining and trading. The game probably won’t be 3D. This isn’t too bad, but it’s only about 50% of the game I wanted to make…
2. Inaria 3D. Ryan really wants this, and honestly, so do I. But Inaria 3D would have pretty much all the problems of my original design for Star Revolution. However, it might be possible to work something up using sprites from another 3D game like Final Fantasy Tactics. A possibility, but it’ll be hard.
3. I’ve had this irrational desire to make a game in the style of Dungeon Keeper. This could very well make a very good first 3D project because of the simplicity of the 3D involved – Dungeon Keeper was actually a 2D game that was simply presented in a 3D manner.
4. One of the other projects I was considering after Inaria got finished. From these I’d probably pick either the simple real-time strategy game or the simple Master of Orion-style game. These probably wouldn’t be 3D.
In any event, no matter what I pick, I am going to be limiting myself to 40 hours again. Why? Because that actually worked. By embracing that limitation, I actually made a game (a pretty crappy game, but a game).
So, thoughts?
Wow… still going for the 40 hour mark with these projects? You’re very dedicated, Viridian. I’d personally like to see Star Revolution Redux, since I like the prototype you put up, but I’ll leave the final decision to you. Go with the one you want to do the most. Nothing kills a project more than wanting to work on something else you think is more worthwhile.
re:40 hours. I think the mistake you did when trying to fit star rev into 40 hours was that you kept ‘cheating’ – “design time doesn’t count” “engine time doesn’t count”.. if you had crammed all that inside the 40 hours, you would have automatically limited the design so that it would fit into the 40 hours. Sure, it would have been much smaller, but on the other hand, you’d already be done with it =)
A Master of Orion style game in 40 hours… awesome. I think the best alternatives are 1 or 4.
Niels
Sol: I think you’re absolutely right. I think I used that to cover up how much work the design and engine were going to be. That’s why I am going back to a more rigid 40-hour structure.
Personally, I think continuing on Star Revolution is the way to go. Even if you just pick a smaller set of features and limit the scope
If you are looking to just drop the project, why not try Inaria part 2? Take the current Inaria game and make it a more workable game in 40 hours. I would say 10 hours of bug fixes (actual coding) and then 30 hours of designing an actual world to play. When you are done, you would then have a complete playable game with some actual substance. You would also have experience in game creation and not just game programming.
Just another $0.02