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[relicsman]

Hey, I'm new around here and am just interested in your thoughts...

I'm also new to development and programming, and am working on a resource collecting game where you start in ancient times, piecing together resources like wood or stone to make tools or equipment typical of that age. Once you have the correct items, the game progresses and again, you have to piece together items using resources. Only as the ages progress, the variety of resources that appear would increase, in addition to their rarity. Some resources would only be found on mountains, or in fields, or by rivers, and so on - meaning there would be a large exploration element too. There would be enemies and a hunger mechanic, meaning gathering food would be important too. Ultimately, the final aim might be to build a rocket.

The game would be 2D and kinda retro with a basic control system (hey, I'm new to programming - and this is a good place to start). I'd be working with retro 2d sprites and a kind of grid reminiscent of pokemon. And the most important thing? Procedural generation - the game could play out differently every time, sending you to different places in the game each time, and so on.

Finally, I'd like to clone that 'collector' mentality, that 'gotta catch em all' feeling -where some resources only appear in unlikely combinations of situations - such as between a mountain and river in the game world.

But - what would make this idea more interesting? What is the main 'drive' behind resource collection games in general?

[wccrawford]

This sounds like a great idea, to me.  I love collection and exploration, and yours seems to be headed in the right direction.

In particular, I like experimenting (or calculating, or exploring) to find out what I can make with things I collect.  Sometimes just collecting enough of something, or enough different things, can be fun in itself.  Especially if there's a game mechanic involved other than just walking around.

To tie it all together, your game should have an overall purpose as well.  Simply collecting things until you get enough will grow old, but if you've got a *reason* for that behavior, it can still work out.  The ultimate goal of building a rocket is fine, but you'll need to couch that in some other way, since it's quite obviously that gathering twigs and rocks is a long way from creating a rocket.  Perhaps the idea is to lead your community through the different technological eras, and the final result is that you need to build a rocket to ...  Whatever you need to do.  Colonize?  Escape?  Whatever.

[BarelyHuman]

I agree that there needs to be a goal to the collecting. For your game it sounds like it will be survival. To answer your question, I think it's just a general collectors mentality in us all(to varying degrees) that make these elements fun. As we get more, we want more.

[valrus]

Good question.  I think half of it is just the feel of making progress towards something known in advance, and that your actions are straightforwardly related to this progress.  In real life, the relationship between my actual daily work and my success is pretty indirect, so it's rather nice to be a hunter-gatherer for a bit and have goals that are just "Collect enough X".

So regarding that, my thought is to make it clear in the interface that you're making progress towards something. Say, let me browse my recipes easily and show how much I've already gathered vs. how much I need.  (Or whatever, but in general it's good to reinforce in the interface what the game is about, so if it's about collection progress make it easy for the player to visualize their progress.)

Another piece of it is that it feels good to develop knowledge like "this plant grows in sandy, wet soil", "this animal always maintains a clear path between its den and water", etc.  (Again, not a usual part of our lives, anymore, and I think we kinda crave it.)  Sounds like you've got this one down.

Another piece is the collector's joy of completion -- actually having found one of every possible <whatever>.  While not many survival recipes would involve exactly one of every kind of flower, you could still have a benefit.  (Say, the gods of various things will reward you with long-term benefits if you set up an altar to them, and the more of a particular category you have the more they reward you.  Like, the god of the hunt will offer long-term benefits if you bring him meat, and the more different kinds of meat you've offered the better favor he gives you, and the fertility goddess does the same for different plants.)

There's a related interface suggestion, too: if part of the fun of the game is collecting, display the collection nicely and make it easy for the player to view it.

[oahda]

Make it not be like the collection quests of WoW and all those other crappy games and it can't be too bad. "Hoard 40 of these by killing the same enemy over and over again."

I know these do not fall under what a resource collection game actually means, but perhaps you can find a way to introduce this sort of collection too, just using the basic idea of these story-based game concepts rather than resource collection concepts and trying to adapt them:

Collection involving (possibly specific) trade is always fun, methinks. It makes it a bit more interesting. Like the longsword quest in Ocarina of Time, or some parts of Monkey Island.

Or just a bit of memory. Like having something clearly mark itself at some point in the game (if it's story-based or at least progressive rather than individual levels) and only later into the game introduce a collection quest where you need to remember about this and return in other to collect it (an idea that popped up for my puzzle platformer was to have a chandelier fall into the ground [already coded that part] and later have a character who wants something shiny at which point you will have to remember the chandelier and go back to pick up the crystals that fell off of it).

If you could derive something from these concepts of linear-ish games fit for the non-story-based, generic and possibly randomised type of game I assume you're making, that could turn out really interesting.

[valrus]

Collection involving (possibly specific) trade is always fun, methinks. It makes it a bit more interesting. Like the longsword quest in Ocarina of Time, or some parts of Monkey Island.

I was fascinated recently to hear of a human-mouse (or some kind of rodent) food trading tradition in Siberia, in which humans would dig up the mice's tuber stores, but in exchange put some dried fish or something, something that the mice like but can't get themselves, so as not to starve out the mouse colony.  It'd be interesting to have something like that -- animals, non-humans, or humans of other cultures, where you can't exactly communicate, but you can manage to get into mutually-beneficial exchanges.

Or just a bit of memory. Like having something clearly mark itself at some point in the game (if it's story-based or at least progressive rather than individual levels) and only later into the game introduce a collection quest where you need to remember about this and return in other to collect it (an idea that popped up for my puzzle platformer was to have a chandelier fall into the ground [already coded that part] and later have a character who wants something shiny at which point you will have to remember the chandelier and go back to pick up the crystals that fell off of it).

That'd definitely be neat, and it could combine with the pattern recognition.  Like one thing you can learn is where a resource tends to be, but another thing you can learn is its relation to things in the past.  Something where you say "Hey, I think this was in the spot where I did X fifty years ago.  I wonder if I go to another place where I did X, there'd be another one..."

In general, the idea of this taking place across the ages is a good twist.  If you collect every single X, kill every single Y, it might mean that X and Y aren't available in that area in the future.  That's another skill, inhibition -- can you refrain from a reward now for a future reward?  (That might end up as frustrating, but it might end up giving the player an interesting strategic choice.)

[oahda]

Seems you'll indeed be able to make this work somehow! I like the idea about ages passing and resources possibly being overmined.