I know there's a topic for collaboration, but I figured this was big enough to warrant its own thread.
It seems like a fairly significant number of game ideas begin with "When I was a kid my friends/siblings and I invented a game...". That's how this one starts too.
We played a game that took various forms. We played it with Legos, things we made out of cardboard and polymer clay, or random plastic junk lying around the house. But no matter what we used, the game was essentially the same.
Each person playing ran some sort of business. Usually these started as something very small (like a vending machine). These were set up on a street, and everyone went around purchasing everyone else's wares. This doesn't sound all that fun or interesting, I know. But over time (as we grew older and we were less entertained by simplicity) more rules were added to govern the game, and things were made more dynamic.
In the end, it looked more or less like this (and it's pretty much what an electronic version would look like, too):
You begin the game with a sum of money and a plot of land. You can build whatever you want, but you can really only afford a vending machine or small kiosk (later on, if you make enough money, you can purchase new land and start new stores). Other people will be setting up new businesses, too. Once everyone has built something, the game begins.
Every day you can go about and shop from everyone's stores. The owner chooses what products to sell and sets a price. The business owners are also consumers, of course. But unless their stores are mechanical or there are assistants to watch them, the owners can't walk around without closing the shops. After a short period of time (5-10 minutes?), the day ends. Then a new day will begin and the process repeats itself.
"Now wait." you might say, "That sounds boring and lame. What is this, some kind of weird-American-shopping-for-no-reason-other-than-just-to-have-more-stupid-stuff sim? What's the point in all of this?" Well, hold on! The game involves a lot more than just raw capitalism.
There are some things (such as "really cool hats") that are purely luxury items and have no real benefit. But there are other things that are essential. For example, every day you must eat and drink. Then there are also items that are not required but are useful (vehicles for faster travel, intelligent pets to help you perform various tasks, etc.). Also, of course, every game can be improved by the addition of more violence.
(Yes, I do realize that this is not actually true.) So the game also features
combat! Combat will happen in various circumstances, but the most frequently occurring one is thievery. Bandits occasionally appear during the night and attempt to steal from shops. If your character was alerted of their presence (because of, for example, a burglar alarm you set up), you will have the opportunity to fight the thieves. Occasionally they will be wanted criminals, and money will be awarded for their capture.
Another part of the game is travel. If you have enough money, you can purchase tickets to various destinations. This will leave you absent for a few days (so it's unwise unless your stores can be run without your help), but it may give you some interesting opportunities, like the chance to catch an exotic animal.
The game is divided up into weeks. The weeks always lasted five days when we played; our games took place in quirky worlds wherein nothing really happened on weekends (there were other weird things about it, such as the fact that there was usually no law enforcement). Weekends are good opportunities (maybe the only opportunities?) to expand your business and construct things. With each new week, the game grows in complexity. Some things, such as travel, are not available until a certain week. In later weeks, crime rates and such increase to make the game more exciting.
Of course the game has to involve
competition, which is possibly the most exciting (and often most ridiculous) part of the whole thing. The game's business world can vary depending on how people act. It can be very relaxed and friendly, with lots of deals and cooperation. Or it can be a sinister, cutthroat place. Mercenaries can be hired (for no small sum) to sabotage other companies or steal their ideas. Bombs can be planted... assassins can be sent out... Nobody ever dies in the game, though. Attempts at people's lives always result only in hospitalization for some period of time.
One particularly humorous example of hostile business relations from a time when I played with my friends and siblings:
My older brother had a fast food shop that sold something very similar to a "Happy Meal". The "toys" they contained, when collected and assembled, created a laser beam that could be mounted on top of one's store and used to basically annihilate anything you didn't like. This had the potential to create some interesting environments (though if I remember correctly it ultimately resulted in the deterioration of that particular game). On the one hand, people might not want to shop at your store if you are so sinister. On the other hand, you could rule by fear, threatening to destroy the buildings owned by anyone who refused to buy from you.
Now, some things related to transitioning the game to computer form:
There would have to be a system for having customizable objects, stores, etc. Then the players could choose what they wanted something to look like and set various properties before selling it. So if you wanted to make a car, you could choose from various car shapes and set a color (maybe it could be sold in multiple colors). Then the car's acceleration, top speed, fuel consumption, etc. could be altered (though there would have to be limits to that so it didn't get too ridiculous). Then a production cost would be calculated based on all of the attributes. Lastly, the player would name the product and set a price to sell it for.
When we played the physical game, we'd set a theme for everything. Sometimes it'd be a science fiction / space age setting, but other times it would have a medieval fantasy setting... In the computer version, the game could be set up so that the player could choose which themes (multiple themes could be selected, or all of them at once) to allow. Each theme (there should be quite a few of them) would have a set of graphics that could be used for stores and products.
Obviously this game would be multiplayer. Here's how I imagine it would work:
Each player would start a game individually. Players are allowed to make multiple characters, but each character would have its own world to play in. Players could play through these worlds totally by themselves if they wanted. AI characters would be set up to take the place of what would have been other people in the physical form of the game. Their behavior wouldn't be as complicated as a human's, of course, but they would buy from each other and the player in addition to selling their own products. (There would also be pedestrians that bought and did not sell.)
The businesses the AI characters owned would be determined based on what business the player chose (to make sure that everything is represented and there isn't, for example, a world without food). The products would be determined from a large library of preset items that corresponded to the themes of that game.
Players would be able to visit the worlds of other people, too (probably only while the other person was online and with permission). While in another world, players could participate in almost every part of it. Stores can't be moved (except for very special stores that were, say, built into a caravan), but players would be able to set up new shops in other players' worlds as long as they had purchased land there. Stores in other players' worlds could be managed from some sort of menu accessible no matter where the player was. That way players could expand their businesses to different locations.
This would allow players a full multiplayer experience without requiring them to always play at the same time as their friends.
I've never worked with online stuff, but I think this would be possible without storing the information on servers...
Computers could connect to one another; the computer of the player with the world that was being used could be used essentially operate as the server, and afterward the other players' information would be saved to the data on their computers. Of course, that way shops across worlds could only be updated if both players were online...
I dunno. Seems like it could be worked out, though. Right?
...That was long. :D
But now to address the (potential) project itself:
1. This would not have to move quickly, so it need not be anyone's priority. It'd be great if a lot of people could get together and make this game happen!
2. I can do graphics, and I can probably round up some other people to also to graphics and maybe a few other miscellaneous things to.
3. We'd obviously need at least one programmer (preferably someone who knows how to do online stuff) for the game to get off the ground.
If this sounds cool to you... we should do it!
I know it's crazyhuge, but wouldn't it be awesome? It's never going to happen if nobody does anything.
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