GUNPOINT

Fletcher:

I’m excited about the RTS game idea! I’m a big fan of strategy, but I am not a fan of unnecessary complexity. Chess is easy to learn and play, but difficult to master. It’s actually about planning, not about being good pressing buttons.

Also, I’m very excited about the ‘soon’ release date for Gunpoint.

Ysen:

Would love a RTS which was less dependent on micro. I feel like most modern ones are more about execution than strategy.

Also, the Age of Empires series has randomly generated maps, including different styles you could choose from (eg. one big island, one island for each player, all forest except for bases and a few paths between them, etc.).

Laurens Mathot:

I wouldn’t worry too much about anyone stealing pure game ideas. Stealing game ideas that have already been tested are much better targets (as in cloning a popular game). In the end, the game idea isn’t worth anything, compared to the actual development of the game.

I would like to mention: “Why Your Game Idea Sucks” by Erin Hoffman

Jason L:

@Ysen: I wouldn’t quest too hard for that. You can always make an RTS that’s ‘less’ dependent on micro – Age of Mythology, Chris Taylor’s projects – but I don’t think you can ever prevent there being a marginal gain from fast clicking if it’s going to stay an RTS; top SupCom players micro. The halfway point between RTS and turn-based is the fixed-phase/pausable game ala Combat Mission, FTL and as Tom mentioned Baldur’s Gate.

@Laurens Mathot: Economically I fully agree that labor is king, there’s room at the top, you can polish a turd etc. Artistically, though – often when a great weird game comes out you’ll hear a chorus of ‘Oh, this is the game I always dreamed of making!’ It’s the highest compliment, and most of us can say that with delight. However, if you literally had planned to sit down and create it in two years, now you have to consciously avoid or follow someone else’s established conventions. I can imagine that would be unpleasant, so I sympathise with a creator who chooses not to shout their plans from the rooftops.

The turn-based clash-of-economies Moonbase Commander got a community tool for generating infinimaps and it was pretty fun to be exploring during clashes. Higher-level design can absorb some generator shonkiness and vice versa, but of course that landscape is very specific to a particular game.

I was surprised to hear you speculating about whether any RTS had generated maps given that the one I do know for sure is Planetary Annihilation…which is also a macro-oriented, robotic RTS with a strategy layer above the maps.

In any case, yeah. A roguelikelike-or-whatever, pausable-or-whatever robot bashing bash? That’s something I’d trust in your hands.

Martin:

You have a nice apartement, or at least a nice dining area.

Also; you should get a beard, with all that chin stroking going on. :)

Tom Francis:

Oh yeah, almost everything I said applies to Planetary Annihilation. Accordingly I am super excited about that.

I do worry a bit about the spherical map – I spend about half my time in SupCom obsessively checking the full-map view to make sure I’m seeing everything, so it’ll be interesting to see what kind of overview you can get in this.

I guess I was restricting myself to released games, because I was trying to think if any had ‘proved’ it as a concept.

Martin: thanks!

Marc Forrester:

You’re right in general about RTS stories, but no love for Homeworld?

Chris H:

I’d love to see a mash up of programming games and RTS games.

Essentially you ‘code’ the behaviour of each bot type in a meta game/editor (each tech level adds/restricts functionality), then the RTS game is the player managing the economy and choosing build order of units, but having no direct control of the built units, they just work according to their behaviours.

A bit complex for those who don’t code, but it would be great fun.
Now if only I had time/talent.

Jason L:

You’re in luck, that concept is going around a lot.There have been a couple Kickstarters and at least one Ludum Dare on it. Angstrom and Rawbots are the ones I recall off the top of my head.

malk:

good