Post by leunas on Dec 7, 2006 13:40:07 GMT -5
I’m sitting here babysitting my first full commit to my new Subversion repository (on WUSH.net, thanks Phil), so I figured I’d write about the design for Venture Arctic.
The really interesting hook to Venture Arctic is that the player is rewarded for acting like nature — every time an animal dies in the game, the player collects their spirit, which they can use as currency to alter the landscape. But in order to generate a lot of this currency, the player must facilitate the birth of the animals too. Unlike Venture Africa, the player can’t create animals at will, they must help the existing animals to breed in order to generate new life.
The player must create healthy life cycles for the animals so that they can best emulate the boom/bust cycles of Arctic ecosystems.
Seasons also change in Venture Arctic, and the player is encouraged to use tools appropriate for the season. In the winter, the snow/ice tool is the cheapest, in the fall, the wind and sickness tools are cheapest, in the summer the sun tool is the cheapest, and in the spring, the fertility and vegetation tools are the cheapest.
Once I had put this design together, I realized how closely it mirrored some aspects of Native American lore. In addition, art from northern Native peoples made for a perfect aesthetic touchstone for the game.
Here’s why I love my job. Once I had decided to incorporate Inuit beliefs and art into the game, I got in touch with a reporter friend of mine who also happens to be Native American and involved in a lot of Native American work in video games and other media. Today I had a phone conversation with her, working out how to best represent Inuit beliefs and how to best work them into my game.
In addition, this morning I got to have breakfast with a marine biologist from the UCSD graduate program to discuss Arctic marine environments and how I can best turn them into a game.
My dream has always been to own a game company making games about real-world subjects such that I would have an excuse to study cool stuff and visit interesting places. Well, I think I’m there. What a day.
www.qatfish.com/?p=36
The really interesting hook to Venture Arctic is that the player is rewarded for acting like nature — every time an animal dies in the game, the player collects their spirit, which they can use as currency to alter the landscape. But in order to generate a lot of this currency, the player must facilitate the birth of the animals too. Unlike Venture Africa, the player can’t create animals at will, they must help the existing animals to breed in order to generate new life.
The player must create healthy life cycles for the animals so that they can best emulate the boom/bust cycles of Arctic ecosystems.
Seasons also change in Venture Arctic, and the player is encouraged to use tools appropriate for the season. In the winter, the snow/ice tool is the cheapest, in the fall, the wind and sickness tools are cheapest, in the summer the sun tool is the cheapest, and in the spring, the fertility and vegetation tools are the cheapest.
Once I had put this design together, I realized how closely it mirrored some aspects of Native American lore. In addition, art from northern Native peoples made for a perfect aesthetic touchstone for the game.
Here’s why I love my job. Once I had decided to incorporate Inuit beliefs and art into the game, I got in touch with a reporter friend of mine who also happens to be Native American and involved in a lot of Native American work in video games and other media. Today I had a phone conversation with her, working out how to best represent Inuit beliefs and how to best work them into my game.
In addition, this morning I got to have breakfast with a marine biologist from the UCSD graduate program to discuss Arctic marine environments and how I can best turn them into a game.
My dream has always been to own a game company making games about real-world subjects such that I would have an excuse to study cool stuff and visit interesting places. Well, I think I’m there. What a day.
www.qatfish.com/?p=36