Dear David,
Note – this is the working title. I am absolutely not going to be making a game with this title, although I am sure it would sell very well, and if the game is played a certain way, I am sure you could manage to create a super tantric vegetable guru if you wanted to.
Making a game involves playing a lot of games, I have wasted a lot of time investigating what I am shooting for this week. The idea I have in my mind is little to do with cults, but I have been looking at how cults are handled this week with a view to making the real idea work well in terms of gameplay.
Clockwork Empires is my favourite at the moment. A city builder with Lovecraftian elements, it has factional warfare and potential for your own cult, but the developers are still having tremendous fun with process tree work at the moment, and it will be a while before it will be ready in terms of frictional behaviour and AI. Lovely idea, but I do not think a city builder is right for the game I want to make.
Super Cult Tycoon 2 Deluxe A lovely little game which you can play free of charge, this is a simpler city builder which is extremely funny. Basically you have to kidnap as many acolytes as possible before the FBI shut you down.
Evil Cult is a game for people who miss Dos. The manual is an education in itself, however, and you can also play this one free
Pathologic is an old game which has been reworked in HD. It is a little old fashioned and a bit too scripted, and even in HD, I do not think this is the look I am going for.
This one looks as if it will be ideal, so I will be purchasing this later in the year, although I see it retains the traditional American fear of socialism. You aren’t all unemployed millionaires you know. People still starve to death in the richest country in the world.
I am bouncing around a couple of ideas at the moment, which may or may not intertwine, depending on how development goes. The first part of the game is basically a career/management game, but since the course of becoming a guru and creating a cult run along similar dynamic lines, I think it is appropriate to look into how people handle AI, resource management and community.
It will not be a violent game, although it may have a mature rating, for the purposes of incorporating all these hot and horny health food fans.
I see from Rulers of nations, that I could actually just use David’s image after all, since he is now a public figure. I do not think he would like this, however, although you never can tell with David. He will freak out at the sight of a paperclip on some days, and be totally laid back on others. Much like the rest of us, I guess. It seems wasteful not to, on one hand, but he is never quite sure about my sense of humour, so it may be best to have an avatar and let you choose for yourself. The plan is to make the topic variable also, with an emphasis on educational development in the course of a sweet looking game.
I am swithering as to whether to make a facebook style app to promote the 3d version, since the purpose of this is not strictly to make me money.
I think maybe do a relatively simple app first, and work on the more interesting 3d elements of the final piece of work later. I have an awful lot of work to do.
In the meantime, if anyone wants to bounce an idea at me, feel free to use the comments.
Ina