11 replies to this topic

[Morphex]

First of all hello, and thank you for time reading this.

Black and white is game created by Lionhead, where you take a role of a almighty god with godly powers, and the goal is to be the "ultimate god". You manage your own little civilization in a sandboxy type of game, where you can either be good or evil, and to top it you have your own little creature to help you in your godly duties. You can teach him to either be good or evil, do be a machine of destruction or a blessing to your civilization. Even though its sanbox game , it takes you through a predefined story across a couple of lands with a great number of side quests to keep you entertained.

With that said,

I loved the concept of the game and I am trully sorry that there isn't any sequel to the game(BW2 I mean), since I think that it was a beautiful concept that was amazingly fun, its not everyday that you can be a almighty god and do as you please across the lands.
With that in mind, I have been thinking why arent there more games like this?
I have been thinking in creating a game like this for a long time, but never really had the "guts" to start such task, due to other projects/ lack of time mostly.

I was thinking what do you think about this concept?

Do you think this concept has a place in nowadays game market?

What do you think that game lacked the most?

For me it was mostly the multiplayer aspect of the game and the small campaign mode that it offered, there was so much more that could be made with this sort of game in a multiplayer aspect.


So I am kinda making a survey on either this is something that people would play, or if this is idea not worth pursuing?

*I am not asking on how difficult this would be to make, and I am not saying that I will make it. Just checking what other people think about the concept.

Disclaimer: I am sure that creating a game of this size is gigantic task, and I don't expect to make a game like this in a month or two, or three or four, you get the idea.

One of the most interesting aspects of this kind of game is the AI, I just love this and the challenges it brings to the programming department.

With that said, I would love to hear your opinions on the subject =)

~
Thank you for time,
Morphex

[Ashaman73]

So I am kinda making a survey on either this is something that people would play, or if this is idea not worth pursuing?

For sure some people will play it, but nobody can tell you how many

[Suspense]

My philosophy is: if I would enjoy the game, then someone else would too. There's a market for it.

[C0lumbo]

Peter Molyneux obviously thinks there's still life in the god game genre http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/22cans/project-godus and >11,000 backers are willing to put money towards seeing it get made, although Project Godus looks more Populous than B+W. I'm also trying to do a god game atm, although my plan is a bit of a cross between Civilisation, Populous and a few other influences. There's also http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/simonroth/maia?ref=live which is a bit of a sci-fi take on the god game genre.

I think the genre is an under-served niche, which makes it a good target for a low budget indie title.

Personally I found the creature from B+W annoying. I was God but I had to micro manage this stupid idiot who never did what I wanted or expected, kind-of took away that all important sense of power for me.

And even though you sound aware that it'll be a gigantic task to make one, don't forget Hofstadter's law:

Hofstadter's Law: It always takes longer than you expect, even when you take into account Hofstadter's Law.

[Morphex]

I kinda looked around and how come I didnt find those projects, beats me!

Jeez I guess Godus took my spotlight ahaha, I don't want to compete with that

Edit: I was watching GODUS video and found out that it wasn't what I was expecting, its kind really a remake of Populos, not quite what I had in mind. I loved the black and white terrain and gameplay style.

@Ashaman73 I was more asking if the game would be profitable in a sense heheh.

Edited by Morphex, 17 December 2012 - 11:16 AM.

[dot_dot_dot]

I played Black and White briefly and I agree it's a cool idea. Whether it would be profitable I think would depend on keeping development costs low. I definitely think there is a market for it but I think it's a niche market. I also remember being frustrated trying to control the creature. Refining that in some way would be something I would look at. I think it might be cool if there were a finer degree of manipulation allowed. Maybe you could deceive or enlighten individual people and cause them to do your bidding like assassinating a king or something.

[Morphex]

Yeah the creature was kind of fun but lacking point ( well the game is old), thats one of the major plus on the game for me though, I just love the AI part of development in games, I am fascinated by it. I once code a simple eco system simulator, it worked better than expected and it was able to evolve and kinda sustain itself after a few iterations .

[TheChubu]

The whole creature thing was awesome imo. It was your avatar on your lands, and you had to train it to be like you wanted it to be.

[ShiftyCake]

the problem with defining a game idea as "worth it: or "not worth it" is the fact that 100% of the time it is neither of these.
Every game idea ever posed has exactly the same amount of chance in being successful.
Why?

Because it is what you do with that idea, how you shape your game, that truly defines your success. Every game ever created has diverged from its original concept, and become more successful for doing so. If you look at the concept originally presented by this company, and judge it on that, you will not get very far into the idea. Yet pursuing an idea recklessly just because you had it is useless. When you have chosen an idea, consider the following two things:
- Are you interested enough to finish it?
- Is it beyond my reach?

If you can answer those two questions, you will be able to determine whether to continue or not. Being interested enough means exactly that, the idea you iwsh to go through, is it something you can keep at? Or will you fall off halfway through like so many projects I have created.
Being beyond your reach si simply money, knowledge and time. Consider what type of game you are going through, and reach the conclusion base don those three aspects of whether or not its achievable in a suitable time.
I say suitable time because a game that goes on longer then say, three years, becomes submerged in the new market. It's never worth overextending your game creation, or taking on a project that will take too long.
Go play Duke Nukem Forever. You'll see exactly how bad the effects of prolonged game design is. That game ruined the franchise, and stalled any attempts to continue it.

[aattss]

I wish that there were god games akin to Dwarf Fortress, with a massive self-sustaining world where what you do depends on what you want to do. I would also like not a lot of micromanagement. Essentially, you want to have a pet avatar? Sure thing. You don't? That works too. You want to have 5? Go ahead (as long as you can maintain all of them, or find someone to maintain them for you). You want to give this random farmer an enchanted weapon of awesomeness? Sure. You want to make someone the chosen one? Why not. You want to make this person a leader? Why not. You want to bless the guy trying to overthrow the king? There's nothing wrong with that. And these wouldn't be events scripted to happen.

[Unduli]

Beside from the fact that there was a Black&White 2 (which I didn't like much) , I think the reason B&W 'fails' is like of Maxy Payne's . Without incorporating a good multiplayer playing environment, these games are prone to 'quick consumption'.

Also for your question of why there are no more games likes these is simple, with these budgets, a game has to be designed for being sustainable. Even a legend like Simcity waited a decade to find its way again with a DLC and multiplayer based (terrible imo) gameplay.


Btw, what I don't like most about RTx type games is it being relatively fast pace , I mean fast for checking everything, I never liked idea of poor micromanagement. Not to mention terrible camera angles. I am a bit old-fashioned when it comes to 3D strategy.

[Morphex]

I agree with you on the RTs kind of stuff about the new stuff coming out, for the Prime of RTS was age of empire 2. My dream RTS would be huge world similar to Civ 5 but played like a regular RTS, on slower pace. Still, i am going a bit offtopic here, I was more asking the God concept, and using multiplayer as one of the biggest focus on the game, since thats what it lacked the most for me, although in black and white that was dificult to pull of without turning it in a fast paced game. I think the game should be more autonomous in way that you don't really need to pay much attention to the small details, but you can if you want.


I think that managing to acomplish that and making the game fun would be difficult though.