They just posted the entrys for the '06 IGF on their homepage, and damn I must say some of them look awesome.
There are a few games there that have million dollar and up budgets, which just blows my mind. If I had even a 100k budget my game would by exponentially better than it is now. I wonder where they get all that money from...hmmmmm....*runs out and robs a bank*
I had an idea for the game the other day, basicly to implement a chat-bot-like interface for the NPCs in the game so you could engange in conversations with them. All I would need to add is recognition of certain keywords so you could sell drugs to people, intimidate them, etc. just by typing what you want to say to them.
There are some rather convincing chat bots out there, I think it would be cool to be able to interact with any civilian like that. I'm going to look around for some open-source chat bot that I could easily throw into the game as a starting platform.
I'm also going to start working on a mission selection mode of the game, verses the "random" gameplay mode that's in there right now. This will let you play through some pre-made scenarios, as well as unique maps with rivers and other strategic obstacles.
I also want to add a "rampage" mode where you try to cause as much destruction in as short of a time as possible, a very arcade-ish quick play type of game mode.
Alright, back to work I'll have images of some new stuff later on.
- Dan
I guess it's just that the "indie" part of the IGF still screams to me of people who are working on nights and weekends, and people who have given up their day jobs to focus on their dreams. However, when game budgets are becoming as large as movie budgets, I suppose that even a million dollar budget seems a couple of developers in a garage.
Good luck with your entry!