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For the last two or so months I've been developing a procedural world generator in python. I'm almost done with it, and I'm not sure what to do next. I want to write some sort of game to take advantage of the worlds I can create, but I can't decide on a fun, interesting (to write and play), and most importantly achievable project.[/font]

Right now the world generator:
Makes a height-map (diamond-square algorythm) that wraps around E-W and N-S
Sets sea-level to cover a set percentage of the world.
Calculates temperature for each location.
Simulates rainfall
Calculates biomes (grassland, forest, etc) based on rain and temperature.
Simulates rivers, and creates lakes.
Places strategic resources (iron, wheat, etc)
Places inhabitants (human settlements, dragon lairs, goblin tribes)

What is left to do:
Simulate civilization growth, fighting, etc.

Tools I have:
Python / pygame (I've already completed a simple 2d space game in pygame)
Java (lots of experience, but prefer python currently)
Looking into Python / Panda3D

Thanks in advance, sample world generator output:
[attachment=1473:world0.png]

That's mad impressive, good job.

If you're looking for suggestions for what to do with it, the first thing I thought of when I read your description was Settlers of Catan. You could try implementing a larger-scale version of the board game on your procedurally generated map. Could be fun!

Sounds to me like the first two percent of Dwarf Fortress. A world isn't a game, as I'm sure you know. Neither is it a foundation of a game. There are plenty of games out there that don't even pretend to have a solid foundation in geography, as I'm sure you know. What you have there is a tool, a powerful element of world creation that can be either envied or totally disregarded. If you are able to come up with a context for it, it's a huge asset. If not, it's fluff.

Think about its merit. Think hard. Find a context in which that tool is powerful, and then capitalize on the power. A strong world leads naturally to resource exploitation, and if you can come up with a game that depends heavily on that, you're in good shape. If you come up with a design that uses your world generator in an ancillary way, you've got a handy utility. If you come up with a game design that features a world as a backdrop, you've got a ready-made green screen. Remember: A product for an audience should cater to the audience's perspective. It's possible to have thousands of hours of world-building that's only relevant in a three-minute cutscene in the middle of a 120-hour gameplay experience.

Don't be so proud of your world-building utility that you convince yourself that world-building is game design.

Thanks for the responses.

My original thought was to do something Minecraftian, or Dwarf Fortress-esque but I don't want to seem derivative of those games.

To me, the ability to create worlds like this calls for an sandbox game with plenty of exploration, it would seem a waste to not make the world an important piece of the game.

Main reason I created this generator was that I love exploring, it's my favorite part of any game. Unfortunately you can't really explore something that you made yourself, hence a generator that produces worlds that I have no knowledge of.

What you have made looks very nice. What others have said is true though, especially what TechnoGoth said about shoehorning.

Apart from that I know ProFantasy make money from simply selling map makers and procedural world builders like you have. You could probably have some success releasing it as some form of random map generator.

My first thought when i read your post was to make a game similar to Victoria 1/2 by Paradox Interactive. It’s dubbed a "Grand Strategy War-game" on wiki. You couldn’t copy paste the elements in but I think a large scale world domination game would fit with the generator. Would it be achievable? I wouldn’t think so, on your own (at least in a reasonable time period) just due to the complexity involved in such strategy games.

The fact you can generate worlds on demand does make me think of some sort of space exploration game. For example the player could move form planet to planet colonising each one and developing civilisations etc. Could go into more detail but that would just be me rambling

Either way it would take a long time to create a game that could take full advantage of such a tool.

Can you show us a video of what exploration of the worlds you create is like? If that's not possible yet why not make the next step an implementation of exploration?

Once you have exploration you can add a game mechanic that allows you to interact with the game world in some way, and hey presto you have a game that involves exploration and whatever that gameplay mechanic is!

One obvious and simple example might be a combat mechanic which allows you to fight the creatures you have in your world. You would then have a hack and slash game in a procedurally generated world that is interesting to explore! I'd play that. Not only that, you will have fullfilled another of your design goals which you quote in the OP, being that of "fighting".

I think you misunderstood a little bit, let me clarify:
First about the world itself, right now it's being generated down to the township level i.e. to blocks of land sufficient to hold a town (2-10 sq km). In order to be worth exploring I would have to run the height-map algorithm for each township. While easily implemented, it would take a lot of computing time (optimistic estimate is 164 hours for the world attached above). So I haven't bothered to do that yet.

The reference to fighting was as part of the civilization simulation, that being the simulation of civilizations fighting each other. The world generator itself is barely interactive at all. The idea is to generate a world to be used in some other project, which is what I'm having trouble deciding on.

Sorry for any confusion.