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6:31am - So I realized at some point between finishing my last Work Post and going to bed that the reason I was having trouble looking at the screen on my computer was because I had damaged my eye again, so I spent most of today either asleep or resting in bed with my eyes shut so it could heal. It seems to have worked; previous times this happened I had to go to the hospital 'cause it gets infected, but this time I think it was slight enough it could heal on its own as long as I stopped messing with it.
Now then, it's six thirty in the morning, and while I am admittedly tired, I haven't done much today but lay about. I'd like to read more of Sid Meier's Memoir! tonight, but I also want to work on what I was doing last night before bed.
Overnight I thought about how I was thinking about the activities in Sid Meier's Pirates! and realized I was looking at them wrong. There are things you do and games you play, and they're related but not entirely. So let's look at the games in Sid Meier's Pirates!
Sailing
Ship-to-Ship Combat
Swordfighting
Trading
Dancing
Exploration & Gathering Upgrades
Hunting for Treasure
Sneaking in and out of Towns
Field Warfare
War Macrogame
I think that's all of them. It's quite a few minigames.
The main gameplay loop for much of the game, though, is to set sail, find a target ship to attack, engage in ship to ship combat, board the enemy vessel, sword fight the captain, capture the ship, and sell the ship and its contents in an allied town. There's more to do than just that, but it's basically that. Ship to ship combat where you shoot down another ship is pretty rare, 'cause then you don't get any treasure.
Now my game would be different from that, pretty significantly, because you wouldn't neccesarily be a pirate. I'd want to give the player options. Piracy is one option to a space captain, but you might want to simply carry trade goods or run missions for the local government. I'd also like there to be some story to uncover and characters to interact with in the vein of Infinite Space. I'm also considering a landing ship for exploring planets and returning to the fleet in the vein of Star Control II.
So I think the main game loop would either be 'get mission' 'do mission' or 'buy low' 'sell high'. But if there's a story involved then these might just be things you do between story beats. In the modern version of Sid Meier's Pirates! there's a quest to reunite the surviving members of your family enslaved in the new world.
I really should hammer out all three game's features at this stage, so I can determine which one needs the least systems to make viable. Like I said before, it's easy to scope creep in a space game.
So let's see... I'll make a page in OneNote for keeping track of the features outside of this, since this is more of a place for my meandering thoughts and I don't want to have to go back through them all to get the details.
The most basic gameplay in a space game is flying in space. So, that would come first. I want things to be from the perspective of people in a ship, so you'll either be looking at a console or the bridge.
7:22am - Shoot, I was hoping to make more progress this morning but I'm fading fast. I'll continue again tomorrow.
Now then, it's six thirty in the morning, and while I am admittedly tired, I haven't done much today but lay about. I'd like to read more of Sid Meier's Memoir! tonight, but I also want to work on what I was doing last night before bed.
Overnight I thought about how I was thinking about the activities in Sid Meier's Pirates! and realized I was looking at them wrong. There are things you do and games you play, and they're related but not entirely. So let's look at the games in Sid Meier's Pirates!
Sailing
Ship-to-Ship Combat
Swordfighting
Trading
Dancing
Exploration & Gathering Upgrades
Hunting for Treasure
Sneaking in and out of Towns
Field Warfare
War Macrogame
I think that's all of them. It's quite a few minigames.
The main gameplay loop for much of the game, though, is to set sail, find a target ship to attack, engage in ship to ship combat, board the enemy vessel, sword fight the captain, capture the ship, and sell the ship and its contents in an allied town. There's more to do than just that, but it's basically that. Ship to ship combat where you shoot down another ship is pretty rare, 'cause then you don't get any treasure.
Now my game would be different from that, pretty significantly, because you wouldn't neccesarily be a pirate. I'd want to give the player options. Piracy is one option to a space captain, but you might want to simply carry trade goods or run missions for the local government. I'd also like there to be some story to uncover and characters to interact with in the vein of Infinite Space. I'm also considering a landing ship for exploring planets and returning to the fleet in the vein of Star Control II.
So I think the main game loop would either be 'get mission' 'do mission' or 'buy low' 'sell high'. But if there's a story involved then these might just be things you do between story beats. In the modern version of Sid Meier's Pirates! there's a quest to reunite the surviving members of your family enslaved in the new world.
I really should hammer out all three game's features at this stage, so I can determine which one needs the least systems to make viable. Like I said before, it's easy to scope creep in a space game.
So let's see... I'll make a page in OneNote for keeping track of the features outside of this, since this is more of a place for my meandering thoughts and I don't want to have to go back through them all to get the details.
The most basic gameplay in a space game is flying in space. So, that would come first. I want things to be from the perspective of people in a ship, so you'll either be looking at a console or the bridge.
7:22am - Shoot, I was hoping to make more progress this morning but I'm fading fast. I'll continue again tomorrow.
