{"author_name":"jovoc","cat":"LD #25","comments":[],"epoch":1354903320,"likes":2,"metadata":{"p_key":"50988","p_author":"jovoc","p_authorkey":"34","p_urlkey":"86681","p_title":"Goals Theme Post","p_cat":"LD #25","p_event":"LD25","p_time":"1354903320","p_likes":"2","p_comments":"0","p_status":"UPD5","us_key":"34","us_name":"jovoc","us_username":"jovoc","event_start":"1355443200","event_key":"14","event_name":"LD25"},"text":"<p>I&#8217;ve been enjoying the &#8220;Game Goal&#8221; theme posts, such as <a href=\"http:\/\/www.pippinbarr.com\/inininoutoutout\/?p=3187\">this one<\/a>, and <a href=\"http:\/\/www.auntiepixelante.com\/?p=1853&amp;utm_source=rss&amp;utm_medium=rss&amp;utm_campaign=stated-goals\">this one<\/a>. The idea is you just write a context-free list of the player&#8217;s goals in your games. Perhaps it will reveal interesting patterns, or buried insights of your own psyche. So here goes my list:<\/p>\n <ul>\n <li>Defend your city from Godzilla<\/li>\n <li>Build a highway connecting ice floes<\/li>\n <li>Beseige or defend a base using elephants<\/li>\n <li>Collect the best combination of sicknesses<\/li>\n <li>Explore\/conquer a fantasy world by playing a dice game (buttonmen variant)<\/li>\n <li>As kudzu, strive to completely cover various objects<\/li>\n <li>control bugzappers to zap bugs in an orderly fashion<\/li>\n <li>Add cowbell to all songs (guitar hero variant)<\/li>\n <li>expand\/defend a moonbase with a connected network of units (moonbase commander clone)<\/li>\n <li>Connect locations by building words, crossword style<\/li>\n <li>Save ice-age species from extinction by an oncoming glacier<\/li>\n <li>\u00a0Fly your spaceship through a cave<\/li>\n <li>Explore a series of islands to reach the site of an alien crash landing<\/li>\n <li>fight through a robotic underworld (mega-man clone\/variant)<\/li>\n <li>obtain a sword in a voxelized world (zelda clone)<\/li>\n <li>as a dinosaur, try and outrun an oncoming asteroid<\/li>\n <li>clear mines on a planet<\/li>\n <li>grow a world by gathering followers<\/li>\n <li>arrange fish heads and pumpkins into useful combinations<\/li>\n <li>Collect and buy\/sell trinkets to earn enough to leave a planet<\/li>\n <li>cut and paste headlines to make new and better headlines<\/li>\n <li>rearrange words (DNA) to make better creatures<\/li>\n <\/ul>\n <p>Ok, so a couple of themes jump out. A lot of my games are about building and exploring, but not really &#8220;sim style&#8221;, more like having a protagonist who builds\/explores. I do like base building games, and I think there would be a lot more of them if these weren&#8217;t all compo games, since I&#8217;ve learned to avoid them because of time limits. But even my word games have building\/exploring elements. There are some &#8220;escape&#8221; goals but really knowing those game designs they are really exploration games in disguise.<\/p>\n <p>Which makes a lot of sense. Exploration games are always my favorite to play, and even when they are not specifically exploration mechanics I often focus on that part of them. When Ultima Online came out I was in the beta, and I spent a lot of time just hiking around the huge landscape. At least until highway robbers became too prevalent. I spent more time in &#8220;Black &amp; White&#8221; exploring the island than training my creature. I played WoW until I had visited all the lands, and then I kind of lost interest. Some of my most ambitious unproduced game ideas are pure exploration games, like a procedural photography game and a realistic orienteering simulator.<\/p>\n <p>Hm. So that&#8217;s interesting. I guess I&#8217;m going to stop putting of trying &#8220;Proteus&#8221; and give that a shot.<\/p>","time":"December 7th, 2012 1:02 pm","title":"Goals Theme Post"}