Incremental Game Development

From: Alexander G. M. Smith <agmsmith_at_...>
Date: Fri, 18 Apr 2003 15:07:34 -0400 EDT


Gargantua wrote on Thu, 17 Apr 2003 18:01:43 +0000:
> [...] The reason I bring GalCiv up is how it was released.
> Basically, there was open beta testing, for the price of the final game.
> In the end you could either download the final build or ask them to send
> it on CD. Do you think it would work with KoDP? Remember, that first
> version of GalCiv was for OS/2 and was not popular, and was
> not nearly as good as the sequel. David Dunham always said that the
> KoDP sequel will be possible only if there is some funding.
> Would GalCiv's experience work here?

Making a sequel to King of Dragon pass like that would require incremental development. First you'd need an engine to keep track of the basic economy and other status items, and a way of using the status values in decisions (KoDP had a scripting language). You'd have to come up with a list of the status items and how they interact with the game world (and it would have to actually work!). Perhaps some existing scripting language could be adapted. Displaying graphics and getting multiple choice input is fairly easy now, you could even do that with a web server / browser combo. Then you'd need the story lines. Then the artwork, sounds and music to go with the stories. That means writers and artists.

But a game with only a dozen or so plot line stories wouldn't be that interesting to play. You need to have several hundred, like KoDP which has 500 "scenes". Plus they all need to fit together into a common cultural background (KoDP had one main scene writer and a known universe which helps with that sort of consistency). That's a lot of work to do before anyone starts getting interested enough to pay for a beta version.

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