The illustration I mentioned in the previous post is done and it actually won one of two prizes available in the contest, making me a profit of a whooping 72,85€ after subtracting the costs of the materials.
Anyway, there are some things I've been considering. You've given me some valuable insights in the past, so I'd like to share another question with you and see what you think.
For a while I've been in some sort of system-building mood rather than a content-writing one. This has been having a small effect on performance, but more importantly it's proving to be a lot of wasted potential since Anamnesis at this point requires a lot of content before new systems can be developed. I'm presently stuck with all this content writing because I just wanted to add this one more system, after all.
I don't want to drop Anamnesis because I like it and I'll feel like making new content in the future again, but I believe it'd be more efficient to have an option to properly focus the system-building energy. This is probably going to happen in the short to mid term, but I haven't made up my mind on the best way to do it.
The first option would be to make a new game with a much greater focus on procedural generation. In many ways it'd still be similar to Anamnesis, still trying to feel like a pen-and-paper rpg, but of a different nature and a less developed setting.
The second option would be to do practically the same thing, but inside Anamnesis. It could involve fleshing out other alternative eras not just as the same game with slightly adjusted mechanics and different flavour, but basically as different games. Players would be able to choose which kind of eras they want to play or just leave it to chance. Perhaps instead of different eras these games within the game could simply involve optional trips into the mainland, the outer lands, or the fey worlds. I haven't made up my mind but there are plenty of ways to stitch everything together.
This is not something I'm going to start right away because the whole thing would require more planning and I'm not precisely swimming on free time, but for now I'd appreciate it if you let me know what you think of the whole thing.
Have you thought about outsourcing some writing based on guidelines? If you feel like abandoning Anamnesis and starting something new, I'd advice making Anamnesis available for others to pick up. It has worked well with other projects in the past, such as Incursion and Cataclysm.
ReplyDeleteI hope I didn't cause the impression that I feel like abandoning Anamnesis, because I definitively do not. My current issue is whether to, some time in the future, make a second game or simply add a new game mode to this one.
DeleteOutsourcing writing with strangers over the internet seems like a lot of trouble though. If that ever happens it'd have to be once no new features are being added or else user content will become incompatible over time.
The last post's mention of Cataclysm reminded me of a recent post by its original developer, whales, in his current blog on Cataclysm 2. He's currently splitting his time between coding Cataclysm 2 and another game. He said he enjoys having two to work on because if he's feeling frustrated and roadblocked with one he can work on the other. That seems like a pretty good idea to me, although everyone has a different creative process. I'd honestly just do what feels most natural and enjoyable to you, whether that's working on a project in addition to Anamnesis or creating something novel inside of it.
ReplyDeleteI also have to say that your description of the "first option" sounds pretty interesting to me. Are you considering making a roguelike, or something similar to it? I think there's alot of possibility with creating an experience that feels like a freeform, "do-anything" sort of game within a roguelike. I really like Anamnesis because your character really has a ton of freedom to do essentially any activity it could in real-life, so expanding on that element would appeal to me.
Anyway, sort of just throwing out ideas, but I think you've got alot of talent so whatever you do will be pretty good. I think it's normal to feel like you want to do something a bit different after spending a ton of time doing similar things with Anamnesis.
I don't think another game would be a roguelike in the sense of having tiles through which you move. It's all still pretty fuzzy but I believe a second game would still be mostly a text-based simulation. The main difference, other than the setting and theme, would be in for example coding a procedural weather system instead of simply fetching the weather from information within pre-defined content like in the territories of Anamnesis.
DeleteAnyway it's hard to give any more concrete information at this point because I'd probably end up changing things over time.