I've been doing this a while now. I have a main foreverproject game I just toil away on for, well, forever. But I create dozens of mini games outside that foreverproject to experiment with ideas for the foreverproject.
For me the foreverproject is where I drive all that perfection energy. The surrounding games, well, they're just "experiments" and "prototypes", right? Surely prototypes don't need to be perfect ;)
I don't know if it's particularly inspired or "grand idea" - it's just a 2d multiplayer rpg, and with something like that the sky is pretty much the limit.
If I had to peg my general philosophy, which is tied to how I like to play games: it's on being open minded when it comes to strategies players can use to overcome challenges within the game, and try to codify some of that within the systems built into the game so players have options to overcome challenges in ways other than gladiatorial-like combat.
Basically, I think "exploiting" is fun, and believe it's an overused term.
Unfortunately it isn't. I recently switched my forever project after working on the same one for a couple decades - it was a MUD (text multiplayer RPG).
The playerbase dwindled to nothing and I wanted a different challenge so I shuttered it. Over the years many people worked on it and while I'm sure they wouldn't mind if I put it up on github, I've lost contact with many of them so I don't feel right releasing it, so it's just in the bitbin of history.
Now I'm working on a 2D version of it, which adds a whole new dimension to the challenge. Once I have something more than just random prototypes I do plan on putting it up. But it's slow going - I have a job and kids, so I get about 1 hour per day to work on it.
There's so much lost that was in MUDs, including a huge amount of good, descriptive writing of vast areas. I wonder if a later iteration of the Dall-E / Midjourney / Stable generators might be able to create visuals based off of rooms descriptions.
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I've been doing this a while now. I have a main foreverproject game I just toil away on for, well, forever. But I create dozens of mini games outside that foreverproject to experiment with ideas for the foreverproject.
For me the foreverproject is where I drive all that perfection energy. The surrounding games, well, they're just "experiments" and "prototypes", right? Surely prototypes don't need to be perfect ;)
I'm obsessed with other people's forever projects. Have you written up the "grand idea" in a blog post or anything? Love to hear more.
I'm trying to break my own BIG IDEA into manageable experiments or profitable side hustles somehow too.
I don't know if it's particularly inspired or "grand idea" - it's just a 2d multiplayer rpg, and with something like that the sky is pretty much the limit.
If I had to peg my general philosophy, which is tied to how I like to play games: it's on being open minded when it comes to strategies players can use to overcome challenges within the game, and try to codify some of that within the systems built into the game so players have options to overcome challenges in ways other than gladiatorial-like combat.
Basically, I think "exploiting" is fun, and believe it's an overused term.
Is your forever project public? Would be interesting to see what it is.
Unfortunately it isn't. I recently switched my forever project after working on the same one for a couple decades - it was a MUD (text multiplayer RPG).
The playerbase dwindled to nothing and I wanted a different challenge so I shuttered it. Over the years many people worked on it and while I'm sure they wouldn't mind if I put it up on github, I've lost contact with many of them so I don't feel right releasing it, so it's just in the bitbin of history.
Now I'm working on a 2D version of it, which adds a whole new dimension to the challenge. Once I have something more than just random prototypes I do plan on putting it up. But it's slow going - I have a job and kids, so I get about 1 hour per day to work on it.
There's so much lost that was in MUDs, including a huge amount of good, descriptive writing of vast areas. I wonder if a later iteration of the Dall-E / Midjourney / Stable generators might be able to create visuals based off of rooms descriptions.
This is the way to go. Just remember to market yourself by your "experiments" and "prototypes".