a multiplayer game of parenting and civilization building
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I'll start off by saying I'm a fan of the Castle Doctrine. It was an experimental, multiplayer game, like this one. I like how Jason isn't
afraid to do something different and bend expectations when it comes to what makes a game, a game.
That said, I'm not sure I can see how this is going to work out. There's a neat idea here, that is experimental. However... what is the long term plan?
Every time you are born, you are a different character, in a different group of people, with a different story. For just that one hour. That's a nice idea,
but what it amounts to, as far as I can see, is most likely you are spawning in a group that at best goes back a few generations (i.e. hours).
So, some person spawns in, finds an old ruined base, sticks it out and raises some kids. That generation survive, and have kids, and do a bit more work.
Maybe it carries on a few more generations after that, if they are smart and have some experience. Then the place dies as people in the same time zone
go to sleep, work, etc.
It stays empty for a while. Somebody else finds the ruins later, starts again. Repeat.
Put it another way, human life / societies in this world are so short lives, so transient, that you will never have persistent civilizations lasting more than
a few hours at a time. On weekends, during active time in the US, for the first few weeks of the game, I think you will see a fair bit happening. But going months into the future...?
What this means is that the variety of potential stories you can experience will be pretty limited. It won't be like "Oh hi, we are at war with tribe X, now
you have to help us fight!" Or "Oh hi, our society is organized in this way, and you will need to learn how to fit in." It will be like, "Oh hey, we are living
in this skeleton filled ruin. Spend your time scrounging for food then either starve or die of old age. Nobody here will be alive in a few hours, but maybe
somebody tomorrow will use the other items we make... in order to scrounge and make some more items?"
Put it another way, I'm not sure how the transitory experimental experience of a life in an hour, on a random server, with random people, can translate
into an ongoing gaming experience, especially when any given group will only be persistent for a few hours at a time.
And that in itself is OK. If the game was free? Or two dollars? But when priced as an actual game, this seems like a problem. I don't know.
Right now, I've thought of it as though I purchased a ticket to see an interesting art piece.
Last edited by BeerDrinkingBurke (2018-03-02 04:18:26)
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Very good questions. I suspect that most settlements (if not every) will be wiped out a few times (So I doubt that we will have 400 generations long bloodline). However the objects (knife) and infrastructure (fields...) will survive.
But I reckon that having some guaranty to reincarnate (well come back) in a place we have played already would add much to the player experience. For example through a stronger "Bloodline" mecanism or a "prefered place to reincarnate"
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Interesting thoughts. But concerning (already) regretting the purchase: How much is a beer where you live and how much do you make per hour? I don't expect answers to that. But my point is, that considering this is an indie game by a one guy who spent a lot of time on it, to me it seems wrong to compare the price to data harvesting mobile games or AAA titles, but rather compare it to other (more or less useless) stuff I spend money on, including art (good comparison IMO). Cheers! And enjoy to watch how it all plays out :-)
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Sorry, I didn't mean to have a wine about the fairness of the price per se. I've supported a lot of games in development over the years, and I don't want to belittle the work that goes into making something like this (I've been working on a game myself for a few years now part time, and damn its a lot of work.)
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Having been part of the playtesting I had similar concerns but since people have arrived I have been surprised at how much the game changed already. I understand it may seem like you lose all your progress when you die but actually the progress is saved in the ongoing culture in the world. That's really awesome to observe.
The first day, people were clueless, emptying berries, wasting milkweed on stupid stuff.
A few years later some misguided farming was occurring (40 domestic berry bushes, really?) but settlements were more stocked, there would always be tools for fire for instance.
Yesterday I went to several settlements. Most had oven, kiln and forge. Every carrot farmer was (finally!) instructed to let some seeds appear. Water trips were organized. Constant fire to help babies survive.
I am curious to see what happens in a week when the first tech tree update appears. I, for one, do not know how mutton domestication works, I am curious to see it happen.
And I have not seen people murder others yet (it just take a bow and arrow but it may be not widely known yet). I expect interesting dynamics when this happens. I am pondering making an authoritarian settlement by gaining a bow, a backpack of arrows and forbidding milkweed planting. I am sure I could do awesome things with slave labor!
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And I have not seen people murder others yet (it just take a bow and arrow but it may be not widely known yet). I expect interesting dynamics when this happens. I am pondering making an authoritarian settlement by gaining a bow, a backpack of arrows and forbidding milkweed planting. I am sure I could do awesome things with slave labor!
I've been killed as a baby by my mother twice. Once with a knife, and once with a bow and arrow. Most mothers who can't handle another baby are just walking away, but the murder was pretty disturbing.
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I think this is a very well written post that contains a lot of the worries that I had when playing it. At the moment, every single time I was born felt the same as the rest, with either dying because of abandonment or having to start fresh. It was fun for a bit but got tiring and repetitive quickly. I do think it'll be better after some content patches, but there'll either need to be some kind of community progress or new system added to keep a large amount of the player base from getting frustrated, in my opinion. Unless Jason just doesn't care about all those players who will get tired and only caters to the hardcore fanbase.
Just my two cents, feel free to debate me if you disagree.
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Having been part of the playtesting I had similar concerns but since people have arrived I have been surprised at how much the game changed already. I understand it may seem like you lose all your progress when you die but actually the progress is saved in the ongoing culture in the world. That's really awesome to observe.
The first day, people were clueless, emptying berries, wasting milkweed on stupid stuff.
A few years later some misguided farming was occurring (40 domestic berry bushes, really?) but settlements were more stocked, there would always be tools for fire for instance.
Yesterday I went to several settlements. Most had oven, kiln and forge. Every carrot farmer was (finally!) instructed to let some seeds appear. Water trips were organized. Constant fire to help babies survive.
I am curious to see what happens in a week when the first tech tree update appears. I, for one, do not know how mutton domestication works, I am curious to see it happen.
And I have not seen people murder others yet (it just take a bow and arrow but it may be not widely known yet). I expect interesting dynamics when this happens. I am pondering making an authoritarian settlement by gaining a bow, a backpack of arrows and forbidding milkweed planting. I am sure I could do awesome things with slave labor!
Although I agree with you, I'm not sure players will have the patience to fully follow that. Although progress is saved in form of built settlements, too much time is spent learning everything about a settlement, where things are and what not.
Also, players can't control where they are born, so they spend 1 hour into a settlement, just to not born there again. This harms the development of that settlement. And, in my case, discourages me, as a player, to keep playing.
I don't see this working unless it gets a constant influx of people into the game. People do give up in time.
Last edited by Shirkit (2018-03-03 08:03:17)
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