Matrix Games Forums

Goodaye,

A question for Elliot.

What are the games / books etc. that have influenced you in the design of Distant Waters?

Eg. What type of game are you aiming for DW to be (beyond the obvious stuff we can already figure out)?

I'm offering up a platform here, feel free to zing some good thoughts our way.

Cheers,
Lancer

Distant waters? [:D]

Goodaye,

Yep, that's the one. Giant Octopuses in Space. Xenophobic Mermaids.

The dolphins. They were behind it all.

So long and thanks for the fish...

Cheers,
Lancer

The aim was to simply make a game that I enjoyed playing. I guess everyone plays games where they like a lot of stuff, but wish that some things had been done another way. So I guess DW is how I'd like things done in this kind of game [:)]

Trying to please a wide spectrum of gamers is a real challenge - some like to micro-manage everything, while others find that tedious and want to focus on broader strategy and game-play. To cater for this in DW there is the private economy that manages the super-tedious stuff for you, and also the various levels of automation, where you can decide how much control you want over various gameplay aspects.

I thought it was important to maintain a high level of detail, even when the player does not directly control a gameplay feature. I tried to avoid abstractions that 'represent' game elements - e.g. abstract trade routes that magically transport items between planets. Instead I've tried to keep things as real as possible, e.g. having detailed trade where freighters actually transport specific cargo from one point to another. Of course, all games are abstractions at some level (they're games after all), but I've attempted to make the game features tangible, so that you can interact with them directly.

Having a high-level of detail (while avoiding burdensome micro-management) also provides a rich hum of background activity in the game. It really adds to the 'living galaxy' feel, where lots of things are going on around you. Managing hundreds of freighters transporting goods all over the galaxy would probably not be most people's idea of fun - it sure wasn't mine. So having the private economy look after that took the burden away from the player, while preserving the actual game mechanics.

As far as the influences for game feel: I love Star Wars, and really wanted to convey that same feeling of a rich, living galaxy where there's tons of stuff going on, even where you haven't explored yet. So exploration is a big part of DW - the galaxy is very big, and it's packed with lots of stuff to find and exploit. For example, besides other standard empires, there's also the independent alien colonies and traders that don't belong to any empire, plus the pirate factions that do their own thing (but that you can interact with).

Anyway, that was the vision - you'll all soon get to check how close we got to it in the actual implementation [:)]

Haha.
You are lucky man.
I mean many people want to be able to make game they want to play. I mean the perfect GAME, the GAME from their dreams.
I must say that I envy you that you have enough skill, luck time and willpower to make it.
Good to you and good to us all.
Anyway if game can be customised and can be easly moded then many people wil have some possibility to make this game more what they want to play.
Good Luck and God Speed

BTW What is last realese date?

ORIGINAL: Sarissofoi


Anyway if game can be customised and can be easly moded then many people wil have some possibility to make this game more what they want to play.

That's the only thing I'm a bit worried about with the game.

Editing species, the galaxy and shipsets is fun and all, but I'm really interested in how possible it is to edit the actual gameplay itself(I.e. the stuff that goes on under the hood.)

Goodaye Elliot,

Man with a Vision reads a lot better than Man with a Formula.

It's great that you can back your own judgement and hopefully make a decent dollar out of it.

I normally don't buy games until there's some informed feedback and a couple of patches but I'm willing to make the leap of faith here.

Cheers,
Lancer

Just out of interest, don't you guys want to see what Elliot has done first before you start toying with what's under the hood? If I bought someone a present I would find it a bit rude if they kept asking me if they could rip it open in order to change it before they even knew what it's like. I suppose this is coming from someone who doesn't (and cannot) mod games, but wants to experience the original in all it's glory.

I don't mod either. I like to play original/official content of games. Though, I can understand the people who mod as an extension of gaming hobby.

I think the vast majority of silent players of most games do not use mods, and even fewer make mods.
To me, on certain forums, it's usually a smaller, yet vocal, group of people that post about making mods.
I could be wrong though and many more than I think make and use mods.

But I think it's great to want to play around with the game, I really do. I use mods with many of my old games and I love to see peoples hard work in transforming a game into something completely different, or to see the game simply revamped/rebalanced etc. I'm just not sure about talking about this IN SO MUCH DETAIL before a game is even released!

I always play all games I get, no matter the genre, without mods the first time through, to see the original designers vision, but after that mods can add quite a bit to the game, and do a lot to extend a games lifespan.

I don't think trying to get an understanding of how moddable the game is is rude, but to each man his own.

I would certainly hope Elliot doesn't find it offensive that I wonder how much gameplay mechanics can be modified in the game.