News and Tree Game Details 8/31/2014

Hail Wanderers!

Lots of news on various subjects to go over today, in addition to some details on the new project that I am working on.

To start, a much belated update on the status of the game that I mentioned way back in the Update 6/16/2014 post. The plan is to have the game complete over the course of the next two or so months, so expect to see more work and updates there in addition to the soon to be completed game.

Secondly, expect to see weekly updates, if not more, on this blog. Most of these blog posts will focus on the new game that I, and a team of excellent people, are working on but I will still try to get some work in on the dungeon crawler in my spare time.

Now, a little bit of background on this new game that I keep mentioning. I'm working with a team to, over the course of the coming semester, create a vertical slice of a full game. The game will go through 5 stages of development, with blog posts accompanying each stage. The first stage, and the stage that my team and I are currently working on, is to explore and develop several ideas that will eventually become the foundation for our game.

The first concept that we are working on is a tree based exploratory strategy game. The intent of the game is for the player to grow and shepherd a forest of different tree species and accomplish several goals while adapting to an ever changing environment and discovering new and unexpected types of trees. The main focus of the game is on player centric exploration and discovery of both the game world and the trees that the player is using to interact with it.

As already mentioned, the core experience of the game is discovering new and interesting varieties of trees as the trees either change and grow under the player's direction or as a result of changes in the game environment. We are in no way limiting ourselves with the boundaries of reality, and a large part of the experience is discovering unknown tree types, finding out what exactly they are, and then eventually making use of them in the overall strategy of the game. We intend for the game to be easy to pick up and play at a basic level, but have complex enough systems that those who want a more strategy focused experience have plenty of depth to work with.

The game takes place in a 3D environment from an isometric perspective with the trees themselves being shown in 2D. The art direction is certainly headed towards the fantastic and colorful, with a focus on vibrant colors.

The game is projected to be released for iOS and Android tablets and phones.

The concept is admittedly still in the early stages with many of the specific details still being worked out, and this may not be the idea that we eventually decide to work on, but expect to see more details about this and other concepts in the coming days. Sometime early next week I'll post again either talking more about the core systems of the tree game or about another one of the game concepts.

Until then,
Guardian Soul