Topic: Crowd-fund a Bitcoin-centric game (a proposal) - page 2. (Read 3439 times)

A lesson that EVE Online seems to have taught is that, unfortunately, self-improving tycoons does not seem to be a good model from the point of view of investors. It is great for the tycoons themselves, running around ripping off people who are fool enough to invest in them, but not great for any stock markets that trade in the "securities" such tycoons offer.

Thus I have been examining the possibility that one might be able to relieve the tycoons of much of their ability to rip off investors at the same time as, and by the same mechanism(s) as, one might be able to simplify the system, at least initially. given that initially financing the game is important in order for there to be a game at all.

So I have been looking at ways to allow "tycoons" some sense of being at the tiller of a Corp while at the same time presenting to them only such choices as are not inconsistent with the best interests of stockholders...

-MarkM-

Wow, anno1777 sounds intriguing from the feature list. However, the site shows nothing of the game itself. From the description, it sounds like if that's what you want, just play anno1777! Sounds very hard-core though, in terms of the environment. My idea is rather more light.


Hi MarkM - as always, you have very good insights. Indeed, I want to stay away from too many game mechanics. I have in mind an improve-your-situation tycoon type of approach (in a world setting that I'm keeping shrouded in mystery for the moment, but which won't really surprise anyone once I disclose it). It needs to be accessible to end-users.

I think the game needs to take place in one single world (not fractured amongst private servers), to support a single thriving economy. On the technical front, I'm considering that the server should provide an open protocol, allowing anyone to write clients to the API. Whether that makes sense to the gameplay will have to be considered. On one hand, you can't really stop folks from writing bots, so you might as well embrace it. On the other hand, the game design and user experience must not suffer from scripted players.

Sorry, thoughts on world structure and game framework is a bit preliminary. Just something that was on my mind, contemplating MarkM's comments.

The nice thing about an economic/finance game is that it dangles the tantalising idea of being self-funding.

Basically the funding of the game itself can be part of the game itself.

That is the main reason really why the whole "implement actual banks and stock exchanges for the cities using Open Transactions" focus came about really: hanging around bitcoin made me realise that speculating is a very popular game in and of itself thus just having the financial markets up and running might well go much farther toward financing the game than any amount of 3d graphics development, combat system implementation, client and server adaptation and so on and so on and so on that the overall Milieu ultimately calls for.

-MarkM-

how about a game like anno1777 ?
it looks sustainable, players get real money in and out,
I can't quite get the busyness model, but players are happy

I hadn't seen Regnum before, so thanks for the pointer. However, that's beyond what I could provide.


OK, anyone want to hire me to build a Bitcoin poker engine? This would be a separate contract-based arrangement, not part of this crowd-funding proposal, though. Like I said, I'm effectively looking for work hours!


RPG gameplay has a lot of overhead, and the currency would just become a subtext of the world. I'm planning more of an economic-based game. (I also have some designs for a military game, but I think economic might be the way to really embrace the Bitcoin aspect.)

Without getting into the setting, players would spend bitcoins to give themselves the means to earn more in the world. But, it's a balance: how much to put in for how much reward you think you can achieve (return on investment). A trouble with RPGs is that the richest player wins. In my (still speculative) game design, you could buy in with lots of BTC if you want, but if you over-spend, then you'll never actually make back what you put in.

In a very abstract sense, the world economy acts as a pool. By playing, you can get coin from the pool. One issue is that if the pool runs dry, then the economy fizzles out. I have a couple thoughts on this, which I think would actually make the game pretty interesting... sorry so vague.

If this proposal gets off the ground at all, the first thing I'll do is make a public game design document, so everyone can provide input. I'm sure there are lots of Bitcoin experts that will think of really interesting economic concepts for such a framework, and if this is crowd-funded, then I'm certainly open to public opinion!

How would Bitcoins be distributed in the game?

Would players pay in Bitcoins when they join or on a regular basis?

If it's going to be an RPG-style game then it must be reasonably fair to all players. Otherwise you might get a situation where the high level PCs grab all the Bitcoins from the noobs.

Well, my second suggestion was poker related >_>

Yes, I totally agree... However, I should clarify.

I am not a AAA studio. I have a nice simple game design in mind. I'm not reinventing the wheel with the design or trying to shock the world with a never-before-seen game concept.

This is a very humble proposal. Sorry for the vagueness, but I'm just testing the waters here. If the community is behind me, then I'm all-in (and it's not poker/gambling). In fact, my ideas will probably change with community input, and I'm totally open to that.

Make me a Diablo 2 clone that accepts Bitcoin and I'll eat it up.

Inspired by this topic on Bitcoin and crowdfunding, and somewhat related to my recent Kickstarter topic, I wrote a proposal to the Bitcoin community to crowd-fund a Bitcoin-centric game:

http://www.potentialgames.com/bitcoingame/

As I've stated in my proposal, I will take this quite seriously and professionally (all via Potential Games LLC), if there is serious interest from the community.

At this point, this is just a discussion. It might not lead to anything, but I think it will be an interesting topic.

Update: Revisited this today (Dec 27, 2012). Early 2013 would be an ideal time to bootstrap a new game project, so please let me know if there is interest.