Something the devs talked about on PDXCON was how new game ideas are being tested out and thought about and that there is still a lot to do with Strategy games. Things like alt-history or fantasy Grand Strategy Games were mentioned but I have a proposal I feel is still missing on the landscape.
A First-Person Strategy game.
Nearly every Strategy game I've seen is played from a birds-eye perspective with close to complete information about what is happening. But how your attachment to what you achieved can change shows for example the first-person mode in Cities Skylines or Anno 1800. Walking through your city just has a different feel to it. It would also allow playing with incomplete information not only about the enemy but your own situation too. The game "Radio Commander" shows exactly that, being a general in his tent with only a map and a radio available. Needing to constantly ask for the position of his troops, forward information, etc. This real-world barrier offers some interesting challenges which aren't really explored in games.
Some other examples are the Fallout 4 mods "Sim Settlements" and "Sim Settlements Conqueror" which allow you to plan your settlements like a city builder and fight other factions for their settlements or stealing their supplies. This already is kind of a strategy game and these mods are some of the biggest for FO4.
The State of Decay series shows as well that there is a market for first/third person management games out there and even that they are way easier to play on consoles than conventional ones.
So.. how could such a game look?
Well, I feel like since PDX games are about more than just combat that a Sim Settlements Conqueror type of game would be appropriate. You play as the leader of a settlement in the post-apocalypse (virus, nuclear fallout, IDK). What you do is mostly the same as what you would in a normal strategy game: you send people to gather resources, place buildings and watch how they are built by your pops, create a small militia, try to establish contact to other settlements, trade with them, create allies, join or attack them.
Now one really interesting part about all of this is communication. Since your not an all-mighty entity flying above everyone you need to talk to people like all of your servants.. eh I mean citizens. So you talking to another settlement means that you have to be there, creating a risk since you could be jumped by thugs and can't really defend yourself. So maybe finding and creating radio devices becomes a priority but a limited supply of these forces you to choose who should get these. What's this? A settlement stopped responding to your calls? What happened, what's going on? Send a force to investigate or maybe go yourself to find out. Situations like these are completely unexplored for strategy players.
Another factor is that peaceful gameplay is a lot easier to establish and make enjoyable. Not only do you have to look for the basic needs of your people (water, food, sanitation, medicine) if all these are satisfied, how would a theater or a museum sound like? While in most games things like these are just something to fulfill the need of your pops and avoided by the player if not necessary since it would be a waste of resources, in an FPSG you would be able to walk into that theater and watch a show or listen to music through your newly established radio station. experiencing the culture of your settlement firsthand achieves a different kind of connection to your world.
And I haven't even really talked about combat, politics, espionage, end game crisis, etc. There is soo much that could be explored and experimented with! Modding communities would go wild with content and we don't even need to talk about DLC.
So.. yeah, that's my pitch, I guess. If you like the idea PDX, I'm open to job proposals
A First-Person Strategy game.
Nearly every Strategy game I've seen is played from a birds-eye perspective with close to complete information about what is happening. But how your attachment to what you achieved can change shows for example the first-person mode in Cities Skylines or Anno 1800. Walking through your city just has a different feel to it. It would also allow playing with incomplete information not only about the enemy but your own situation too. The game "Radio Commander" shows exactly that, being a general in his tent with only a map and a radio available. Needing to constantly ask for the position of his troops, forward information, etc. This real-world barrier offers some interesting challenges which aren't really explored in games.
Some other examples are the Fallout 4 mods "Sim Settlements" and "Sim Settlements Conqueror" which allow you to plan your settlements like a city builder and fight other factions for their settlements or stealing their supplies. This already is kind of a strategy game and these mods are some of the biggest for FO4.
The State of Decay series shows as well that there is a market for first/third person management games out there and even that they are way easier to play on consoles than conventional ones.
So.. how could such a game look?
Well, I feel like since PDX games are about more than just combat that a Sim Settlements Conqueror type of game would be appropriate. You play as the leader of a settlement in the post-apocalypse (virus, nuclear fallout, IDK). What you do is mostly the same as what you would in a normal strategy game: you send people to gather resources, place buildings and watch how they are built by your pops, create a small militia, try to establish contact to other settlements, trade with them, create allies, join or attack them.
Now one really interesting part about all of this is communication. Since your not an all-mighty entity flying above everyone you need to talk to people like all of your servants.. eh I mean citizens. So you talking to another settlement means that you have to be there, creating a risk since you could be jumped by thugs and can't really defend yourself. So maybe finding and creating radio devices becomes a priority but a limited supply of these forces you to choose who should get these. What's this? A settlement stopped responding to your calls? What happened, what's going on? Send a force to investigate or maybe go yourself to find out. Situations like these are completely unexplored for strategy players.
Another factor is that peaceful gameplay is a lot easier to establish and make enjoyable. Not only do you have to look for the basic needs of your people (water, food, sanitation, medicine) if all these are satisfied, how would a theater or a museum sound like? While in most games things like these are just something to fulfill the need of your pops and avoided by the player if not necessary since it would be a waste of resources, in an FPSG you would be able to walk into that theater and watch a show or listen to music through your newly established radio station. experiencing the culture of your settlement firsthand achieves a different kind of connection to your world.
And I haven't even really talked about combat, politics, espionage, end game crisis, etc. There is soo much that could be explored and experimented with! Modding communities would go wild with content and we don't even need to talk about DLC.
So.. yeah, that's my pitch, I guess. If you like the idea PDX, I'm open to job proposals