Game Design: Tree

Set myself a challenge while daydreaming; design a game real quick, basic concept.

Thought of Gormenghast, thought of Divine Divinity, the book and game respectively that I've been dipping into for the last few days - thought of their environments, envisioned their trees.

Tree.

Game set entirely in tree.

Race of small creatures set up bases, ideally 2-3+ in various areas of the 3d, randomly generated and rather fractal environment of an isolated tree's canopy.

Round 1 and 2 alternate; round 1 is summer, the tree is rich in fruit, with great animals, hungry birds and insidious insects everywhere - harvest the fruit, defend the nest, build the stocks, upgrade the defenses. Expand your village in the trees, barricading branches and creating nest-like firing positions made of twigs. The environment is rich with resources, thick with concealment and camouflage in the form of leaves and creepers, and populated with dangerous AI creatures.

Round 2; Winter. Survive on the stocks as long as you can, raid opposing villages to increase your stocks while decreasing their chances of survival. Few creatures, no leaf-cover, a stark, slippery, frozen deadland of an arena, in inclement weather such as snow, rain and fog.

Food counts down steadily, faster in winter, respawns increase consumption rate.

Last surviving team is the winner, after however many years.

Precise design of creatures not explored yet - waste of time for the moment, unless others show interest in fleshing it out with me for the fun of it. I think of them as hive-like, serving a central queen entity or energy source.

Spring and Autumn rounds optional. Spring would bring the rain and an influx of birds returning from migration - Autumn would bring the insects and the spiders. Oh god, not the spiders.

Share your thoughts if you've got them.

- Jack

Thfeary

I'm a believer in the influence of psychological state and emotion upon physical health. When people cite the power of prayer, they're only wrong in the attritbution, not the effectiveness it can have for a sufferer to have faith. Maybe even the positive vibes of those praying might do something, just judging by a wealth of.. Well, not evidence, but highly suggestive information that may, or may not be purely the product of wishful, evangelist imaginations.

With this stated, I found myself pondering the 'mystery' of immuno-disorders.

Take asthma, for example; what if the reason everyone is suddenly being crippled by their own respiratory systems - in their efforts to save us from things of little to absolutely no harm - is that we fear the air we breathe?

Certainly, there will always be respiratory problems as a result of purely medical concerns, and there always has/always will be 'asthma' for a given value of a rather catch-all term, but what if the massive apparent upsurge is not solely down to air quality, but partially down to our own hypochondrian/conditioned paranoia about what we're breathing?

What if our bodies are being trained from childhood to resent and distrust the air we breathe?

As I see it, this is no more far fetched than reversing the Placebo Effect.

Think on it, and let me know your own conclusions.