Modular games?

Started by Legend, Aug 29, 2018, 09:07 PM

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Legend

Imagine a game that combined Cities Skylines with Civ 5. You'd be designing a full empire with a crazy amount of freedom. Or imagine a game with the spaceships from Elite but the planets from Destiny.

I think we all like to day dream about games like this but what if they could happen? It'd be way too expensive to make a game with all these features but instead what if it really worked by just bundling multiple games together?

For existing games, it could be done as a game mod. e.g. you'd have a beefy computer running Skylines and Civ 5 at the same time and a mod would integrate them.

But what if games were designed from day 1 to support such a feature? Like if there was an open source method to connect games that any dev could support. At the very least, an individual publisher could do this and make their games combine into a larger whole. The end result would be a super game that combined a ton of genres but didn't have much added risk. Each individual game would still sell for $60 and have a normal budget.

Thoughts?

Dr. Pezus

I don't know how you would do that with a mod  :o

Legend

I don't know how you would do that with a mod  :o
The Civ 5 mod would just add an "edit city" text box once a city is selected. Clicking it would auto pause Civ, switch to Cities Skylines, and load the save file for that city. If the city had not been edited yet, it could use Civ 5 terrain info to set up similar terrain in City Skylines. Then the Cities Skylines mod would had a UI option to "close city" and it would return to Civ 5 and update city parameters to match. If you wanted to get really really advanced, you could mod it to even make the Civ 5 city look like the city designed in skylines and make the Civ 5 world visible around the horizon when in Cities Skylines.

It'd be a lot of work to make it work well and it might be impossible without removing DRM from the games but it'd be possible.

the-pi-guy

Ugh, another thread I really wanted to reply to.  I hate being busy.

That would be a pretty crazy idea.  I think there would have to be some limitations to what could be done.

I think the best way would be to have a game be able to connect to certain features of other games.  So maybe in the menu of Civ 5, there'd be an option to import the city building systems from City Skylines.  
Something like that could have a lot of fun mechanics.  

Legend

Ugh, another thread I really wanted to reply to.  I hate being busy.

That would be a pretty crazy idea.  I think there would have to be some limitations to what could be done.

I think the best way would be to have a game be able to connect to certain features of other games.  So maybe in the menu of Civ 5, there'd be an option to import the city building systems from City Skylines.  
Something like that could have a lot of fun mechanics.  
Yeah I think it'd work best when the games/modules have as little overlap as possible. Doing DLC like content with this method would be incredibly difficult.

If you're importing the building systems and using them without switching the "active" game, wouldn't it take a lot of dev work to get them working inside Civ 5?

the-pi-guy

Sep 06, 2018, 02:18 AM Last Edit: Sep 06, 2018, 02:21 AM by the-pi-guy
If you're importing the building systems and using them without switching the "active" game, wouldn't it take a lot of dev work to get them working inside Civ 5?
It'd be immensely difficult for already made games, but perhaps games could be made in the future that are purposefully modular to the point that switching out a major system would be as easy as changing some small parameters.
Well, it'd probably still be immensely difficult, different games would probably have to use some kind of common blueprint for it to work.

Your example here is pretty doable, I think.  
The Civ 5 mod would just add an "edit city" text box once a city is selected. Clicking it would auto pause Civ, switch to Cities Skylines, and load the save file for that city. If the city had not been edited yet, it could use Civ 5 terrain info to set up similar terrain in City Skylines. Then the Cities Skylines mod would had a UI option to "close city" and it would return to Civ 5 and update city parameters to match. If you wanted to get really really advanced, you could mod it to even make the Civ 5 city look like the city designed in skylines and make the Civ 5 world visible around the horizon when in Cities Skylines.
But I doubt it'd be very flexible.  It'd work with some specific pairs of games, but then some other pairs wouldn't make sense.

I feel like in the best case, it'd be easy and work great.  

In the worst case, it'd be nearly impossible for it to work.

Legend

It'd be immensely difficult for already made games, but perhaps games could be made in the future that are purposefully modular to the point that switching out a major system would be as easy as changing some small parameters.
Well, it'd probably still be immensely difficult, different games would probably have to use some kind of common blueprint for it to work.

Your example here is pretty doable, I think.  
But I doubt it'd be very flexible.  It'd work with some specific pairs of games, but then some other pairs wouldn't make sense.

I feel like in the best case, it'd be easy and work great.  

In the worst case, it'd be nearly impossible for it to work.
Oh yeah I was thinking of the modules being fully separate executables but yeah the devs could publish the code from one game inside of the other. Would definitely be more optimized.




Civ and Cities Skylines do make a great pair. KSP and any Mars base building game would also be good. Essentially make it so you're in charge of creating the new base/colony but you're also in charge of getting the supplies to the planet.

A Star Citizen style space sim would be my dream application of this type of development. Make a game where you explore procedural planets, make a game where you dog fight in space, make a game where you walk around space stations and space ships doing procedural FPS rpg stuff, etc. It'd be really really hard to make everything come together but it'd have way less risk than developing it and selling it as a single chunk.