Topic

So where is my sandbox?

Okay so I decided to write this topic after being inside the Glitch for the last three tests.
I discovered it months ago, but only figured out recently it was now open for testers.
That's a fun game and I'm enjoying playing it, but as I could see in other topics, I'm also wondering what will happen in the long term to keep the game interesting.
I mean, all those badges are very nice, and everything in the game keeps the player flattered with happiness and rainbows, but what will be the point in the end?
For the moment, the short test periods keep the players from being bored, but before Glitch gets out of beta, I think it really needs a major goal and a purpose to play towards.

A game of giant imagination
That's what the loading page says.
So what do you mean by "imagination"?
I can see that the designers have used a lot of that to create amazing and varied environment for Glitch, but what is left in the end for the player and where are we supposed to use it in the game?

Play Glitch and you'll have a chance to shape the world
There has been some mentions of that aspect in the trailer, home page, and in a few blog posts, but even if the game is still in beta, I'm surprised not to see a single glimpse of it in the current version.
What we can do for the moment is to participate in "projects" to "help build" the streets. I haven't had the time to do that yet because of my fresh account, but from what I understand it's at the opposite of a creative and collaborative process.
It seems to be just like a coloring book for kids. Everything is decided at first by the developers, and players would just have to gather random materials to fill the holes...witch seems pointless in the end because a level designer obviously doesn't need "game materials" from players to design a new street...
Okay maybe there's that idea for the devs to see which project is more popular, and develop more of that part of the world in return. But again, you could achieve this with some in-game voting system, letting the players use their time on less pointless tasks, and more (really) creative projects.

One enormous, ever-changing, persistent world
So that's what Glitch is according to the about page.
There are some aspects that seems really innovative already, like the ability to bring animals to other places, and give them a name, or play with trees in limited areas.
The recent "foodwriting" thing in Plexus also unveiled some possibilities, and showed the need for players to leave their mark and be creative. I could also read about home decoration, or customized groups halls, and I can't wait to see those happening.
But all of that is still a bit limited, and apart from players owned locations, the main word itself won't be "ever-changing", or will it be?

There have been some great games lately with ever-changing worlds.
One of them is Minecraft, but unfortunately it's not an mmo with a single world.
Another one is Love from Quel Solaar, but unfortunately it needs a powerful card, a monthly fee, and a bunch of tutorials.
What I love in those two games is that ability to modulate the world itself, in a true sandbox way of gaming. The nature of Glitch, and its 2d designed elements, probably won't offer the same level of liberty as cubes or procedural environments, but even if the landscapes can't be altered, I believe there's still some room for player-made constructions inside the streets.
There's a mention of "architectural endeavors (later)" in a blog post from April, is it possible to know more about those plans?

Taking the example of "Love" above, the idea of the game is to create settlements somewhere in the world, and develop small player-designed constructions.
The game is well-balanced, because the AI will start to attack the buildings as the base gets bigger and bigger and as it gets annoyed by the intrusion in its world.
Going back to Glitch, we have the rooks as negative force to balance the game.
But why do they attack us? No reason.
For example, players could be able to build constructions (in favor of the gods?), using their skill and helping each other in the process. They would eventually get favor or experience points proportional to time and size of the construction. But that wouldn't last forever, or without teamwork, because the rooks would be around, defending their territory...
.

The above is just a possible example, but to make it short, we need something to make use of our hardly learned skills in the future, something that could be creatively player-designed, and at the same time that gathers people together for a worth purpose.
I know that such wild stuff is hard to code, and I don't care much about the launch date, or less tests sessions, if that can give you more time to create an even better Glitch!
And if you already have some plan around those concepts, I'd love to hear more about it.

Posted 16 months ago by Lemo Subscriber! | Permalink

Replies

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  • maaaayyyybe.

    the thing is, i have two divergent opinions on this.

    one is that robots should cost real life money to operate, since it would naturally limit the number of robots running around.

    on the other hand, i don't want people buying and operating personal robot armies, just because they're willing to drop a ton of cash on the game.

    i really like the robot battery idea. i think i'd be "fine" with moly-b subscribers having three robot batteries a month and tin subscribers only having one robot battery a month, but in my ideal world all the subscribers would be roughly equal when it comes to batteries.

    tin would get one robot battery per month, copper and moly-b would both get two robot batteries per month.

    bonus: the smaller the robot disparity between subs, the easier it would be for the devs to balance robot power.
    Posted 16 months ago by striatic Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Hmm this thread is taking thousand of directions,
    I don't think this whole robot thing is exactly related to sandbox concepts... with a personal robot you won't affect much the world around and other players experience, but mostly your own if it's only designed to do every day tasks for you. Also, I wouldn't like a world where all the human players are away from keyboard or in their home, and where you're only able to see robots passing by...
    I'm not sure stoot was thinking about this kind of npc in his post, but rather something that would be mostly oriented towards other players.

    About the other features, I've seen that timelapse of the level creation tool on youtube, and it would indeed be awesome to have that for players at some point.
    But because the players are not God, the best would be a link between the player's inventory and his available materials, and what he's able to build in that session with those.
    Coming back to my idea of collaborative buildings, you would just have to patch the level tool with architectural sprites, so players could create constructions, piece after piece over time.
    If several players can access to the same "building project", I'm sure that would lead to very interesting patchwork cubist architectures :].

    That music thingie seems fun too. There was another mmo where I started to create a virtual band once. Gathering all the kind of artistic expressions if the way to go!
    Posted 16 months ago by Lemo Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Wow, robots hijacked this thread bigtime.  Maybe Giants don't like to imagine robots, or maybe they aren't so good at imagining code.  Maybe when Giants imagine robots who contain code, they mis-remember and the code glitches.  Get it?  Glitches? In addition to physical deterioration, maybe the code degrades as well.  Change that + to a - and then what happens?  You spend time searching for your lost robot and the inflationary aspect of grind reduction might just be converted to some other kind of work.  When you finally find your 'bot, it has resources for you to empty!
    Posted 16 months ago by Wiggles The Fluent Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Lemo well done on writing this and being able to put into words what probably (if we were all being completely honest) most of us were already thinking.  At the very least what I was thinking.  
    Posted 16 months ago by Cryztal Subscriber! | Permalink
  • @ stoot - I especially love the idea of decorating spaces, and I love most of the other ideas. I really dislike the idea of removing the "scaffolding" from the economy. I foresee a world of problems resulting.
    Posted 16 months ago by Audaria Subscriber! | Permalink
  • So, there are some things that I would love to see in the game, like:

    Choosing a place for your home
    I love the idea of choosing the place for a home, like, place your home in this spot and put the name on the door, arizoo home, or something like that. Why do we all have to live together?
    So buy an architect plant for a home, walk with your glitch, choose a place to put your home and click in place your home here. Write your name in the door, and start building it like you build street projects... 50 wood, 100 stone, etc...
    Posted 16 months ago by arizoo Subscriber! | Permalink
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