What feature is going to be the KILLER feature of Miner Wars?
This post is intended to open a discussion. My mission is to find the single thing that will make Miner Wars remembered for centuries.
Our team already has some ideas, but what we need is the voice of the people.
When I started Miner Wars project I knew I need some special feature, something that other games don’t have. At that time I didn’t care about genre or type (strategy vs. FPS shooter, car driving vs. space shooter...). The only important question for me was “what's the most original game feature?”.
Then I got this idea with destructible environment, mainly inspired by old DOS game Tunneler http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8wcdIDr4jrU I felt that destructible environment is a cool and original thing, people will want to try it – and there was no other game that could offer that in those times.
Putting the game into asteroids field, adding open space world, in-game editor, epic story, etc. were just extensions to the original concept - destructible environment.
Now we got into a point where technology of Miner Wars / VRAGE is almost done and we can focus on the game play itself. So here's the question:
- What is the KILLER feature of Miner Wars?
- What will be the KILLER feature of Miner Wars?
- What should be the KILLER feature of Miner Wars?
To help you out, here’s a list of what I consider key features of Miner Wars:
- Harvesting (mining)
- In-game builder with prefab modules – you can harvest ore and build your own space station, in an open space or underground. Think about it as something similar to MineCraft, although I have never played it, so I can only assume.
- Huge open world - free traveling in our solar system – from Sun to Earth to Mars and further – with landing too, although since all planets in Miner Wars world are destroyed, you will actually land on scattered ruins of the Earth.
- Intuitive controls and fighting (FPS + third-person)
- Realistic physics (Newtonian + inhibited)
- Advanced rendering engine
- Destructible environment – voxels, asteroids, prefab modules
- Cooperative multiplayer mode and later MMO
- Over 20 playable small ships
- Trading and economy, living world
By KILLER feature I mean: one single thing that people will talk about, philosophers will convey never-ending discussions, minstrels will sing sonatas and players will die for.
Is there any brave soul who can give me an answer or an opinion?
Thanks,
Marek
Marek