dial-a-game

% Dial-A-Game

Reviewed 2021-03-03 by japhb

NOTE: COMPLETELY ASPIRATIONAL RUMINATION

It may be possible to design a game engine -- not just a graphics rendering engine or a physics simulation, but a full-stack engine -- that supports multiple different completely different-flavored games. If the engine could be tuned across many different axes at once, while having most of the variant space represent valid games, a player or gaming group could dial up exactly the game they want to play.

Some example tuning axes, each with some possible values:

• General mood: fantastic, utopian, campy, neutral, thrilling, gritty, horrific

• Tech levels: prehistoric, ancient, medieval, modern, near future, far future

• Challenges: everyday, small scale, turning point, epic, mythic

• Character growth: player skill, quests, relationships, levels, points, skills

• Violence: none, negotiation, intimidation, unarmed, armed, gory

• Groups: solo, free for all, cooperative, teams, tribes/armies, alliances

• Genre: exploration, survival, puzzle solving, searching, building, strategy, battle, intrigue

• Openness: rails, nodes, rooms, free movement, world-spanning, galactic

• Mutability: none, self, plot, objects, environments, rules

• Abstraction: mathematical, symbolic, representational, simulation

• Determinism: deterministic, initially random, chaotic, free

• Groundedness: underground, indoor, outdoor, airborne, space-faring

• Religion: none, superstition, occult, animist, polytheist, monotheist

• Magic level: none, rare/minor, common/major, everpresent/omnipotent

• Magic systems: inate, psionic, alchemic, runic, linguistic, clerical, dimensional

• Complexity: trivial, party, relaxing, complex, combinatoric, unbounded

• Player time: unbounded turns, timed turns, timed game, pausable, realtime, warpable