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Life Simulation Game Idea
Author
Hi!
For a couple of years now I have a game idea in my head but although I've been thinking about it for quite some time it is not even close to complete. Today I'd like to share the idea and maybe get some feedback or even additional ideas. Please be advised that I'm not a native speaker so if something sounds fishy it's probably by accident.
So "Life Simulation" sounds an awful lot like "The Sims", right? And in a sense my idea is exactly like "The Sims" except it's not. It's about playing the other side of a life simulation. I want to enable the player to make the decisions a human body makes automatically every day, every second. So the player has to manage a body.
I can envision various tasks that would be like building a city in Sim City or a base in Command and Conquer so developing the body would be one thing to do. Another task would be to maintain the body. And then there's of course disasters and catastrophes. Like for example your body catches a cold or pulls a muscle or something like that. Those are things you would have to fight off through skilled management. Even minigames would be possible where you have to for example shoot down bacteria or whatever. You could even get help from outside if the person sees a doctor and receives medication like antibiotics.
Another twist I thought about adding is that you might be able to play a body that its "owner" doesn't care about. So for example you play a heavy smoker's body or someone who eats very unhealthy and is overweight or something. You could even play a body that has severe illnesses (cancer?) but I'm not sure if this would be fun.
As a matter of fact I'm not sure if playing a game like this would be fun at all. I guess one has to think carefully about the complexity of such a game - too complex could be overwhelming and no fun at all.
One of the main reasons I would like to see a game like this is that it could be partially educational. The player would see how the body changes if you smoke a lot or if you eat unhealthy or drink to much alcohol.
Please let me now what you think about this. Any ideas on how to add multi player aspects to the game would be very welcome too. Thanks in advance!
oneofthose
An Osmosis Jones take on this might make it even more educational and accessible to a younger audience. You'd probably have to abstract the functions of the body so that you can show what's happening, both inside and out. For instance, if you're invaded by a cold virus, representing it as bad guys inside and showing what's happening to the host could be interesting. You could even create little scenarios involving managing the body in response to the host's changes (like showing what happens to blood pressure and such when a person quits smoking).
This could definitely play out like an anatomical version of Sim City, where instead of structures you have organs, instead of roads you have blood vessels & arteries, and instead of cars and people you have red blood cells and etc. White blood cells could be your "policemen" who keep the diseases out. Processing organs such as the digestive system or the respiratory could be your "power plants" and etc. The brain could be your "government".
Making the cells animated with personalities is a great idea. In fact, I've once thought about such a game as well, but also including other types of lifeforms such as plants and animals. Basically, your job could be to create a life form, any sort of life form, using cells as building blocks which use an energy input of some form or fashion depending on what was most available in the environment. These cells will constantly and automatically mutate according to their situation/environment/energy source, reproduce (mitosis/meiosis), and die (reaching end of cell lifespan). You would begin by building a simple life form (like how in Sim City you begin with a small town with the most basic of services) which over time could grow into a massive complex organism with multiple functions, like a large metropolis in Sim City.
Your view of your body could be a 2-D cross-section of the life form's internals, and the interface used to control all of this could be your mouse cursor, where instead of placing "buildings" where you want, you would instead select a cell, and manually tell it to mutate to so and so possible form to which depend on the life form's environment and the type of energy input it is receiving/converting. You could click and drag cells to wherever you want them to be placed, to which they would clump together and eventually evolve into organs and so on so forth.
Cells might initiate dialogue and crack jokes at each other from time to time, where their tone of voice could be a clear indicator of their health. Whenever a disaster strikes, they might yell for help. Whenever they need more air, they would say it and start gasping. Etc.
Different cells might have different archetypal personalities, such as Brain/Nerve Cells being the "Nerds & Geeks", Muscle Cells being the "Jocks", White Blood Cells being the "Police Men", Red Blood Cells being the "Truckers", and etc etc.
Just throwing out a couple of my own ideas out there. It would definitely make for a very interesting software toy-like game that is completely unrelated to Spore or Sim City (even though at the surface it resembles both) that could appeal to both kids and adults.
[Edited by - Tangireon on September 5, 2008 3:18:37 PM]
Making the cells animated with personalities is a great idea. In fact, I've once thought about such a game as well, but also including other types of lifeforms such as plants and animals. Basically, your job could be to create a life form, any sort of life form, using cells as building blocks which use an energy input of some form or fashion depending on what was most available in the environment. These cells will constantly and automatically mutate according to their situation/environment/energy source, reproduce (mitosis/meiosis), and die (reaching end of cell lifespan). You would begin by building a simple life form (like how in Sim City you begin with a small town with the most basic of services) which over time could grow into a massive complex organism with multiple functions, like a large metropolis in Sim City.
Your view of your body could be a 2-D cross-section of the life form's internals, and the interface used to control all of this could be your mouse cursor, where instead of placing "buildings" where you want, you would instead select a cell, and manually tell it to mutate to so and so possible form to which depend on the life form's environment and the type of energy input it is receiving/converting. You could click and drag cells to wherever you want them to be placed, to which they would clump together and eventually evolve into organs and so on so forth.
Cells might initiate dialogue and crack jokes at each other from time to time, where their tone of voice could be a clear indicator of their health. Whenever a disaster strikes, they might yell for help. Whenever they need more air, they would say it and start gasping. Etc.
Different cells might have different archetypal personalities, such as Brain/Nerve Cells being the "Nerds & Geeks", Muscle Cells being the "Jocks", White Blood Cells being the "Police Men", Red Blood Cells being the "Truckers", and etc etc.
Just throwing out a couple of my own ideas out there. It would definitely make for a very interesting software toy-like game that is completely unrelated to Spore or Sim City (even though at the surface it resembles both) that could appeal to both kids and adults.
[Edited by - Tangireon on September 5, 2008 3:18:37 PM]
Author
Thanks a lot for sharing your thoughts on the idea. I did not know the 'Osmosis Jones' movie and I think that definitely goes in the direction I was thinking about - although maybe a little less comicy. So thanks Wavinator!
And Tangireon you're ideas are awesome. Thanks for sharing them. I like the Sim City resemblance of the body and your interface description is also similar to what I thought about.
I'm of course aware of Spore and while I like the game I imagine the game based on this ideas to be quite dissimilar. It somehow 'feels' similar but I think Spore is about something completely different.
And Tangireon you're ideas are awesome. Thanks for sharing them. I like the Sim City resemblance of the body and your interface description is also similar to what I thought about.
I'm of course aware of Spore and while I like the game I imagine the game based on this ideas to be quite dissimilar. It somehow 'feels' similar but I think Spore is about something completely different.
Quote: Original post by oneofthose
I want to enable the player to make the decisions a human body makes automatically every day, every second. So the player has to manage a body.
Oh, man, I got a flashback to an Intellivision game I used to love to play: Microsurgeon.
http://www.mobygames.com/game/intellivision/microsurgeon/screenshots
http://www.videogamecritic.net/intelmr.htm
It's not a "body building" game, but rather the idea of voyaging through a body to destroy various conditions. I guess a bit "Fantastic Voyage".
The one thing I am not sure is how you would have a "build the body" section that has a valid premise...
Good luck.
- alphadogg
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