Have you ever played a game and wondered what if you could do something that it doesn’t really allow you to do, for example being able to move around blocks in Minecraft fluidly instead of in sectors, edit the world in Hogwarts legacy with spells, be able to fly in a world like Elden Ring or Elder Scrolls with epic sky battles, have a sims game that simulates more than just sims needs, but whole economies, or a dystopian horror game set in a Minecraft style world. So I was wondering if anyone else had similar ideas for games or fantasies for possible games?
What’s your ideas for games that doesn’t really exist, or might not even really be possible to make?
A RPG type game where you play as a single character, in a world of simulated NPCs, where some of those NPCs are playing something like a 4x or grand strategy game in the background and things happen independently of your actions.
Dwarf Fortress has a mode like this.
Or something along the lines of being a background/supporting character in some grand fantasy adventure. The story isn’t about you; you exist within a greater plot that isn’t hinging on your actions. Basically I want NPC the game lol. I’m sure there’s a way to do it in an interesting manner
Maybe I’m mistaken because I haven’t played it as much as some people but this is pretty similar to Mount & Blade. I think if the NPC factions simply did more and were more effective at sieging one another it would be that almost exactly.
Similarly, Dwarf Fortress Adventure mode is almost exactly this but it leans deeply into roguelike survival and is still part of the old school ASCII version.
The problem is if you’re just a pawn in a dynamic procedural strategy game against NPCs it seems very easy for the factions to be procedurally put in a situation where one AI absolutely dominates another and the lack of control you would have over the bigger events would become frustrating.
Alaoth kind of has a mechanic like this.