MTSM/games/Exile/doc/Design_Guide.txt

DESIGN GUIDE
==================================

This document is for anyone who wants to develop Exile further
(or to make mods for Exile, or just wants to know what the hell I was thinking).

Exile is an opensource project. I would never have got it this far without
other people's opensource content. Exile's longterm existence
 (after I get bored/abducted by aliens/die of the plague/eaten by spiders etc)
 will depend on people in the opensource community picking up were I've left off.

This document is to help you do that without ruining it! (and annoying me)

So here is Exile's design philosophy...



The Aim of Exile:
==============================================================
Exile is a game, mere escapism, a bit of fun. Nothing too serious.

At the same time, people often seek escapism at precisely those moments when life is hardest.
Therefore the goal of Exile is to be the kind of escapism that leaves you feeling better.
Exile aims to be the kind of escapism that helps during those moments when you are seeking "Exile" from the world.

That is the ultimate, lofty, aspiration of Exile. Hu-rah!

In the likely event Exile fails to help you achieve enlightenment/self-actualization/transmogrification/a rocking bod/ etc,
Exile should at least be fun. I'll be happy with fun.



Inspirations:
=============

Rimworld, The Primitive Technology guy on Youtube (John Plant),
various historical re-enactments of old technology,
various survivalist/wilderness/off-the-grid living things,...

Basically Exile is a first person version of Rimworld
but with more attention to getting things realistic and accurate.

That's a massive simplification, but close enough.




Design Rules (sometimes more like guidelines... or aspirations!):
==============================================================
- Choice focused realism:
The game world should make you behave how you would in the real
world.

Not to be confused with pedantic realism. Pedantic realism gives you 150
types of coal which take 15 hours real time to dig - because that's "realistic".
Choice focused realism focuses on the fact that coal is non-renewable, so compared with
using wood you need to make different decisions.


- Player Welfare
Games are escapism. People need escapism, but some of the escapism on offer is damaging to people.
Exile should be escapism that leaves you feeling better (or at least not worse off).
e.g. the skills needed to succeed should be valuable in real life (planning, creativity),
e.g. breaktaker exists to stop player from spending unhealthy amounts of time sitting.


- Function first:
I've been reluctant to add anything that is purely decorative. Almost everything
has some use. The use is why it got added to the game. I break this rule if
aesthetics (or fun) requires it.

- Clarity:
The player should be trying to figure out the world of Exile, not the user interface of Exile!
Menus, information, etc should be tidy, uncluttered and easy to understand.
e.g. crafting stations ideally have one page of crafts (for easy access)
e.g. non-obvious "gamey" mechanics (things that exist due to the limits of making a game)
    ought to be documented somewhere.


- Secrets
This is a game to reward experimentation, creativity, and exploration.
Mastering survival and technology is never about "leveling up" - it's about
figuring out how stuff works.


- The Edge of Impossible
Difficulty should be at the edge of success and failure. Not so easy it gets boring.
Not so hard you give up. You should be forced to make difficult decisions without
knowing if it will work. I find this makes for the most interesting and satisfying gameplay.
You can feel the pride of having used skill to achieve something genuinely difficult
(even if it is just a game!).
Not to be confused with sado-masochistic suffering for it's own sake, nor Macho
celebrations of "strength" over "weakness". "Edge of Impossible" is about growth
via overcoming adversity.


- Meaning
Exile exists in its own world. Names, characters, objects etc are chosen
to build a consistent world that feels like a real place with a real history.
The player should have ways of adding meaning to the world.
e.g. plants and animals have unique names (not just copies of real species)
e.g. soft perma-death. Each player life is treated as a new character.
e.g. paint tools allow creation of art, symbolic markings.


- Dynamism
The world is alive. It is doing it's own thing. It will act and you must respond (and vice versa).
Stories and challenges should emerge out of the world itself, whether you are ready or not.

- Artistic Value
Can a game be art? Might as well try....
(at the very least it should look good!)


Aesthetics
===============================
I don't know how to describe my "Art Style". Look at it. It is that.

A rule for good art is pick one dominant color, one secondary color, and one rare color.
Each biome follows this rule (more or less).
e.g. grasslands are yellow, dunelands orange etc
The Ancients (artifacts) tend to go for blue.

Naming:
Many of the names for plants and animals were adapted from foreign languages so
they feel natural.
Some biomes tended to focus on different languages.
e.g. African names for grasslands, Celtic for marshlands, SE Asian for forests,
India for underground, ...

"Realms"
===============================
Surface world: mostly complete. the ordinary wilderness. Harsh to the unwise, abundant to the experienced.

Ancient city: partly incomplete. A mysterious, awe inspiring and dangerous place.
Should feel like "the Zone" from "Roadside Picnic" by the Strugatsky brothers,
or like Chernobyl if explored by a cave man. A place of high risks and high rewards,
of follies and greed, of madness, of darkness, and of grandeur.

Something could also be done with...
Deep underground: Extremely hot. The map gets deep enough to reach the edge of the Earth's mantle.
High altitude: Very cold. High enough to reach the edge of the atmosphere, but not space proper.


Lore and Story
===============================

-The story:
You have been thrown into exile for your crimes. You have been sent to a cursed land.
A place were every nation sends the condemned, the unwanted, and the politically inconvenient. It is seen as
execution by other means.

You task is to cheat fate and live.

The reason this land is cursed is the stuff of many legends and myths. It is believed
to have been the location of the world's first and greatest city, yet no trace of it
remains. Legend has it that the inhabitants in their arrogance and pride brought
about their own destruction. A great cataclysm that rendered the land the hostile place it now is.
The Ancients were scattered to the four corners of the world - exiled from their city.
Many nations claim descent from these people, though of course it is probably all just stories.

The technology of the Ancients is said to have been far beyond anything now existing.
Some say it was magic. Some say skill. Some say there is no difference. The world of today is
at an early Iron Age level - that is the only technology which you have any familiarity with.

Your second task, if you choose, is to figure out if the myths are true.


-Future:
Various more detailed plotlines and content could be spun off these two game goals.
But it's early days so not much is here yet!

Some big story could be done involving discovering how and why the city was destroyed
then running through the implications of this discovery. Perhaps...






=============================