Rove
Rove is an asynchronous nomadic game about exploring a planet as part of a loose community.
Core gameplay
Remotely explore the surface of a planet with an upgradable and customisable rover. Send commands to be executed asynchronously, view the rover’s radar, and communicate and coordinate with other nearby rovers.
Key Components
- Navigate an expansive world
- Collect resources to repair and upgrade
- Keep the rover batteries charged as you explore
- Help other players on their journey
- Explore north to discover more
Installing
On Ubuntu:
$ snap install rove
Elsewhere (with go installed)
go get github.com/mdiluz/rove
cd $GOPATH/src/github.com/mdiluz/rove/
make install
Implementation Details
rove-server hosts the game world and a gRPC server to allow users to interact from any client.
rove is a basic example command-line client that allows for simple play, to explore it’s usage, see the output of rove help
“Find the fun” issues to solve
- What kinds of progression/upgrades exist?
- How does the game encourage cooperation?
- How would the gameplay prevent griefing?
- What drives the exploration?
Key ideas left to integrate
- Feeling “known for” something - the person who did X thing. Limit number of X things that can be done, possibly over time.
- A significant aspect of failure - failing must be a focus of the game. Winning the game might actually be failing in some specific way.
- A clear and well defined investment vs. payoff curve.
- Not an infinite game, let the game have a point where you’re done and can move on.