So, journalling again and Xcode 4 and iOS 4.3 and iPad app development. Interesting.
This is of course prompted by my burgeoning desire to do some iPad game development. I guess the urge really came into effect around New Year’s Eve, at which time I was thoroughly addicted to Game Dev Story. But I wanted to expand upon it, and came up with the idea then of adapting the general gameplay concepts to Silicon Valley – instead of developing computer games you would found a computer company, and grow it from a two-man garage operation to a huge corporation.
Fast forward a few months and it’s not been the last idea to cross my mind. Currently pecking at my conscious is a real time strategy game probably summarised most succinctly as trains in space. Build a space transport empire between colonised worlds, dealing with the physical issues – transport delays, asteroid fields, supernovas – as well as political ones – factions, planetary governing bodies and their idiosyncratic trade laws, etc.
I particularly like the idea of having a seemingly random universe that actually follows a relatively linear storyline. Having a serious set of semi-regular characters, with stories and meaningful interactions, could make the difference between a simple gameplay toy and a more “meaningful”, quality game.
