Old College Paper

[bcadren]

Remember how I claimed I originally played crawl as research for a class paper; which got published in the school journal? Thought I'd link that old thing. Unsure what I think about it in retrospect. It was well researched, but mostly speculative. None of the titles I examined took nutrition to the detail level I proposed in it. I think it could be interesting as long as it wasn't too large of a distraction from more core gameplay components.

link

[pubby]

old collage paper

[tasonir]

Interesting paper. I'm willing to overlook that you claimed a graphically realistic interface is preferable to a low graphics game like DCSS. I suppose I'm not familiar with the assignment's focus, but it seems like you spent a lot of time discussing the "how" of a complex food system without much of a talk of "why" such a food system would create an interesting game. Realism/gritty survival are mentioned, of course, I guess I'd just like to see more, considering how a lot of people here, regarding DCSS, seem to think food should just go entirely.

For another game that was very food/survival focused, I always liked the wilderness survival maps in warcraft 3. You basically started out with no items as a basic peasant on a winter day, and you needed to find some flint/wood on the first day to make a fire or you'd freeze to death at night. The second day you wanted to start getting food, etc etc. There are a few mushrooms/plants that are easy food at first but they run out and you have to eventually put together spears and nets to kill animals, cook the meat, and build up enough resources to get 'comfortable'.

This is a video about a different version of the map (I don't remember the trees being that huge), but most of the concept is the same: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UQ2mo5oEiFM

And of course, there's the full stand alone game "Don't Starve" which is basically the same. It's pretty well done, imho; I've played it a bunch although I never did quite go all the way to winning.