alxd ✏️ solarpunk prompts
#solarpunk #gamedesign idea:
Survival game where you learn to be a part of an ecosystem and slowly abandon your unsustainable "tech tree" replacing it with sustainable, local solutions.
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A lot of games are trying to replicate very expansionist core loops, be it Minecraft's Factorios and so on, which see the player as a force acting on the environment / ecosystem, not working together with it.
Why not change it?
alxd ✏️ solarpunk prompts
This, in my opinion, is the #solarpunk #gamedesign that we were missing: not building something in the ruins of the old world, with the same tech trees, but consciously _shedding_, _learning_, _balancing_ and _coexisting_ with what's already there.
Such a #game would not only feel different: thematically, in the core loop, spiritually, but could also teach us something, change how we see the world around us and how we think about our daily lives.
alxd ✏️ solarpunk prompts
You could add some resource management, but it's important to know that this is not what the #game is about: you want people to learn, not to grind or automate.
Think about #outerWilds loop mechanic: at some point you just know where to go to solve a problem easier, without so much struggle, without forcing it.
alxd ✏️ solarpunk prompts
You did not unlock a new skill with 500 Science Points, you didn't scan 23 new plants. You learned how the ecosystem works and you are in balance with it.
This is the part that usually gets montage-d in all the movies where the protagonist "learns the way of the wild" etc.
But let's not gloss over it this time, let's make it #gamedesign , #gamemechanic , where the #game >is< about that.
alxd ✏️ solarpunk prompts
Say that at the beginning of the game you meet some aggressive animal and you barely kill it with your space rifle.
Soon, there is no more ammo.
You learn how to sneak around its brethren.
But then, you learn that they only attacked you because you got close to their eggs.
You learn what pheromones do they like, you slowly start helping the herd. You don't tame it, but become a friendly.
They show you more useful tricks.
But if you go trampling their eggs, they kill you all the same.
alxd ✏️ solarpunk prompts
Every time I play Alpha Centauri or one of its clones, where there is a "green faction", I'm disappointed that they just have a "green tech tree" which give you similar technologies as the industrialists and militarists. They get the local fauna to ignore them, then to serve them.
I'd like to imagine something where you need to actively do more than research another tech, where you need to learn how to work with this ecosystem.
Where the knowledge is the progression and the reward.
alxd ✏️ solarpunk prompts
What would be a lose condition in such a game? I can think of a few.
At the beginning, not using your common sense and not having any backups to your main base (which will fail).
Later, being ignorant or unwilling to adapt. Because your high-tech space resources will run out and you need to accept that. This is not a game of grinding 100 rocks to get a piece of copper.
Of course, you can bite more than you can chew. Attacking an apex predator? Better learn how other animals handle it.
alxd ✏️ solarpunk prompts
Imagine giving the players a feeling similar to the last loop in #outerWilds : it's the same as the first one, and yet everything is different, because of your knowledge, of the context you have. You don't see enemies, you see animals you can coexist with, you don't see impossible obstacles, you see nature you can be a part of, give and take.
For me that's a #solarpunk #gamedesign for #degrowth
alxd ✏️ solarpunk prompts
You are still an agent, you can decide your fate, you have a knowledge base and tools, but you learn you can _adapt_ and not just _destroy_ or _forcefully change_.
You slowly carve a niche for yourself.
It's a #game of understanding, it's a game of a #sustainable #solarpunk #degrowth , where you shed the parts which are not useful in the new environment.
alxd ✏️ solarpunk prompts
There are games that do it well: Outer Wilds [no base building though], Subnauticas [you still use the same resources], partially Exocolonist [the community aspect is nice].
Let's go a step further though: you progress in the game by _shedding_ your tech tree. By realizing yo don't need it.
You don't need to shoot the local fauna, you can observe it and learn where to get the food and water.
Instead of your space meds, find if the local bugs can secret some substances you need?
alxd ✏️ solarpunk prompts
That's the core loop: knowledge. You need to show each "base destroyed" not as a failure, but as an experiment.
On this planet the resources are abundant, but not the ones you want. You will struggle gathering steel, oil, making more of the prefab. You need to find better ways.
You find that if you take the bark of that tree and cover it in slime, it's as strong as your steel AND it repels the bugs that were eating you. You learned more about the ecosystem.
alxd ✏️ solarpunk prompts
You crashland on an alien planet (like in Subnautica).
You start with limited resources, but are able to build your base against very hostile environment. And it's not just big animals, everything wants to eat you. Trees. Grass. Rain. Everything.
So you build a safe base with prefab, thinking it's just another game like dozens you know...
...and you realize you built on a floodplain. Or a path of an animal migration. Or a geyser.
Your base is destroyed, but you learned something.
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