Juressic

Making A Video Game About Spiral Dynamics

14 posts in this topic

Hello,

i'm an professional game developer started a business recently and i would like to design an video game(simulation) about Spiral Dynamics that would be useful to understand the whole spiral. I haven't found any game about this topic and I think that RTS (Real Time Strategy) genre would be very convenient genre for this game.
 

MECHANICS: 
Idea was that everybody starting with few houses in stage Purple and have to conquer other players. In order to grow their population throughout the stages they have to  fulfill their settlement needs, just like in game "Anno" by Ubisoft. Each resident have his values according to his spiral stage and way of behavior. Each value have percentage of its influence and A.I. controlling resident random actions based on that.
Stage Yellow would be the final settlement stage, and Turquoise would be only individualistic.

Another my idea for the game is the same concept but implemented in genre of Tower Defense game - sounds little boring..

PROBLEMS:

The biggest problem i would like to bypass is overmuch content creation, because i would focus on AI and relations between stages a lot, but option for hiring a group of developers isn't excluded. The game should be placed in some period of human history for less content creation. 

I have to admit that i'm an beginner in spiral dynamics, and the most challenging in design part would be to achieve minimalism in game, to "separate the grain from the chaff", there are a lot of values that each stage have but i would reduce it on 5.

REQUEST:

I would appreciate if you would like to share or design your ideas about this topic. ?? It could be some small mobile game, doesn't matter what... I think this should be the stage Yellow kind of game development process, but game itself would be revolving mostly around stage Red/Orange.

 

Maybe this idea of making SD video game is totally nonsense, what do you think?

 

Cool Photo:

a-brilliant-matrix-spiral-dynamics1.jpg

 

 

Edited by Juressic

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Awesome idea! It's extremely ambitious though. Most games focus on one small area of the spiral, how do you plan on making a game that integrates everything together?

Perhaps an RPG style where the controlled character has to spec points into skill-trees that represent each spiral stage. The skills would help him overcome the survival conditions of the game...

Again, great idea, but seems extremely ambitious. 


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I don't think it would make for a good game to explicitly go through all the stages.

Instead, would use SD to inform and shape your game. You could make a game that focuses on one stage and explores it in depth.

For example, if you wanted to make a game that explores all the aspects of stage Purple, it might look like Patapon, or the like.

My point is: don't be so literal with your application of SD to your creative work. Use it inspire your work, not to make a game directly based on it.


You are God. You are Truth. You are Love. You are Infinity.

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I would make it like Spore where every next Stage has bigger problems to tackle and different gameplay.

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I could image a future MMORPG where the creators are well-versed in SD.


Intrinsic joy is revealed in the marriage of meaning and being.

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This game sounds very familiar. 

Wasn't it created by God and called Reality? :) 

But jokes aside. When I was little I used to play "Rise Of Nations". It was a strategy game where you start with a prehistoric civilization and you advance it to the nuclear age. In that game, you are not a single character, but rather you have a "God" perspective on your nation and you try to advance it faster than other nations. Maybe you can use something from that game as inspiration. 

 

 

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15 hours ago, Adam M said:

Awesome idea! It's extremely ambitious though. Most games focus on one small area of the spiral, how do you plan on making a game that integrates everything together?

Perhaps an RPG style where the controlled character has to spec points into skill-trees that represent each spiral stage. The skills would help him overcome the survival conditions of the game...

Yes, it's very ambitious and it's hard to shrink it down to small project. It would be an city builder with limited content focused on specific time in history with intelligent population, that's how I've planned to integrate it all together. Survival RPG guided trough stages is nice idea.

 

3 hours ago, Cykaaaa said:

if you want to teach SD, you better become a master at it yourself. You wouldn't want to mislead people.

Nevertheless, with enough creativity on your part, you WILL bring this into life and it'll be an entertaining game to play! It has potential. You gotta think this through intensely and maybe something will come out of it. 

I'm working on it to master the SD and to progress personally in the spiral. I'm at stage Orange at the moment i guess, even though I'm vegan :D
I think that some explicit game about SD should exist, just for fun and introduction into the concept.

3 hours ago, Leo Gura said:

I don't think it would make for a good game to explicitly go through all the stages.

Instead, would use SD to inform and shape your game. You could make a game that focuses on one stage and explores it in depth.

For example, if you wanted to make a game that explores all the aspects of stage Purple, it might look like Patapon, or the like.

My point is: don't be so literal with your application of SD to your creative work. Use it inspire your work, not to make a game directly based on it.

Great suggestion! SD should be implicit and focused, yes, should be used as a tool for inspiration. I've just realized that all my gameDev colleges are making and thinking only in terms of RED stage games. RED stage is the most fun actually.. probably for more then 99% people, xD 

2 hours ago, Girzo said:

I would make it like Spore where every next Stage has bigger problems to tackle and different gameplay.

 

1 hour ago, JosephKnecht said:

When I was little I used to play "Rise Of Nations". It was a strategy game where you start with a prehistoric civilization and you advance it to the nuclear age. In that game, you are not a single character, but rather you have a "God" perspective on your nation and you try to advance it faster than other nations. Maybe you can use something from that game as inspiration. 

 

 

Nice comparison, Spore and Rise of Nations are very good example.

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If you are new to SD, maybe scrap this idea and look for inspiration in a topic you are more familiar with or possibly exploring just one of the stages. Something to consider is that SD is trademarked so you might have problems with marketing your finish product with your original idea.

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I am a game artist, environment artist to be more specific, but can do all sorts of things.
@Juressic Ping me if you are up to something :D

BTW I think it would be wise to focus on one stage, or the conflict between two. Especially for a small scope game.
Lets say red vs green, orange vs green. Blue, vs red (seen way too many times).... your imagination is your limit. :)

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@Juressic

That’s a great idea imo. Maybe midway through the game it could switch from first person to third person view, or even back and forth through the stages. I don’t recall that happening in any game, it’s usually one or the other the whole way, or the ability to switch anytime. A game that switches In accordance with the plot, and transcendence from tier one to tier two would be unique and remarkable in that sense, and really communicate something more directly through thought to the inner being, if you will. It’d resonate, even if people didn’t quite recognize why. Also, maybe the goal or orientation of the game could switch midway between over taking the land & resources, to being tasked with minimizing wars and keeping the peace.


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Star Trek is a great example of using Spiral Dynamics to inform its setting and factions, without it necessarily being about Spiral Dynamics.

Edited by DocWatts

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I would disagree with making the game into a couple of stages, or just one stage as that would basically take away the whole point. Having a game that includes all stages, or the development through all stages seems to be the core of this idea. While I do agree that the game shouldn't be too focused on Spiral Dynamics™, having it as a significant or major element of the game is compelling. It can just be alluded to

What are some other components, themes other than spiral dynamics that you could include?

What would be the primary overarching objective, idea, or theme of the game?

What are some name ideas? (Or some sort of synopsis that informs the main vision of the game)

  • Vision (2022)
  • Systems (2022)
Edited by AlphaAbundance

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Hmm, Leo actually said the gist of what I was gonna, but I'll expand (as this is 100% a NeTi question, rather than a TiNe).

Ok.. seems DocWatts also said what I was gonna.. Anyway:

  1. THE most important step:  Decide the scale of the project.  You say you're flexible, but this is gonna cost you between $0 and $10 million.  If I told you exactly what to make, you may then realize that's too ambitious and have to approach it from scratch again.  May have to fundamentally change the idea of the game.  
  2. Your motivation for the game seems to be based on emotion/ideals, rather than game mechanics. This is a red flag.  But you can still make it work.

I think it would be best if I just shat out some ideas for you to think about:

  1. A first person survival PC game starting out at as a primitive human.  
    1. There's already a market for it (as seen with all the island survival/crafting games)
    2. Not TOO original, guaranteed sales.  Original enough that it's fresh.
    3. The emphasis could be on intuitively learning how cooperation and sharing lead to faster progress.
    4. Could add gods to the lower stages, depending on a randomly generated religion/location.  Though this is more of a stage Turquoise concept and most players wouldn't get the logic behind how there could co-exist gods from every religion.
    5. Could create some interesting dynamics between evolving and unlocking "perspectives" or "abilities" with not getting killed by stage Red.  E.g. do you want to gain trust of others more easily and speak with your gods / have them answer your prayers, or do you want to just rape and kill everyone?  Could also be interesting to do all this with multiplayer, and decide if you should trust them.
    6. Could be some funny game mechanics where stage Purple, being the most faithful, could occasionally overpower the highest stages by just praying more.
    7. There could be many paths to choose from.  E.g. choose to end the game at Blue and maybe meet your God, then be offered a chance at another life.  If stage Orange, maybe wake up in a sleeping pod.  If stage Yellow, realize that reality is just data signals you're just interpreting as reality.  At Turquoise, maybe gain an ability to become other people, maybe even allow yourself to regress.
  2. A PC RTS, but instead of having ages like in AoE, advance through the SD stages and have your beliefs evolve from polytheistic, to monotheistic, to science, to data, to non-duality, with each one having different pros and cons.  Maybe pushing for faster progress within your society causes the older generations to get depressed or hate the government.  
    1. Maybe installing concentration camps for people who disagree with non-duality or SD will give you the best outcome.  Does God punish you / the settlement you built / the government you set up in game with bad Karma?  Maybe only if they're at stage Blue and have a great fear of God?  Does stage Turquoise get away with human right violations because it sees itself as God?
  3. Literally just a machine learned virtual society based on variables associated with the stages.  Not so much a game as simulator.  The fun being in the tweaking of variables to see what happens, and maybe allowing some freedom to do "what you think is best" to see if you're right.  If you know what makes for a highly functional society, then you'll be able to create a society with the biggest army and kill everyone else's societies in multiplayer.  Now imagine groups merging / making alliances.. You'd literally have competitions between countries.  Though this would likely also need variables for cognitive functions and a bunch of other stuff for anything to evolve realistically.
  4. Some kind of Dragon Ball knock off game where instead of going super saiyan you can go SUPER SPIRAL
    1. Quote

      "What you're seeing now is my normal stage. This is a stage Yellow. And this... This is what is known as a stage that has ascended past stage Yellow. Or, you could just call this stage   Turquoise. And this... IS TO GO EVEN FURTHER BEYOND! 

      AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!"

       

    2. You wanna get people hyped up about going beyond Turquoise, or not?  The choice is yours.
Edited by nitramadas

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