The Universim - A New God Sim

The Universim is a new is a new Kickstarter God Simulation game being developed by a studio called Crytivo Games. The developer is asking for $320,000.

Link- https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/crytivogames/the-universim?ref=live

The team’s deepest desire and ultimate inspiration is to create a game that we, and the community, want to play. We want to create a game that is just as unique as it is entertaining; something that will always keep you coming back for more. The Universim aims to unleash you upon the universe with the powers of a god to begin forging your galactic empire in the stars.

The ability to play as a god gives you unparalleled power, but unlike other god-games, you cannot interact directly with your population in the game. However, you can influence their decisions and change the way in which your civilization evolves. It is up to you to decide which technology path they follow and what kind of research they undertake-you have the power to shape their future. Instead of taking control of a static game world that awaits your every command, life will go on as you would expect.

You are effectively taking control of a living simulation. Like a ball of clay on a potter's wheel, the world will keep spinning, but you will be there to mould it to your liking. Although, the ball of clay may or may not slap your hand away at times.

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Looks cute and interesting enough, so I pledged at the Early Bird tier.

Not entirely clear what influence you have on your civilization, though... Through technology? What, you pick between the fire and the wheel or something?

likewise, early bird, $10 is cheap enough

Making games they would enjoy to play is one thing. But they must make games for players to play first.

What they call organic gameplay has been being tried for more than one decade now by various studios in various genres and anytime, players came up with the same answer: a big no.

Players do not want to influence the outcome of a game. They want direct control, command and conquer. They do not want organic gameplay because it puts them in a second rank seat, they are subordinated to the evolution of the game world outside their own direct inputs and they simply do not like it.

It is written on the walls; most backers will jump in this project with the idea of orienting this game toward their liking and ultimately, this project will go from a gameplay based on influence to a gameplay based on command.

Didn't study the project thoroughly but got a feeling this is an attempt to make a game like Spore - just more interesting.
And we know Spore failed because it's lategame content was so annoyingly repetitive it wasn't bearable. It was so called sandbox and in fact grinding that gets you nowhere. The same grinding problem killed Sims Medieval, but it was RPG wannabe, not god sim. On the other hand, cow clickers are very popular today where the purpose of the product (can't call it a game, sorry) is exactly grinding. A few days ago FarmVille 2 got released in case you're into that stuff (available on all phones). Then again, cow clickers also aren't god sim games.

Dunno if I understood the project correctly. Didn't instapledge but can't say I won't pledge at all. Have to reread the whole thing later, can't concentrate now.

Backed too

Grinding is a fine line to walk between doing too much or not doing enough.

Players want to grow powerful. Games are quest for power to satisfy the powermonger in players.
And players want to feel they deserve to grow more powerful. So you have to make them work to provide them with a sense of achievement, to make them think they are growing more powerful on merit.

When this is overdone, then the game falls into grinding.

Spore from the very beginning. smells of grinding. The ultimate goal was to grow that powerful.

What they call organic gameplay changes the deal. Representation(s) of the player in the gameworld have somehow their own will they can oppose to the player.
Building a grinder in these conditions would be devastating.

Organic gameplay is based on suggestion. This could mean for example that your people wont take the suggestion to go to war because they do not feel like. Or they make trigger their own war without your suggestion.

It usually breaks the player's course of action as it forces to rethink the whole plan.

Players loathe that. In all cases, it does not suit the grinder genre.

Another factor is that they might head for a survival setting. In other settings, the player expects to prevail. Any failure (like a game over) is a temporary setback before the final triumph of the player.

In this game, as they state that leaving the planet is the consequence of depletion of resources, survival might be involved.

A survival setting changes the deal in the way that the failure of the player at the end of the game is one option. Actually, in uncompromizing survival games, the failure of the player is the outcome.

This changes the deal in terms of grinding. In grinders, players beaver away for the sake of growing more powerful. In a survival game, beavering away to survive.

It means that in the end, this game might offer the course of a civilization from dawn to dusk. The final end being the extinction of the civilization that runs out of gas.

The biggest question mark is whether or not they manage to maintain the design direction.

Players love to grow more powerful. And their game might offer something else. So they will have to redirect in order to satisfy the player.

Funded.

Still not sure what to expect entirely, but I guess we'll see.

I didn't pledge because it's somewhat confusing to me.

However, I will back it even if I'm unsure what is it exactly about. The reason is this pic and the quote from the kickstarter project page:

We are also proud to officially announce that there will be no DRM and absolutely no micro-transactions for the game whatsoever. All future DLC will also be completely free.Therefore an internet connection is not required for activation or play, although it can add many more features to your experience.

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Yes, you get it right. I don't care if an indie game will suck. All I care for is devs saying no to scam the audience.