{"id":208,"date":"2014-10-16T13:29:53","date_gmt":"2014-10-16T17:29:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/defiancegamestudio.com\/?p=208"},"modified":"2014-10-23T12:12:32","modified_gmt":"2014-10-23T16:12:32","slug":"looting-game-design-gold-from-sid-meiers-pirates","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/defiancegamestudio.com\/index.php\/looting-game-design-gold-from-sid-meiers-pirates\/","title":{"rendered":"Looting Game Design Gold from Sid Meier’s Pirates!"},"content":{"rendered":"

“Good artists copy, great artists steal.” – Pablo Picasso<\/em><\/p>\n

Sid Meier’s Pirates!<\/em>\u00a0is arguably the most important game ever made . . . and it also ruined my week.\u00a0 You see, I\u2019m working on\u00a0Archmage Rises<\/em><\/a>\u2014<\/em>and part of my elevator pitch is, “It’s like\u00a0Pirates!<\/em>\u00a0but with mages and permadeath.”<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

“Live the Life” is exactly what this Pirate simulator delivers!<\/em><\/p>\n

Pirates!<\/em>\u00a0and I have known each other a long time.\u00a0 It’s been 27 years since I slipped my 360 KB 5.25″ floppy into my Tandy 1000 and “Lived the Life.”\u00a0 Having not played it for a while, just this Sunday I fired up the 2004 edition to see what it could teach me.\u00a0 (I grew up in a culture that didn’t watch TV on Sunday, so I revel in the freedom of being a pirate on the Lord’s Day!)\u00a0 The 2004 edition by Firaxis is a great example of how an old game’s inner beauty can be recast for a modern audience.\u00a0 If you’ve played the 2004 version, you’ve basically played the ’87 version\u2014and vice versa.<\/p>\n

What I learned this week is valuable to me, and hopefully to you:<\/p>\n

Like any creative project, a game design\/concept is born in a lucid moment of inspiration.\u00a0 I can literally see the game I want to make before I’ve touched a keyboard.\u00a0 But like a ship on the open seas with wind and waves, the game development\u00a0process<\/em>\u00a0includes drift.\u00a0 Programming, art choices, new features, all the little decisions along the way potentially introduce drift one away from the core concept of the game.\u00a0 And I’m one guy!\u00a0 I can’t imagine how AAA teams do it with dozens (or hundreds!) of talented developers.<\/p>\n

So as I sailed the Caribbean as a Dutchman in a War Sloop, I was confronted in stark contrast with how much drift has already occurred in\u00a0Archmage Rises<\/em>. I’m disappointed in some of the course corrections I need to make, but I\u2019m happy overall with the experience.<\/p>\n

Like Neo, Sid showed us the way toward true open world design<\/strong><\/p>\n

I glibly wrote that\u00a0Pirates!<\/em>\u00a0could be the most important game ever made.\u00a0 It is something a game developer friend said to me this week\u2014and at first, I felt this was a ridiculous thought. Later on, I realized he may be right after all!<\/p>\n

Pirates<\/em>\u00a0is one of the world’s first open world games and yet a mashup of four different types of games. I hear many people pay tribute to\u00a0Grand Theft Auto III\u00a0<\/em>as the \u201cfirst\u201d open world game\u2014but for all of Rockstar’s inventiveness, they\u2019ve got nothing on\u00a0Pirates<\/em>.\u00a0 Let me explain why:<\/p>\n

Gold Chest #1: Living World<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Each town has a simulated economy and garrison. \u00a0The brief text immediately tells you the towns status.<\/em><\/p>\n

The game world of\u00a0Pirates!<\/em>\u00a0is alive and hums along with or without your involvement.\u00a0 A whole Caribbean economy is simulated under the hood.\u00a0 European powers go to war with one another.\u00a0 Towns grow or decrease in prosperity.\u00a0 Raiders or invasion forces decimate towns.\u00a0 Towns change hands through simulated battles.\u00a0 Governors get replaced bringing economic prosperity.\u00a0 Famous pirates (NPCs) travel the world, causing havoc.\u00a0 From the same starting point, no two games are the same.<\/p>\n

One specific example: Should a trade ship traveling from San Juan to St. Kitts arrive, both the sending port and receiving port get a small economic boost. If the ship is lost at sea (or to you), they both suffer that loss. The economic prosperity of the towns determines how much money they have to buy your goods, and which items are available for sale\/trade.<\/p>\n

There are no neutral actions you can take in the sandbox. Whatever you do, the world will change accordingly.<\/p>\n

Gold Chest #2: Emergent Behavior<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Who told those French raiders to attack that town?\u00a0 The rules of the living world.<\/em><\/p>\n

Pirates!<\/em>\u00a0has a few very simple rules at play.\u00a0 But it has the\u00a0right<\/em>\u00a0rules\u2014so with all the simulated agents, you have the right ingredients for emergent behavior.<\/p>\n

I was merrily sailing along and saw not one, but two separate French raiders sally up to a Spanish town and let loose their canons.\u00a0 No one, from me to the developers, could have predicted that two raiders sent from different towns would happen to attack the same town at the same time just as I was sailing by.<\/p>\n

Similarly, I decided I wanted to attack a particular ship\u2014but by the time I got there, it was close to town. So my sea battle became a land\u00a0and<\/em>\u00a0sea battle\u2014all because of the timing of when that ship left its port. Our paths converged, and I had to deal with the consequences.<\/p>\n

Gold Chest #3: Permanent Presence<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

This is my story.\u00a0 There are many like it, but this one is mine.<\/em><\/p>\n

As you loot ships, the economies of the towns are impacted.\u00a0 If you favor one European power, it will dominate your version of the Caribbean.\u00a0 You can help towns permanently change hands from one nation to another by sacking the town or sinking reinforcement troop ships.\u00a0 Each action has a lasting consequence and a profound feeling of “I did that!”<\/p>\n

Presence<\/em>\u00a0is reinforced through the map\/log.\u00a0 It shows where and when every one of your actions took place in the world.\u00a0 This is\u00a0your<\/em>\u00a0story in the Caribbean; it is personal.\u00a0 This is what keeps me coming back over and over again.<\/p>\n

Gold Chest #4: Different Strokes<\/strong><\/p>\n

Given you can only play as a pirate, the game has a wide variety of play styles within a seemingly confining genre.<\/p>\n

First, if you are more action-oriented, you can make money by looting ships and entering sword fights against ship captains.\u00a0 But if you are more merchant-minded, you can amass a large fleet of trade galleons and become a merchant trader of sorts sailing from smaller producing towns to larger consuming towns.\u00a0 In a small way, it has a bit of\u00a0Railroad Tycoon\u00a0<\/em>in here. \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n

Every ship in the game can be captured and controlled by you.\u00a0 So you can play a small fast raider in a 12 gun sloop, or a massive lumbering 48 gun Frigate.\u00a0 The battle tactics are entirely different.<\/p>\n

You can staunchly play for King and Country of your starting European power.\u00a0 Or a heartless, opportunist smuggler playing all sides against each other.\u00a0 And anything in between.<\/p>\n

Get estates and get married to a governor’s daughter.\u00a0 Even do it multiple times!\u00a0 It’s one of the only games I know of that allows polygamy.<\/p>\n

Gold Chest #5: Procedurally-Generated Quests<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

I’m hunting me some buried treasure!<\/em><\/p>\n

The living game world is fully utilized as the game generates quests based on current conditions.<\/p>\n

A barmaid whispers of a certain treasure laden ship traveling to a nearby island.\u00a0 Or a governor asks you to escort a new governor to his destination.\u00a0 A traveller is willing to sell a treasure map to buried treasure.<\/p>\n

While I suppose these can become\u00a0eventually<\/em>\u00a0repetitive, I find them far more engaging than\u00a0Destiny’s<\/em>quests.\u00a0 Probably because if I do successfully escort that governor, the world permanently changes.\u00a0 InDestiny<\/em>, the Vex will still be there the next time I shoot them\u2014and the next, and the next after that.<\/p>\n

Gold Chest #6: Emergent Story<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Am I the kind of pirate to hunt down and assassinate other pirates?<\/em><\/p>\n

The 2004 version of\u00a0Pirates!<\/em>\u00a0has a story of recovering\/avenging your kidnapped family.\u00a0 You can complete this or completely ignore it.<\/p>\n

I’m more interested in the stories I make myself. \ud83d\ude42\u00a0 I play as a Dutchman with a score to settle with the Spanish.\u00a0 Sometimes I’m the scourge of the north, or the south.\u00a0 Sometimes I’ll pick on a town barricading it from all outside shipments, or spread my reign of terror evenly.<\/p>\n

The game’s simple rules and living world allow me to make up my own stories and play them out to my heart’s content.\u00a0 This is where people smarter than me have identified it as moving from “game” to “software toy.”\u00a0 This seems to be a common thread in Sid’s games, and why they stand the test of time.<\/p>\n

You can also play\u00a0Pirates!<\/em>\u00a0on pretty much anything, which is awesome. If you haven’t played this gem, you are in luck!<\/p>\n

Pirates!<\/em>\u00a0is available on just about everything except WonderSwan:<\/p>\n

iPad, iPhone, Windows Phone, Windows XP+, Xbox 360, Xbox, Wii, PSP, Windows 3.x, Sega Genesis, Amiga\/CD32, Apple II\/IIGS, Atari ST, NES, Commodore 64, Dos, Macintosh, Amstrad CPC, NEC PC-9801<\/p>\n

Steal Good. Copy Bad<\/strong><\/p>\n

What was Picasso talking about, really? He was referring to internalizing the concept or style of a work of art, not merely copying it.\u00a0 It\u2019s the difference between a photocopy and a memory.\u00a0 In programming, we have a similar idea in the form of\u00a0shallow copy<\/em>\u00a0versus\u00a0deep copy<\/em>.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

So what do I mean when I say I’m making\u00a0Pirates!<\/em>\u00a0with mages?<\/p>\n

I do not mean having a 3D map with a mage running around attacking merchant caravans to impress governors and marry their daughters. To me, that would be a shallow copy.<\/p>\n

I am implementing the six gold chests of design above\u00a0in spirit<\/em>.\u00a0 Most of my effort is focused on creating a plausible, living and breathing fantasy RPG world.\u00a0 One where nobles (my equivalent of governors) have personalities and ambitions.\u00a0 They procedurally generate quests based on what is happening in their territory and with their neighbors.\u00a0 You as the player decide which nobles you want to side with and which ones you want to use to test your new Fire Rain spell on.\u00a0 I’m taking what Sid did and going further with it.\u00a0 You have a home base (your mage tower)\u2014and based on your fame (or infamy), nobles will send out raiding parties against you!\u00a0 So being naughty (or nice) has a lot to do with your personal security.\u00a0 This is one way the player will feel\u00a0presence<\/em>\u00a0and\u00a0permanence<\/em>\u00a0in the game world.\u00a0 Ultimately, I want to give players the ability to tell their own story.\u00a0 This, I hope, is what makes my game successful and keeps people returning for more.<\/p>\n

In short, I’m stealing.\u00a0 In the best sense of the word \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n

SDG<\/p>\n

You can follow the game\u00a0I’m working on,\u00a0<\/em>Archmage Rises<\/em><\/a>, by joining the\u00a0<\/em>newsletter<\/em><\/a>\u00a0or chatting with me about it on the\u00a0<\/em>Facebook page<\/em><\/a>. You can tweet me\u00a0<\/em>@LordYabo<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“Good artists copy, great artists steal.” – Pablo Picasso Sid Meier’s Pirates!\u00a0is arguably the most important game ever made . . . and it also ruined my week.\u00a0 You see, I\u2019m working on\u00a0Archmage Rises\u2014and part of my elevator pitch is, “It’s like\u00a0Pirates!\u00a0but with mages and permadeath.” “Live the Life” is exactly what this Pirate simulator […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_s2mail":"yes","footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[76,77,14,19,4,79,49,22,37,78,16,75,74,15],"class_list":["post-208","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-76","tag-77","tag-archmage","tag-archmage-rises","tag-fantasy","tag-firaxis","tag-game-design","tag-game-dev","tag-indie","tag-microprose","tag-pc","tag-pirates","tag-sid-meier","tag-strategy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/defiancegamestudio.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/208","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/defiancegamestudio.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/defiancegamestudio.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/defiancegamestudio.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/defiancegamestudio.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=208"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/defiancegamestudio.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/208\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/defiancegamestudio.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=208"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/defiancegamestudio.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=208"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/defiancegamestudio.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=208"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}