Looking to make a sci-fi multi-mode colony builder game Thread

Hello all. I'm new to the forums and have no experience making games, but I'm a simulations engineer in C++ building computation simulations (a far cry from a game engine, I know). I was encouraged by a friend to bring this idea to some indie game developer forums. I hope it piques some interest. My current game idea (I have them regularly) was partially inspired by Anno2205, the story behind Project Aura, and survival horror games like Soma. It's a colony builder game (ala the first two) set in a post-nuclear-winter future where humanity is just starting to come out of cold sleep, hoping to rebuild civilization. One of the key elements I believe would set it apart from other games is that you play in multiple modes, usually as the colony director in a colony builder style game, but also sometimes as an explorer (team) in a wilderness survival/exploration style, and sometimes as a ruins investigator (team) in a survival horror/exploration style. Below is a quick write-up I did earlier today. I'd love feedback, advice on the game, or just advice on how to proceed from here.

Plot:
Near the turn of the 22nd century, cryogenics had established itself as a medical science, with the facilities managed by heavily restricted AIs. AIs had become a reality, however fears of what they may achieve had heavily restricted their implementation. They were banned from any wide network access and from manufacturing systems of any kind. They were most commonly used to maintain complex systems like cryogenics and fusion reactors. Mars had been colonized, but was not yet self-sustaining. A single world governmental alliance was beginning to take tentative steps toward real peace. The future looked promising.

Then, the unthinkable happened. 7 super-volcanoes scattered across the globe erupted, one after the other, over a 2-year span. Large swaths of land, often in the heart of civilization, were buried under lava and ash. The air everywhere was thick with soot, and a blanket of ash covered the sky. Enough to last 100 years or more, said the scientists. This was the beginning of a non-nuclear winter. World governments dusted off the worst of their worst-case contingencies and settled on one solution: wait it out. Wait out the cold, long winter and the barren world in an even colder sleep.

The plan called for as many as possible to be put into cryo-sleep, administered by AIs to maintain function over centuries. A few locations would even take the drastic step of putting the AIs in charge of awakening people when the time was right. These AIs would monitor the environment, release microbes, spores, and seeds, and when life was beginning to flourish once again, would begin to awaken humanity for the long, hard process of rebuilding.

The first AI to act has just awakened you, the new director of this facility, and this colony. Records indicate the ecosystem adapted far better than anyone could have expected, and the planet is green and lively again within just 700 years. However, almost all vestiges of human civilization have vanished, and the adaptations of the ecosystem have resulted in some ... drastic changes. You now embark on the brave task of re-building civilization from the ground up. Find your brethren, awaken them, build your colony, explore new lands, and survive!

---

Gameplay:

Colony Mode:
Player managers a colony of people taken out of cryogenic stasis. Player can build buildings, design buildings for various purposes, design clothing (meets both morale needs and temperature needs), and select people to be unfrozen.
People come in various skill sets, and each skill set has certain technologies that that person might know. Research into technologies can also be done. Each person has a clothing taste which consists of how much skin they want to show (more or less) and how showy they want to be (more complex clothing and more vibrant colors are more showy).
Initially, the colony has very little space to build in, few resources to work with, and few colonists in cryo. Fairly quickly, the player will have to send people out to explore, entering Exploration Mode. Upon return, the area the person explored is available for building and resource gathering. Any facilities discovered in the exploration are available for Investigation, as well.
Different biomes will have different natural concerns, including temperature (affects clothing and resource consumption), disease risk, natural disasters and their protections, as well as availability of various resources. Different difficulty levels will have different starting biomes.
As technology advances, the player can unlock new methods of exploration, including ATV, boat, submarine, airplane, and possibly more. Undersea construction is possible and undersea facilities can be found.
Once technology advances enough, the player can scout out other colony reserves in other biomes and awaken the people there. People and materials can be traded from one colony to another, and all technology is shared, however the colonies operate, live, and die separately.
The ultimate objective of the game is to awaken a breeding population of people and keep them alive for 2 years.

---

Exploration Mode:
In this mode, the player controls a single colonist or a small group of colonists in first person or over-the-shoulder view. The player can explore the surrounding landscape in a survivor-style mode, where health, hunger, hydration, and temperature must be maintained, threats include various natural hazards (cliffs, quicksand, etc), predators, sudden storms, and possibly fast-acting diseases. Exploration should only last a few days.
If any colonists make it back to the colony, the explored terrain is open for construction and resource gathering. Any colonists who die in exploration mode are permanently lost. Any who are lost (and not found) can be searched for in an automated process, risking more colonists for a chance to find the missing, though they may be found dead.

---

Investigation Mode:
This mode will be much like Exploration mode, but with fewer resources to be concerned with (Health, maybe stamina, maybe morale), and will likely take on a more Survival/Horror theme, as the facilities are crumbling, may be nests of predators, and may have been taken over by rogue AIs (rare).
Facilities can be above-ground buildings, where both the exterior and the interior are explorable, below-ground buildings, where many floors of interior may be explorable, or caverns, which are single-'level', but can vary in depth. Buildings may hold technologies, technical resources, and/or cryo-pods. Caverns may hold food or mineral resources, and possibly weapons and technology from people who fled into the cave systems.
Similarly to Exploration mode, any colonists who die here are lost permanently, while anyone lost here may be rescued. If the entire team is lost or killed, the mission fails and nothing is recovered.

---

Difficulty levels/Biomes:
Tropical Islands - Substantial island chain in tropical region. Plenty of wood and mineral resources, few predators, warm temperatures, several facilities, easy access to water and sea, plentiful fishing, plentiful farming. Primary threats are disease and hurricanes. Easy.

Coastal Sub-Tropics - Coastal mainland in subtropical region. Think Gulf Coast or Mediterranean Coast. Decent supply of wood and mineral resources, moderate predators, LOTS of space, LOTS of facilities, easy access to water and sea, limited fishing, plentiful farming. Primary threats are flooding and hurricanes. Easy-Medium

Sub-arctic Coast - Coastal mainland in more sub-arctic region. Think New England. Decent supply of wood and mineral resources, more predators, decent amount of space, LOTS of facilities, limited access to water and sea, rich fishing, rich farming. Primary threats are winter and storms. Medium

Mountains - High in the mountains. Think Rockies. Limited supply of wood, plenty of minerals, LOTS of predators, limited space, few facilities, limited access to water, no sea, VERY limited fishing and farming. Primary threats are cold, winter, forest fires, and disease. Hard.

Arctic - Frozen tundra. Little wood, moderate minerals, few predators, plenty of space, few facilities, access to water and sea, fishing, no farming without technology. Primary threats are cold, food, and blizzards. Impossible.

Sea Floor - Underwater. Deep underwater. Alternate resources, plentiful minerals, plenty of predators, plenty of space, few facilities, water MUST be desalinated, fishing, alternate farming. Can't explore without technology. Seals can break and buildings can flood. Primary threats are access to water, flooding, disease, and earthquakes. Impossible.

Edited by: Planetus

From what you described...it's kind of like an RTS styled game. I made a concept to an RTS some time ago and made a video that featured the path finding for Actors, along with other things like ray selection code. I'm going to upload that video to my account here at indiedb, so look for it from time to time and tell me if a concept like that could be used for your story. My concept was based on ancient Egypt...which justifies the look of the test graphics (which are quick graphics done just for coding purposes, nothing major).

That RTS concept of mine was the second time I did a path finding system. Characters in the test simulation would wake up, go to work and work could have been teaching, preaching, healing the sick, gathering resources for your city, etc.. The game was going to have a combat system added later on; one where you set the AI of combat rather than control it directly. More of the world map was to reveal itself as you explored but also new enemies. There was also an in depth story which would unfold with cut scenes the further gamers advanced.

Man... When doing a game like that you have to optimized to the max! I did a good job since my frame rate was around 60 most of the time. We're talking RTS, so that means a lot of buildings and actors moving around and animating and that doesn't count special effects, sound and music.

And here's that old video:

Old RTS Concept Based On Ancient Egypt

Edited by: mrjohnson78

Thanks for the input, but I don't think RTS is a good analogy, and I don't know that I would have much pathfinding. The exploration as a group, where you're basically acting as the lead character and everyone else is following you closely, is the only thing I can think of. In the colony-builder mode, I imagine any colonist animations would be generic walking down a road or going into a building, not detailed work assignments. Given the population that you're aiming for (sustainable breeding population for genetic diversity), that's usually estimated to be only a couple hundred people. And you'll start with just a small handful, yet still need to build houses and farms and such. That means we have to assume some kind of automation is doing most of the work, and while a particular colonist may be assigned to manage the project, any actual animation is fluff. Nice fluff, beautiful detail, but not necessary.

Similarly, moving goods around doesn't actually need to be animated, though some generic traffic on the roads based on the number of facilities and colonists would be nice. Again, not necessary.

I'm thinking something closer to SimCity, but with 3D graphics and hopefully a zoomable and manipulable camera, for that stage. Usually I'm against graphics being a major focus of a game, but in a game like this, where exploration and colony design are major aspects, making those pieces beautiful and breathtaking will probably be rather important. I don't know, maybe the colonists walking around their town becomes important at that point.

"I'm thinking something closer to SimCity, but with 3D graphics and hopefully a zoomable and manipulable camera, for that stage"

Doesn't Sim City have some of the same elements as an RTS? You still have to place down buildings, which has to buildup and characters searching for resources is an old RTS element. From what you described anew, I'm picturing a third person style game now where you move about an environment, which is nothing but a large simulation area (as you mentioned, Sim City) and the camera will have the ability to "birds eye" view the entire environment.

That's pretty much combining 3rd person and simulation together. A game of such will carry a lot of overhead, especially when zooming in and out. It's possible if one were to break down the environment into smaller chunks that load in and out based on the view spectrum but that's only in 3rd person view.

Zooming out will display every single environment chuck, so I would expect the fps to jump around a bit. Now that I think of it more.... Your idea reminds me of another commercial game which allows you to build a colony and zoom in and out... "Gawd", what was it called....? Civilization VII!!! That's pretty much what you're describing!

Man that game had some overhead! Gamers on super rigs complained about the poor fps. That's why I tend to steer away from those kind of games. I guess the advantage to controlling a main actor with everyone else following in 3rd person is the fact you don't really have to code in a picking ray for selecting objects on screen the way you do in games like Civilization VII (RTS).

Edited by: mrjohnson78

I do understand the comparison, but the big difference is, I'm not expecting anything like a 'unit' in the typical RTS or TBS sense. You won't produce troops, or tanks, or even exploration squads. Exploration will be, conceptually, the leader of the colony decides we need to explore now so (s)he selects a few of the best candidates and tasks them with going that way for a ways. In gameplay, it'll be pushing a menu button, selecting the colonists from a menu that lists relevant stats, and then the entire gameplay mode changes and you're looking through the eyes, or over the shoulder, of the leader of the party (possibly only person) in a FPS/Action/Survival Horror mode. There would be combat here, but it would be fighting off wild beasts and possibly mad robots in a Skyrim/Dragon Age/Monster Hunter type perspective. That's probably an entirely different graphics and gameplay engine. A cute cut-scene could transition the two smoothly, but in gameplay, they'd be very different.

What I'm envisioning is seriously something very much like Anno 2205, only you're building houses for dozens, not thousands, there's no competition, but rather natural threats (storms, winter, plagues, wildfires), and people don't just show up, you have to go find them.

Oh, and every person has unique stats and class. So on that side, it's more like Project Aura.

So I do see your point that the graphics engine will have to be pretty streamlined, and it may also limit zoom ability, though I'm thinking I could start with rough models when you're zoomed out and can't see details, and transition to more detailed models as you zoom in? I've seen stuff that looks like that's what happens in other games, but I don't know the details. Is it just a difference in how the same model is rendered, based on distance?

As a clarification, I think I could make this fairly easily, at least in demo quality, if anyone knew of a good 3D engine that could handle these modes, and mode transition. I've looked around a good bit and, while I can see a multitude of engines that'd be good for the 1st person parts, I haven't seen any dedicated to city building or the like.

Does anyone have any recommendations?

Edited by: Planetus