I've been brainstorming off-and-on for almost a year about how to scratch an itch in Star Trek gaming that all these action-focused games don't satisfy for me. At first, I conceived of it as a thorough and comprehensive simulation of running a starship (like, where each individual crewmember would be a distinct entity in the game), but practical considerations of what a solo developer could actually do gradually winnowed that down to a much more simple concept, which would involve a small fleet of ships running missions similar to the away missions in Star Trek Timelines or the Duty Officer assignments in Star Trek Online (but hopefully with more strategic thinking about who does what where, and no microtransactions).
At this point, I don't think I can honestly say it's some grand new idea that will fill a niche where no Star Trek game has gone before, but it does still sound like something that I'd enjoy playing, that does things a little differently than other Trek games do, so I'd still like to pursue it and see where it goes. I could just jump into coding it and maybe spend 500 hours programming in all the elements, only to find (when I'm finally able to play it) that it isn't fun and I don't know how to fix it. So I was hoping instead, that I could do some prototyping where another person would act as the guinea-pig player, and I would take on a role like a GM, where I handle all the calculations or hidden information that the computer would do if it were programmed, and I just relay to the player the information that they need to know. That would make it much easier to try different things and test them on the fly.
I'm not gonna try too hard to sell "if you like X, then you would like this" when I don't even know whether the game is actually fun yet, but what I'm hoping for it to be eventually is a game for people who like strategic decisions, but want the strategy in a Star Trek game to be about more than how to outmaneuver your opponent so you can blow them up. Something along the lines of the strategy or planning in games like Pandemic and Forbidden Island (again, I'm not saying that's what the game is, but what I want it to be). If that sounds like something you'd enjoy, then helping me with the playtesting might increase the chances that it'll come to fruition eventually.
At this point, I don't think I can honestly say it's some grand new idea that will fill a niche where no Star Trek game has gone before, but it does still sound like something that I'd enjoy playing, that does things a little differently than other Trek games do, so I'd still like to pursue it and see where it goes. I could just jump into coding it and maybe spend 500 hours programming in all the elements, only to find (when I'm finally able to play it) that it isn't fun and I don't know how to fix it. So I was hoping instead, that I could do some prototyping where another person would act as the guinea-pig player, and I would take on a role like a GM, where I handle all the calculations or hidden information that the computer would do if it were programmed, and I just relay to the player the information that they need to know. That would make it much easier to try different things and test them on the fly.
I'm not gonna try too hard to sell "if you like X, then you would like this" when I don't even know whether the game is actually fun yet, but what I'm hoping for it to be eventually is a game for people who like strategic decisions, but want the strategy in a Star Trek game to be about more than how to outmaneuver your opponent so you can blow them up. Something along the lines of the strategy or planning in games like Pandemic and Forbidden Island (again, I'm not saying that's what the game is, but what I want it to be). If that sounds like something you'd enjoy, then helping me with the playtesting might increase the chances that it'll come to fruition eventually.
