I summon the design power of the Internet
2008-10-23So, it occurred to me yesterday that there are several designers and whatnot that read this blog. I am now going to pick your brains, if you don’t mind.
While I have a couple of smaller games in the pipeline (like Showdown and my daughter’s Alien Smackdown!), the next Big Game that is in my head is another crime game. I’m currently calling it Dirty Cities, because I see this as a sequel to Dirty Secrets. I don’t think that name will stick, but hey, we all need working titles, right?
Anyways, I have some fairly lofty goals for this game. What I want is the uber-crime game with interlocking stories (a la Traffic or Crash or The Wire). In other words, I’d like to be able to manage a cast of thousands in a city that is just as much a character as the people.
Oh yeah, plus you set the whole thing in your home town, which you essentially turn into your very own campaign setting for an anthology of crime stories.
As a bonus, it would be nice to be able to integrate Dirty Secrets games into this structure.
I’m already doing my standard media absorption for this project. What I would like from all of you is ideas on how to accomplish my goals and/or games that I could steal from…I mean, be inspired by.
For example, we’re currently playing In a Wicked Age in our Friday group, and I’m thinking, “Hey, maybe I could lift some of this for Dirty Cities.” A small part of me even wonders is Vincent would let me use the Anthology Engine to power the core of the game.
But stuff like that. Please, help inspire and instruct me.
Thanks!
For dealing with groups of different sizes and scopes, you could look at Greg Stolze’s Reign.