Turn-based - This one is hard for me to admit because I’ve played lots of great turn-based games and will inevitably play more of them, but for some reason when turn-based is a key feature, my brain interprets it as being a low-budget and/or low-effort game, or that the gameplay won’t match how the game is presented. It’s not that I dislike the concept of turn-based play, but when I see “turn-based” in a description I just glaze over.
I’m working on a turn based game, you could say it’s low budget, perhaps more accurately, no-budget. Does your glaze over system offer leniency for games that are clearly indie+cheap, or maybe you intended this for games with huge marketing budgets and have microtransactions? Either way, I’d love any specific interests/thoughts you have on the turn based games genre in general.
That’s interesting, my initial choice of turn-based gameplay is mostly 2 things: It’s a lot easier to offer an experience that respects your PC/phone’s battery, such as less animations between user actions, or maybe even just offering an option in settings to reduce idle animations. I’m dabbling into 3D, which I’ve not committed either way, but might make this detail harder.
Also, I am getting older, and finding myself less able to sit at a computer and play a “live action” game, or online games that can’t be paused, or online games that require a commitment of 30 to 60 uninterrupted minutes, or schedule specific times to game with my friends. And these are often caused by reasons like “job” or “family”, but maybe soon there will be reasons like “My old non-gaming mouse and arthritis can’t out-micro this diamond league starcraft player.”
What’s absolutely crazy to me, is that a lot of turn based games I’ve seen still require a commitment of 30 to 60 uninterrupted minutes to play. Probably the most important core design detail of my game is the ability to play turns, even partial turns, progressively throughout a day/week on the player’s own schedule. I plan on supporting both “live” games and asynchronous games.
Anyways, thanks for your thoughts!