GenesisVR, the God game in VR and crowd-sourced design

I don't think progress through ages is needed at all. It adds nothing to the experience of being a god, but does indeed cost a lot of time and effort and money to create.
People do like to see something progress, but I don't think technological advancement in a godgame should be that thing, especially because it's liniair.
I think it would be far more interesting to create assets for different religious factions and such. Rather than to give all your followers a uniform simply because they believe in the player god, let there be different religions with different clothes that may all be worshipping you (or your opponent) but are doing so in their own unique way.
This means your assets that lead to a changing game world don't become absolete when a player progresses through the game. You can still use old uniforms if a religion re-surfaces. And there's no liniair progression from one art asset to the next. It's a far better investment, and makes the game characters more interesting to study.

What you said about the basic system being extendable is great. This is the right approach for a system as hugely complex as a gameworld that is full of intepretable information for the player. Definitely the way to go. This system would thrive on diversity, so the lerped animations may allow you to make a truckload of content required for that. And you can scale the quality versus quantity by making more frames.

Hrm...Haven't read too closely what everyone else has said, but I see the usual trends in discussion (AI, followers, development, etc.).

Think an interesting perspective not being discussed as explicitly might be relating to Environmental Interaction and Dense vs. Hollow Simulation.

Starting with Environmental Interaction, most of this has been built on two basic ideas:
-It's there.
-It's related to beings.

This has been at the base of god games since their inception, but I think it misses some fun that can be had if you dig a little deeper, which is to say that the Environment is not already there, and even if it is, that it may first be a matter of relating to itself than to beings that live on it. What I mean by this is the following:

Environmental Interaction rebuilt on two ideas:
-It's not yet there.
-It's related to itself.

What this lends itself to is a smashing together of amorphous matter into what resembles what we're familiar with, land and fluids. The reason for this is simple: it produces a stronger sense of connection with the world (you literally built it) and then can result in some silly emergent effects. Effects like, you left some spot of land too uneven, now it's shaking with however you spun the world and that's causing whatever looser bits of matter you left open swishing away into tsunamis. Meanwhile, some of those loose bits sandwiched together are spewing out of the world as eruptions.

Done a certain way, with no real regard for detailed physics simulations, this could create a prebiotic god game in itself of trying to settle the world to a point that it even can sustain life.

In a sense, this would be what I refer to as a Hollow Simulation, doesn't work in high detail, only the broad strokes. Similar to how a lot of other games work, creating just enough to give you a sense of a lively world, but without too many of the particulars to sustain it if you stick around too long. This would give you just enough to have a sense of creating the world without all the particulars of complex chemistry or actual physics or anything of the sort.

Following it might be the Dense Simulation where some of those particulars start cropping up. Some kind of little dudes with their little civilization or whatever to mess around with. Everyone else has covered this in sufficient detail I feel like, with the only aspect I might add to it being a higher focus on sorting out the details of ideological emergence/divergence, but that too has been covered a little.

I think what might be a little more interesting is if you mixed the Environmental Interaction as having a higher impact on the Dense Simulation through what I mentioned above, simply keeping the world held together to give them enough peace to do anything, while at the same time accidentally/intentionally skewing things to alter their development. E.g. oh, I tried to fill in those lava chambers, I never really meant to cause that eruption! =P

At the same time, you could also take it in the direction of focusing down more into navigating the Dense Sim elements of nature, but as a god sim, I think dealing more with people takes higher precedence. However on some level, I feel like having the actual world creation, from scratch, involved would give this game another distinctive factor that's pretty neat beyond god game through VR. If you can imagine From Dust, but drawing upon protoplanetary disc matter and compacting it into a planet instead of only new land (or a star), something like that at least for an early stage of the game would be really cool. (Then again, maybe I should go for Universe Sandbox instead for this kind of thing...=O)

This might sound like a dumb suggestion but how much "FUN" are you planning on putting in the game? How serious versus tongue in cheek, wink wink nod nod, aha moments will you have? Which also asks how much personality can my God have? How many little easter eggs of previous other known cultural and/or trendy actions/events/objects will be allowed?

For instance can my God remain aloof in some ways but pop in a Giant Christmas tree one day or hide magic rocks under special followers gardens to find? Or spike their punch when board ? Can I be like Thor on one week and like Loki the trickster on Supernatural the next? Can I interact with fellow Gods (players online) and barter with my people's lives and worlds like Shepherd and McKay did on SGA? Can I be silly and have my followers wake up one day and have pink hair for a month? Do you plan on my game allowing me to be a complex God with many different sides of myself depending upon, I, the player's moods?

I personally would love being able to have my followers react to my God's daily whims. Watching them make piles of fish on Sundays if I deem it, or have they run and build a theater where they create plays to worship me. They can be made to know to paint their house orange it is snows or all move if it rains five days in a row. There could be endless possibilities that I could create if game functions allowed. How much of actual "playing" while playing God can I expect?

My idea of a great god game (very specific, but hope you enjoy my idea)...

This is how I imagine a great god game to start and progress

From a black void, I can see and a single shining light bead, it leads me to discover a lone particle, touching the particle explodes it into expanding stars, at the center remain a brighter light, another particle but this time touching it seems to energise it causing it to multiply in my hands till it spills out and creates a large ball or flat landscape floating it the middle of the void, as it grows other lights are attracted from around me (maybe some of the stars), forming water or clouds.

I touch the clouds and it rains, small puddles form. I watch as one of the stars grows larger into a sun to warm the world created before me.

I play with the sand/dirt, I pick it up and drop some, it forms into different shaped golems as I touch the statues and they spring to life (not necessarily human). New specks of light start buzzing around from the space around me as I catch/touch them they become other types of flora and fauna (maybe even seeds) I drop them next to a puddle and create an oasis of life on a very small part of the ball of dirt. I start to name things in my world, trees, grass, dirt. Its fun to give things names, not sure of the point but it give me satisfaction and I get rewarded with more beads.

As the plants grow or the clouds reform, I can collect more of these light particles to spread my oasis. I discover new particles that give me rocks, a rock pile plus a few rains form hills and mountains. The animal are multiplying somehow, one of the animals I'm naming "human" live in caves created from my mountains.

Wow these humans aren't like the other animals for some reason they produce their own beads of light when I make something happen near them (Bonus I don't have to collect these light beads, they flow straight to me!) I like these little things, I think I'll help their numbers grow.

Interesting, they like trees to eat from and water to drink, I'll make more of that, they even eat the things in the water, gonna call them "fish" I like the sound of that too.

Oh now they like to chop down my trees for new places to shelter in, I'm calling them "homes", mmmm never mind I'll help them grow more trees, I got some seeds and can call the rain.

breaking news, some of the humans stop working, they lay down on the ground and stop. Then others dig a hole a pop them in, what a waste, I'm going to name it "dying", don't like it as my light beads stop, but I've no idea how to stop it happening.

mmm now they are eating all my animals, damn I'll make more golems they use a lot of light beads to create but the humans seem worth it, they are difficult little things to keep happy.

Note, don't mix water and trees to much, you end up with soggy ground which swallows these humans right up if they walk on it. Think I'll name that a "Swamp", it has a nice ring to it.

More humans are dying, they seem to eat the animals then lay down and die, not all of them but how do I convince them to not eat the animals, for all I know its the reason they produce the light beads.

Oh no, some of them aren't producing the light beads anymore, they are fine, but really didn't like it when I used lots of rain, too much and it keeps whipping up storms and their little homes are a bit delicate. A bonus is I discovered something I'm calling "lightning" and when I mix lightning with trees or huts I get something called "fire", not sure how useful it will be yet, but the humans are keeping warm with it and they are burning the fleshy animals before they eat them, less of them are dying after meals so that is a positive I suppose.


Some of the unhappy humans have wandered off on their own, they won't last long without me to help so sod them.

I've also noticed the noises the humans make seem to be referring to things in the world almost like they are naming things, funny thing is they are using my words, they say "Water","Fire","Tree","lightning" etc. Its amazing especially as I don't talk to them directly.

The humans have started to manage the crops and animals in buildings think I'll name them "Farms" and trees in buildings I'll refer to as "mills", they've also managed to get special rocks "ore" which they convert to "metal" and they've started building amazing things with it.

I see these pesky "sod-them" humans building, trading and learning from my humans, they seem to be doing alright, almost as if someone is watching over them too.

Right getting a little annoyed with the "Sodems" (their new name), some of my humans left my group and went to theirs, I'm losing more beads, I try impressing some of the Sodems, but they weren't interested, I think I might burn some of their crops with lightning, or create some swamps to swallow them up.

Something strange is going on, my swamps got removed, I saw it happen with my own eyes, something threw dirt into the swamp and it dried right up, I'm beginning to think I'm no longer alone in this place, something similar to me has been attracted by the light beads and has taken the sodems under its wing, I new these beads were to good to be true, I've attracted something else like me, worse thing is its still stealing my humans.

So the question is do I wipe out the Sodems somehow, I've found some interesting mixtures of beads that could help with that;

I already know lightning, but I've also discovered...

lots of storms produce swirling winds that really caused a lot of (uncontrolled) destruction, calling it a "tornado".

tornado and storms produce a "hurrican", all uncontrollable unfortunately and can randomly damage my humans too.

Storms and rock in the same area made flaming rocks fall from the sky (fire and brimstone), too much brimstone and it causes the ground to shake, I'm calling that an "Earthquake".

If I make a mountain too high I found it produces hot liquid rocks for some reason that sets fire to everything, I'm calling that one a "volcano".

All these cost a hell of a lot of lightbeads and are very random in where they hit (got some of my followers learning how they work).

I know I like their light beads (wow these things are "addictive", thats what I call wanting more of something). So having them die is a real waste of beads, I could continue trying to convince them my care is better or just try to get by with my humans I have? I found some mixtures that really make humans happy. If I rain alot on plants, they grow really big and make the humans very happy. If I rain alot on a mountain it make a "river" that they also seem to like.

Eureka, I caught some of this happiness and can make it from beads, it really helps converting the Sodems.

So up to me how I go with the Sodems, but it will be interesting to make the decision.


The humans continue to develop, they made something called a "wheel", they travel quickly now and have something called a road. Their buildings keep changing, getting bigger and taller, they knock old ones down and replace them with the latest ones, I find it hard to keep up.

The last of the Sodems now follow me, I'm glad how it all turned out, but I won't go into details of the whole affair, needless to say I'm the only one left the Sodems are no more.

OK so they made a thing called a telescope, I looked through it and can see other balls of dirt, maybe that is where the Sodems deity came from, my humans are happy here, maybe its time I move on. Maybe I should start over on another ball of dirt, maybe there will be other things to discover. Now I know there are other balls of dirt I think I know a way of getting to them but that is another story I think I'll call it "DLC", no idea why.

---------------------------------------------------

Edit clarifications -

Light beads are the only currency I have as a god.

This is very hands off, no micromanaging, more suggestive or attracting your humans to what you'd like them to do. Shape the land convince them to do certain things if you can.

I want to be able to discover then mix powers, once you discover them, they become available to you in a kind of discovery tree. There was a good iOS game (doodle god) that required mixing discoveries to combine and create other things. So this goes back to my brushes idea. You brush a short lasting rain on the land (which will move randomly), you do a few times again, and it creates a storm, you identify the storm, it becomes named and is available at the cost of the rains, you paint some storms which again move randomly, you discover wind and lightning creation .... etc.

I would like brushes to attract humans to do certain things in certain areas, maybe discover the humans doing something like farming, discover the conditions you need to recreate to suggest farming to them in a particular area.

All brushes wear out, all humans autocollect light beads, all humans live and die.

All your humans die you lose (possibly allow you to create more animal golems to restart).

Sodem Deity would require AI, but you have the choice of defeating the deity, it only reacts aggressively if you start it. Maybe a kind of defcon level to its aggressiveness. If you show kindness to the sodems it rolls back the defcon, try to destroy them and stir up a bees nest.

mmm interesting point. I suppose you could say the follower heart would tell them (bit of a cop out), but what tells anyone that your deity is doing it and not a deity from another persons religion. Tough one. Its what the individual chooses to believe. 

I'd like to think the follower inherently knows or is pulled to the religion causing a particular miracle. As I said a bit of a cop out, but if both deities had the same abilities you'd never know who did what.

Not that its the same thing but I had a discussion on abode placement vs follower AI building, who is to say if I laid the footprint for a building down (as a god) and my follower completes it, is this game a city builder or did I just put the thought in the head of my follower to go and build at that footprint and its still a god game. 

Morsealworth... just trying to see if I understand you correctly..... (so excuse me if I get it wrong, your knowledge in this area surpasses mine), are you suggesting that the player "god" exists without physical form, but can then take on the physical form of pretty much anything in the world. So one day you could take on the form of a burning bush, then a hairbrush, and then a cloud? Or that you inhabit an object and that becomes your form? Would we then co-exist in the same world alongside other gods?

I'm off to read up on this now.... you've stirred my intellectual curiosity! And 3 days before a hijacked pagan festival too! Oh, the irony...

Edit: fixed some typos.

No, it is, rather, that you are not a god before you reside in an object and that's object's true nature (for example, a teapot that makes purifying salt) becomes your first divine domain and your powers grow accordingly. So you start as a minor deity, the spirit of an object (in aforementioned case, a tsukumogami), any kind of object, and grow from there.
I'm talking Ainu Kamui or Inupiat Sila.

Here I'll even give you a nice word for such divine domains: me (plural mes). It's a word Sumerians used for divine attributes:

Or just zoom out-zoom in, B&W/SupCom style.

And hey, there's no need for spite. Yet.