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It's funny I actually had it in my head that this game was from Molyneux because it so overpromised and under-deliverd. It was a good game, but it essentially

It's funny I actually had it in my head that this game was from Molyneux because it so overpromised and under-deliverd. It was a good game, but it essentially had 5(?) sections - amoeba, hunter, community, city builder, and spaceship. Each of those sections can be done as a single stand alone full budget game. Imagine if Spore had released with FTL as it's spaceship stage? And Cities Skylines as it's city builder? The scope was just way too big and the result was very thin.

lordnacho 3y ago
That's what I thought as well. I thought it was a bunch of little games glued together into a... little game. I didn't quite understand what you were carrying with you from one stage to the next, and why it mattered. I ended up not playing it much after buying it, such was the disappointment.
- tharkun__ 3y ago
  Spore is the only game I ever actually sold. It was just so bad and boring. The first stage was the most fun and felt too short. The space exploration part was so tedious and boring I just restarted the game a few times to play the fun parts. Then I sold the game.
  - Etherlord87 3y ago
    I agree, I also likes the first part the most. But it wasn't that amazing either, it was just barely good as opposed to the rest of the game. 1st part: Cell - on the level of free Kongregate/Newsgrounds flash games, except with better graphics. Later an online game agar.io came out which I find better in regards to challenge, fun, replayability. 2nd part: Evolution - Very basic MMORPG, except single-player (the mmo part is being able to see other creations in your world). Animal creation was quite innovative, but also underwhelming, because it didn't affect the physics of the animal… Something like QWOP would be nice, where the computer would try to automatically convert simple controls to animal muscles… 3rd part: Tribe - Again, a simple flash game, boring 4th part: Civilization - again a simple game, I think the most challenging phase and quite fun, but building designing being only decorative was again underwhelming… 5th part: Cosmos - it had a Star Control feel to me, except it was simpler, and Star Control is a much older game!
    - deleted 3y ago
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thom 3y ago
Ha, seconded on the Molyneux thing.
Waterluvian 3y ago
It was certainly part of the “Molyneux-like” genre.
ilyt 3y ago
That's why I'm always cautious when game developer advertise "game within a game" like this. More modern examples would be both Pathfinder games with mediocre kingdom management minigame in first, and bad HoMM clone in the second. Thankfully the main game was still good. On other side there are games that successfully pulled it but usually it's a some simple-but-satisfying minigame, not some big element of the game.
- starkparker 3y ago
  Sid Meier learned that lesson, though the game he learned it in (Covert Action) remains one of my all-time favorites, up there with XCOM: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sid_Meier%27s_Covert_Action#Development https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sid_Meier%27s_Covert_Action#De... > The mistake I think I made in Covert Action is actually having two games in there kind of competing with each other. There was kind of an action game where you break into a building and do all sorts of picking up clues and things like that, and then there was the story which involved a plot where you had to figure out who the mastermind was and the different roles and what cities they were in, and it was a kind of an involved mystery-type plot. ... In Pirates!, you would do a sword fight or a ship battle, and a minute or two later, you were kind of back on your way. In Covert Action, you'd spend ten minutes or so of real time in a mission, and by the time you got out of [the mission], you had no idea of what was going on in the world. > So I call it the "Covert Action Rule". Don't try to do too many games in one package. And that's actually done me a lot of good. You can look at the games I've done since Civilization, and there's always opportunities to throw in more stuff. When two units get together in Civilization and have a battle, why don't we drop out to a war game and spend ten minutes or so in duking out this battle? Well, the Covert Action Rule. Focus on what the game is.
  - gs17 3y ago
    Covert Action is also one of my all time favorites (I bought an external numpad for my laptop to be able to play it decently). I can fully understand why people wouldn't like switching modes for so long so often, but that was part of the charm for me. You got to play detective, cryptographer, James Bond, and maybe could catch everyone in time. Shadows of Doubt scratches a bit of the itch for me, but ai really want a remaster of Covert Action.
raincole 3y ago
Using FTL as an example of "stand alone full budget game" is quite weird. I mean it's a good game but...

lordnacho 3y ago

That's what I thought as well. I thought it was a bunch of little games glued together into a... little game. I didn't quite understand what you were carrying with you from one stage to the next, and why it mattered. I ended up not playing it much after buying it, such was the disappointment.

tharkun__ 3y ago
Spore is the only game I ever actually sold. It was just so bad and boring. The first stage was the most fun and felt too short. The space exploration part was so tedious and boring I just restarted the game a few times to play the fun parts. Then I sold the game.
- Etherlord87 3y ago
  I agree, I also likes the first part the most. But it wasn't that amazing either, it was just barely good as opposed to the rest of the game. 1st part: Cell - on the level of free Kongregate/Newsgrounds flash games, except with better graphics. Later an online game agar.io came out which I find better in regards to challenge, fun, replayability. 2nd part: Evolution - Very basic MMORPG, except single-player (the mmo part is being able to see other creations in your world). Animal creation was quite innovative, but also underwhelming, because it didn't affect the physics of the animal… Something like QWOP would be nice, where the computer would try to automatically convert simple controls to animal muscles… 3rd part: Tribe - Again, a simple flash game, boring 4th part: Civilization - again a simple game, I think the most challenging phase and quite fun, but building designing being only decorative was again underwhelming… 5th part: Cosmos - it had a Star Control feel to me, except it was simpler, and Star Control is a much older game!
  - deleted 3y ago
    [deleted]

thom 3y ago

Ha, seconded on the Molyneux thing.

Waterluvian 3y ago

It was certainly part of the “Molyneux-like” genre.

ilyt 3y ago

That's why I'm always cautious when game developer advertise "game within a game" like this. More modern examples would be both Pathfinder games with mediocre kingdom management minigame in first, and bad HoMM clone in the second. Thankfully the main game was still good. On other side there are games that successfully pulled it but usually it's a some simple-but-satisfying minigame, not some big element of the game.

starkparker 3y ago
Sid Meier learned that lesson, though the game he learned it in (Covert Action) remains one of my all-time favorites, up there with XCOM: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sid_Meier%27s_Covert_Action#Development https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sid_Meier%27s_Covert_Action#De... > The mistake I think I made in Covert Action is actually having two games in there kind of competing with each other. There was kind of an action game where you break into a building and do all sorts of picking up clues and things like that, and then there was the story which involved a plot where you had to figure out who the mastermind was and the different roles and what cities they were in, and it was a kind of an involved mystery-type plot. ... In Pirates!, you would do a sword fight or a ship battle, and a minute or two later, you were kind of back on your way. In Covert Action, you'd spend ten minutes or so of real time in a mission, and by the time you got out of [the mission], you had no idea of what was going on in the world. > So I call it the "Covert Action Rule". Don't try to do too many games in one package. And that's actually done me a lot of good. You can look at the games I've done since Civilization, and there's always opportunities to throw in more stuff. When two units get together in Civilization and have a battle, why don't we drop out to a war game and spend ten minutes or so in duking out this battle? Well, the Covert Action Rule. Focus on what the game is.
- gs17 3y ago
  Covert Action is also one of my all time favorites (I bought an external numpad for my laptop to be able to play it decently). I can fully understand why people wouldn't like switching modes for so long so often, but that was part of the charm for me. You got to play detective, cryptographer, James Bond, and maybe could catch everyone in time. Shadows of Doubt scratches a bit of the itch for me, but ai really want a remaster of Covert Action.

raincole 3y ago

Using FTL as an example of "stand alone full budget game" is quite weird. I mean it's a good game but...