Wildlife-Themed Game: Interest Check and Questions

[P_Tigras]

I vote for Tigers of course!

In general I tend to prefer omnivores and carnivores because they tend to be more playful than herbivores.

[Mirabella]

@FairyGodfeather

How strong is your descriptive abilities?

Weak. Dialogue is one of my biggest writing strengths. That’s why I feel uncomfortable writing a story without it. On the other hand, this is a good opportunity to stretch my boundaries.

@FairyGodfeather

Which animals do you like best?

Well, I like all animals, to be honest (I’m huge on wildlife conservation). But I think I’ll make the game about lions, since that’s how I originally envisioned it. If this goes well (and I’m not too busy to make another game), I’ll make more animal games.

@Amrel_Archer

I love being animals that are ruled by instinct instead of morals

I had the original idea to do this after I saw something on Big Cat Diary. Some male lions took over a pride and killed all the cubs. To a human, it seems needlessly cruel, but they did it because it would make the females available for mating again, which is the whole point of taking over a pride. I wanted to make a game full of choices like that: do what is considered morally correct by humans, or do what is necessary for reproduction and survival?

As for your other questions, I plan to do as @FairyGodfeather said: make the entire game about one animal. This is just a casual side project, and if I include more than one animal, the game will just get too big. If this goes well, I’ll make another game about another species.

@FairyGodfeather

And ideally grow old and die with your legacy left behind.

Incidentally here’s a Homosexuality In Animals documentary that I was watching last week

One of the main goals of the game is to reproduce and then successfully raise your offspring to maturity. If the player has the option of being completely uninterested in the opposite sex, I’m afraid the central plot will fall apart. However, I do find that fascinating, and I’ll see if I can implement a homosexual relationship somewhere.

@Tiran22

I have to recomend the hyena, they have a unexpected social life very diferent of the popular telling of the bad of the savana

That was my second choice. If I do a second game, it might be a hyena one.

@RagEgnite

something on an instinctual level: find food, stay away from predators (if applicable), ensure that my offspring survive (or just jave as many of them survive as possible, for some animals)

That’s the plan.

@FairyGodfeather

Watership Down is a children’s movie, based on a children’s book. Admittedly it’s probably for older children, but it’s still definitely for them.

I guess that goes back to my earlier comment about different ideas of what is appropriate for children. And the children themselves might have a different opinion than the adults.

@FairyGodfeather

The Animals of Farthing (oops almost missed that h) Wood

That would have been unfortunate.

@P_Tigras

In general I tend to prefer omnivores and carnivores because they tend to be more playful than herbivores.

That’s because play = hunting practice. When I watch the little lion cubs play, I go, “Awww, how cute, they’re learning how to kill things!”

[darren_muir]

i definitely have an interest in this especially if there is a wolf or panther playthrough (those are my 2 fav animals) and i dont think there should be spoken dialogue more like lots of choices on your actions like this:

You see a deer in an open field

1. hunt and kill it
2. try to make friends with it
3. walk away

i think choices on your actions as a wild animal would be an interesting and realistic experience

[Mirabella]

Ok, I have a general idea of how the game will begin now…

The game (or the first game in the series, if I manage to make an entire series) will be about lions. The male and female options will have very different paths, since they play entirely different roles in the pride. However, both paths will experience the same major events for the most part.

Fewer than half of all lion cubs born in the wild live to adulthood. So, the game will start when the PC has just become a young adult.

In the first chapter, the pride is ruled by an old male who is too weak and lazy to do his job defending the pride. So, a pair of young, strong males from outside the pride decide to step in and take over. If the PC is female, she will have the choice of either allowing the males to take over or trying to fight them off. (In the wild, the young females usually allow intruders to take over since they will be better at defending the pride and will make for better mates. However, if the young males take over, they will kill all the cubs sired by the old male. Humans tend to object to such actions, so it will present an interesting choice to the player: act like an animal, or act like a human?) If the PC is male, then he will be kicked out of the pride by the new males. He and his brothers will have to survive on their own until they can find another pride to take over (thus repeating the cycle).

I have more than that, but I want to hear some feedback on what I have so far before I finalize the rest of the story.

[Eiwynn]

Please don’t use the names: Simba or Scar.

Honestly, I believe you can do a great job so I look forward to supporting your effort here.

[ImagineAWorldWhere]

This would be awesome… but I would go with animal characteristics rather than human speech

[Mirabella]

Well, I hate to disappoint you, but I will probably use spoken dialogue. It’s what I’m best at, and it will make up for how short the game is going to be.

[AverageJoe1]

A nature game sounds fun. It’s unique and interesting Id definitely play it. Personally Id most be interested in some kind of sea creature like a dolphin as was mentioned in the opening post. Using a dolphin you could probably get past the spoken dialogue issue to as I’m pretty sure Dolphins are known to communicate with each other specific sounds. I wouldn’t exac call it a language but it’s close enough you could probably get away with it. Then again I’m no dolphin expert but I think it would be interest.

[Todd]

I definitely see potential in a game like this, and from the short description in what you’d want out of it I suggest meercats. Them having drama, being social, and living with very human like roles would be educational because that’s how they actually are anyway.

[darren_muir]

no wolfs ?

cries in dark corner