Have you considered to crowd-fund the development?
It looks really promising, and it feels like one of those ideas that could become popular.
(I like how you placed Notch's Minecraft character in the doorframe of the image as part of the 'If you're names not on the list you're not coming in'-update :))
I think it's an option, but i'd like to get it playable (and fun!) first.
Roleplaying and creativity is pretty high on my list. For example I'm working on a Quest Design system where you can hook together anything in the world to create a quest.
A simple example:
You create a Wizard NPC with an input of (4) (Boars tusks) (which you link to the Boar's monster area). Once completed it unlocks the (Gate) next to him, allowing the player to access the tower full of loot. The inputs and outputs would be completely flexible and could lead to some pretty funny situations. Careful balancing would be needed so players aren't walking halfway across the map just for a shoddy Wooden sword reward.
If you want a couple old-school examples of this for inspiration, take a look at Adventure Construction Set and the scripting language from ZZT. As a kid I made all kind of stories with both of those.
I would be very happy to mark this project as my first foray into the crowd funding world. I have some experience running campaigns, but have yet to contribute to one. This game looks like what I dreamt of creating back in the heydays of Game Maker 4.
I showed this game to my partners, all Tycoon fans. They were salivating over this. Even in early stages, this is something we all want to play really bad.
It isn't every day you get on HN. Hurry up and release something. Provide the usual warnings (this is beta, this sucks right now, things break, etc), but release something. One of the reasons Minecraft was successful was the "release early, release often" philosophy they took. You'll get users, and user input, quickly, should you follow the same path.
When I was in high school, I wanted to be a graphic artist. I completely understand thinking it's not good enough yet. Part of you is in this product, and it's always coming from a vulnerable place, no matter how good you are at taking criticism.
You've been working on this since at least september of 2015. it's good enough right now. Even if you up and change huge chunks of code later, it's good enough right now. I feel like a douche saying this, but How many more times do you think you'll be on HN?
No questions. Just wanted to say I'm glad you made this. A few years ago, I was playing Roller Coaster Tycoon and World of Warcraft a little too often. Had the idea to merge the two, since WoW is basically an amusement park. I mapped the project out but never put anything together.
It's part amusement park and part resort casino. A lot of what they do is put up pretty visuals while they massage your brain with variable schedule of reward.
If you've played WoW, or an MMO like it, just think of it this way. All the experiences are mostly the same no matter how many times you do it. With slight variances based on your class, of course. You go and kill the monsters and finish the quests, and it's all completely predictable. You change nothing. You build nothing. It's all a pre-planned ride. With stuff like dungeons and raids, it's a pre-planned ride you can go on multiple times. With NPCs basically playing the same role as those people in parks wearing character suits.
And it's not just the rides. There's all sorts of prizes, souvenirs, and events designed to make you come back over and over again. There's a casino aspect to it too. Take the ride and you might get a fabulous prize at the end. Or more likely not, but you can always try again tomorrow.
So you can see how the MMO -> Theme Park Tycoon would work. Instead of rides, you designate zones, quests, & dungeons. Instead of hiring costumed people to dance around, you create NPCs. Instead of drink & toy vendors, you sell buff food, pets and mounts and gear. Instead of hiring janitors and security guards, you'd hire game masters (GMs) who would do the same clean-up & refereeing work.
Done properly, this would be an incredible experience. There's the tycoon part of it which would let you see how well you built your Skinner box and how much the Sims are getting addicted. And then there's the part which resembles many of the various gamemaking kits out there. RPGMaker comes to mind. The player can build an entire fantasy world. With multiplayer and the ability to import creations, the world can be built by a team. And then the player could open up the world using the built-in server and actually play in their creation with their friends.
Out of curiosity, what is the current state of Unity games running on OSX/Linux environments? I recall that you could compile with Mono for cross-platform support, but I'm curious if the recent cross-platform support of much of the .NET CLR has made it easier (or more stable, etc.).
Dwarf Fortress, as an example, has Armok Vision [0] that uses DFHack [1] which reads the data structures directly from the Dwarf Fortress process to provide an API layer to other tools and scripts. Armok Vision provides a 3D visualization to the 2D of Dwarf Fortress (in a separate process, by reading memory through Dfhack). It's pretty rad.
There's also the 2.5D "Text will be Text" plugin that actually alters how Dwarf Fortress renders tiles, stacking 2D planes so you can see more than 1 Z layer at a time [2].
I was a huge fan of Ultima Online as a kid and the emulation communities are what got me into programming. This has a lot of ideas I always wanted to implement, awesome stuff!
I'm actually working on a multiplayer map builder in a ww2 fps: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3XdLbRzsCDg (I hope this is ok to share I don't think they are in competing markets)
It looks really promising, and it feels like one of those ideas that could become popular.
(I like how you placed Notch's Minecraft character in the doorframe of the image as part of the 'If you're names not on the list you're not coming in'-update :))