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by awelxtr 1293 days ago
Why do they need to gamefy it? Toys as townscaper exist and have received positive feedback.
2 comments

I like the sandbox idea, but the game scenarios can be also like a tutorial to help the new user to know the basic tools and tricks.
Personally would like to see this developed deeper instead of branching into gaming goals. Then maybe it can one day be optimized to fit into an existing game's framework? Imagine Civilization 7 or 8, years down the line, having tech like this? Reshaping continents to spread your influence would be so amazing.
Alpha Centauri had some terrain modification in a 4x game (real big bombs, construction units that could raise and lower terrain, and “melt the ice caps”), as well as a super simple weather model that could kind of interact with it (iirc the prevailing wind always came from one direction, but you could raise or lower a ridge to make it wet or dry in an area).

Influencing continental drift for strategic purposes would be hard to justify in a realistic/up-to-near-future game, but sci-fi is always there. Or maybe someone needs to try something new, like a 4x game that takes place on an evolutionary scale. Synapsids & Sauropsids. “I‘ve got you down to your last Lystrosaur, bwahaha”

My favorite aspect of this game is that it’s not actually a game, and more like a zen garden. Adding more game elements would ruin that aspect.
There is no reason, why you cannot have both.
There is: developer time and focus. Not everything needs to be gamified and have "player retention", etc.
The context was that the parent poster was afraid of "Adding more game elements would ruin that aspect."

My point was that it is quite trivial (and useful) to seperate the sandbox from the gamification.