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I'll definitely try my hardest to make that happen.

Greenlight is likely, which will mean community voting, which will mean I'll ask you guys to go and vote! It's not up yet, though.

The good thing is that since players choose which AI storyteller they want at game start, we can make different storytellers who approach these in different ways.

The simulation itself can handle a wide variety of story types - short, long, hard, easy, small population, large population, time-limited or no. Why limit the game to one?

So it's possible we could, say, create one storyteller who sends a meteor after a few seasons, thus time-limiting the game. Others wouldn't have to.

Honestly, I don't know. I'm still thinking about pricing. Not $35 though.

[incidents]

The way the AI storyteller works is mostly by invoking incidents from a selection that she has access to. These are things like:

-Pirates attack
-Trader arrives
-Muffalo herd arrives

So I'm always brainstorming new incidents and I'm curious if you have any ideas.

I think a good incident has a few properties.
-Simple, easy to understand and implement and debug
-Combined in interesting ways with the game situation. The game really blooms when you start putting together combinations of incidents and situations, so an incident should be designed as a component of a larger situation, not a mini-story in itself.
-Contributes strongly to interesting, weird, dramatic, or funny stories that people will remember and tell to others

So, anyone got any thoughts? Bring em on.

Here's the list of ideas from my notes as they stand:
•   Meteor strikes.
•   Herd: A herd of (usually) peaceful creatures passes through the area. Nothing happens, unless they get agitated and attack. They have flocking and group agitation behaviors.
o        Hunt them for food.
o        Agitate them and get them to destroy your enemies.
•   Megabeast: A generated mega-beast attacks the colony.
•   Weather conditions change. (this is already in the game)
•   Animal attack. Can attack your people or your enemies. Can use any animal â€" even squirrels. (this is already in the game)
•   Police drop. Police arrive, attack pirates, mill about, and leave.
•   Psycho drop. Psychotic killers drop.
•   The Thing. A colonist becomes a ravaging beast.
•   Premeditated murder: A colonist announces their intent to kill a prisoner.
•   Trade offer: A single trade is offered.
•   Earthquake
•   Tornado

So basically, making the ship means collecting lots of tough-to-get resources by trading, theft, construction, research, etc and assembling them into the ship.

I really want to do some drama at the end of the game where not all the colonists can go, or really bad things start happening just as you approach the finish line. Again, this is all storyteller-driven. Because that's how real stories work best - great challenge near the climactic finish line. No reason we can't generate that adaptively in a simulation.

It's also possible that colonists could start exhibiting some special behaviors when they anticipate being left behind (like pre-emptive psychotic breaks).

Who knows how expensive interplanetary travel is? Could cost a fortune!

Anyway, I'll have to think about that. It is a bit odd.

Squirrel pelts!

So far it is. I'm considering how to approach that. The idea with the animals was to create a threat which isn't as grave as the pirates and is also different in kind. But if the turrets just murder every hostile-looking squirrel, you wouldn't even notice them.

I'm going to see how it feels once characters actually defend themselves and respond to danger automatically instead of totally ignoring it. Really, the colonist should hit the squirrel back.

Maybe you can't afford it?

Thanks for the info!

I'm going to do some kind of overlay to help people understand the electricity system. It's a bit arbitrary at the moment but I think it should be clear enough with some decent visual indication of what connects where.

Wiring a turret into the building should work. Hmm.

The +10 food indicator is a great idea. However, I'm planning on changing to a more physical stockpile model, so I'm going to hold off on this feature because I'm not sure it makes as much sense in that context.

To get metal, you can mine Minerals. Seek them by mining into a hill, or just go to where they're exposed on the surface. Them being a long way away might just be part of the challenge. Oh, and you can buy them from traders.

I'm trying to make food growing clearer.

Combat is due for a redesign; I don't want players having to control every movement of their little dudes. It's too hard and its not clear enough how important cover is or how to use it. I'm planning to change it to something more indirect.

Nice to call out story summaries. I'm really interested in doing something with this since it's part of the storyteller concept in the design. Just haven't had time to do it yet. But even simple graphs of food or population would be interesting to look at methinks.

I need to restructure the architect menu.

Thank you a ton for posting all this, it's quite helpful.

Maybe the raiders can do kidnappings?

Pffbt Nevermind, already mentioned. My bad.

Can prisoners turn against you or anything? Maybe if you took one prisoner they would come back to get that specific person back?

I want to do more difficult prisoners, as well as multi-incident storylines with factions of pirates, but that's in the future. For now the prisoner mechanics are really straightforward. You capture them, then you either sell them into slavery or recruit them.

Hypolite - I should look at their losses detection code... perhaps it's not quite sensitive enough.

[On what operating systems can you test the game?]

Call for testers is closed at the moment. Thanks to everyone who has applied!

Want to test the game? Post here! It would be good if you could answer these questions, too:
-On what operating systems can you test the game? Windows, Mac, and/or Linux?
-Have you tested a game before its release? This means in a private group, giving feedback directly to developers. Not giant anonymous beta tests.
-Are you willing and able to record a video of your first playthrough so I can look at it? This is useful to me because it helps me understand how new players interact with the game. This doesn't require commentary or any editing or skill - the point is just to see what people do when faced with RimWorld for the first time. This is the only way I can tune that key initial experience; I'm too close to the game to be able to replicate it myself. Recording video while playing will require a pretty beefy machine, so if you're playing on a non-gaming laptop this won't work.

The above two aren't requirements, but they're good to know and helpful.

And thanks in advance to all volunteers!

Basics of me:

I started making paper games as a small child. At age 15 I started with digital game design by making levels for Unreal Tournament. Within a few years, I was doing contract level work for companies like Epic and Groove Games, and making non-Unreal indie games (which were all awful). In 2008 I graduated university and got a job as a designer at Irrational Games. I worked there on the BioShock PS3 DLC and on BioShock Infinite for four years. In February 2012, I left the company to return to Ottawa. Then I wrote a game design book called Designing Games and started working on game prototypes. The first four or five didn't work, until I tried a colony sim. That worked; that's what became RimWorld.

-What introduced you to RimWorld? Or to this style of game in general?
I created RimWorld As for this style of game, I played strategy games and management games since I was a little kid. It's always been there for me.

-What's your favorite other game?
Deus Ex. Yep, still hasn't been matched in terms of world development and story.

-Most embarrassing gaming-related story?
Need to think of one!

-What kind of breakfast cereal is the best?
I'm a frosted mini-wheats guy, usually. But I eat a ton of breakfast cereal (usually while coding, seeing as I work at home), so I have broad tastes in this department.

It's good to have some idea of who you're talking to. So, if they wish, new members of the forum can post here to introduce themselves.

Say as much or as little as you like. But you could answer questions like:
-What introduced you to RimWorld? Or to this style of game in general?
-What's your favorite other game?
-Most embarrassing gaming-related story?
-What kind of breakfast cereal is the best?

And/or put up ridiculous pictures, as you see fit.

I shall start below!

Well welcome!

I should make a few key threads here. In fact I think I'll do that now. Thanks for reminding me!