Game development is, famously, really easy. Relaxing, too. No doubt this is why the folks at Springloaded—the studio behind Let's Build a Zoo—have decided between volleyball and margarita sessions that their next game will be about making games.
It's called Let's Build a Dungeon, and a shiny new trailer at the PC Gaming Show: Most Wanted spotlights its MMO-building mechanics and also reveals a sinister campaign of deception against PC Gamer, which I'd be upset about if I didn't also frequently tell my editors I'm 'just finishing up' articles I have in fact just started.
As someone who lost about three months to Game Dev Story once upon a time, I'm excited about this one. You'll be doing all the messy work of MMO development: reviewing dev resumes, figuring out your marketing, talking to the press (gross), negotiating with shareholders, and even deciding whether or not to delay your game or crunch your workers to get it out the door. Hm, it all got quite real at the end there.
But I think what I'm most curious about is the possibility of deciding what kind of MMO you're making. You're not just restricted to not-quite-WoW—Springloaded says you can create anything from "a monster catching RPG" to a "cozy farming simulator" or a "magic-fuelled action adventure."
Once you've put your opus together, you can watch the players flood in and then work yourself to the bone ministering to their stupid, stupid needs. The various push-pulls that Springloaded talks about navigating sound very cool: do you desperately try to keep your fake-Steam reviews high by catering to every angry player's bizarre whim, or do you hold fast to your original vision and damn the naysayers? You can even jump into the game you've made and playtest it yourself to see what would best keep your fans happy. "The more time [players spend] in your world, the happier investors will be!"
Doesn't that just send a shiver down your spine? I'll be keeping an eye on Let's Build A Dungeon as it makes its way to release. It has no hard date just yet, but you can still dive into it right now because there's a new demo up on Steam.
