Thursday, March 13, 2014

Project Spark, and What it Means for DnD

Project Spark is an upcoming game-creation video game, in which users are able to design their own video games of any genre and a wide range of visual styles. I haven't played the game, but I've seen a few videos, and heard a lot about what is possible using its engine. People have created traditional video game RPGs, puzzle games, 2-D scrollers, first-person shooters, the whole wazoo. We're looking at incredible flexibility that allows ordinary people to make very complex programming and design decisions without needing to actually write the code themselves.

Here are a few relevant videos of what people can do with Spark:
Demo at E3, rapid creation of a combat-oriented RPG with full scenery: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m37sVEgJrOA
Tetris built from scratch: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dAi2QbAt3ZY
Tower defense built from scratch: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yzR9kLuG8Ts
Five excellent and diverse game designs: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z6x2aR9EwG4
Raw character design in-game: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BZwrlg_Inz4

Since Project Spark is still in its Beta, anything in this post is going to be a lot of speculation. But if Project Spark can follow through on what it promises, I think that Dungeons and Dragons will suddenly have a host of amazing tools at its disposal.

People have been using computers to solve computation-heavy D&D problems for a while, usually for things like random tables, or in the notable case of Alexis over at Tao of D&D, massive trade tables that result in dynamic equipment lists. Project Spark should be able to take these tools to a whole new level.

Here are some ideas that shouldn't be terribly difficult to implement, but could have serious effects on D&D gameplay:

COMBAT - being able to set up a REAL video-game version of your combat is every D&D players dream. You can adjust the rules to work exactly like your miniatures-based combat, but with high-quality visuals and easy manipulation of scenery.

CHARACTER - all Players can have distinct visuals for their characters. All NPCs can have faces. Obviously these are limited by the amount of time you can put in (or that someone else has put in elsewhere, people on Project Spark can share their games and designs).

WORLD CREATION - how does a manipulatable enormous computer hex-map sound to you? Again, Alexis is way ahead of the curve with his enormous project of hex-mapping the world on various publishing software, but I think this could make things easier to implement.

ITEMS - visuals and models for items anywhere you want. You'd have the ability to create randomly generated treasure, in real lairs. Again, sharing of models is going to be huge here. A way to usefully exchange tools is a huge part of why I think Project Spark has serious potential. Also, I believe a long time ago Alexis pitched the idea of having visual representations of wear and tear on individual items, giving them life and sentimentality. Everything is game here.

Those are the first few ideas that pop into my head. Without speculating as to whether Spark can completely replace the speaking, table-top nature of D&D, we're at least going to get a TON of potential tools to enhance our game, and make it as rich as we want.