I have an idea for a game and would like to present it for your consideration. It’s certainly not a fully fleshed-out concept but because it’s not the sort of games I play I don’t know how much fun it would be or how technically possible it is.

So, here goes.

Overview
You are a combination of Mother Nature and Evolution. The aim of the game is to create a balanced world with varied eco-systems. There is no end result except failure, by that I mean if you create predators toopowerful then they kill their own food supply and the chain breaks down. Perhaps there could be various unknowns for example intelligent life appears ojn your planet, either through evolution or they land, and this effects the eco-balance.

Details
You start with a landless planet that you set up with land massses and plates and tectonics etc. These decisions affect the type of enviroments your planet has. After this you then proceed to create different life forms to populate your planet.. Each species has different needs and requirements. You do not control their actions just their starting parameters.

Thoughts
Perhaps this game would require too many variables and would be too complicted to be fun. Perhaps you only need to control a continent or eco-system. I suppose this is just a complicated version of those VERY early games where the shark ate the fish.

Origins
I got a new book from the library last night called On Nature and started reading it and the first piece is called Nature’s See-Saw by Edward Hoagland and it describes the changes in wildlife around his house in Vermont. It’s a great read and I recommend it to anybody interested in nature.

On a seperate idea, later in the book is a piece about trapping wolves and there seems to be a few games for shooting and fishing but no other types of hunting games. Trapping wolves could also be turned into a kind of strategy game, trying to out smart the wolves.

So, what do you think?

On Nature at Barnes and Noble’s website
On Nature at Amazon’s website