Theorycrafting

I think it's time to figure out what aspects of games should be involved here. The goal is to elevate this project beyond an enhanced choose your own adventure and get some real mechanics working. First thing is to pool a bunch of ideas.

Some concepts I've noticed in games:

- Map Reveal
- Leveling
- Management
- Combat
- Strategy
- Turns
- Real Time Events
- Multiplayer
- Minmaxing
- Accumulation of Ability
- Puzzles
- "Save the World"
- Banking
- Mercantilism
- Experiential


The constraint here, the big problem with making a game out of this, is that parasites do not fight. I cannot include combat into this game. Most games have some form of combat as their core mechanic - the reason 'why' you need to do anything at all within the game. Even something like Portal still relies on combat mechanics to keep it interesting beyond the initial wow factor of the portal gun.

Okay so what examples can I look to which are not centered around combat -

- Myst series
- Farmville
- Sim City
- The Sims
- Proteus
- Thief
- World of Goo

What are the available mechanics of these games:

- Exploration
- Management
- "Experiential", aka psychadelic
- Stealth
- Construction

Of these, it seems management and stealth are the best candidates. So... a stealth management game. I think the closest I've seen to a stealth management game is the X-COM series, which relies on combat as it's primary mechanic.

Besides combat, what other core driving elements of a game exist?

- Puzzle solving
- Farming
- Survival

I tried including puzzle solving in the game before, and it didn't seem to add much. I don't think it was the poor execution either, I think puzzle solving just doesn't mesh with the core concept of parasitism. But farming and survival do.

Okay so it's going to be a stealth management survival farming game. This seems to be in line with the philosophy of parasitism.