Bigger games!
I'm a one person operation so time and more in-depth know-how have been constraints. But these areas are looking better now, so:
- A MMO - massively multiplayer online game using Armor of God concepts such as on the page for it on this site and in Ephesians 6. I've played a number of MMOs existing now that struck me that the Armor of God concept would be a good fit for this kind of game - Runescape, Albion Online, RPG MO. Constraints would be getting a server to be able to handle many players, getting my knowledge up to that level, etc. In the meantime for good alternatives, I'll be working on two simpler games with this concept listed in the Gaming Rooms in the menu above - a single player Armor of God, and a co-op (where you and a few friends can play together) called Ecclesia.
- A Super game - as a superhero fan, I'd like to make a game similar to City of Heroes, Champions Online, etc but with my own features! Constraints would be the server issue again, having graphics and animations that would do the genre justice, and the more knowledge needed again. But may be a possibility for the distant future.
- Between chess with it's depth and wargames with their complexities, there are also many levels of strategy games inbetween that I've enjoyed and would like to make my versions of. I might be able to make some for this site but some may be more involved. Examples would be Milton Bradley's Broadsides, and Screaming Eagles, Parker Brothers' Lionheart, and Gamemasters series Axis and Allies, Shogun, Conquest of the Empire, etc.
Software?!
I've always been a dabbler in programming, and so along with that always surprised when some thing I've built works 8^D, but:
- I've been interested in trying my hand at creating a blockchain because I think the distributed ledger concept behind it holds many possibilities for the future, and would like to become more adept at it.
- A hobby of mine has been wargaming - not the painted minitiares kind, but the board wargaming kind sometimes called conflict simulations. There has long been good software and some sites to aid players at long distances from each other to play by email or live in some cases with a voice channel like Discord. But while a great help for favorite games, they are limited to those published games and also generally don't enforce the game rules like say a chess server would. One site does enforce the game rules but is limited to about 20 games and ones of particular types. I'd like to build a software/app that allows players to create their own wargame, and choose the rules from possibilities the game could enforce. The main constraint here would be complexity, but this would be a product I'd like to use myself even if it never got published or posted for download anywhere.
- PLAIBOL! The international banking and financial systems have a problem. They are mired in ancient COBOL code kept cobbled together with many mystery fixes and splices of other coding mixed in and compounding this is it was done by programmers now mostly dead or retiring. The industries have apparently been afraid of migrating to newer up to date languages from fear of both cost and possibly losing critical data. Of course greater minds are already on this. Maybe the switching to cashless or crypto systems will sideline the issue or they'll find some safe way of untangling the mess. But at least as a personal challenge I'd like to create a programming language leveraging AI that makes others work together. COBOL is COmmon Business Oriented Language. Mine would be Programming Linking AI Bridging Oriented Language.
Book(s)!?
I've been interested in the possibility of writing books from much younger, but was never interested in the process of publishing them.. But there are many options to publish now so maybe..
- Favorite genres - SciFi where the universe is the limit i.e. no limit to possible ideas, technologies, worlds, etc.; Speculative Fiction the what ifs ex) What if the South had won the Civil War?; Horror most types but especially like Edgar Allen Poe, Robert Bloch (Psycho), and Stephen King; and Detective/Mystery although I think this genre needs special hooks to grab readers in modern times like Columbo, Psych, and Monk type stories.
- Combining genres - this appeals to me as when I was younger some of my best surprise reads came in combined genre books. Len Deighton's SS-GB was set in a speculative fiction WW II where Germany had successfully invaded and conquered England before the US joined the European theatre causing the US to decide to stay out of that theatre after seeing England fall. So espionage elements of both sides - resistance and occupiers - are vying to align America's next move with their respective cause of staying out of it or launching a D-Day on England. It turned out to be a great spy read, and that's not even a favorite genre of mine.
- Short form - while I still might like to try a full length novel or other book some day, over the years I've found I like shorter form in both my writing and my reading. In my writing I like getting my message out more succinctly and to the point. In my reading I found I like full length reads fine but really enjoyed anthologies - it's like getting several story fixes in one package!