The Pitch
Ever wanted to build a virus to see how long it could survive on it’s own?
VXCreator is a new concept game that I am testing out. I would like to build a game that showcases some of the fun and the experiences I had in high school making viruses. This was before the days of “malware” and “ransomware” and the main goal in the time was just to make something that could survive on its own.
If you are interested this is a request for participation to help me decide if this idea is worth pursuing. If you are too busy or just not interested, don’t worry, no hard feelings. However, if you have time to test out some prototypes and provide some feedback then that would be awesome!
Background
There are some guidelines for a story that involves building a virus, discovering some information to a secret and building more and more sophisticated virii to uncover the truth and shut down the evil behind it.
At it’s core however, the goal is for the player to be creative, experiment and test their creations. This involves coding a virus and running on (virtual) people’s systems/networks. Which leads me to two major risks/questions.
Risk #1 - Will watching a virus infect a system be fun?
This is the main gameplay of the system and where you get to watch you creation in action. But is it enjoyable? Are there enough things for the player to do or look at to stay engaged? The very first prototype will explore this question.
Risk #2 - Can you program something complex like a virus easily and without making it seem too childish?
Writing a computer virus and allowing lots of creativity is complex. We don’t want the barrier to entry to be super tough. After all, the point is to let people experience the fun not learn a new language. However, we also don’t want the language to be super simple that it feels like a child’s toy. It still needs to look and feel like you are coding and give you lots of creative freedom. How can this balance be achieved? Can we integrate a type of RPG system that allows the virus author to unlock skills and perfect functions in a way that is engaging and fun? Prototype two will explore this question.
Participate
If you are interested there is an initial prototype to work out the details of the first question. I’m looking for people willing to give it a go and provide feedback on their experience.
The prototype is just a placeholder to kick around ideas. Art, sounds, even gameplay is disposable at this stage so be as critical as you can. Prototypes can be viewed more as toys than actual games and the point is to try to work out kinks early so you don’t waste time focusing on something that is ultimately not fun.
If you want to participate more than just beta testing let me know. If we can successfully answer the first two questions/risks then I will most likely start a small gaming company to bring this game to life. I’m looking for help in all aspects of game creation (assets, coding, game design, storyboarding, etc) Since this will be a company, there will be compensation based on the amount of work put into the game. But more on that later, first we need to see if this game even makes sense.
Let’s Play
Prototype one is just about ready to test. If you want to try it, send me an email (agent.craig@gmail.com) with your OS and I’ll get you a demo. Feel free to forward this on to whomever you think would be interested!