Heropath is a video game and as such takes its influences from video games that I grew up with and left an impression on me. Essentially, Heropath will be a homage to the following 1980s-90s video games:
Adventure (Atari, 1979) – The first console video game to pay homage to the first text adventure game (Colossal Cave/Adventure), contain an easter egg, and create a semi-procedural, sandbox game. This game is amazing for what it accomplished.
Quest for the Rings (Magnavox, 1981) – A stylized action-adventure that combined board game play with video game event resolution. The game component’s artwork is a major source of inspiration.
The Lords of Midnight (Beyond, 1984) & Doomdark’s Revenge (Beyond, 1985) – These games accomplished so much with so little computer resources (48k RAM). They combined character adventure, military strategy, and narrative design that has never been surpassed.
Ultima IV: Quest of the Avatar (Origin, 1985) – An innovative CRPG that combined open world exploration, quest puzzles, and was the first to bring self-development to video games where killing an evil overlord was not the way to win the game!
Paradroid (Hewsons, 1985) – A unique action-puzzle game placing you in the role of a droid that needs to recapture a rogue space ship by allowing you to hack/possess your robotic opponents.
Sid Meier’s Pirates! (Micropose, 1987) – An amazing achievement of seamless mini-games threaded together while the player navigates an open and dynamic world set in the 17th century Caribbean.
King’s Bounty (New World, 1990) – Deconstructing the CRPG genre by combining heroic advancement with army recruitment and adventuring.
Dune (Cryo, 1992) – This game not only was worthy of its source material, it innovated by combining graphical adventure with real-time strategy. This is one of my favourite video games ever.
Dwarf Fortress (Bay 12, 2006-now) – The Basílica de la Sagrada Família of video games. A sprawling ‘Rouge-like’ with a massive simulation focus. While this game is ‘modern’ it is inspired by the 1980s with the developers being fans of Dig Dug and Rogue.
A group of video games that possess what I shall call staged-poly-mechanics, which consist of stages of distinct game mechanics that are narratively tied together. Examples of such games are: Beach Head, Beach Head II, Raid Over Moscow, and Spore.
There are other video games that I am inspired by but fall outside of my ability and resources to consider developing. I am in awe of Sid Meier’s Civilization and other 4X games but are such complex simulations they are beyond me as a beginning solo developer. The games listed above are all far simpler and are doable yet possess depth, elegance, and innovation.
One thought on “Roots of Heropath, Part 1”
Comments are closed.