God Games Forsaken?

[Thalien]

The only god game that's been developed in recent years is Spore which didn't amount to that much in the end. So have god games been forsaken by the gods of gaming, the developers?

All the studios that made them have either been bought or have collapsed. Bullfrog who created the Dungeon Keeper series and Populous disappeared years ago, Lionhead studios who made Black and White seem to no longer create any more of them and Peter Molyneux who was the developer of the before mentioned series seems to have moved onto other pastures. Have they been abandoned in favour of other genres or is there just not enough demand for them?

Personally, I love the genre. The Dungeon Keeper games, Black and White 1, 2 is alright, Populous: The Beginning and Evil Genius all rank among my favourite games, but there is no recent games aside from Spore. I also don't see any of them in development, RTS developers seem to prefer going down the route of Company of Heroes in playing smaller battles, taken even further with Dawn of War 2. The total war series has retained it's individuality and not changed to the whims of the public, and that's why it's still great, can't wait for Empire. Is the God Game genre already finished and stale with nothing left in it, or is there room for innovation?

I hope there are some new god games in development soon but I'm not holding my breath. Are the others like me who want them back or is there not enough popular support for them? Hope there is and would like to see others thoughts on the matter.

 

[ioxles]

They'll be back. It's cyclic, a revolution like the Saṃsāra.

The god games will be reborn.

 

[Danklift]

Dungeon Keeper, Black and White, Populous, all great games and I'd love to seem some sequels. Especially with populous, though I'll admit I didn't care much for number 3.

On the subject of Dungeon Keeper, heres a random idea a friend and I came up with.
MMO(RPG/RTS), people can sign up to be Dungeron Keepers(RTS) or Heroes(RPG). Kind of making a WOW clone with user made zones on one hand, and a more challenging kind of RTS on the other.

 

[Thalien]

Don't quite get your idea to be honest . I would like to see Dungeon Keeper 3 back in development but fat chance of that. The trailer looked so good, such a shame.

 

[Danklift]

Don't quite get your idea to be honest . I would like to see Dungeon Keeper 3 back in development but fat chance of that. The trailer looked so good, such a shame.

Well its not very well thought through, infact it probably wouldn't be very feasable, but..

Basically anyone who signed up as a dungeon keeper would get to play a DK style game, where they build a dungeon attract creatures set traps etc, and when they do an entry point is created in the game world where people playing as heroes (with an RPG style interface), can enter the dungeon to loot,kill etc. DK's start off mining gold and gems for money, but later on have to raid other peoples dungeons or send out parties of creatures to raid the surface world, creating MobS in the RPG etc.

I think we came up for it for 3 reasons; we miss DK, It'd be hilarious to listen into heroes team speak as a boulder goes hurtling towards them and lastly MMO's seem to be in these days.

We had a similar thought of RTS/FPS skirmish mode where each side would be a team of 1 person base building, unit making, harvesting resources and 2,3,4 other people would be playing a FPS controlling 'hero' type units in the RTS world, leading squads killing mooks and so on.

 

[Kyuumi]

I'm sure we will get some more of these games as I played Black and White 2 and absolutely loved it!

 

[chunkynut]

Depends what your definition of God Game is, if its literal then you are quite right and there are not many bar Spore. But Spore was really an hybrid of RTS & Civilisation style gaming and if you are looking for something like that then the new Total War game in which you lead a nation as opposed to a 'race' comes out in March. There are others games that put you incharge of nations and races: Sins of a Solar Empire, Sword of the Stars, Hearts of Iron 2 & expansions, Europa Universalis 3 & expansions and more.

 

[Danklift]

Depends what your definition of God Game is, if its literal then you are quite right and there are not many bar Spore.

I was thinking about this just now, I guess a god game for me is just a RTS (or TBS!) game with the added ability to supernaturally effect the game world eg. through magic, miracles, giant floating hand or creating 'natural' disasters.

I guess it makes Sim Earth and Sim City god games (depending on your opinion of giant lizards).

 

[Beffudled Sheep]

I miss God games. I hope to see more in the future.

 

[AndyFromMonday]

I wish they'd bring back Black&White. Very nice game, to bad that will never happen.

 

[NeonZombie]

Theres a reason developers stray away from making god games - they never live up to any hype generated so in return face fan boys who have been waiting to control the entire univerese making death threats saying how they will never buy another game like spore ever again!

 

[CyberAkuma]

I thought this thread was about the Decent-look-a-like- game 'Forsaken'. lol

To be honest with you, I'd say that industry is better off with God games.
Black & White 2 was a disapointement and I haven't seen a good God game since Popoulus.

 

[kaziard]

B&W looked so promising, there were whispers it was going to proceed up the timeline to present day and onto the future, wouldve liked to have seen how it went tbh.

 

[ExileNZ]

God games basically just got renamed to RTS and there's tonnes of those. But again, I suppose it depends a little on your definition - a lot of them just have you in the role of a general giving orders, making them much less godlike.

 

[Fraught]

Since you said Spore is a god game, then so is Sims (3) also.
And basically RTSs too.
Although I'd LUVV to see a Black and White 3.