Post by Sisyphean Games in The Gatherers comments

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Thank you for playing our game and for such a nice and constructive comment!

I agree about the balance, it's something that's going to take continued refinement. And thank you for letting us know about the problem with restarting.

I'm glad you enjoyed the theme of the game. That contrast between our current lives and the lives of hunter-gatherers is something that really comes through in the gameplay and I also really like that about the game.

For future plans for the game we're contemplating additional ages after the hunter-gathers such as early agriculture and then city-states with the same worker placement and research mechanics plus some new ones. Trying to design those while being true to the reality that many of those "advancements" weren't much of an advancement at all in terms human wellbeing (in fact they were a detriment) is definitely something I want to accomplish.

Another option for expanding the game would be simply a bigger version of the hunter-gathers tree. One that leaves them there, satisfied as hunter-gatherers and avoiding the western centric view that sees them as just a primitive stage in human advanced. A view I think we'd both agree is totally incorrect.

A vertical format could be a bit of a challenge but I think I agree that this would feel great on mobile!

Anyway, thanks for your thoughtful comment!

5ig0p1 year ago( 1)

You're welcome, I'm one of those who finds these relaxing. I beg you to keep a short mode available, a ten minute bite is so, so nice for a sim.
There are enough gameplay branches just from this that it's entertaining. (I despise math but sometimes math is good to me, haha.)

I recommend looking into communities which were not driven by wealth accumulation, especially indigenous ones which managed entire environments to live *inside and alongside*, and well. Unless there was a war on, the city-states were abandoned because they just didn't work out in the long run. Kind of the antithesis of most sim games!

One really interesting feature is the fire in the center, which actually connects to a lot of ancient religions. Not the, ah, granola cottagecore set, but more that everything was a gift that was to be sacrificed first, and then partaken of. It's hard to describe? We tend not to have a frame-of-reference when we're so removed from food production. But it's pretty common in the old religions. And fire is a repeating theme there; I dunno if it was deliberate here, but I liked the echo! (Unfortunately, while there's many sources on those, do keep an eye out for the authoritarian types when digging through them. I mean, besides the personal harm, their injected 'philosophies' could also affect your gameplay criteria.

Another possible twist is are they nomadic? If they are, they're not building permanent structures. Now that would be ambitious, to have both available paths.

If you do want to up the ante on complexity, without making it an accumulation thing - I recommend trade. There was a lot more cooperation among different peoples than really expected. I still get excited when people find sea shells from thousands of miles away - the beads! I mean wow, the beads. Because that means extensive trade networks were totally normal, even among 'primitive' peoples. Cooperation was *normal*. (And besides, as I noted in some other sim games, without preservation methods, you couldn't hoard perishables. If we changed all the billionaires' legal tender to dried salmon and pemmican, they would not be keeping it that long.)
I'm no expert, btw just enthused.

Sisyphean Games1 year ago (1 edit)

We'll definitely keep this version on the game up! If we continue to develop it we'll make sure the OG version is always available.

That's really interesting about the fire. We put that in the center just because it seemed liked a natural thing for the whole web to be built around.

The nomadic idea is a very interesting one. One concept I was contemplating was two different versions for the Agricultural stage, one with stationary agriculturalist and one for nomadic herds-people. How exactly that would work mechanically idk but I agree it could be very interesting!

Trade is a great idea and something I would like to add also. It could work like something to do with surplus resources. Say trading ten foodstuffs for a set of beads.

I agree about the perishable nature of accumulation in previous modes of production. Wouldn't it be nice if billionaires' wealth was perishable!

You've piqued my interest in these prehistoric societies. There's a lot there to inspire some features and mechanics if we find time to work more on the game!

itch.io

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