Looks like the next TIGSource competition has been announced, this time it’s for procedurally generated games. I’m really excited about the theme, as I think it would be perfect for a shooter idea I’ve had for awhile but honestly time is going to be a major concern. With ERH, I put some stuff on hold and while I was able to catch up to some extent, it puts an incredible strain on my workload to toss another project on the burner.

Without going into the psychological reasons why, one of my ultimate hatreds and frustrations in games stem from gameplay that heavily requires extensive memorized or predictable routines to be performed. I can tolerate it of course, but the old school gamer in me still craves pure, twitch action. The appeal of procedural content to me is creating a game experience that forces a player to always be on their toes. With most games, no matter how hard a section may get, you can always break down the fourth wall and remember that a game designer somewhere created this challenge with a specific solution in mind. Conversely, I would love to provide an experience where a player can go into a battle and honestly not know whether or not they can survive the challenge. There’s something to be said about fighting valiantly against inescapable odds and not backing down against certain death, something that doesn’t really exist in modern games today. If nothing else, I would want to create a game that provided that exact opportunity, while wrapping the player in pure, unhinged action.