Systems and Settings

I've been playing a lot of colony sims to see if I can squeeze some juice out of them. It's a mixed bag, but I think I can say that a lot of these games rely (way too much, but nevertheless it's at least effective for some players) on the systems. Learning systems is interesting (again, to some players more than others) and the complexity, novelty, and applicability (or mappability to the real world?) of a system can make it more interesting.

So, I'd like to start thinking about what kinds of systems to include. One thing that I think it pretty important in a system game is getting the complexity and granularity right, and another thing I think is important is novelty. Everyone is familiar with the minecraft breakdown of the universe, so if you copy that you get familiarity, but you lose novelty, and therefore the system won't be fun to learn.

Oxygen Not Included succeeds in some ways by being a bathroom simulator. it's a lot about sanitation and designing sanitation and oxygen loops in a closed system. Which is novel, and therefore sustains some interest. (The game is less / not at all successful at making me care about the colonists.)

I don't have a proposed resource/station/tech breakdown yet, but another thing I've noticed from Factorio, Valheim, and Rimworld, is that you really want a pretty granular gating of the research / tech. It should be important to do hard stuff in the world in order to advance your tech level. This creates a loop where you research a bit, then grind resources a lot, then build stations and gear, before moving forward.

Graveyard Keeper has I think a really interesting and satisfying resource/station/tech tree in some ways. It's worth some study. Of the various models, it's the one I'm most interested in at the moment.

Another Setting Idea:

Bringing in some "Witch in the Forest" vibes, what if your initial townsfolk are petrified, and you un-petrify them. Yay! But then after a little bit of town building, the Stone Dragon stops by and says, oh, I see you're not stone anymore. Well, if you want to stay this way, pay me. Sort of thing? And this neatly ties in the Dragon and the rest of it. You can find petrified people in the surrounding areas, and spend resources to un-stone them, and then they join your town?