Thank you again! Yes I think I know what you mean: it’s a process. Sometimes I get this impression that I feel my way in the dark, but at every step, even when I hit a wall, I learn something. And the more I stumble, the more the game comes into focus. It’s as much, if not more, about clearing out the mess, than it is to come up with ideas.
I certainly respect your aversion for violent games, as I share it in part, maybe with less purity. I’m not sure if you’ll find something of value in Atlantic ‘41, but I can say this; I take the subject matter very seriously, and I don’t want to make light of war, quite the contrary.
Other than the focus on the management and strategic aspects of the gameplay, I’m very interested in tackling the moral component. I hate preachy games (anything preachy really), but there’s something unique about war that it puts ordinary people in situations where they have to balance their values and humanity against their survival, or the lives of the people they love. I think there’s a great opportunity there to let the player confront their own moral compass, and really appreciate the consequences of their actions, without the game ever hammering its own message, or cheating them into “the right way”. It’s something that Lucas Pope achieved with brilliance in “Papers, please” and that I modestly aspire to emulate.