Solid mission statement! TL:DR -- "first"
It'll be a blast exploring the line between creative vision and engaging playability. As we've discussed "offline", a significant portion of the gaming space is saturated with development taking advantage of LONG-established norms -- which isn't inherently "bad", though it isn't nearly as gripping and often requires adjacent aspects such as the Content itself to make up for the "been-there-done-that" factor. Speaking personally with a more direct example, each new roguelike-deckbuilder that hits the market needs to acheive a higher bar in order to grab my attention... because even though I'm a sucker for card games, the most important aspects to me are often the learning -> optimization -> mastery phases, which often establishes skills that translate between roguelike-deckbuilders! This dilemma especially emphasizes the impact of those willing to break through the creative mould and force the player to challenge their preconceived skillsets. Starting with the dream and using development to make it a reality knowing there will be bumps and pitfalls... that's how you become one of those axiomatic systems others treat as the norm!
Emphasis here on "systems", too. Games are made up of an ecosystem of features organized (some loosely, others tightly) into control around a given experience. Sometimes they're wholly independent like Dwarf Fortress's "era-generation" and "unit anatomy" systems or Star Control II's "space-combat" vs "lander exploration" systems -- others symbiotic, like the multitude of "sensing" and "interaction" examples leading an entity to make meaningful decisions based on what they perceive. Starting with the desire of a system leads naturally to designing/development, and I think the experimentation therein is critical to expanding the communal imagination. Not every system will be novel, nor does it need to be in order for the overall experience to evoke that same sense of wonder & reward.
Personal axiomatic gaming inspirations relevant in some way to this project (I'll absolutely be missing some, plz forgive):
- The Summoning
- Oregon / Amazon Trail series
- Star Control II: The Ur-Quan Masters
- Starsiege
- Monty Python
- You might ask yourself "Wait, but this isn't a game?"
- Starcraft: Brood War custom maps
- Demon Souls
- Dwarf Fortress
- Archeage
- Rain World