link to original reddit post by /u/ihaphleas
I want to create a game ... I guess it's something like Civilization, though I've never played that ... but perhaps it could be simplified to a board game.
The "point" will be to help a civilization grow from the stone age to a highly industrialized stage.
It would, preferably, be a multiplayer game, where players can choose to cooperate via trade or wage war on each other.
The winning condition: "Whoever reaches the highest level of development (high industrialization) wins."
This winning condition is very carefully worded. It does not preclude multiple winners. It does not suggest that the game is over when one person wins.
So, the "meta-point" of the game is to show how trade and cooperation allows multiple winners --- and quicker wins --- while war may benefit some, but usually comes with costs to both.
I'm going to sketch out a bit of the gameplay ... but I think you get the gist, and the details would be all subject to change.
The game (which can also be single player) would start with a small stone age, pre-agricultural village with access to fields, woods and water.
In this state, the natural resource exploitation is very low. Housing density is also low. Transport is very slow.
Let's say that fields, woods and water can all produce 1 unit of food in this state. (Again, the exact numbers need to be adjusted to make the gameplay both interesting and "easy".) Woods can also produce wood ... but are slow for transport. Fields are relatively fast for transport, but water is even faster ... assuming one has a boat. These all continue to produce if harvested at this rate. Woods can be completely harvested, turning into fields. Fields can be built upon to create villages. Villages can be destroyed to create fields (perhaps with a waiting time). Fields adjacent to water can be flooded, water adjacent to land can be filled in, etc.
The villagers need to collect enough food to survive and reproduce. Meanwhile they need to collect wood to build adjacent villages (for more people), to make boats, etc. They also need a small amount of stone to do this ... which they need to mine. They can also make simple weapons.
They can also spend man hours (removing a "unit" from "productive" work) to research new technology ... allowing them to advance to agriculture and then to a kind of medieval technology.
Improving fields and technology increases the yield for a field --- producing perhaps 3 units of food instead of 1. Perhaps the woods and the water retain the same food productivity. Better boats allow them to go further from land though and exploit more of the water. Buildings and roads can be made from stone. This makes roads faster, meaning faster trade and more fields reachable from a single city center. Villages become cities with higher population densities possible. However, now they must mine metals. Metal tools allow more efficient mining of stone and increase the productivity of the woods in a similar way (by being more efficient). Perhaps woods could even be "improved" to improve productivity.
More research allows the development of an industrial age. Metal buildings with high population density cities. Railroads with fast transportation. Ships that can carry loads of goods any distance. ...
Of course, each of these would also have the associated weapons and defenses as well ... but they wouldn't be a completely necessary part of the game. One could play single player, without any AI competitors (not opponents) either, and simply forgo them.
Anyone interested in developing this further? Not sure it could be simplified to a board game. Not sure how difficult it would be to program as a computer/phone/web game.
Let me reiterate: I want a game where there can be multiple winners and conflict is not absolutely necessary ... though most people wouldn't choose to play that way.