Heyo again! Yep, it’s been a while. Longer than I’d like to admit, which at this point is a proud tradition of this blog 😛 But this time I actually come bearing a prototype!
It’s called A Million Moths (maybe?), and here’s the pitch.
It’s summer, 1986. There’s one light on the porch, one bug zapper hanging right next to it, and every moth for miles has noticed.
So, what is it exactly?
Think tower defense crossed with one of those “number go up” incremental games. Each night lasts roughly 45 seconds. Bugs pour out of the dark towards your porch light, your zapper crackles through them, and you swat whatever gets too close. Every bug you get pays out in volts. Between nights, you spend those volts on your yard. More zappers, sticky fly tape, tree frogs, spider webs. Then the sun goes down again, and there are more of them. There are ALWAYS more of them.
So, what am I actually trying to do here?
I’ve got four rules for this game, and every idea has to get past all of them.
One, The number is the swarm. Every single bug is right there on screen, thousands of them at once, and every upgrade has to change something you can actually see in the yard. No invisible “+5%” upgrades allowed!
Two, your hand matters. Your swatter is the heavy hitter. It’s what saves the night when a zapper jams, or when the bulb is three bugs away from burning out. HOWEVER, it’s never about clicking every single bug yourself, and you won’t be babysitting each device one by one either.
Three, greed is built in. There’s an upgrade for how bright your bulb burns. Brighter means more bugs, which means more volts… and a LOT more danger. You pick how much trouble you invite, and you can always turn it back down when things get ugly.
Four, it ends. It has to given the amount of dead projects in my git. This is one summer, with a proper finale, at least for now. Warm nights, the hum of the zapper, and a summer that gets a little stranger as August goes on… because something is waiting at the end of it. And no, I’m not telling you what yet 😛
Where’s it at right now, you ask?
It’s a working prototype! The nights, the devices, the special nights and a whole bunch of bugs are already in and playable. Whelp, everything is also still coloured squares.
This time, I’ll try to post here every week. Yes, EVERY week. Hold me to it! (Or don’t. My track history isn’t very strong :P)
That’s all for now. Not sure how these will pan out, but whatever the case, here goes.
Till next time,
“Sleep tight, and don’t let the moths get ya!”
