Hello Dear Gamers,
It has come to my attention that my upcoming project 'Curiosity' is seen as a bit of a joke. It is not, this experiment could be the most important experiment in gaming since the 80's. Let's get one issue out the way first and explain that I am not doing this for the money. Really? You truly believe I am trying to make $80,000 with the inclusion of a tool? Believe me, if I wanted to make $80,000 or more I would just have Theme Hospital ported onto the iphone. I could have made millions by staying at Lionhead and create Magic Carpet Kinect which Microsoft was constantly begging me to do. No, you see I don't care about money. This is about discovering the limits of what a player would give to experience something unique to them. No game has ever had an ending for just one person in the world. It's an incredible concept, for example imagine if only one person in the world could complete GTA5? What would they be willing to do? Would they share it with the world? Doesn't this sound so incredibly exciting and refreshing? Exactly.
EXPERIMENT. This isn't a game, it is an experiment that will be used to create the ultimate game. A game so incredible that there isn't really a need to play anything else because it will contain every type of emotion possible. There are going to be 21 more experiments that explore these different emotions. Curiosity is just one of them. Excited? You should be. The problem is that you all think this is just tapping on a screen, you think that's the selling point? Would you like me to explain? Ok, I will.
The selling point of 'Curiosity' is that you can instantly check live progress. I want to make a bet with you right now that anyone who takes part in this will be constantly checking to see what progress our world has made. Do you remember yesterday when the cube had 57 million cubes left? How much does it have this morning? Oh wow look it now has 45 million cubes left, I want to be a part of this and take that value down to 0. How many cubes has my friend Simon tapped? Only 100? I've tapped 500! I'm going to send him a message and tell him this right now!
Do you understand? Exactly, this could be revolutionary within the scope of a larger virtual world. Try to imagine being in this virtual world, we're all living so peacefully in this beautiful world. Hold on, someone has spotted a statue in the sky that appears to have a lever. They saw this by purchasing a telescope for $80,000 and have posted pictures of it all over twitter and facebook. Everyone is excited, what does the lever do? How do we get up there? Suddenly, one chap decides to start building a bridge up towards the statue. A few people catch on and start helping him. A few more people notice and someone tweets #helpbuildbridge. Suddenly there is a call all over social media to get together in this area of the virtual world and build a bridge towards the statue. It takes days but eventually people start nearing the statue. "Oh my god! We are nearly there, we are about to reach the statue! What will happen??" is tweeted around the world. A feature in the game is live cam, so if you're unable to play you can tune in via any online device and watch what happens when they approach the bridge. Suddenly everyone tries to run to the statue to be the first to pull the lever. One person manages it but to their horror the entire bridge collapses killing everyone on it. Only those not on the bridge and the lever pulling person survive. Can the person who pulled the lever continue playing with this amount of guilt? Has this level of guilt ever been experienced in a game before? Oh and by the way, the lever also created hills that open up new areas to explore with more mysteries. If that isn't exciting enough let me tell you this. The person who pulled the lever has a power that nobody else has in the game, they have become the god of that world. Everyone else must work together to strip them of their power. I know, this excites me too.
So no, 'Curiosity' isn't just tapping cubes on a screen. I believe the term 'Next Gen' is more than just reflections in puddles. We deserve more but in order to understand where games need to move next we need to experiment instead of just carrying on and making yet another sequel with a new feature or two. NASA are demanding I change the name 'curiosity'. It's quite ironic because I truly promise you right now that in 10 years time more people will look back on this experiment than the one on Mars. You see, when the most important game since Populous is created people will look back on this experiment as the foundation of what made this game possible. Believe in me and I promise you true next generation gameplay.
Peter,
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