Offensive Squid

Post edited 7:36 am – June 13, 2011 by Lanius

Anyway… I am kind of at a crossroads in life now.

Basically, there are two things I am really passionate about. One is guns. I am currently procrastinating my way towards a Bc. degree in mechanical engineering. My father has already said publicly he will get drunk as a skunk if I  ever get it.. (I have dropped out a few times out of computer science schools.. this time, I am doing a bit better)

The other thing that really excites me is completely counterproductive, unlike guns, which are useful, is very complex strategy games. I have played most of them, and am pretty decent in them. The more complex the rules, the more  I like it.

My problem is, that I cannot very well do stuff I am not passionate about. If it is mental related stuff.. my mind will keep wandering towards what I like and productivity drops to zero. Nothing that can be about that, I am that way even antipsychotic medication in low doses doesnt really help and I wont take larger ones..

In the enlightened US. Id probably get diagnosed with AD/HD.. if I am doing stuff I like, I look a little maniacal doing it and psychiatrists are always concerned whether I am not bipolar.

So, I have in my mind a concept of a game that would finally fully utilize computer abilities. Current turn based games are merely re-hashes of pen and paper games, which is laughable. I mean, what has Sid Meier been thinking about for the last twenty years?

My idea is pretty workable, and it would make the world in the game positively come alive with life. The game would be about managing that life.. and I would also like to add whole ecosystems and ecologies to the game, so people could have fun disrupting them or tinkering with them or adapting them to their uses..

I am frankly puzzled why no one has done anything like that before. It is a complex endavor, true, but one that is eminently doable and fairly straightforward. And its not like I am a genius. My intelligence is not even /very superior/ according to WAIS-R, though possibly just barely. 

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So, should I keep working and get that degree in mechanical engineering, and work as a gun engineer (I have a plan for a novel sports rifle with interesting features. Would be a major engineering feat to pull it off.. about four times as complex as a machinegun). Am already working on a  minor construction assignment for one gun company.

Or should I say fuck it all, start working on my game idea, write the whole rules  game engine make a demo utilizing some basic icons, then persuade some local game developer to hire me as lead developer on a strategy game that would be really interesting…? Or even persuade my father(a well-off disgruntled senior software analyst) to start a business, hire some of my CS graduate friends with promise of stock..

As to programming.. I know some python and C++, have written stuff that works in them. Also took part in something like a programming olympiad. I am no genius at algorithms, but I can translate ideas into algorithms pretty well, and I wont need any complex algorithms in that game. Just common sense, some basic game theory stuff, implement some basic psychological/emotional algorithms.. what I already know, just needs to be translated into Java or C++.)

I think I could get more money out of the game idea. Unless someone like me is already working on it.

So, any advice on what to do?