GODUS Video Discusses What to Steal from Populous, Dungeon Keeper, Black & White

22 Cans is producing a video series, “Designing GODUS with Peter & Jack”, which looks at the kinds of decisions that need to be made as the team develops the upcoming game. In this video, Peter Molyneux and Jack Attridge – designers for the game – look back at some of Molyneux's past successes to garner what should be taken from them and what should be left in the past.

First, the pair consider Populous. The core mechanic from that game that Molyneux is particularly keen on retaining is the raising and lowering of the land. Attridge likes the “O.C.D.” feeling of “cleaning up” that comes with tapping away at the landscape, making flat areas on which people will settle, but says the mechanical nature of that activity betrays the game's age. In GODUS, players will “sculpt” the land, making smaller, incremental changes that seem more natural. Molyneux also says that land will have things like streams, vegetation, rubble, “all of which you can interact with”. And the player's world will seem more alive, with the little inhabitants running about doing their own thing.

The pair criticise the old-fashioned look and many icons of Dungeon Keeper, promising that GODUS will have much better graphics and a more simplified interface. Molyneux says that he loves the digging into the landscape to reveal resources, and says that will make it to GODUS along with a “finger of God” similar to that found in Dungeon Keeper that will allow players to poke and be otherwise cruel to their subjects.

All that, combined with the tactile feel of Black & White (where, for instance, moving the hand-shaped cursor through the grass causes it to rustle), will form the basis of what 22 Cans wants from GODUS. That is, if backers agree. Because this game is being funded through Kickstarter, the team wants to hear what supporters of the project want to see, and is willing to listen to constructive criticism. If you want to see GODUS become a great game and you've got a great idea for how to make that happen, head over and make a pledge, and get your voice heard.