So I began working on a new game called Dopamine Eggs I will most likely be releasing a paid version to steam and a free version to newgrounds. It's going to be an idle game as you can tell. As someone going through depression and anxiety, I have been researching a lot over the years the medications I take and how the brain interacts with serotonin and dopamine. This leads to some bizarre inspiration for my game making.
Basically when you complete a task in a game or real, your brain releases dopamine. It's your reward for completing something you wanted too, this reinforces behaviour by you. That is why the brain releases dopamine when you eat, it makes you enjoy food and keep you alive.
Now game developers technically take advantage of this. When you get an upgrade in a game, you get a tiny bit of dopamine, it feels good like you accomplished something. This is why games can be so fun and addictive. Idle games however take this to the MAX. You are literally being told all you are doing is making a number go up. Think about RPG games, at the end of the day all you are doing is making numbers go up, with some pretty graphics to disguise it. But our brains still fucking love it don't they? our brains can't tell the difference between real progress and fake progress sometimes.
Anyways I disgress, the game is inspired by Cookie Clicker, but I wanted to get more advanced. This mysterious Egg has landed in the city, you will be harvesting it's dopamine. Over the course of the game, an advisor egg is going to teach you about depression and how you are being led to build these pointless upgrades. Not only do I want to make a fun game, I want to try throw in a few things that teach you about the brain while your doing them.
The game will start with simple upgrades, but end with you making complex choices on which mage spells are better, or combinations of upgrades etc.
The graphics have been done in Flash, but they are then imported into Unity. Which I will add a few special lighting effects.
Hope you's are looking forward to the game. Make sure to fan me to stay updated! :)
This old egg ain't dead yet.