Hello everybody! I’ve been brainstorming a concept for a game for the past few days, and I wanted to float it to the community to see if there’s any interest in it.
Some backstory: a long time ago, when I was taking an environmental science class in high school, we played a game called Invasion!, which was based on the real life efforts to prevent the introduced Asian Carp from reaching the Great Lakes. I was reminded this game recently, and while it is no longer accessible (rip Flash), it gave me an idea for a neutralbox/bleakbox management game revolving around controlling herds of feral fluffies.
If I went forward with creating this, it would most likely be a text-based game written in Twine/SugarCube or perhaps Godot. All I’ve done so far is just write down a very basic outline for how the mechanics of such a game would work.
Intro & overview
"In the wake of the Megaherd Crisis of 20XX, when cities & towns across the Midwestern USA were overrun with feral fluffies, citizens demanded a better response from their governments. In response, several states established fluffy control programs in order to curb the explosive growth of the feral population.
The most aggressive of these programs was in Ohio, which had suffered the worst impacts from the crisis. The governor of Ohio established the Office of Feral Control (OFC) and appointed a “Fluff Czar” with extensive powers, setting the ambitious goal of reducing the state’s feral fluffy population all the way to zero.
20 years later, the “Ohio Model” is considered a success story. Although the OFC has never been able to achieve its stated mission of completely eliminating ferals, it has come quite close, with the state having one of the lowest feral populations in the country. The Megaherd Crisis is now a distant memory for most citizens.
However, trouble is brewing on the horizon: following an unusually warm winter, fluffy numbers in surrounding states have exploded again, with some herds expanding to pre-Crisis sizes. There are reports that these herds are migrating westward again, sending the OFC scrambling to protect the state’s borders.
As the newly appointed Fluff Czar, you have your work cut out for you. Will you succeed in the task of preventing another megaherd invasion and maintain the legacy of your predecessors? Or will you fail, and be forced to resign amid public turmoil as fluffies turn your state into a disaster zone?"
[concept art for the in-game heatmap & interface]
The game takes place over the course of 5 years, with each turn lasting one month (for a total of 60 turns). During each turn, feral fluffies will breed, form herds, and attempt to migrate into adjacent areas once their population grows large enough. Your goal is to mitigate their spread as much as possible through Intel, Control, and Policy actions, while also keeping your approval rating high. There is no set limit on the number of actions that can be taken during a single turn; you are limited only by your budget and reputation.
Mechanics
Reputation
Your reputation is the most important factor in winning the game - let it drop too low for too long, and the governor will ask you to resign, ending your run. The base rate of public approval is determined by two factors: effectiveness (how good you are at keeping feral numbers down) and cost (this includes both tangible expenses, such as higher taxes, and intangible costs, such as the burden of regulatory red tape). To keep your reputation high, you should aim to maximize the effectiveness of your program while minimizing its costs.
In addition to the general public, there are also special interest groups who have their own agendas to push. Your relations with these groups will trigger special events that can increase or decrease your public reputation. Many of them have conflicting interests, so you will have to decide which groups to appease and which to ignore.
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Farmers: Due to their devastating impact on agriculture, farmers hate fluffy herds with a passion. They endorse a zero-tolerance policy towards ferals, and will harshly criticize you if they feel you aren’t going far enough.
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Environmentalists: The NWF, Greenpeace, Sierra Club, and similar groups. They are generally supportive of feral control as they consider fluffies to be an invasive species, but will oppose any actions that might harm the ecosystem.
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Breeders Association: Industry group representing mills, pet stores, etc. They want to push the notion that fluffies are loveable children’s biotoys rather than noxious pests, which might affect public opinion. They will also oppose any policies that might cut into their bottom line.
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Hugbox activists: They will generally be antagonistic towards feral control and protest any measures they find “cruel”. The broader public mostly regards them as cranks, although if your regime has been especially draconian, people might start listening to them…
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Media: The news media is just looking for any story that will bring in viewers. Persuade them over to your side with juicy interviews & strategic info leaks, lest your opponents do the same.
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Neighboring states: The governments of Michigan, Pennsylvania, Indiana, Kentucky, and West Virginia. They are more independent than other factions, and most of your interactions with them will be indirect. If you manage to gain their support, however, they can provide a crucial advantage in blocking herd migration.
Budget
You start with a limited budget to pursue your goals, with the government providing your program a set tax stipend each month. The size of this stipend can be increased by raising taxes, at the cost of some of your reputation. You can also issue municipal bonds to borrow extra funds, although you will have to pay this back later with interest. Finally, if you have good relations with certain special interest groups, they will occasionally offer partnerships that provide a source of additional income.
Intel actions
You can’t control the herds if you don’t know where they are. Intel actions are essential for breaking through the fog of war and uncovering feral infestations. Intel actions are performed at the county level.
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Survey: Perform a survey of citizens in a specific area. Allows you to see the feral population in any county for a single turn.
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Monitoring station: Install monitoring equipment in a specific area to continuously track herds. Allows you to see the feral population in a county during all turns.
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Drones: Deploy a drone to scan for herds from the air. Allows you see the feral population in multiple adjacent counties for a single turn. A limited number of drones may be deployed at one time (this can be increased with research)
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Traps: In addition to reducing the population(see below), traps can also help detect the presence of ferals. However, this passive detection is less accurate than other intel sources.
Control actions
Once you’ve located some feral fluffies, you can take control actions, either to destroy them where they are or to prevent them from spreading into adjacent areas. Control actions are performed at the county level.
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Fluff-proofing: Implement measures aimed at eliminating sources of food & shelter for ferals. This is the most viable long-term strategy for containing the herds, but it is time-consuming to roll out. Fluff-proofing is less effective in areas where ferals are already present.
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Fences: Erect fencing to impede the movement of herds. Inexpensive to build and reasonably effective, but more costly to maintain over time. Fences should be extended into adjacent counties when possible, otherwise fluffies will just go around them.
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Traps: Deploy traps to capture fluffies alive. Humane & eco-friendly, but relatively inefficient - traps alone are rarely enough to eliminate ferals from an area. Also helps passively boost intel collection.
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Poison: Distribute toxic baits around fluffy-infested areas. Cheap and highly effective, but inhumane, indiscriminate, and bad for the environment.
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Control team: Send in a team of professional hunters to exterminate herds. This is the best way to fully purge fluffies from an area, although it won’t be cheap. A limited number of control teams may be deployed at one time (this can be increased with research)
Policy actions
As Fluff Czar, you have the power to enact statewide regulations. Policy actions help control the spread of ferals at a broader level, and can be implemented at the cost of money, reputation, or both. Beware, however: the more regulations you impose, the more likely it is that some people will try to evade them.
Example policies:
- Create a phone hotline for reporting feral sightings
- Offer a bounty on ferals to encourage hunting
- Mandate spaying/neutering of pet fluffies
- Impose a sin tax on fluffy-related goods
- Request an increase to state taxes to raise additional funds
- Criminalize the release of pet fluffies into the wild
- Order a moratorium on the sale or importation of new fluffies
Other mechanics
(NOTE: some of these mechanics are merely ideas, and may not be implemented in the final release)
- Events: One or more events will occur each time you end your turn - some are random, while others are influenced by your relations with special interest groups. Example events might include a storm damaging some of your fences, a hugboxer protest outside your office, or a zoonotic disease being discovered in a captured feral. How you choose to respond to each event will impact your reputation.
- Research tree: You can spend funds to research upgrades to Control & Intel actions, either to improve their effectiveness or to increase the quantity that can be deployed at a time. Only one upgrade may be researched per turn.
- Weather: The weather & seasons will impact the behavior of feral herds. In general, fluffies will tend to breed in the spring, migrate during the summer & fall, and hunker down in shelter for the winter. Control actions should be tailored for the season in order to maximize effectiveness.
- Cleanup: The job isn’t over once you’ve killed the ferals in an area. All those dead fluffies need to be dealt with promptly before they cause even more problems. Cleanup costs increase with the size of the herd destroyed, incentivizing you to nip the problem in the bud before expenses spiral out of control.
Again, I’m just testing the waters here to see if there’s interest. I have no idea how difficult it would be to develop such a game, or how long it would take before I would have some kind of playable release. If you have any questions, comments, or suggestions about this, please leave them in the replies below!
