Game creation is not easy. Edmund Koh and Personae Studios want to change that with the upcoming PICS Tower of Defense - a way for players to make their own tower defense levels, and eventually their own tower defense games, as a way to lower the barrier that comes between having an idea for a game, and actually creating it.
The app's concept was born from his studio's previous game MechWarrior: Tactical Command. Koh says "People were asking for more missions after we released [the game]... so we realized that with all the suggestions on what we should do, we should just open it up and let people make their own games... basically facilitate people to make games in their own genres. The intention with PICS Towers of Defense is that it would be the first in a series of game creation tools."
The plan for PICS Towers of Defense is to start the game off with level creation only, but eventually, the idea is to let people create full-fledged games with narratives and progression that they define. However, it will be possible to customize all sorts of details, such as attack power of towers and enemies, and even whether the game will be a standard mazing game or an open-field one like Fieldrunners.
Koh says that, "With game development, essentially what you're doing, most of the time, you're just guessing what the audience wants... the approach that we're taking is that we're gonna ask people what do you want, and let them do it."
One of the features for creation that they're working on is to be able to modify levels that other players have created. Koh puts it like this: "If I gave you a clean sheet of paper and asked you to design a car, the chances are, very few people are able to do it. Whereas, if I ask you, what's wrong with your car and what would you want to change on it, I'm sure you can come up with a lot of things." So, powered by this philosophy, Personae is aiming to make attributable changes to levels, and to help make creation easier for people.
The way that PICS Towers of Defense intends on making money right now is through theme packs for levels and towers: the game is expected to be a free download, but additional theme packs will be available as in-app purchases, and there is talk of crossovers with other games to get theme packs into this creation tool. Koh says, "We want this to be more of a community-driven platform where people could write in suggestions on what kind of theme packs that they would want to see, and we'll try to create it for them."
The plan is for the game to release at some point in the second quarter of 2014, though the initial release will not be the be-all end-all of the game, with more features down the road. And perhaps if the game does well, then more genres could be added to the PICS brand. But for now, Koh and Personae have their hands full with this ambitious app, which in its current state definitely delivers on its promise. But making it widespread and accessible will be the key to the game's success.
