Town Ship - part 2 - Inspiration

I don’t exactly know how game ideas eventually formulate in my mind. I think it tends to be a serendipitous convergence of a few things that eventually merge into a whole, though usually a blurry one at the start.

Though I didn’t realize it until later on, I believe the original inspiration for Town Ship was from watching the trailer for the video game, Spiritfarer (be warned, it’s beautiful and surprisingly emotional).

Now that I’ve actually started playing Spiritfarer, I’m surprised at how many similarities exist between the two.

But I believe it planted in my mind the desire for a game where you’re a ship’s captain, traveling about the open seas and building up a ship and crew while going out on adventures.

Besides that, there’s this lovely framed picture I found at an antique shop downtown:

And then there’s the app game, apptly titled (see what I did): You Must Build A Boat

It also has a boat that gets bigger as the game progresses with rooms and characters that give you a host of upgrades and abilities to aid in your adventures. To be fair, it’s not very pretty or emotional, but it is a fun spin on the tile-matching puzzle genre.

As usual, once I actually dive into the nitty gritty of developing a game, I try to think of aspects I especially like in other games that I’d want to incorporate into my own.

In the case of Town Ship:

I enjoyed Scythe’s unique player abilities, explorations, quests, and customizable turn actions.

I adored the charm and tableau building of Everdell.

And I admired the peaceful feel of Tokaido where every path may not be the best or most efficient, but they all contribute towards victory and tell a story along the way.

Galaxy Trucker as well as Above and Below also had some influence, for reasons similar to the others, both having building and adventures in them, though fairly different games on their own.

It’s not always so easy to tell where the initial inspiration comes from, but I’ve discovered that it helps being open to exploring new things. I also recommend buying random pictures from your local antique store and then hanging them beside your bed.