A modern version of Stars! (the ! is part of the title). It’s an early / mid-90s (as in it worked on Windows 3.1!) 4x scifi strategy game, one of the early ones. Huge tech tree for its day, something like six-eight different research fields (propulsion, biology, energy, etc.) and 26 (!) levels in each with techs that depend on different levels in each research field. Different species had their own unique traits, techs, ships, playstyles, you could build your own with literally dozens of minor traits, customizable tolerances for planetary traits like radiation, gravity, temperature, custom breeding rate, productivity, … Unlimited completely custom ship and starbase designer where you could put any part in any slot where it fits and the game would just let you. No limits on the number of ships you could have (take that, Masters of Orion!) Came with a manual an inch and a half thick, supported many different kinds of multiplayer (including play by email… again, 1995!) and so many other cool things. Sadly, the company that owned it was passed around a bit and then the parent company went out of business, so it’s abandonware and no one is likely to do anything with it.
Also a modern version of the old Might and Magic games (3-5 in the series, especially 4-5, usually known as World of Xeen) with some elements of the old (1-5) Wizardry games. Did I mention I’m old? I’m old. I know someone who’s working on something like that, but I hear she’s harried by capitalism and has ADHD besides and hasn’t made a lot of progress. I really should bug her to keep at it… (spoiler: she is me)
I played Stars! too! I simply adored that game. Who knows how many thousands of hours I spent as a kid on it. It somehow engaged whatever flavor of ADHD/Tism I have and I could get lost for days on it. It’s funny, but even back then the graphics were absurdly simple, but we didn’t care, the gameplay and complexity was so enthralling. Most of the game was just basic geometric shapes and numbers on a map, which seems hilarious now, but to me it proves that gameplay > graphics. Graphics can help, but the gameplay MUST be there first and foremost.
A modern version of Stars! (the ! is part of the title). It’s an early / mid-90s (as in it worked on Windows 3.1!) 4x scifi strategy game, one of the early ones. Huge tech tree for its day, something like six-eight different research fields (propulsion, biology, energy, etc.) and 26 (!) levels in each with techs that depend on different levels in each research field. Different species had their own unique traits, techs, ships, playstyles, you could build your own with literally dozens of minor traits, customizable tolerances for planetary traits like radiation, gravity, temperature, custom breeding rate, productivity, … Unlimited completely custom ship and starbase designer where you could put any part in any slot where it fits and the game would just let you. No limits on the number of ships you could have (take that, Masters of Orion!) Came with a manual an inch and a half thick, supported many different kinds of multiplayer (including play by email… again, 1995!) and so many other cool things. Sadly, the company that owned it was passed around a bit and then the parent company went out of business, so it’s abandonware and no one is likely to do anything with it.
Also a modern version of the old Might and Magic games (3-5 in the series, especially 4-5, usually known as World of Xeen) with some elements of the old (1-5) Wizardry games. Did I mention I’m old? I’m old. I know someone who’s working on something like that, but I hear she’s harried by capitalism and has ADHD besides and hasn’t made a lot of progress. I really should bug her to keep at it… (spoiler: she is me)
I played Stars! too! I simply adored that game. Who knows how many thousands of hours I spent as a kid on it. It somehow engaged whatever flavor of ADHD/Tism I have and I could get lost for days on it. It’s funny, but even back then the graphics were absurdly simple, but we didn’t care, the gameplay and complexity was so enthralling. Most of the game was just basic geometric shapes and numbers on a map, which seems hilarious now, but to me it proves that gameplay > graphics. Graphics can help, but the gameplay MUST be there first and foremost.