i mean specifically the elements of the game genre that doesn't exist but i sorely want it to are:
* there's a player avatar (rather than being an omniscient city-builder or abstract manager)
* you can alter the world -- building, harvesting, rearranging parts, etc. not just small buildable chunks; the entire world
* 'killing monsters/bosses' not the primary mechanical loop
* there's some progression element in terms of story / systems / collection / refining, not just utterly sandboxy
ideally:
* 3d
* no permadeath
* the world can meaningfully respond to some of the stuff you build, as built constructions (so more like terraria's "build a house" than minecraft which thinks only of individual blocks)
so like, not PRECISELY a build-a-town survival game but build-a-town survival games are the only thing that comes even close.
* there's a player avatar (rather than being an omniscient city-builder or abstract manager)
* you can alter the world -- building, harvesting, rearranging parts, etc. not just small buildable chunks; the entire world
* 'killing monsters/bosses' not the primary mechanical loop
* there's some progression element in terms of story / systems / collection / refining, not just utterly sandboxy
ideally:
* 3d
* no permadeath
* the world can meaningfully respond to some of the stuff you build, as built constructions (so more like terraria's "build a house" than minecraft which thinks only of individual blocks)
so like, not PRECISELY a build-a-town survival game but build-a-town survival games are the only thing that comes even close.