I've determined to create a food pantry simluation game.

Why create such a game? I enjoy researching individual differences to better understand why people fail to acheive moral goals. One of the facts I've uncovered is that gamers are more easily distracted than other people despite having exceptional ethical potential. Because of this they are cloistered up in their rooms on their time off instead of making what could be a decisive difference in the struggle to ease the effects of poverty. I think the primary reason for this is simply the fact that they remain unengaged and distracted by thoughts of playing games. Thus one would think that the perfect way to remind them of the problems outside their door is to offer them a fun game about solving those same problems.

Design

The game (tentatively named "Bubblegum Pantry") takes a Harvest Moon approach. The protagonist is a social activist who determines to start a food pantry in their hometown. The game progresses one month at a time, during which the player must do all the work necessary to adapt to changing social conditions and secure funding and food supply for the next month. Depending on the player's success, the NPCs in the town, and the town itself, develops differently. The player's decisions have a direct impact on the health of their social movement: relying too heavily on a single supporter can negatively influence their attitude and reduce the magnitude of their contributions. Game time is 40 years, over which the town changes technologically and socially, however these changes are influenced by the communty's hunger situation, and poor player performance can impede development, or even reduce the town to a hovel.

License

To increase the odds of acceptance and to promote the devotion of intellectual energy to the game's further development, the game will be licensed under GPL.

Engine

I'm indifferent as to what engine is used, although it definitely won't be RPG Maker. I created my own engine + game dev tool in HTML 5, but I'm not particular about the platform. The game's design is simple to implement.

Graphics

For graphics I'm thinking to use the LPC tileset + sprites, but there is the problem of it kind of being kinda mid-20th century, which figures poorly in with my vision of the graphics. In particular I need graphics for the arcade where NPCs hang out. Also the LPC lacks variety and depth, so I will require some additional artistic expertise beyond LPC itself.