Trying to Find a Certain Kind of Game

[Exhuminator]

Managing a keep, or town, or what have you, actually being able to see it grow, being able to interact with the people, and staff, and guards, and defend it, with that RPG aspect where I'm down there with my own character and growing with it.

You might enjoy the Dark Cloud games on PS2. You go through dungeons to gather pieces of towns. Outside the dungeons, you put those pieces together to rebuild the towns. You can then traverse the towns and talk to the townspeople in real time. Shop from them, do small sidequests, and fulfill their remodeling requests. Your towns grow larger and larger as you gather more pieces. It's definitely involving.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dark_Cloud
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dark_Chronicle

You also do much of what you describe in: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ActRaiser

The overhead-view simulation mode involves protecting and guiding the Master's new civilization towards prosperity, beginning with two humans. This portion of the game requires the player to take actions that encourage the growth of the population, including road planning and using lightning, rain, sunlight, wind and earthquakes as miracles. The Angel can interact with the monsters in the area by shooting them with arrows as well as aid the Master by indicating where to build and use miracles.

Also, SoulBlazer to an extent:

The player frees a series of towns by fighting monsters in traditional dungeon crawl battles. Destroying monster lairs in the dungeons causes a soul belonging to a former town occupant to be liberated and reincarnated. This is often a human, but it could be anything from a dolphin to a talking tulip. As souls are freed, the town is reconstructed around the people. The new town occupants give the player advice and items. When the player defeats the boss monster imprisoning the soul of the head of each town, the area is cleared and the player can continue. After the hero frees the first six villages, he is granted access to the "World of Evil", where the final villain awaits.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soul_Blazer


That's all that's coming to mind for me right now.

 

[aozgolo]

I actually was looking for a very similar game myself. I love sandbox games, but I want one where the sand isn't buildings and blocks but actual people you can interact with to create something persistent and tangible.

The closest thing that exists unfortunately has a huge learning gate to get into, assuming you're even into it's style at all: Dwarf Fortress, and it still is lacking since you don't have the element of being an actual person, you're still in the God seat of telling them what to do. A more accessible version is called Gnomoria, but unfortunately all the gnomes have the personality of a doormat.

The Sims again has the same problem of putting you into a God seat and having you work out petty day-to-day issues of your sims, not really getting them to work together to make something fun.

Dragon Commander unfortunately is pretty much full on RTS, the other aspects are interesting, but the bulk of the game is the Total War like campaign map, and the very stripped down C&C RTS, the actual "story mode" parts are nothing more than very simple RPG-like dialogue trees.

So what does that leave you with?

Well to be honest the best thing I've found is a heavily modded version of Skyrim with lots of companions, expandable housing, and AI overhauls, it's far from perfect but it definitely is where I turn to when I want to try and scratch that kind of itch.


EDIT: Also some of the Harvest Moon games have this vibe, most notably I think being Magical Melody (Gamecube and Wii) which lets you buy property, contract buildings to be placed, and raise a farm that helps bring in new townspeople and the town prospers from your efforts.

 

[Xangba]

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Beat and own both Dark Souls! Great suggestion

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One of these days I'll take the time to learn Dwarf Fortress. One of these days....

And as for mods, I noticed one for Fallout 3 and New Vegas that I plan to try called RTS (Real Time Settler). It basically lets you build your own town and I believe it gets attacked from time to time too. I have it downloaded and installed I just need to launch it up and try it. I didn't know there were things like that for Skyrim though, I'll have to look into it.

 

[Blunderboy]

+1 for The Guild 1400 here. It's a little old but still awesome.

 

[Someone Depressing]

Ugh... Dark Cloud? You make a town. I haven't played it myself, but... yeah.

And The Sims, which is basically the whole point (managing a group of bipolar idiots with Conversion Somafomatic Syndrome, and hope that they don't go mad and eat each other) but I can't think of any games like that.

 

[Someone Depressing]

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Beat and own both Dark Souls! Great suggestion

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One of these days I'll take the time to learn Dwarf Fortress. One of these days....

And as for mods, I noticed one for Fallout 3 and New Vegas that I plan to try called RTS (Real Time Settler). It basically lets you build your own town and I believe it gets attacked from time to time too. I have it downloaded and installed I just need to launch it up and try it. I didn't know there were things like that for Skyrim though, I'll have to look into it.

Indeed. I think I have a mod that lets you rebuild the beginning town where you were almost beheaded. It also gets attacked and whatnot. Just look up "Helen Reconstruction Mod" into good ol' Google and you might find something.

 

[Piorn]

I think I kind of know what you mean.
I like games where you can keep playing and grow forever, some sort of hoarding/management game.

Recettear is a very light version of course, but I had a lot of fun with it.

X3 is a good example, building your own space company, but unfortunately it's very beginner-unfriendly and unpersonal. you get a lot of menues and no real npcs to interact with.
I was hoping X:Rebirth would take over, but despite being "released", it needs some more years in developement. There are some cool concepts like hiring NPCs to work for you and stuff, too bad the execution is /*TODO*/

Confession time, I actually liked the galactic empire concept of Spore, and if the gameplay didn't suck, I'd have spent a lot more time "growing" across the entire galaxy. The galaxy was just gigantic.

Oh, and Mount&Blade:Warband, I could play that forever.

 

[aozgolo]

Also worth a look at is Project Eternity, it is NOT yet released but is inspired and made by many of the same people who created the old Baldur's Gate series which kind of started the whole "Keep Management" thing, and Keep Management will be available in it.

There's quite a few other games where you can control Keeps with varying degrees of interaction, Dragon's Age Origins has a DLC that has a fairly basic player keep you can control. Morrowind's Bloodmoon expansion allowed you to help with the construction of a whole town, and you could even build your own keep there. Oblivion's DLC had bases you could acquire and upgrade then control NPCs to do jobs for you or fight with you.

 

[Eclectic Dreck]

There are many games that do what you're looking for. First, there are the obvious candates of "management sims". Dwarf Fortress is fantastic though you will want to find a guide as the game has a sheer vertical wall made of polished iron that's been well greased for a difficulty curve. Then there are games like Dungeon Keeper and Evil Genius which are a simpler graphical approach to the same.

Then there are games that are not particularly focused on the management aspect. Mount and Blade Warband lets players eventually control a fief (or a kingdom) which includes managing taxes, running down bandits, levying troops, etc. Others have pointed out State of Decay which, all told, is a pretty solid diversion for a few hours though it lacks any real depth. There are mods out there for games like Fallout 3 that let you build and manage a community as well (Real Time Settler for example) though I didn't have much of a taste for such things.

 

[BLAHwhatever]

There was this game "HInterlands" that had everything you're asking for.
Wasnt well-executed though, sadly. Been looking for pretty much the same for a long time

 

[josemlopes]

Have you looked at State of Decay yet? It's another zombie survival sim with a focus on maintaining a small community of AI companions. The bulk of the game is you running around gathering supplies and killing zombies when you must. You then use those supplies to feed your companions or improve your current dwelling.

There are RPG elements as well. You only control one character at a time but their various skills (gathering, scouting, shooting, zombie-smacking, etc.) will improve with use.

How is it for solo though? I've heard it's mainly a multiplayer game, which to me is a turn off.

Its actually a single player only game, the co-op/online is still yet to be implemented (it will only exist in its sequel)

 

[GodzillaGuy92]

How is it for solo though? I've heard it's mainly a multiplayer game, which to me is a turn off.

State of Decay doesn't even have multiplayer. What you heard likely had to do with the large number of people requesting that the developer implement a co-op mode (which they've said is out of the question unless they make a sequel).

 

[Vern5]

Have you looked at State of Decay yet? It's another zombie survival sim with a focus on maintaining a small community of AI companions. The bulk of the game is you running around gathering supplies and killing zombies when you must. You then use those supplies to feed your companions or improve your current dwelling.

There are RPG elements as well. You only control one character at a time but their various skills (gathering, scouting, shooting, zombie-smacking, etc.) will improve with use.

How is it for solo though? I've heard it's mainly a multiplayer game, which to me is a turn off.

State of Decay is entirely single-player as far as I can tell. The AI isn't too dumb so it won't get in the way either.

 

[Jodah]

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Huh, maybe it was a different game I was reading about then. I mean the description is perfect for the one I was reading, but maybe there are two. Thanks folks.

 

[Xangba]

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I own Warband and love it, I just wish I could actually grow the towns and castles (the mod I play lets me build buildings but it doesn't change the map, just stats of the town). I can't wait for two though

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Backed PE way back when they first started, can't wait for it! And I've got all the Oblivion DLC too, I think you're talking about the Keep right? Kind of cool to deck out but it doesn't really do much.

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I actually mentioned that as an example earlier, and also brought up it had a lot of problems, thanks though

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As mentioned above, one of these days I'll learn that blasted game! (P.S. loved Dungeon Keeper, wish Evil Genius was a little more polished though but also decently fun. Had high hopes for Impire to bring back the fun of Dungeon Keeper but after playing a friends copy I highly doubt I'll bother)

 

[DanielBrown]

The Guild II, maybe? I own it, but haven't gotten around to playing it yet. Saw a gameplay video though and from what I could tell you play as the leader of a town. In the game you can build the town up, place new buildings, purchase new lands and tell people what to do. It's very RTS-like, however, so it could be far from what you're looking for. Unfortunetly it's the best tip I got.

Odds are you've already tried it if you're into the genre though.

Spoiler: The gameplay video I saw long ago

Skip ahead to 2:30

 

[Xangba]

Hey I just wanted to let everyone know that State of Decay is awesome! I highly recommend it. It's like the first guy to bring it up said, you manage your little survivor community, bringing new people in, trying to decide what to build (more beds for sleep, upgrade the watch tower, establish outposts for supplies, more storage room, ect) and trying to keep your people alive. Had one guy I actually really liked, he also wound up as my hand to hand specialist, and he went out to hunt a special kind of zombie (similar to Tank from L4D). I went out to help, we got it (barely), and he headed off for home. Foolish me assumed that he'd make it safely due to Mission Complete thoughts, but before I walked 20 feet away I see the downed icon and hear yells for help. I sprint around the corner and ANOTHER one of these bastards was holding him in the air taking a chomp out of him. I'm gonna miss the guy. Has room for improvement sure, but that doesn't stop it from being thoroughly enjoyable.

I still need to check out Jagged Alliance, Dragon Commander, and The Guild, (already own Spellforce) but just wanted to let anyone else reading this know about State of Decay, plus could be a bit before I get around to all of them, I have payments to make lol