My Dream App

When I’m gaming I want to game. When I’m working I want to work. I don’t need any more distractions on my desktop. And the game itself doesn’t seem particularly compelling. How are you going to compete against Starcraft or Command and Conquer and still keep it on the desktop? This is a Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup concept - you got your game on my desktop, you got your desktop in my game - but the combination is as unfortunate as liverwurst ice cream.

The most recent mockup that Andrew posted looks cool, but I honestly hope this is eliminated. The whole idea seems to have been run down by people on the forums who don’t take into account real possibilities. A nice, straightforward, randomized, and fluid battle on your desktop that starts every once in a while is cool — Command & Conquer 25 Mac OS X edition is NOT.

Desktop Wars is easily my favorite, and hey, this is just my background as the Macworld games guy shining through. I think it’s a fun idea with some great potential, and goodness knows that original ideas are few and far between in the game world these days. Some people (like me) have really messy desktops — it’d be fun to see some opening animation where the desktop armies sweep in with a “shock and awe” campaign barraging your desktop with B-2 bombs or something else to clear the way for the conflagration that follows. Also, how about the individual soldiers or units “retreating” to folders or other nested directories on the desktop? I know the idea is to make it passive, but I’m wondering if there’s some element to it where the contents of your desktop can be used to sway the outcome of the battle one way or the other. For example, in RTS games, where opposing teams have to manipulate raw resources to create new units.

I like the idea of a slow two person turn based desktop game. It would be cool to casually glance at your desktop to see if your opponent has taken a turn/advanced. However, I’m not sure I like the idea of moving my icons around though - the last thing I want is to be looking for a folder and then remember “oh yea, it’s down there, I was using it as a shield”.

I used to be a huge fan of “desktop diversions,” as they were called back in the day. Remember UnderWare, the screen saver for your desktop? Loved, loved, loved it. And so when I first saw Desktop Wars, I got a huge hit of nostalgia. That said, I’m just not a big fan of Desktop Wars. It seems impractical, gimmicky… I’d almost rather have it as a screen saver, or modify the concept to be something else: a battle between the files you leave on your desktop or in your hard drive where winners are chosen, or a racing game that uses the files on your desktop to construct a race track, or… something else. Maybe the model should be those old Tabletop Football games, where you’d stick a bunch of football players on the field and then turn on a device that vibrated the entire playing field? There’s something here, but I worry that it’s just not focused enough and that the killer idea hasn’t bubbled to the top yet.

I like the sense of humor behind it. I’m just not clear on what exactly it does—and how fast the novelty would wear off.

This is so wonderfully ludicrous that I (a non-gamer) might even waste precious productivity time interacting with it. I love the idea of using desktop icons as shields. One quibble: The description says that “Units can NOT be directly controlled and manipulated,” but it’d be great if you could, at minimum, command a “squad leader.” One wacky idea: Make it possible for the warring elements to delete files (or at least toss them into the Trash) — might make the stakes a bit higher, as it would remove icon barriers, and make it possible for the inattentive loser to to — heh, heh, heh — lose an important file. Okay, so I’m a sadist (who backs up regularly).

They say if you can’t say anything nice then you shouldn’t say anything at all. But it starts with “cluster”.

When I first read about this idea, I was hesitant, but the more I learned the more I liked it. That was until I saw the latest mockups of the green grass of the battlefield and the little rendered soldiers. Pushing the game in this visual direction is cliché and has been done before.

I have no interest in Desktop Wars if it is not a version of the originally stated idea. A war waged on your desktop itself. By inhabitants of your desktop for the very possession of your desktop. Of course this would be extremely challenging from a programming point of view and it could also tend to date the program quickly since the look of desktops change so very rapidly. Done right, it could be extremely cool, plus it gives life to icons, what could be better than that?

I could see this working and also being really loads of fun for a quick diversion. For me, it’d have to exist in a dashboard-like layer that you could call up when you are bored, and it’d take whatever is on your desktop and create the ‘battlefield’ from it. This way when you are done with your diversion, just hit the F16 key or whatever it is and go back to what you were doing.

The idea sounds like a lot of fun. Like some others I procrastinate sometimes and play a short game. Desktops Wars seems to be made for this. What I’m still missing here is a more detailed game concept. The basic idea sounds quite good but at the moment it seems to be too much or not specific enough. Is it about a short few minutes distraction or is it more about a strategy kind of game you play for hours? How interactive is it going to be? A full-blown game might take a lot of time to develop. You also need to consider that game development is probably a profession of its own. It relies so much more on great graphics and sounds which have already a high standard in regular app development. I think Desktop Wars is only feasible in the context of this contest if it is reduced to a concise concept and simple interaction styles.

From the beginning this idea really captivated me and I was hoping Andrew will expand his idea as we get closer to the final but so far there’s little to no progression. Lack of solid desktop mockup and expanded description really hurt this idea.

What I’m hoping to see is something similar to After Dark Screensavers’ Bad Dog (anyone remember that screensaver?) but with live desktop interactivity and basic physics. I’m not interested in seeing any new characters (ie: armies, tank, etc.) I would prefer to see desktop icons as character/weapon themselves. Be creative with what you have on the desktop instead of adding non-desktop objects.

To give you a better idea of desktop wars possibilities, watch this excellent flash animation called “Icon’s Story“.

Ahhh, Desktop Wars…the bane of my existence. This needs to die ASAP.

I’ve worked in the games indiustry for several years and I can tell you that there’s no way a small development team like ours will be able to pull this off in a reasonable time, considering what the original idea’s morphed into now.

Vote for this one only if you’re the kind of person that like being served up a big box of disappointment on Christmas.

Kill it. The original idea as espoused by Andrew was fun and simple. But Andrew’s not been super-involved in keeping the idea alive, and the idea has begun to morph into something that cannot be implemented by a single developer and a single designer in a realistic timespan. In fact, the idea as it now stands might not be feasible at all, by any development team (unless it was Apple’s Finder team, anyway!).

This is an idea that I find very interesting, but not one I really see as being such a great idea for its own app. Lots of people enjoy playing games, but many of those same people prefer to have some order to their desktop. To play this game you would have to scatter your desktop icons all over the place and be completely unorganized. Also, what if you’re the type who doesn’t put things on the desktop at all (a minimalist, if you will)? Are you unable to play? “Various types of small soldier and vehicle units navigate around your cluttered desktop in a variable paced battle that you can sit back and watch or take a more active part in.” This sounds like my desktop will take a mind of its own and move my icons around. While it wouldn’t be quite as bad to move them yourself and know where you left them, this would leave you searching for icons since you’d have no idea where they went- assuming it would be possible to allow the app to take control of them. This would function much better in a dashboard-style environment rather than using the actual desktop. Maybe take a replica of your desktop and do this, but leave the real thing alone. Using the laptop motion sensor is a cool idea, but poses a problem when you accidentally drop it on the floor. And not only would ambient noise be a problem, but I’d rather see voice recognition be polished and put to more practical use before being used in a game, personally.

This one’s top candidate for the “WTF Award”. It started off as Andrew Wilson’s idea then the past few days, someone named “Pixel Sage” seemed to take over things in the forums and turned it into a cartoony Command & Conquer with little to none of the original “icons & desktop” concepts.

I love this idea. Any game that I won’t buy is something that is sure to be a hit. You see, I avoid programs that will distract me from my one true calling, blogging like a maniac. If I had Desktop Wars installed on my Mac I transform into Alexander the Great marching my hordes across desktop after desktop until eventually I died and then portrayed by Colin Farrell in a box office disappointment. This one’s a keeper.

Making a game is a popular ambition among armchair developers, but making one that’s actually fun to play is a lot more difficult than it seems. It’s not even easy to take an existing game and make a fun implementation of it. For every Maelstrom there are dozens of other totally boring Asteroids clones. Making a fun game from scratch is harder still.

Game development has all the features of general application development: internal design, user interface, testing, debugging, performance, etc. Then, on top of all of that, there’s a whole other world of concerns: gameplay balance, replay value, difficulty ramping, exploits, network latency, AI, and on and on. Making a great Mac application is hard enough already. Making a great Mac game seems like a tall order, especially for a single developer who’s never written a successful game before.

A way to sidestep all of this is to merely make it a toy, rather than a game. As a toy, it might as well be a screen-saver (which can run on the desktop already in Mac OS X). But I have a feeling most people voting for this idea want a game, not a toy.

Desktop Wars sounds insane. Fun, but insane. I think that’s why I like it. It’s such a stupid idea, but it’s crazy and that just might work.

Games these days seem to be missing a bit of “magic” that makes them fun. Have all the ideas been done already? I don’t know but I think someone should try another approach and that is why Desktop Wars could work. Bonus points if there was a screen saver involved as well.

The possibilities are endless here. And that’s one of the issues with Desktop Wars. There’s no doubt that this would be hugely popular if it was done well, but doing it well is 99% of the uh, battle.

It’s a feasible concept but it could take a year or two of development to really pull-off. All I know is that I’d pay anything to see the AppZapper icon going head to head with the Yojimbo icon.

While desktop wars is an interesting idea, trying to create a game that appeals to time-limited players is very tricky. It will be too difficult to pull it off well, especially if the scope remains as broad as it is now. If you pursue this you must be very clear on the mechanics. An app that simply has tanks bumbling about in a field of icons is just a toy. It will have very little replay value.