Village the Game: Play it. Love it. Live it.

Village Map, the first map in preparation for Village the Game will include the following innovations:

1. Kickstart Pumps
2. Enersud Windmills
3. Microcredit
4. Ciudad Saludable waste management
5. Solar cell rentals
6. Kenya Mobile Library Services
7. Healtstore Foundation CFWShops franchise
8. Village Phone/Cell phone rentals
9. NEF Clay Stoves
   
10. Xaccess sport utility bikes

I used Google Notebook to create a one page summary of these innovations. Let me know if you have any recomendations of other innovations I should include.

Village the game immerses the player into the role of an entrepreneur building companies to bring prosperity to the villages of the third world. Great examples of this revolutionary business model can be found at www.nextbillion.net. To help illustrate the vision of the game, Village needs to build an overhead view of a third world village with various social enterprises at work in the village. For example we need to see villagers using the superaffordable Kickstart irrigation pump that has helped farmers in Africa tenfold their income.








Style-wise I want to acheive the graphics quality of Warcraft II. Also the scale of the village graphics will be the same, ie the people will not be to scale with the buildings. I've created a Warcraft II map to give a sample layout. All the Warcraft terrain and buildings need to be replaced with Village terrain and buildings. Details and a link are here: http://www.villagethegame.com/2006/07/help-me-turn-this-warcraft-map-into.html
New* Click here to view the jpg version of the map.




Like the businesses in the game, VillagetheGame.com itself is designed to work in a for-profit manner but it's ultimate goal is having social impact. If you want to be a part of making this awareness raising game a reality, please send me a link to your portfolio. After taking a look at the Warcraft II map, give me an estimate too of how long you think it will be to create the Village artwork. Thumbnail sketches of buildings and terrain are also welcome. Keeping in mind buildings can look cartoony if that's what it takes to make them stand out and easily recognizable. There's a lot more details to share but this is good for starters.





Last note: there are a lot of Warcraft II map editors but the best one is still the one that comes with the game.

Using some screen captures from Simcity 4 I created a composite of what window groups will look like ... it's hacked together but the basic idea is evident; Related windows and dialogs should be one-click together.

Kenya for one month, then onto India.