Was Perimeter an inspiration?

[uncle lazy]

Hi everyone.

I'd like to thank the developers for a very nice game Creeper World turned out to be. And yet I wonder if KD-lab real time strategy game Perimeter (http://games.1c.ru/perimeter/eng/game.html) was the authors' inspiration?

The f.a.q. seemingly denies any connection
6: How did you come up with this idea?
One night I spilled grape soda all over the table.... well not really. Actually I was working on a completely different and independently awesome game. In the middle of that game I experimented with a unique type of "fog of war". I spent the next day playing with the FOW and that's when it all clicked. One part serendipity, one part thermodynamics, one part travelling salesman, and 997 parts hard labor == Creeper World.
but it's pretty difficult to believe seeing the obvious similarities between the titles

Don't get me wrong, i don't believe there's anything wrong with borrowing ideas or game mechanics. Honestly i just wonder if it _was_ a coincidence?

[knucracker]

So the part of the game that has similarities to other games is the whole collector/energy thing.  I was familiar with Perimeter, Harvest Massive Encounter, and the more recent flash title The Space Game.  There is also moonbase commander (which I am not that familiar with other than through youtube videos).

All good games.   But I liked the idea of little spheres moving through the network/graph like packets rather than just bobbling around.  And I knew that I definitely wanted to see the packets move (not just transfer instantly).  But all of this takes a back seat to what the game is really about... the Creeper enemy itself.

The part of the game that doesn't have anything to do with any of these other games is the Creeper.  This is the foundation of the game and was the genesis of the idea.  It is also what I refer to in the FAQ.  Also, if you take a look at the prototype screen shots in the credits you'll see that there were only creeper and guns in the early prototypes.

I suppose it all sort of depends on perspective and what part of the game you like.  I see the game as a struggle against a fluid, organic enemy.  Everything else in the game is there to support that game concept.  An organic enemy is what I think Creeper World brings to the rts/defense scene.  There are many things like the blasters, flying enemy (spores), bombers(drones), etc that are concepts shared with many, many games.  But fighting a viscous fluid in a relief map is what the game is all about (to me anyway).

Now at some point in the game development there had to be _some_ sort of economy.  I didn't want 9 resources like an 'Age of' game.... after all I was going for a minimalist game.  I remember playing Dune 2 and being just happy harvesting spice all day long... so one single important resource seemed plenty enough to me.  Resources do have to be limited or at least require strategic planning to acquire... So because of the nature of the Creeper an economic model based on 'area' made sense.  

So in summary, I won't pretend ignorance of Perimeter or pretty much any other RTS ever made.  I've probably played almost almost all of them.  I still remember playing Dune 1 and thinking that the desert phase of the game had potential.... and then of course dune 2 changed history forever.  Playing all of these games over the years has given me the experience to know what I like and what I don't, what worked and what didn't work.  I took from this experience what would make a good economic game mechanic and added to it a brand new enemy type.  

Oh yeah, I should also add that Odin City was inspired by Stargate Atlantis and the general doom and gloom of the story was of course inspired by BSG.  The visuals for the Rift are loosely inspired by the 'Machine' in Contact.  The totem activation sequence is loosely inspired by the Death Star firing sequence as well as the Excalibur main weapon firing in Babylon 5 Crusade.