Tweaking the Math and Gameplay
First may I say, thank god* for Google Spreadsheets. Basically, I needed to do some quick math of growth patterns, for instance: x population with y resources over z time = XYZ growth of population. It’s a basic data model that players will be able to mess with as part of the game.

Basically, I had a choice between pulling out a calculator, writing my own program logic or grabbing a spreadsheet. If you’re doing a Model-based game, I recommend at least whiteboarding with spreadsheets. And Google Spreadsheets were free and allowed me to work from different locations.

So, step one was to wing something: put a bunch of numbers roughly where I wanted them. Step two, create a basic model: X * Y * Z. Step three, have to create gate and modularity. I am wanting a model where the smaller the cult, the easier it is to recruit and the resource generation is more efficient. At the later points in the game, the larger the cult, the recruiting is harder and less efficient the resource.

I am wanting the gates to be at ~ 10, 100, 500, 1000, 5000, 20,000 followers. Hitting 100,000 would sorta be a win by default. So, looks like a logarithmic progression minus a delayed logarithmic progression with a faster growth combined with a 1/sinewave for gate keeping, don’t you think? What’s worse, I had to go to Wikipedia to double check my math on this. I feel a bit like Barbie when I say, Math sure is Hard!

So, that gives us an X^n * log(X) * Y * Z. What will the time interval (Z) be? I could go for a similar algorithm that WoW has that the bigger you get, you have to work about 4-6% longer to jump to the next level. If you start, say, near the 60 second mark of jumping, you should be able to get to 20K followers in ~50 steps, which results in a game that’s about 1.5-2 hours.

All-in-all, not a casual game… but wait, I have a SAVE feature, so the player can quit at anytime and return at anytime.

Now we need Player Differentiation
After a few good discussions with AM and JVL, I had the basic patterns out, now I needed to develop what would make each player a little different. During the creation of a player’s Cult, the player will answer a series of questions that result in a negative to positive modifier from (-1.2% to +1.2%) effect on gameplay generation of resources. I’m hoping this range will give enough variance to affect the player’s style of play. If not, I’ll have to extend the ranges and see what bubbles up from repeaded gameplay.

Formulas:
Next Population Count = Current Population + Previous Recruiting - Current Burn
Recuiting =

* By god, I mean an Internet-based busienss model of application development