It looks like a lot of games get easier as the player gets more powerful and the solution is often to just throw bigger threats at them. What if getting more powerful made the game harder in itself?
Imagine a game where you lead a group of people struggling to survive. The people in this group are portrayed in a way that lets you get attached to them as individuals and not just for their usefulness. Those emergent character stories and relationships would be a key feature the game and ensures that the player really cares about keeping those people alive.
At first the group is small and flexible, and unless you take big risks you are unlikely to lose anyone. But as the group grows it consumes more resources, attracts more trouble and you have to send your people out on dangerous missions where some are bound to die if you want to maintain morale and the survival of the group as a whole.
Even though it might be easier to play with fewer people in the group, the player is given incentives to add more, whether it's through scoring or objectives. Maybe victory can only be reached by finishing a project that requires the labour of a large group for an extended period of time. There will also be a lot of opportunities to show compassion and take in refugees and the like, so unless the player is willing to risk the stability of their group they will have to turn down and doom those people.
The expectation is that the population of a group will plateau or oscillate at a level that provides a fun challenge for the player. If they change the difficulty setting, progress to a harder area or as they get better at the game, the population will adjust to match.
Since there is no doomsday clock, the player can progress at their own pace and play with a difficulty level that suits them. They can hopefully also avoid the scenarios where the start of the game is really hard and after getting through that, defeat is either inevitable or the player has become so powerful that it's now too easy to win. If the start of the game is too slow and easy, just pick up a few strays and start expanding right away.
What do you think about the concept? Do you see any challenges or pitfalls when implementing something like it?
I can imagine that it would be important to discourage the player from grinding with a smaller group by making the resources they can get then insignificant in comparison to the accomplishments of a larger group. A handful of people who sneak into an enemy encampment can only escape with what they can carry, while a larger group can take over the whole thing.
Mount & Blade is a good example of a game that has similar elements. When you're starting out you move really fast and can escape most armies, but as your army grows you also move slower and those other armies are now a threat. If you enjoy cruising around with a small group of elite soldiers you can do that, but you can also expand and start taking over castles. I don't remember how the difficulty changes as you grow so the comparison might not hold up.
