I want to play this game.

I am really excited about it. But, I don't feel like I have a clear path from where I am to what I want. Why is that? Part of it is that I can't decide what I'm targetting, single player or multi player experience. Except that, the game I am most immediately excited by is the single player game. The multi player game is only... theoretically exciting to me. I keep imagining trying to get a group of friends together to play it and it seems a little silly. Probably because I'm also the guy who can't invite people to play LoL with him. but whatever this isn't about trying to solve my character flaws. This is about making a game I'm excited about.

So if I were in a planning session and my PO was all, "crap how are we gonna ever do this you guys," what would I say?

Aha, that reveals an interesting idea, what I do all day at work, is surrender my product ownership. It's an intentional tactical choice in that environment, but for legacy, I NEEED to be owning the decisions. I mean no one else will, and that's not a knock on them, it's just that I have the passion and the power, and I should drive it. I want and need other people to own their contributions, but I should probably just drive the overall project vision.

So. I seem to think having a client/server model is crucially important. I've spent a bunch of time on this java server and it doesn't feel wrong to me. I like a lot of things about it. But the game I want to play is the single player campaign. So how can I get to a compelling campaign experience quickly, so that I may iterate upon it?

Thinking, client connects to server, new campaign, generate a roster of heroes and a (flat!) map. There is 1 mission which is some gorgons attacking your town. Small hand drawn map. The AI literally does nothing.

You get some rewards from the first mission in the form of research options, a base, and some gold and monsterparts or whatever. You can research things, which takes time, and go on missions, which takes time. From here, pick the worst feeling part and make it feel more awesome, and keep doing that.