I had some ideas about a world I wanted to make for a few years now, I wrote them down and I never really could put a name on the direction I wanted to take it with. However I saw the phrase Dark game mentioned and that was it. As an extra I wanted to add the political element in it. Now is my question If I say Dark and Political what do you feel and think with that? I think I would construct a world that encourages backstabbing policies. My goal would be to make the line between good and evil cloudy. What kind of Atmosphere should the layout have? More dark colours in the world a bit the novel de noir or more the nice happy colours but with dark shades to illustrate the darkness behind everyday life in this world. In any case that are my rough ideas about it, What comes to your mind when I say dark game and politics...... Economics is a subject that does not greatly respect one''s wishes. -Nikita S. Khrushchev

I assume you saw the discussion in the Writing forum?

Personally, I don''t think it''s so much about making the distinction between good and evil cloudy - pretty much all good fiction or games with stories should do that - but it''s about making there be no good or evil as such... just factions all following their own agenda.

The Thief series is a bit like this: you essentially have 3 factions... 2 who are prepared to destroy pretty much everything in order to control the world, and a 3rd that is prepared to trick and manipulate people in order to defend against the other 2. There is no "good" side.

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dark game and politics...

Just some thoughts that come to mind:

The most convincing ally just has a silver tongue and is absolutely bent on satisfying their own agenda, able to change devotions on a moment''s notice as the needs arise...

There are those that are struggling to get to where they can be purely on merit, trying not to get taken in by how everyone else needs to (or think they need to) do things.

Of course, some see how things are as purely a matter of necessity, simply the way of things, so to speak. They smartly play the game, not even with so much of a single-minded agenda, but are wise in the ways they navigate the system to guarantee and sustain their success.

Spies. Sabotage.

(Actually, sounds like a potentially rich environment where people can blend in and find their own niche)

This sounds like a very cool game. If you can somehow isolate the main character from every other faction, the game would be incredible. My game is very dark as well. I would classify my game is an Action Sci-Fi/Fantasy RPG (the plot gets very confusing yet awesome). It takes place in the future (the future from now). No specific date. Basically you''re a cop who has to stop a sort of satanic ritual from occuring. The game gets very creepy very quickly. The entire game is dark. Most of it takes place at night with cloudy skies, pouring rain, thunder, lightning, etc. Some parts, however, take place at night with many stars and a huge, full moon (the parts where the ceremony the title is based on, NightRise, occur. Two or three throughout the whole game). Any day segments are cloudy. This significes a very dark world, which is what I am going for. However, it''s not always the color that represents darkness.

Take, for example, the Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring movie. At times during the movie, Frodo hears voices calling him from the ring. The room doesn''t neccessarily have to be dark during these times, but the sound makes the environment dark. There are many ways to make stories dark. Sounds, thoughts, colors, mental images, etc. Find whatever suits your game.

This has been done before, in a strategy setting. I believe it was based on something by Tom Clancy...

I am doing a somewhat similar game about dark politics (well, I wrote it and a friend of mines'' development company is making it) about a futuristic Senator who hires a form of hired law from the future (think of it as a beefed up rent-a-cop.) Anyway through many twists and turns you find out that you were manipulated by the senator to do something unspeakably evil (dealing with a group of middleeastern terrorists) including kill a few people who had figured out the whole conspiracy trying to stop it from happening

It is a very good plot (brag brag brag.... I know) and will make for a good action game. What i think would be fun is a chance at playing as an electee for some political office and trying to scheme, lie, and cheat your way into the office. Sounds kinda like a Peter Molyneux sandbox game or a little of that game republic.

I think the stark juxtapostion of light and dark would be a great way to start. This would reflect the assumed bias of the audiance that there is a great distinction between good and evil. You could easily use tried and true tradional conflicts to drive your story along, like rasism and class distinction. (ie place the character in a town where of of the city is dark town, all slums and lower class and half is light town all sky scrapers and upper class)

You could push this to the extreme so that you end up with something like "Brazil" (great movie, if you havent seen it rent it) Where the world of the upper class, the supposed good guys, was all light and bright colors and the world of the lower class the supposed bad guys is all dark and grey. In the end you eventually see the evil of the upper class and the vitues of the lower class.

Let your player choose a character from either side, give him an NPC to care about and a conflict that drives him to do things that would be considered evil or wrong by his own class to in some way save or help the npc he cares about. Show him the eveil and virtues of both side so that at the end hopefull he'll understand the grey ground that lies between them.

As far as the look of the game check out movies like, Brazil, Wizard of Oz, Toys, Willy Wonka and the chocolate factory, beetle juice, City of the Lost Children, Baron Von Munchhousen basicly anything by tim burton or terry giliman.

[edited by - NaphtaliMoore on August 16, 2002 4:24:51 AM]

Sounds good, indeed implement classes in a society and conflict them that should help a great deal. I have seen most of the movies you mentioned those are also helpfull indeed.



Economics is a subject that does not greatly respect one''s wishes.
-Nikita S. Khrushchev