OK, here''s the idea, for better or worse. This technically belongs in the Game Writing forum, but it helps to illustrate my points -- and I tried posting a concept write up relating to this idea in the Game Writing forum but it was ignored.
If this gets moved, I won''t cry about it. But if you are interested in learning more, PLEASE check out the Concept Writeup thread over in the game writing forum, its purpose is to give a vivid taste of the atmosphere and setting for the game world.Genre: Science/Fantasy Fiction
Backstory:
Early 21st Century Earth. A strange phenomenon has appeared. It is not widely known, but its effect is devastating. A small, barely visible light, moving freely and randomly through Earth''s major cities, is actually a Rift -- a tear in the metaphorical "fabric" in Space-Time. This rift literally pulls men, women, and children (and even some animals) randomly through it, plucking people off of the world they know and spewing them onto the soft turf of another planet.
The planet they arrive at is not so different from our own -- it features green grass, forests, rivers, oceans and the like. Its flora and fauna are quite different from our own, yet all seem vaguely familiar in their own way, such as the ape-like Gorgons and the lumbering, elephantish Haudren. It is a world abandoned -- great structures and cities remain of an ancient race that has long since abandoned the continent to ruin.
The race left something else behind as well: A remarkable power, a force that transforms mental energy into physical. The power seems, to the human Newcomers, almost miraculous, or magical in nature. The power is not hard use, but terribly difficult to master.
For all the beauty and mystery this world offers, it holds one great flaw for the Newcomers: The Rift, as majestic and incredible as it is, is One Way Only. These poor humans, swept from their home planet without warning, are trapped on the world they have come to call Terrasi.
The top item of business for the First of the Newcomers is obvious: Survival. Over the course of the first two years of the upheaval, the majority of the newcomers unite and build themselves a new civilization. But everyone has their own ideas of what civilization in this world should be, and the primitive democracies that govern the individual villages are highly unstable.
There are three main schools of belief among the Newcomers: Those who are resigned to their new home and resolve to make the best of it, those who are determined to find a way to get back to Earth, and those who are hopelessly in despair or denial. The last group may be found wandering the plains of Terrasi in misery, living the life of a hermit, or wasting away in a pub, drowning their sorrows in the too-sweet liquor of the Combana fruit.
The Game:
The player takes on the role of one of these banished humans. They arrive in the world, near the end of the second year, bewildered and often in denial. Each human has a life back on Earth -- a history, perhaps a family and a career, often with ambitions and ideas and interests and of course specific skills.
Every character will deal with the difficulties of being trapped on another world in their own way. This is manifested through a statistic that represents attitude, which affects many other aspects of a character''s state. A character whose player spends a good deal of time hunting, building, exploring, or socializing will generally experience a better attitude. Attitudes properly maintained generally improve over time, building a stable character. Characters that are left to reflect on their own have a higher chance of descending into depression, a state which seriously affects the character''s ability to perform other tasks. A "quick fix" to the problem is liquor, which drastically boosts a character''s attitude for a time (though limits Dexterity) -- but this solution will prove temporary, as the character will ultimately descend further into depression.
The depression factor is not the major focus of the game, of course -- it merely attempts to add a touch of reality and perhaps more importantly, it makes the characters'' state of mind an important consideration, given the trauma they''re all going through. Other nods toward realism include: Opportunity for players to form governments, not by any special facilitation of the software, but simply through their own communication with other players and NPCs, because the territory is loosely claimed; entrepeneurial opportunities within the world, selling all manner of goods and services, either crafted or retrieved through exploration and trades. My hope is that such a product would be open ended, not by adding endless features to the game so much as providing the most basic options (such as learning a wide variety of skills) and allowing players to use them however they will.
The three ideals -- the Builders (those who have resigned themselves to rebuilding society), the Believers (those who will do anything to get home), and the Lost (those who have given up altogether) will find themselves in constant strife with each other. There will be other struggles as well -- exploration of the Ancient Ruins may bring some great enjoyment, but it may frighten those who believe that it is important to keep Human culture pure. Similarly, the remarkable psionic power (which seems to exist as a natural law in this world) is of great interest to some, while others may find it threatens their own religious beliefs.
The long term story, as you might have guessed, involves the Newcomers'' (players'') opportunity to return to Earth; although, my literature thus far includes far more interesting long term story opportunities than JUST returning to Earth (including the return of the Ancients).
But what is really important in this idea is the individual stories participated in by the players. There would be so many opportunities for players to make their own stories in this world, because each player will need to rely on others to meet their personal goals.
Still, "quests" are a possibility. I might consider implementing a model as described in my previous post, where volunteers are given the chance to devise them.
My dream is to push the limits of what people call Games. This game is intended to be fun, but I think there is an opportunity for players to get really emotionally involved with their characters. I''ve even considered some abstract methods of giving characters a minimal level of internal autonomy when the player is offline, such as writing letters to loved ones in their journals (accomplished by combining selections of text according to the character''s profile) or reminiscing with NPCs about the Old Days over a mug of Combana juice.
I love the idea of instilling emotion in games, especially emotion that the player can identify with. I believe that if this game can make just one individual realize just how important their loved ones are to them, then it will be worth whatever it takes to develop such a game.
Brian Lacy
Smoking Monkey Studios
Comments? Questions? Curious?
brian@smoking-monkey.org
"I create. Therefore I am."
