This version of Cardinal Prime is a mod of DreamBell. It is a story of mystery and romance surrounding chances and coincidences. The Setting: The story takes place at Paris in the near future. It is about the lives of two professional thieves that seemed to have met and parted due to coincidences. Main Characters: Marc - One of the dual that had died in an accident during the last heist. He is the one that usually receives jobs and plan the robberies. Cheriour - The other half of the dual. After the death of Marc, she had decided to quit the profession. Giovanna - The mathematician client that has requested the dual to steal an artifact. Starting Plot: Cheriour was unable to bear the pain of seeing the old memories. She was in front of a fire pit, burning away some items that they had shared. While doing so, you found a stack of files that Marc had been researching regarding an artifact called the Cardinal Prime. While you were looking at them, Marc's phone rang. Cheriour spoke through his phone. The client spoke of a job that she had contacted Marc before about the Cardinal Prime. Speaking through the phone, the presence of Marc was so vivid that Cheriour accepted the job as Marc to finish what he had started. The Game: From here on, the story will unfold in two directions. During the days, the player will do the research and planning about the target and the client. At nights, the player will perform stealth mission in the present and in the past. Starting from the most recent mission, the player will get clues about the truths behind the events and the identity of the Cardinal Prime. Any thoughts? [Edited by - Estok on March 28, 2005 12:32:02 PM]

What exactly is Cardinal Prime? Be fair, as fellow developers we are entitled to more than the player would know at the start of the game :)

Also, to say it happens in the future doesn't help us much. For instance, tomorrow is the future, and the odds are that nothing significant in the areas of technology or culture are going to change in a day. If the future makes things different, you'll have to explain to us how it does so.

I really like the concept, but I have a question about your gameplay. It's designed for two players, but we're led to believe from the beginning that one of those players/characters is dead. True, both players do play levels together, but it seems that one of them takes the backseat as the primary player puts the clues together, etc. It might be offputting to play a game in which my character is dead (supposedly) and I have to wait between boards. Unless that's all cutscene material, and *all* play takes place in the flashbacks.

Quote: Original post by Chokki
What exactly is Cardinal Prime? Be fair, as fellow developers we are entitled to more than the player would know at the start of the game :)

Also, to say it happens in the future doesn't help us much. For instance, tomorrow is the future, and the odds are that nothing significant in the areas of technology or culture are going to change in a day. If the future makes things different, you'll have to explain to us how it does so.

Cardinal Prime is a red and rare gem that was taken out from a strange artifact that resembles a puzzle box. The box has been missing, only the gem got circulated in the history. On the surface there is nothing magical about the Cardinal Prime itself. But when it is sought by a mathematician, it makes you wonder whether she has got hold of the puzzle box, and what kind of secret the Cardinal Prime may unlock.


The near-future setting allows certain surprises and enables certain plots, but there is no major semantic significance to it. It basically leaves some room for imagination for the story and gameplay, such as automated guards, and slightly more high-tech security systems and cryptology techniques.

[Edited by - Estok on March 28, 2005 10:33:24 PM]

Quote: Original post by Taolung
I really like the concept, but I have a question about your gameplay. It's designed for two players, but we're led to believe from the beginning that one of those players/characters is dead. True, both players do play levels together, but it seems that one of them takes the backseat as the primary player puts the clues together, etc. It might be offputting to play a game in which my character is dead (supposedly) and I have to wait between boards. Unless that's all cutscene material, and *all* play takes place in the flashbacks.

There is the idea that the players don't know which one of the dual, of whether one of them died at all in the present. For example, the players will hear the voice of Marc, but also see Cheriour in the cutscene, and they will think that both of them are still alive. The scenes where Cheriour is flipping through Marc's records will be seen as Marc looking at his own records. (The scene Cheriour picking up the phone would seem like she is eavesdropping an affair between Marc and Giovanna). I think that this presentation style is appropriate because after Marc died, Cheriour sense of time is very mixed up and confusing in reality.

The rivaling idea is to change the story into chronological order, where none of the player will be dead or get separated. Play the whole game as a two-player adventure/action/mystery game. This is the intended gameplay after the mystery is solved. The question is should the whole game be like this.

[Edited by - Estok on March 28, 2005 9:45:30 PM]

Better question, still: CAN the game be played by a single person? Because it is extremely difficult to find time to play a whole 80-hours plot alone, so making that with TWO persons' schedules having to match will be hell. So if two persons are willing to make it their evening passtime for the next few weeks, I don't care. But what if I am alone and still want to play it? Which of the character am I going to play? Is this character going to be the survivor? If not, how do you explain that I played an active part in my own death? If he is, then you need to make the story ambivalent, that means that the dialogues and situations can be easily reversed, and the graphics too. Hell on wheels...

Yours faithfully,
Nicolas FOURNIALS

I am not concerned with making the cutscenes ambivalent because I already know the techniques to do it, mainly by juxtapositions. It is not hard to present the entire story, and have the player surprised at the end when he realizes that the story did not play in order, and that one of the characters had in fact already died.

To answer the question about two-player missions: I actually edited the original post several times, the current version does not mention the two-player mode, for the exact reasons that Taolung and you have point out. Single player mode exists. In fact, the single player mode was the initial implementation. One of them is going to be controlled by the AI or the player. The second character may be involved in the actions, or involved only as an overseer. One thing that makes the two-player mode more interesting is doing diversions and ambushes in real-time.


If you don't have a dedicated game partner you can always find one online, and how well the two of you can cooperate will be a fun compatibility test. What can be more romantic than a having a blind date while robbing a museum?

[Edited by - Estok on March 30, 2005 10:24:36 AM]