Soul - whats five minutes of your life?

thelovegoose · 2007-12-03T06:04:48

You wake up on the bathroom floor. A worried woman comes in, calling you Fred and checking youre okay. Reassured youre okay, she asks you if you remember what special day it is. You make a bad guess. She sees your head is bleeding and rushes you through the night hover traffic to the hospital. After a checkup you are taken to see a psychiatrist because they suspect you have amnesia. you discover your character's name is Fred Stanley. You tell the psychiatrist that you are not suffering from amnesia - you are <insert your real name here>, and you are sat behind a computer, playing a computer game. You are controlling Fred stanley with a keyboard and mouse and the psychiatrist and everyone else are simply elements of the computer game. The pychiatrist can't get his head round what you are saying to him and is worried you might be mad. He reccommends that you stay at the hospital for a few days. That evening a government agent comes to see you called Luke. you get a bad feeling from him, so you pretend to be mad. A girl comes to visit you, Sheri, she was already at the hospital and overheard that someone there thought they were playing a computer game. She tells you that she is a historian, and explains that a few hundred years ago people used to say that they were just playing a game, In this world the one thing everyone wants is a soul, to be controlled by a player. she warns you that if the government find out they will try to extract you from fred's body, and they won't care what you go through to get the soul out. She also warns you that when it gets out, people will stop at nothing to try to take your soul for themselves. She breaks you out of hospital, and you go on the run overnight. sheri takes you to a cafe/hotel on street level, owned by her boyfriend Pete. He's hostile with you, but agrees to give you one of the rooms for now, one that you will share with sheri's dog. She explains to Pete that you are only controlling fred, that you are his soul and exist outside of this world. He seems doubtful of your claims and also seems jealous that she is taking so much interest in you. The following day you are woken with breakfast, and on the news you see the government are looking for fred. His family release an appeal asking fred to hand himself in. "He hit his head, then he wasn't sure who he was, i'm really worried about him." Agents are looking for you while sheri and pete are out, they systematically search the buildings down the street toward you. led by the agent that came to see you at the hospital, Luke, they search your building. You are forced to leave through a window. You end up in the nightclub across the street. Sheri and pete are walking back to the cafe, they see you enter the nightclub and the agents in the cafe. Sheri follows you into the club and pete goes to see whats happening at the cafe. Sheri finds you in the nightclub as you are crossing the dancefloor. You explain that agents had started searching and that you had to leave. People notice you are not dancing - so you start dancing. your only dance moves are the basic actions your characters can perform resulting in some very awkward moves. Your dance is met with some very unsure faces. Sheri copies your moves, and then others do. Very soon the whole club are performing your dance. Later you leave. You get back late. The agents have left the cafe. You stay up till dawn talking to sheri and pete. They ask you what your world is like, and explain about the government being very controlling and having very hidden agendas. They explain that being a person without a soul, they have an intense longing for one. They are in the minority in this world in the sense that they can control that need and would never try to take your soul, most will seize any chance to have you control them rather than Fred. Most people feel that something is missing for them, and its not their fault. People in this world just need for a soul. they also tell you that if you ever are able to be free here there is a lot to do including countrywide hoverbike races, old ruins to explore and lots more. You go to bed. they sleep in the cafe. Sheri introduces you to fellow history student. This girl, Edith goes with Pete to the library to try to find some clues as to how to to get more souls into the world. The search has been stepped up, and there is an announcement across all channels that there is a soul in the world, that the government mean no harm and have a way, with your help to let everyone have a soul. An agent comes back to cafe and sees you and sheri upstairs. He and others attempt to break into your room. In your room the dog starts barking frantically, seeing that sheri is distressed. He seems to think you are the threat and leaps on you. As the agents burst into the room, you suddenly switch control to the dog. Fred comes to his senses suddenly, only to be whisked away with sheri while you are kicked to the end of the room and locked in. You are locked in the room as the dog for days, contemplating how you managed to switch into the dog's body, you catch various news updates, including a public address from the president telling people that when the soul is found, the government will do everything they can to develop a way to get everyone a soul. you see Pete moping about outside the cafe during the day. You tidy up. From the window you see Sheri return in the middle of the night to the cafe, where you are waiting as the dog. She is really upset as she still thinks that you have been captured and she can do nothing about it. She feels priviliged that she is the one who has discovered you and that you're her friend. She and Pete spend the night together. You overhear them talking about you, that she feels angry that she couldn't protect you. Pete confesses that he has found it difficult that she is so attatched to you but will try to be more understanding. In the morning, angry citizens come round in a mob to the cafe, they demand that sheri be handed over to them, for harbouring everyone's chance at a soul. Pete sends sheri up to your room. You try to show her that you are the dog by barking at her and jumping up at her, but she is more concerned that the mob are going to attack Pete. From upstairs you and sheri watch as pete warns and reasons with mob to leave her alone. He urges them not to be so trusting that the government want to get everyone a soul - that they probably have their own interests. He confronts the ringleader and the mob leave. The ringleader doesn't look like he's finished. Sheri finally realises that you switched your soul into the dog and is relieved and estatic, Pete joins you upstairs when she lets him know. You work out that passing the soul has something to do with kissing, as the dog wrapped his mouth round Fred's when the switch happened. Sheri calls Edith who volunteers to become the host. She also knows of someone who could help - she read of a person who lives in a cottage outside the city who is the oldest resident of the world and has unmatched knowledge of it. you all agree that he would be your best chance to find a way to bring other souls into the world to get the people what they want and so that you can get on with exploring this world and seeing what is has to offer. You all discuss what to do about Fred and it is agreed that Pete witht the help of his friends will break Fred and his family out of where they are held. Pete gives you a mobile phone, a gun and teaches you how to shoot. You plan to leave, you collect a map and travelling equipment from the market. You get on the tram back to the cafe before you leave the city. Some men gather around sheri on the train. you shoot the men. sheri is hurt. You take her across the street to a chemist to get bandages and drugs. There you see that people have head injuries - from trying to get a soul. You and sheri leave the city by hover coach, and get off at a small town and head to the woods where you camp. Sheri asks you : what is your real name? - do you have a girlfriend, are you a man or woman. What do you look like? Back in the city, Pete arranges a decoy with the help of some of his friends and breaks fred and family out, you watch live on the news as events unfold. You meet pete and fred and family at an agreed place near the coast - sheri takes fred and family to get new clothes, haircuts etc. You have a poignant conversation with fred where he asks you : "why me?" and you can't answer. He tells you that while you were in control of him, he was in a strange dream, where he felt like he had died and was floating around in some space between his world and some other. You spend the day with Pete who asks you how you, <insert real name here>, know that youre not being played by a soul from a different world. He seems to have let his guard down with you, and seems interested in what you have to say. The following day Pete drives the stanley family to a sea port, where they get on a boat out of the country. You and sheri go to the cottage. There you see the system administrator. You ask why the souls went away hundreds of years ago and what youre doing here. He explains that this is [Edited by - thelovegoose on October 21, 2008 4:22:36 PM]

Writing for Games Game Design

Started by thelovegoose September 26, 2007 10:38 AM

13 comments, last by thelovegoose 17 years, 1 month ago

Sneftel

1,788

October 05, 2007 08:33 PM

Quote: Original post by thelovegoose
For any players of it : was it actually fun to play?

The draconic saving system combines with the poor stability to produce an experience that is truly maddening at times. Cool concept, though.

Quote: I heard that they weren't that happy with how it turned out.

I wouldn't be surprised. It looked dated even for the time. It was an interesting harbinger of the open world games to come, though.

Quote: Do they ever actually acknowledge that you are playing a computer game? Or ask you your real name? Or always refer to you as the nomad soul or a demon?

It's a very clever conceit they go for: That the "computer game" and the marketing thereof were a ploy to capture your soul. In these jaded days, of course, it's difficult to pull something off like that, and the graphics don't help, but it really shows moxie. David Cage, the creator, continued reinventing genres with Fahrenheit, and I'm really looking forward to Heavy Rain.

Quote: Also its interesting how the story is so similar to this one - in the main points of the story, in its futuristic yet film noir style. concentration on character interaction and adventuring but using violence at key points.

One key difference, I think, is the "fish out of water" tone to your story... the main character participates without ever really integrating into the world. Nomad Soul flirts with this idea for the first five minutes or so, and then you're riding Sliders around like it ain't no thang. I prefer your approach.

thelovegoose

Author

101

October 05, 2007 08:46 PM

Okay - so what do you say I do with it?

[Edited by - thelovegoose on October 21, 2008 4:46:33 PM]

Sneftel

1,788

October 05, 2007 08:57 PM

Quote: Original post by thelovegoose
Okay - so what do you say I do with it?

Well, go for it, of course. It's an interesting concept in its own right. Besides, anyone who actually remembers Nomad Soul won't mind the similarity. Oh, and for the love of god allow unlimited saves.

Quote: Do gamedev scores go over 2000?

Technically, yes. Staff start there. If you aren't staff though, it's quite difficult to do, because when you're up in the 1900s very few people can actually rate you up and have it make a difference.

Pete Michaud

137

November 30, 2007 02:36 PM

It really is an interesting premise, but I think you need to push it a little further.

You were almost to the "World of the Worlds" point -- you may already be familiar with the story, but war of the worlds aired as though it was actually a news broadcast of an alien invasion, bringing the intense grip of drama right into the comfort zone of the audience who wasn't entirely aware they were being "entertained." It allowed the fiction to affect the real world in ways that radio could generally could not.

Your concept is similar, but I think you need to break the mold a touch more before it blows anyone's mind. In effect, I think you should toy with the mechanics of the computer itself, so here's a scenario (that has plenty of technical issues, but try to bear with the notion):

A real user happens upon the "free MMO demo" as a download. This is ideal if they know absolutely nothing about the game and are innocently trying it out. It could also work if they have been advised by a friend that the game is "awesome," but they are given no details about it.

They download it, install it, and it fails. There is some kind of memory access denial error, and it makes an eerie sound, and maybe flashes a garbled version of one of those agents' faces across the screen as though the game has screwed with your video card before dying.

Well darn, says the user, this game sucks, I can't even install it. The error screen pops up an actual browser window, loading up a "troubleshooting guide," but then the installation jumps back to life, with a "Installation Complete," and a splash screen. Weird, but I guess it happens... right?

The player goes about the business of "logging on," and enters what he thinks is the noob lobby of the MMO.

Proceed a bit with the storyline basically as you have it.

There are some characters marked as NPCs, and some marked as players, as any mmo would have it. NPCs talk in a more scripted way, while the "players" speak more casually, if at all. The idea is to make the actual player believe he is playing an MMO, and to believe he is talking with actual, real people. Introduce the story that way: the NPCs are beside themselves about the identity of your avatar (Fred), which you (the real player) think is a cute gimmick, until the "players" are trying to realistically convince you that something really strange is going on in this MMO game. Like the NPCs are real or something.

As an aside, the soul needs to be fleshed out -- if such a thing were real, there would political divides, just like with any religion. There would be fundamentalists, skeptics, etc. That being the case, there would probably be religious texts that foretell something or another, and they may provide what the game characters consider to be cryptic messages or prophecies-- what they hand you is an instruction manual.

It explains how to playtest this game, giving you the hotkey information you need to access to game console and type in what are essentially cheat codes. If you are a character in a game, and there is another character (the actual player), who can alter the fabric of reality around you, by passing through walls at will, spawning people from thin air, etc, how do you react?

Maybe the "government" agents within the game try to take you out. they come at you full force, trying to restrain you, but of course they are no match: you mow them down, you fling them to the sky, you clip through their polygon prisons, you are invincible, until you receive a warning via speaker that the big boss is tired of screwing around, and that if you can't be captured then you're not welcome.

The game crashes. It throws an unhandled exception, and boots your ass to the desktop. Maybe a noise like a radio comes through the speakers, it's the big boss telling you your demo key has been locked out, so you're screwed because they discontinued the game and you can't get a copy.

You can't load the game without an unhandled exception anymore. Darn.

Actual player putters around now, not able to play. But remember how he logged in when he first started playing? He provided an e-mail address to the game.

Now, when he checks, there's an E-mail in his actual, real inbox, from Shari or one of the other main NPCs. It provides a link to a crack for the demo version of the game. The link actually, really does have a patch that allows the player to bypass the game's fake "unhandled exception."

You're back in, and now it's personal.

---------------------------------

The sky's the limit man! I could see chases across the internet, I could see program patching, hacking, I could see the agents trying to screw up your client, messing with your speakers, keyboard, whatever.

Maybe at a certain point in the game you have to get a physical disk (or ISO for convenience) with some data or something... since it's further along in the game, people will be hooked by then, and the source of the disk is a real, honest-to-god shopping cart system that you set up that sells the disc for whatever you'd charge for the game -- most demos are crippled, and you get to a certain point then it says "Hey, end of demo, please buy the game" -- instead, you would make the purchase of the game integral to playing the game!

When you fleshed out the outline on that, you could tackle some of the storytelling issues you have with plot and mechanics (it's not worth going into right now, since the game could change so much).

I think if you were to make something like that, it wouldn't be a huge commercial success, but you'd be a game dev legend -- people in the know would talk about that game for years. I'm looking forward to what you do with this, nice work -- I can always tell an idea that has potential because it gets my imagination pumping 8)

Kōtiro: the Making of an Indie Game

thelovegoose

Author

101

December 03, 2007 06:04 AM

Hello Pete,

Thanks for the great feedback!

When I first started realising the potential of this idea I too started to look for ways to interweave between reality and the game. The problem is that players know the game isn't real, so any attempts to create the illusion that some intelligence from the game is trying to comunicate with you in reality are going to come across as gimmicky which will sour the otherwise thrilling feel of the game. The comprimise I have found is in suggesting that something has happened that has crossed the boundaries between the game and reality, but never actually involve the player in it.

To explain how I'm going to do this I need to clarify something:

The only characters in the game are NPCs, no real world players until finally at the end, your copy of the game starts to connect to other copies and you are rescued by the people that will come to be known as the angels, that seize control of the scientists that have you captured. They aren't real players of course, but their appearance is so brief and frantic, you'll never be able to properly determine whether they are real people or not.

"One of the scientists suddenly has a name appear above his head "Brian600". He turns on the others and shouts for you to run. He snatches the soul tag and throws it to you. In the corridor you are stopped by guards. they suddenly stop, have names appear above their heads "Metareal" and "ArticMonkeysFan2007" and they lead you to Pete's cell as they shoot down agents in the process. You take guns and all fight your way out."

With that clarified - here is how I suggest that there has been some cross over between the game world and our world:

"He also tells you that he has discovered something about what happened to this place. People didn't tire of it, this world was shut down. Something happened and they pulled the plug on the most popular MMORPG of your time."

Basically something tried to get out. A hapless player fell foul to the charms of a wonderfully designed NPC. That NPC was a secret of the game, the designer's pride and joy, made in the image of himself.
That NPC chose the player to seduce because he was a loner and impressionable, spending all his time playing MMOPRGs. The NPC was able to get him to do what he wanted in our world. The man was arrested trying to break into the datacentre at the headquarters of the company that ran the game. When the game's developers realised what was on the disk he was carrying they shut the game down, never to be reopened.

This is what you find out when the sequel, the actual MMORPG starts, 50 years on from your first visit to the game.

I like the idea of the instruction manual/help file. I think that could really work...

Cheers again for taking the time to read it :)

[Edited by - thelovegoose on December 3, 2007 7:04:48 AM]

Soul - whats five minutes of your life?

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