The other topic was great but it seems everyone was running out of ideas. So as sunandshadow suggested we should start a new one. Instructions: 1. Read all of the posts to avoid being too much off-topic. 2. Write up your idea about the topic that the post above you decided (ie: He/She wrote "Next: ") 3. When you are finished, Choose which topic you would like the next person discuss about (ie: "Next: Music"). It can be anything, from something general (no too general though) to something very precise. Be sure it has not already been chosen. General Ideas: Setting: The entire game is set in an alien society, no humans allowed anywhere in the plot. Genre: Immersive Role-Playing Game Next: Universe background and story

History

The entire alien race (indeed, the entire Universe) revolves around game design. For billions upon billions of years, all of these aliens have been happily slaving away at their games until one day they all collectively (because these are telepathic aliens) realized they weren''t making anything new. The challange was subsequently made to design a game that hasn''t been made in the past billion odd years.

Prologue

You live on a planet, completely oblivious to your surroundings (you don''t even get an ultra newspaper, you sorry sap) and enjoy entering the various ancient dungeons of your planet that are inhabited by all sorts of crazed alien monsters, slaying said monsters, and returning to your reclusive cabin in the middle of your enchanted alien woods to play with all of the alien currency you''ve collected in your raiding. Beyond slaying millions and millions of monsters in your lifetime, your only other skill is being able to truthfully say you enjoy long walks on the beach.



Next: Outline the story (flesh it out, if you like, but, uh... make sure it''s alien flesh)

...!

Let''s just ignore that guy, and start over, okay?

Hey, no need for sad-faces, we can work with this! We have a planet of aliens where they are all creators or entertainments of various sorts, which makes sense because if you''re psychic and/or empathic you want other people to be pleased and amused because their pleasure and amusement will spill over to you. And when you''re not creating, naturally you go and enjoy others'' creations, gather materials for your own creations, and search for original ideas. The entertainments themselves can be anything from a poem to a themepark or a VR experience, so you can see the map of our world is going to be wonderfully wacky.

Next: gameplay, how does it work?

You build levels and play in the game and it seems real. Some people make different levels and you can make them yourself it can start in outer space then land under the sea it is up to you.
New levels would be uploaded. Every day

Next : More of a plot

mailto:peadar@coylelj.fsnet.co.uk

Back up a second...

Creating levels seems like somewhat pedantic or "standard" gameplay; how about doing something more in line with sunandshadow''s background/story? You create "productions" - operas, theatre, films, music, videos - which you then present to the public. Doing this requires working with "artists", "crewmembers", "extras" etc - essentially NPCs you give instruction or direction to. Each (NP) character has a personality, drive and ambition (to varying extents), yet exhibits group behavior. So the dancers for a video or concert will generally tend to work together to perfect the dance routines, but there may be one sour grape in the bunch.

Since the entire population are empaths, everyone engages in activities to bring pleasure to others (the dancers strive for the standing ovation of the audience; farmers strive for perfect produce, which brings pleasure to the consumers; and all this brings pleasure back to the worker).

In terms of mechanics of gameplay, there would need to be "studios" or "theatre workshops" where you integrate music or dialogue clips with images, props and/or animations & effects. There could also be avenues for casting calls (casting decisions will actually be automatically handled to reduce micromanagement) so that you are faced with a fairly random NPC cast pool. Over time (as you gain influence/reputation) you will be able to request a few NPCs in specific capacities - perhaps eventually hand-selecting the cast on a per-project basis.

Extra credit: possible collaborations with other player producers (for some form of multiplayer element).

Next: Plot.