As soon as I saw "I don't have a problem with a bounded universe" I thought well why not set the game in a prison. The advantages are that the player - innocent who was wrongly convicted? - knows there are physical boundaries to start with. Thus the options are much more to do with character development - representing him/herself on appeal and winning? Escaping etc..

Another possibility is someone marooned on an island. If the game is clear from the start that there are physical boundaries then a story is less important - you're not questing for the staff of whosit in the first place.

The objective is to escape from the situation. There might be ten different ways of doing this. But before you can achieve method x your character has to have developed in a certain way.



Edited by - Crydee on August 14, 2001 8:51:06 AM

quote: Original post by Crydee
As soon as I saw "I don''t have a problem with a bounded universe" I thought well why not set the game in a prison. The advantages are that the player - innocent who was wrongly convicted? - knows there are physical boundaries to start with. Thus the options are much more to do with character development - representing him/herself on appeal and winning? Escaping etc..

One setting I''ve imagined is a world much like Bajor in the Star Trek universe. Some occupying enemy has enslaved and brutalized the population, and the player starts out in a prison camp. So this would be one of many possible starting positions.

quote:
Another possibility is someone marooned on an island. If the game is clear from the start that there are physical boundaries then a story is less important - you''re not questing for the staff of whosit in the first place.

This one works, too. But I''d never leave the player entirely in these environments, and would always want to open the game universe up. I''m a fan of the idea of increasing larger and larger boundaries that expand as the player grows more capable. So both the island and the prison would have escape routes that lead to larger worlds.


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Just waiting for the mothership...