Repairing the Universe - Game Idea

Mare Kuntz · 2001-08-29T18:06:54

Well since everybody has been getting such useful comments for their game ideas, I figured I''d put out one I''ve been having trouble with and let people play with it. And I''m looking for a co-writer if anyone really likes this idea. This is a 1 player adventure game with dialog strategy as well as object and action puzzles. Repairing the Universe (better title later) One day a god was swimming along through the sea of universes when she (well not really she but you know what I mean) bumped into our universe and STOPPED. (What?) As you might imagine, it’s difficult to surprise a god, but she looked at our universe, and she looked again, and she was gobsmacked. (What is this? Who made it? Why?) It was nothing like a proper universe. It leaked. (This being the phenomenon we know as entropy.) It was in the process of slowly ripping itself apart. (The expansion of the universe, black and white holes, gravity.) There couldn’t possibly be any intelligent beings in this madness… And then she saw us, tenaciously living our short little lives on our insane planet. And the Itarians, doing the same, and the Wyverra, and the Humans… (Oh *%&$#@! [Untranslatable expletive, but trust me it was a really bad one.]) Some god had committed a MAJOR crime in building this universe. Or, unthinkably, an empty universe had somehow gone out of it’s balanced storage mode and, by some utterly unlikely chance, spontaneously generated this deranged system and the intelligent life it somehow supported. Gods are not indecisive – as soon as she understood what she was seeing (well not seeing but you know what I mean) she knew what she had to do. Fix it. Fix it in such a way that the life inside would not be damaged, slowly enough that the life could adapt. Fix it from the inside. She sorted through the available minds, selecting her tools. * * * The god began with a child and a make-believe kingdom; after all, in one way or another, everything starts there. Thylacine sat her pony with the air of a hero-queen seeing in her prosperous and harmonious queendom the fruit of all her works and days of mind and hands. Tiger stood statuesque and well-turned out in his zebra dun hide, a gentleman by his stripes and a fit supporter for Her Regalness. The queendom itself showed Her Majesty to be an artist: from its name, Penumbre, to its walls of beach glass, willow withe arches spiderwebbed into palaces by yarn, and radiocentric arrangement around the Mall of Her Dreams. You know, the one with the five-star restaurant surrounded by fountains and palm trees; the store where you can use a computer to design your own clothes and have them produced on the spot by a special fabric printer; the store with everything shiny, from foil-art to huge gemstones; the zoo qua pet store; the Library of Congress; the movie theater that plays old movies by request… you get the idea. Some might think 14 a bit too old for such play, but if she weren’t still interested in make-believe the world would miss out on the odd beauty of the civic plan born from her maturing sense of design and juvenile fascination with Utopian theory. Not that the world appreciated said plan. Tiger thought it was interesting, but what do horses know about civic planning? Not much… but Thylacine reassured herself that Tiger appreciated its elegant yet lively atmosphere, and that was what counted, really. Well, not really, but it was pleasant to look at things that way for a moment. At any rate, Thylacine judged Penumbre to be an improvement on the uninterrupted grass that normally occupied this part of the back yard. And the god agreed, selecting Thylacine the Wyverra as the native guide for the first of her repairs. Thylacine beheld Penumbre, and it was good; with the small exception that it lacked wyverns. Sure it had a statue of Shakespeare the Poetic, one of the noble knights who had founded the city, dramatically mounted on his draconic bond-steed Wilde, but there were no make-believe real wyverns in the city. And Thylacine had been getting more and more interested in Wyverns as she approached the age where she could court an egg and perhaps win a lifetime companion a bit smarter than Tiger, who had gotten bored and was now making his contribution towards mowing the lawn. Like most children, Thylacine had parents, and what her parents thought of wyvern-riding was this: Wyvern riders were generally a bit odd and a bit cocky – Thylacine should fit right in. Carrying packages and passengers by wyvern-express was steady work at good pay, and if there happened to be a war wyvern-riders had a higher survival rate than other soldiers. Basically, it was good work if you could get it. Thylacine’s parents were, as you can see, about average in the parental cluelessness range. It was obvious to Thylacine, however, that wyverns were cool because they were the ultimate accessory: a best friend who would never decide you were boring or move away or start competing with you for grades, money, or others’ attention; flashy transport that evidenced your prosperity; and a sexy partner who’s loyalty to you advertised your social and reproductive fitness. And they came with a stylish uniform for the rider. Now, wyverns are not officially considered sexy, and it would be unheard of for a person to have sex with one, but their species was quite closely related to people, and the similarities were evident. The ruffle, a fringe of skin along the underside of a person’s arms that was an important part of mating rituals, was obviously a vestigial version of a wyvern’s wing. A person’s hand was a weaker but more agile version of a wyvern’s powerful claw. And most obviously, a wyvern’s genitals might be horse-sized, but just like a person’s in every other detail. And wyverns don’t wear clothes. Thylacine, being something of a late bloomer, wasn’t terribly interested in draconic exhibitionism – it was a bosom companion, a soul twin, that she wished for. (Here there is much lamenting about the fact that very few people can have wyverns. After the player completes an intervening game section this situation is changed to the following: The only way to become a wyvern rider is to dream a wyvern for yourself. To dream it strongly, clearly, and persistently. One went at egg-laying time to the nearest aerie, sat in the meditation gallery around the egg-laying chamber, and called a wyvern into existence. While they wait for the eggs to be laid, and to hatch, to clarify and reinforce their vision most wyvern-seekers create something – a song, a story, a drawing, a sculpture of their dream-wyvern. It’s best to have your vision clear and ready on the first day they let the public into the meditation gallery, as they would in two weeks. Thus Thylacine had come out to look upon her city, and use the strength of its envisioning as a strong foundation for her vision of a wyvern. Make-believe, with adult (well, nearly) understanding behind it is more powerful than one might think. It was a secret Thylacine knew: that most of the world you live in you carry around with you, inside your head, and if you can change what’s in your head, the whole world changes accordingly. Gravity and other laws of physics, no, but meanings, expectations, relationships, oh yes. You can alter your little piece of the consensual universe and watch the meme-ripples spread to your advantage…. Well, it’s more like advertising than sorcery, but it worked for Thylacine. So… what would this soul-twin wyvern-of-her-dreams be like? Thylacine dismounted, freeing Tiger to graze. She pulled a handful of sweet clover from the yard, offering most of it to Tiger, and taking a few leaves for herself. Chewing thoughtfully, she gazed at the delicate towers and arches of her city. Did she want a classical wyvern, a dragon-like animal with 2 wings and 2 legs? Or did she want one of the pegasi or gryphons that had started popping out of wyvern eggs? Maybe something entirely new would be best… (Here begins the first segment of adventure-game play, in which the god acts through Thylacine to make the universe responsive to human desires. And the peasants are mightily confused, but when they figure out they don’t have to be afraid, they rejoice. Then another tool-mind of a different race is introduced, and the god acts through them to fix something else, rinse and repeat. Things that get fixed are mortality, pain, bigotry, etc.

Writing for Games Game Design

Started by sunandshadow August 12, 2001 10:06 PM

25 comments, last by sunandshadow 22 years, 7 months ago

Mooglez

122

August 23, 2001 09:33 AM

quote:An example of what I can think of would be Pulp fiction.

Hmm.. now I''m starting to think that someone one should make a Max Payne clone with a story like the movie Momento. Oh yea!

The thing is, Pulp fiction never have a definate straight story to tell and the whole movie was done in random chronological order. That will have an effect of lowering the impact of the final outcome to the players mainly because they will be unsure if it is really the end or not.

quote:You can get ... a ... guy ?! My personal dissapointement was with Season of Sakura where I don''t seem to be able to get the girl who wants to become a nun, and that dark moddy one, my favourite

You can''t get the guy in True love sorry to disappoint you. But you can get a guy in a similar game called May Club though... maybe that''s the game you were thinking? My problem with Season of Sakura is that I can''t get the gloomy, short white hair girl that looks like Rei and got so frustrated having to start over everytime having to read all the conversations again. Bad game design, Grrrr.

quote:I haven''t seen any vision of escaflowne, unfortunately, but the local science fiction society''s just getting geared up for the year, who knows, they may end up showing some.

I have only seen a few episodes of escaflowne but not enough to comment on it. Another anime you could check out about changing fate is El Hazard. It''s overall story and plot is very well done and the hook at the start is really excellent.

-------------Blade Mistress Online

Sarazen

122

August 23, 2001 02:11 PM

Ahhh, young grasshopper. You are obviously not skilled in the fine art of smooth talking! I sat down at a LAN one morning, after everyone had finally gone to sleep, and finished True Love in every way possible. And yes, you CAN get the guy (your best friend). I''ve forgotten how to exactly, but if I can be bothered getting the game out again I''ll let you know.

I still think the best one was the cat ... heh.

Drizzt DoUrden

100

August 23, 2001 02:40 PM

I am quite confused, because it was mroe like a prelude to a book then a idea for a game. You introduced two charecters. I like the writing, and I think it would be good as a beggining movie for a game, but I cant find a plot.

I can however think this:
The Goddess has trouble creatting by herself so she uses the girls dreams to create the world, since she dreams of it as a beautiful place.
The question is which is easier, repairing the world, or making a dream come true?

------------------------------Put THAT in your smoke and pipe it

sunandshadow

7,435

Author

August 24, 2001 03:41 PM

Sarazen: Do tell me if you remember!

Did you actually get a picture sequence with him? I got a cheat that supposedly extracted all the pics from the game for you and there weren''t any "reward" ones of him. If there weren''t any pics I doubt it would be worth the attempt.

Drizzt: The plot is really quite simple: You are a goddess. Because of a moral imperative you must fix the universe. Because you don''t completely understand the weaknesses and reactions of the intelligences that have evolved here, you are using them as tools/mediums to guide the repairs, as a safety precaution. The universe itself and people''s agendas and beliefs resist you. When you have overcome all resistance, solved all puzzles, and cleaned up all side effects, you have effectively "saved the universe" just like in your typical RPG, everyone lives happily ever after, the end.

What I really need to do is figure out what the settings, protagonists, and mini-goals of the various chapters are, what resists each one, what each solution is, how to ensure that the gameplay is good, and how to get a team to put the game together.

I want to help design a "sandpark" MMO. Optional interactive story with quests and deeply characterized NPCs, plus sandbox elements like player-craftable housing and lots of other crafting. If you are starting a design of this type, please PM me. I also love pet-breeding games.

code-x

122

August 29, 2001 02:08 PM

Hello,

The script looks very impressive so far.
I have some ideas for splitting the game up into several levels.
Each level could be another mission.
Some missions could be :
- save endangered species.
- recover the missing DNA sequence of endangered species
- create new species to work for you
- work with old civilizations to recover old wise knowledge
like indians, shamans.
- work with spirits

Drizzt DoUrden

100

August 29, 2001 02:22 PM

So its kind of like the game black and white? The only difference is your recreating the world rather than having it premade.If this is based on true facts there would be more thn 75,000,000 hours of game play, lol. I like the idea, and I think if you can find the right programmers(not lazy, and not stupid

) you can make money off of this game. if you want to get some ideas, you should play the game black and white. its not the same, but theres many concpets, and you could learn alot from it. The idea seems pretty origonal though, and since you have been responding to everyone input you seem pretty serios about it. So, good luck.

"I''''ve sparred with creatures from the nine hells themselves... I barely plan on breaking a sweat here, today."~Drizzt Do''''Urden

------------------------------Put THAT in your smoke and pipe it

sunandshadow

7,435

Author

August 29, 2001 06:06 PM

Thank you for your mission suggestions code-x

Um. Let me emphasize that this will be an RPG-adventure hybrid, and so no much like black and white, which I understand to be a strategy game (not sure, since I haven''t played it). I am aiming for 40-60 hrs of gameplay including movies.

I have a forum for my game design team now! Come visit!

Repairing the Universe - Game Idea

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Repairing the Universe - Game Idea

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