Scaring the crap out of people

Dwarf with Axe · 2001-12-29T10:18:38

I am a programmer, so don''t think I''m a newbie w/ a good Idea. I have a great setup and Idea for a game (and a lot of documentation) that sort of resembles the Resident Evil series. I would like to know how you like it, and if not, what you would change. In short, heres the explanation: Scientists decide to take medical technology to another level and program little robots to do surgery for doctors. They wanted a way to program thousands of little organisms to do something, inject them into a human body, and let them do their work. This seemed like a great idea, so eventually (through lots of R&D) they created a serrum of tiny, microscopic robots that could be injected into someone. Because they were so small, their processor abilities weren''t very extreme, so scientists decided this: Instead of programming them what do to, program them with everything that a perfect human should have , then inject them and they will just go around fixing everything that was wrong. (OOC: Fixing everything that is wrong meaning that if you have scars they will regenerate. If you have cuts, they will heal.) The probes are uniquely designed and all worked out so that they are powered by protein. I don''t want to go into a big explanation about how they work, but I will say this: If their host has a flaw, they will fix it. Scientists tried this out on some animals and realized that they worked. Scars, cuts, bullet wounds; all were healed. The animals were even performing physically better. So the scientists moved to a deserted Island off of Africa (somewhere near Madagascar) and setup a research facility known as New Origin. The island is a jungle world that consists of one mesa on which the lab is constructed. Down below, there is two boat docks, a runway, and on a seperate island inside a bay is the powerhouse. A tram connects the research lab with three Observation Areas inside the jungle (and also the powerhouse). The island began with a large staff. People were always occupying the Observation Posts and the lab, the trams were always running, planes were always flying in and out bringing supplies from the mainland. What were they observing? The scientists realized that after the injection of the serrum into the animals, the probes would fix whatever was wrong with them, but wouldn''t stop. It would evolve them so that they became bigger, stronger, and better. Since the probes required protein, (and meat is a good source of protein), the animals evolved to hunt down other animals to eat their meat. Now, since all the animals kept hunting one another, they kept getting better and better and stronger and stronger and nastier and nastier. The containment was fairly easy. They had a lot of elecric fences that supplied enough volts to kill godzilla (or so the engineers claimed). Humans were never affected, at least, not yet. A military general heard of this serrum and decided to visit the island. After reviewing the after effects of the serrum, he talked to the scientist and made a deal. He would buy cases and cases of this serrum and inject it into his men, creating superhuman soldiers, and give the scientist a crap-load of cash. Of course he agreed, and everyone was happy. Back in the mainland, the soldiers were injected, and just as you thought, they weren''t pretty. They began to grow claws, spikes; Those who were aggressive began to get bigger and grow larger weapons like claws, antlers, horns... And those who were weak began to grow legs and eyes to run faster and hide. The soldiers weren''t coming out as the general wanted, so he went back to the scientist and had a large argument. The general wanted all his money back, but the scientist spent it all trying to come up with a reversing serrum: something that destroys the probes and trys to reverse the evolutionary effects. The general got pissed, shot the scientist, and flew back to the mainland. There, he saw that the superhuman soldiers had broken out of the base and labs and were now out in the open world. The general saw how his men were slashed, eated, and mutilated. Some were even crawling on the ground screaming and yelling, but he just stood there with his mouth dropped. (And I think you can piece together the rest) A faction of surviving mercenaries got together and decided to get all the remaining survivors that they could find. They had one mission, and it was clear: Go back to the island and find that reversing serrum. It was the only way human kind would survive. Meanwhile, the serrum was being spread and passed along with every person killed. The mercenaries had no choice. They had to defeat the monsters that the serrum created. They had to survive. Well what do you think? I have all the technical questions worked out, I just don''t want to post all of it. Please ask questions, and please give feedback. Thanks! Game Specs: Genre: 3D Action (some RPG) Purpose: Scare the crap out of the players. Literally. Languages: C/C++ and OpenGL Development Status: 13.2% complete (so far I just have the story, no code yet). Once again, I''d like your feedback. Thanks.

Game Design and Theory Game Design

Started by Dwarf with Axe December 26, 2001 02:26 PM

22 comments, last by Dwarf with Axe 22 years, 3 months ago

TechnoHydra

122

December 27, 2001 09:47 PM

Say nanoprobe instead of nanoprobic, its sounds more professional. Also might want to leave out the mirco-robot part and just say Medical breakthrough or some thing to that effect, micro-robot followed by nanoprobe technology almost sounds like your repeating yourself. Just a suggestion.

ShadeStorm

122

December 28, 2001 05:59 AM

I would agree that the players won''t care about the scientific stuff, so don''t tell them...not outright details, anyway. I can tell you from PnP RPG experience, at least, that as long as you have things worked out, the story will stay consistent, and the players WILL notice that. Both of these principles work together when you want to scare someone. In System Shock 2, you didn''t know what was going on, at least not for a little while. Based on Xerxes''s PA announcements, the mutterings of the Hybrid, and various other elements, there seemed to be an overall controlling intelligence. It all tied together. If you add the "I don''t know what''s around the corner" with "It may know what''s on THIS side of the corner", you get "I''m going to leave the light on tonight."

Having said that, your story sounds like "Jurassic Evil 4". With the exception of the mesa, the island is laid out exactly like the first Jurassic Park. I would really suggest changing that. That''s another thing the players will pick up on, even if they don''t realize what''s bothering them. Another suggestion would be to actually write out the intro thing as a story and let friends/teachers/relatives read it. Ask specifically if it scared them. If not, try again. Don''t be afraid to rewrite something you like if it doesn''t help you...which here means scaring the pants off people.

ShadeStorm, the Day_Glo Fish

ShadeStorm, the Day_Glo Fish

Nurgle

269

December 28, 2001 08:13 PM

*cough*Borg*cough*

After careful deliberation, I have come to the conclusion that Nazrix is not cool. I am sorry for any inconvienience my previous mistake may have caused. We now return you to the original programming

solinear

145

December 29, 2001 10:18 AM

quote:BTW, for the robots to recreate eachother, they´ll need iron, and for that, the host needs to eat iron...

Is this a plot idea? I hope so, since iron has not been and will never be used for nanites. Carbon is the preferred atom of choice for smaller objects, it''s much more flexible, there is a reason that we''re called carbon-based lifeforms... carbon is probably the wonder atom. The only thing that comes close to it in usefulness is hydrogen, closely followed by oxygen.

Iron? It''s only usefulness is that it''s hard. Detriments that you don''t want is the ease of change, such as oxidation. It''s not like you can turn it into stainless steel and then use it for nanites.

Scaring the crap out of people

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Scaring the crap out of people

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