The Diary of a Survivor
Sept 20, 2019 10:26:14 GMT
Post by Wormatsu on Sept 20, 2019 10:26:14 GMT
DISCLAIMER: This thread may never amount to anything, but I felt a need to archive the project I've spent the last ten years muddling over in my head, sometimes creating very basic proofs of concept in Multimedia Fusion, creating notebooks full of level and storybook ideas and even discussing the title as a possible movie project with my high school friends. I will share some of my ideas as time passes and I'll gladly accept any ideas and input from others as well. And who knows, the next time I snap my ankle and have nothing to do, maybe this project might finally come to fruition. The story is cheesy, but that's how it's supposed to be.
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The Diary of a Survivor
THE SETTING
Humanity sighed in relief as the early 2030s saw world leaders agree on a pact to disarm their nuclear weapons. Politicians around the globe seemed to accept that the biggest threats to humanity came from their own doings instead of each other. They went to great lengths to ensure peace so that they could focus on battling the threats of global warming, water shortage and extremism.
But alas, it wasn't to be. The 2040s saw the oil wells in the Middle East finally dry up, and as the efforts to slow down global warming hadn't quite worked, so did the supply of water and farmable land. Tensions began to flare as world leaders had failed to account for the sudden lack of oil, nor address the humane crisis in the East. People once again had to flee to the North and West in search of water and food, where countries were not ready to accomodate them.
Behind the scenes, two powerful groups of nations had formed. The Coalition and The Order. While the nuclear pact stood, the arms race had been in full swing. The Coalition's findings resulted in a chemical weapon called Virus X-57. The scientists warned the trigger-happy politicians on it's use, as while lab tests on rats had shown it's great promise as an incapacitating chemical agent, the test results on after effects were inconclusive at best. The warnings fell on deaf ears as World War III finally broke out, and while the leaders inside The Coalition had agreed to not release the Virus just yet, a human error resulted in a canister being loaded into a supply train that ended up being bombed in the middle of a rural European city, releasing the virus. The results... well, let's just say nuclear winter might just have been preferrable to what came to be of this god-forsaken planet.
THE PLAYER CHARACTER
You lived in a remote country that wasn't a direct member of either The Coalition or The Order. Politicians tried to play the middle ground between the groups and to stay out of the conflict as the general population followed news of the war breaking out in terror. The politicians succeeded in their efforts to stay neutral, for the most part, but when the virus was released, there was no safe haven on Earth. It didn't take long for the virus to move into your country. Civil unrest ensued as those infected began suffering from blackout bouts of blind rage, attacking other people in sight. Containment efforts were a failure and it didn't take long for society to fall.
You and your fiance went into hiding, as a cottage on an island in the middle of a lake proved to be out of reach for the infected, but as months went by, supplies dwindled and as everything around you had already been scavenged, you were forced to move...
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GAMEPLAY
The number one concern in my head is that I seemingly have a hundred different ideas I want to implement. In the end, the game might become a gallery of very different gameplay ideas and concepts, instead of a single gameplay style divided into different levels.
The positive thing is I now understand and accept my shortcomings. I'm not very good a level design. I know to keep it relatively simple, or to get help from others.
The clearest idea I currently have is a rather simple top-down stealth/action level where the player character scavenges for supplies at a market. Scavenging makes sound which lures nearby enemies to investigate. Using firearms would obviously do the same. The enemies would be extremely dangerous as a single bite would infect you with the virus, so instead of a "get hit and lose hp" system, there could be a struggle instead, maybe with a stamina meter to boot so you'd have to conserve that as well while moving. If you run errantly (which also makes sound), you'd have less stamina to struggle with the enemy. Vice versa, if you take too long to struggle with the enemy before breaking free, you'd have limited stamina to run away and would have to attack precisely to survive the encounter. Very basic and cheesy, eh?
One of the things that's been giving me enthusiasm about this project lately is the YouTube series Ben "Yahtzee" Croshaw has been doing for The Escapist channel lately, where he creates 12 different games in 12 months. It's very fascinating and there's a lot of philosophy I want to implement from his documentary on his own process. Primary gameplay loops first, etc. etc. This is also one of the reasons I think the final game might be more of a gallery of different gameplay ideas than a long top-down shooter, for example. I was always super into creating different concepts for games but when I was supposed to start padding it up and create more levels, I lost interest very quickly.
I'll open more concepts and ideas in my head as time passes. When it comes to actually implementing and creating the game, I currently have licenses to Multimedia Fusion 2, GameMaker Studio Pro and several Unity libraries through Humble Bundle, which I've been meaning to check out and test for ages. As my life generally is really busy at the moment, it might take a while, but even if the game doesn't actually come to be, I just feel good about having documented my ideas here. Maybe as a way to give ideas to other, I dunno.