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Shared Universe

9 years ago

Been thinkin' about makin' a shared universe. It features a corporation struggling with undiscovered forms of energy and how to harness them. The corporation is neither good nor bad, and each game will feature their experiments with varying degrees of moral ambiguity. They can range anywhere from trying to help people afflicted with a disease to dissecting certain individuals to learn mow about them.

Thoughts?

Shared Universe

9 years ago

I like the concept, especially the more morally neutral take you have in mind. The corporation not being good or evil allows you to ride some gray areas, leaving it up to the reader to judge what's really right or wrong. It'd be important to write it as unbiased as possible, to make sure you don't lean people one way or another towards what you (as the writer) may naturally prefer.

The concept may work better within one larger game though, but that would heavily depend on your inspiration to write, since larger games take a lot of time. Having different experiments, which readers can interact with in different ways, can have impact on future experiments. It's harder to do this by splitting it up into multiple games, though it has been done before.

Random example of the advantage to a more combined game: say you're studying somebody who has a very rare illness. Odds are you wont find another like them. Dissecting their diseased body will gain you valuable information, while letting them live (whether it's giving them a cure, or it's simply a non-fatal illness), and go off would create for much less short-term study material. 

This could branch in two ways: the person, still alive, may come back to help in some way much later in the story. Or the person, now dissected, will give information that will impact the next immediate experiment in a positive way. You can't have it both ways in a single playthrough, and you could write it in a way where both ways feel like justified decisions, which make for different results.

Shared Universe

9 years ago

I don't really want it to be one large game. Each game in the shared universe is set in a different setting and focuses on a completely different character. For example:

"Tape" puts you in the shoes of an unnamed analyst observing a family through many cameras throughout their house, but another game I have in mind with a placeholder title has you as a former experiment of the corporation who now competes in an underground fight club.

The two have barely anything in common with one another but both share the theme of this corporation.

Shared Universe

9 years ago

This actually sounds super interesting. I'd definitely be interested to read these and explore the world at large.

Shared Universe

9 years ago

That makes sense now that you've explained the idea more. The corporation is a common thread, that I assume people will learn more about over multiple games rather than all at once, through their experiments.

I really like the concept of "Tape" especially, which has you observing the family rather than playing as the family. Since it's an experiment, will the analyst (the player) be able to do things that impact the family, to see how they react to it? 

Overall though, I do like the idea you have in mind. If you made a series out of it, or at least did a trial run of one storygame, I'd definitely play it.

Shared Universe

9 years ago

Yess. I'm keeping the ultimate goal of the experiment a secret for now but you can manipulate the house in various ways to provoke or sedate the family, as well as force them into mundane but impacting situations.

An example would be to increase the oven temperature when the wife isn't looking, then lowering it back down when the wife returns. The pot roast she had cooking is ruined and the family is angry towards her, causing an argument that affects her relationship with the family as well as her future interactions regarding cooking.

Shared Universe

9 years ago

Nice, that should be interesting to play through then. It'll be fun to see how different combinations of manipulation changes both the pathway and the end result. 

I like the cooking example, which you plan to have impact both family relationships and future cooking. If the family doesn't want her to cook anymore, then someone else might have to pick up the slack. Maybe the wife even loved to cook, so she could be upset over not being allowed to do something that makes her happy, leading to potential depression. 

Thinking out loud a bit there, but there's a lot of cool things you can do with the concept, and I'm seeing how it'll work fine as separate stories now. Great idea. I look forward to seeing what all you have in mind, so I hope you go through with doing this project!

Shared Universe

9 years ago

Can I have some more details? It's interesting, to be sure. 

Shared Universe

9 years ago

I'm going to recommend you keep this within one large game instead of multiple. Primarily because it'll be much easier for you to set up the backstory/setting in a single story rather than repeating yourself in multiple.

EDIT: Now that you've explained it in a bit more detail, ignore what I've said. It sounds super interesting :)

Shared Universe

9 years ago

This is very interesting. I hope you don't give up on this one.

Shared Universe

9 years ago

I am definitely interested.

Shared Universe

9 years ago

Sounds cool.