The core dilemma at the heart of our game is choosing whether or not to allow the current world – in steady ecological decline – to be superseded by another one brimming with plant life. It’s important that this choice be difficult, so I chose images that tried to express that even if the world itself is dying, the city itself can still be vibrant and full of people doing their best to live their lives.
I chose a lot of comics artwork in particular, because I think that type of serial narrative is similar to the sort of story we’re looking to tell as well.
Playlist:
(Begin Again may be a little on the nose)
Ideas:
- Narrative approach: I think that evocative details that gesture towards a much larger world will be important. Although we want the scope to remain relatively small, I think we want to suggest that there’s a lot more at stake.
- Characters whose characteristics are obscured, but very specific. I.e., maybe someone is an amateur ecologist, who was active in eco-terrorist activism. The game shouldn’t just tell you, but the player should have to figure out their perspective and make value judgments about who to listen to.
- Inspiration for individual nodes: the King of Dragon Pass advisor panel, where everyone chimes in on an event
- Narrative should be one of the main types of fun – you’re engaged with the story, and your part in shaping it.
- However, there should also be a sense of fellowship and identification (or disagreement!) with the characters – we want a narrative driven by interaction with, and between, the different characters.
- Genre options: point and click adventure, visual novel, 2D walking simulator
