Game Overview
Wild Space is a game in development of P2. The game’s tagline reads as follows:
An isolationist shoots themself into space to avoid humanity. Then, they discover alternate life with… fluffy paws?
The premise of the game is to explore an isolationist’s encounter with alien life, after living a life of dejectedness back on Earth. The player works a job at a space post, designed to position themself as far away from humanity as possible. In space, their job is to report findings at their assigned space post.
In space, there isn’t much to do, so the player is left with time to explore their feelings, and decide whether they will carry out a self-fulfilling prophecy of loneliness, or place their trust in otherworldly beings to find friendship (or something more?). The problem and goal in the game is to resolve the conflict of discovering these alternate lifeforms. Some choices they can make by the end of the game: Will they find solace in furry friendship? Succumb to their loneliness? Or perhaps report them for Earth to handle?
Throughout the game, I’ve planned for the player to go through cycles of (a) reporting for their job, (b) talking to furry characters, and (c) resolving a major event. For more information on these events, see the concept map below.
Concept Map
This concept map lays out the events that happen across the three days planned for this interactive fiction game. For readability, view the public Figma file here.
Figure: A mapping of the game’s narrative events
Project Plan
My plan to get this project rough draft done by this upcoming Monday, and then continue iterating after that, up to the final project submission on the following Monday:
Saturday (10/18) – Create nodes for each dialogue tree, connect them without fleshing dialogue
Sunday (10/19) – Flesh out dialogue tree, playtest with somebody, write blog post on progress
Monday (10/20) – Host another playtest, collect feedback for next iteration
Wednesday (10/22) – Host another playtest, collect feedback for next iteration
Saturday (10/25) – Host another playtest, collect feedback for next iteration
The only potential challenge that I currently envision is one of scope and time. I’m hoping to get a bare-bones implementation done by Sunday so it can be playtested. I think the idea is pretty concrete in my head, so I don’t have any worries about execution. I’m pretty excited to work on this project, and will find a way to make ends meet. 🙂
