Post-Apocalyptic Game Idea

Okay, guys and gals, I've got an idea for a game and I wanted my fellow tropers' opinions on how it sounds.

• Plot:
  • Humanity once controlled a vast interstellar empire. But then, [random disaster], and the humans' fell. Now their former strength has become only a legend to the humans, scattered across many worlds, isolated and living as ancient humans did, as nomads and villagers. They lack guidance or order... until you fell too.
  • Sent by a higher Power to help humanity find their path, you wield vast strength, agility, and speed. You shrug off missiles, laugh at bullets, and tear down mountains. Your missions is clear: find your path, and guide the humans on theirs.
• Plot Summary:
  • Humans had a huge empire with many worlds, but some unknown disaster struck, destroying their ships and technology and leaving humans stranded on their many different worlds, living as wanderers and villagers and reverting to being farmers, craftsmen, miners, and blacksmiths. Unfortunately, without technology, otherworldly creatures take their toll on the population, and new abominations created by the disaster add to the chaos.
  • You play as a mysterious member of a race known as Nobles. Human-like in appearance, you have claws, fur, multicolor eyes, and are outfitted in highly advanced, customizable armor.
  • Gameplay revolves around gathering supplies from ruins, fighting beasts, mutants, etc., uniting NP Cs, and going on various quests and missions.
  • There would be two game modes: Sandbox and Story Modes. Sandbox Mode would be...a Sandbox Mode. Story Mode would involve you founding a village, gathering NP Cs, and, most importantly, gathering memories and finding out what happened to the humans' empire.
• Gameplay:
  • The whole game focuses on you making your own story. You can customize your gender and appearance. Your armor especially is highly customizable, allowing you to add on a wide variety of equipment and other attachable, some only for display; your look could range from a Big Sister to a Spartan or even your basic knight in shining/ grimy armor.
  • Weapons are also highly customizable, allowing you to take random junk and craft it into a fully functional, unique sniper rifle, carbine, pistol, etc. Bullets, scopes, blades, etc. could be made with thousands of combinations and unique traits.
  • The world would be randomly generated and huge, with rainforests, deserts, mountains, swamps, and many other environments. Towns, camps, and caves would be scattered around at random. Missions and quests ranging from escorts, assassinations, and treasure-hunts will be generated and triggered by speaking to townsfolk or other events.
• Themes:
  • The game will be Christian-based, but not in an "in-your-face" way: think J.R.R Tolkien. Themes include:
    • The need for a purpose
    • The consequences of following a good or bad path
      • Being good may be hard, but will pay off in the end
      • Being evil will be easier, but will come back to bite you in the end.
    • The importance of memory (those who forget history are doomed to repeat it)
    • The ability of man to redeem himself

And their will be multiplayer, of course.

So what do you think?

edited 4th Sep '11 8:43:45 PM by OrKuunArQenByundis

Is this specific influence necessary? Being an After the End thing it would make more sense if the overall philosophy was sterile and secular, or if it combined fragments of many belief systems.

Unless you just want to take the symbolism. That may work.

The themes don't sound particularly Christian to me...

So pretty much you play as the God Emperor of Mankind from Warhammer 40k, during his Great Crusade?

Shit, I'm game. That'd be awesome.

edited 5th Sep '11 12:43:15 AM by MarkVonLewis

So there's a random disaster in all solar systems at once?

I haven't completely figured out the plot yet. It's probably going to be a war, because I had this cool idea that, when you collect certain memories, a flashback level will occur and you'll re-live a battle or something.

Like I said, subtle. Obviously you're going to have to kill things, but considering the circumstances (humanity struggling to survive, demonic beasts and Chaotic Evil humans everywhere), I'm pretty sure an "Old Testament" approach would be more realistic (in which God allows the good guys to wage war to survive)

edited 5th Sep '11 7:19:07 AM by OrKuunArQenByundis

So, Black & White apocalypse flavored?

edited 5th Sep '11 7:24:15 AM by ROTHY

I guess a bit like that, except your player is essentially a dumbed down Angel. I'm thinking about the enemy being some Nobles who, finding themselves essentially "gods among mortals", decide that they should be in the lead instead of just protectors.

Oh yeah, forgot to mention it's a First-Person Shooter

edited 5th Sep '11 7:33:53 AM by OrKuunArQenByundis

What's the nature of the game's internal conflict? Is it man against man? Man against chaos? Is there a central villain, or villainous focus? How do they work?

Does the crisis escalate, or is it a free ranging game, with movement from world to world? What are the main character's initial objectives, and how do they extend to the saving of the universe? Or do they start with saving the universe? How do they plan on achieving this? How is this translated across to the PC's goals, and to the setting — both in the macro and in the micro sense?

What mechanics would the game work with? Party based? Single player? What kind of interaction?

Are I annoying you with questions? Am I? Am I? Am I? I am aren't I? Am I? Am I?

@ Recon5: I'm assuming you mean because it doesn't follow the Biblical apocalypse? Well, I'd like to point out that God promised He wouldn't destroy the world with a flood again. He never said he wouldn't wipe out most of humanity with some other kind of disaster before the apocalypse in Revelation.

@ Merlo: I'm pretty sure all of those themes are in the Bible somewhere.

So basically, you play as an angelic type creature in a Dwarf Fortress type game that combines Fortress and Adventure modes? This sounds cool. Also, I'd like to applaud the choice of subtlety for the Christian aspect, as well the Old Testament style, as that portion of the Bible tends to get overlooked a lot.

A couple questions and suggestions:

• What graphical style do you picture this as? Realistic? Cartoony? A mixture of both?
• Is this game just an idea you're tossing around, something you want to make as freeware, or something you're dreaming will one day actually be made and sold by a professional company?
• For a more story oriented question, you mentioned "demonic creatures." Are these actual demons, aliens, something completely different, or left ambiguous? If they're actual demons, I suggest using designs similar to angels but scarier.
• I suggest adding a little bit of gray to the morality choices. While morality to God is Black and White, be honest: the right thing — even by Biblical standards — doesn't always seem right, does it? I'm not saying you should go full on Gray-and-Grey Morality, just enough that the choices don't seem as bi-polar as they are in games like Infamous.Example
  ^{You are told to wipe out a group of people, but they have yet to do anything wrong to do anything wrong to you or your people. You can choose not to kill them, which seems right, but later down the road they begin to genocide other groups of people.}
• Genre-busting is always good. It sounds to me like you might already plan to have the player manage their village in Story Mode*
  ^{If I'm wrong, let me say it sounds like a good idea to me ;)}
  , so that would be a good start. Just try not to go so overboard that you end up in Genre Roulette territory (unless you think you can pull it off right).

Wow, that was longer than I thought. Anyway, I like this idea so far, and hope to hear more from it. Best of luck!

edited 5th Sep '11 8:20:36 AM by MegaRock35

It's probably man against man. Honestly, human individuals probably won't play a huge part in the first game (besides quest triggers or bandits and warlords to defeat), they'd be more of a MacGuffin as a whole: you choose either to A) Protect them from evil Nobles and show them their "path", or B) Enslave them and kill your rival Noble warlords. Depending on which you choose, you get a different ending.

I'm trying to figure traveling from world to world in the plot, but that'd probably come with a sequel or expansion-pack story (as Nobles are, like I've said, basically Angels, some have unique powers like teleportation, so that might work in). The whole world would, like I've said, be randomly generated: traveling great distances quickly would require the use of a jet-system integrated into your armor.

Where I'm at now plot-wise, your character doesn't exactly know what his mission is (in that, nobody pointed to a bunch of humans and said "Hey. Keep them from killing each other, 'kay?") In collecting memories, you find out more about yourself, your race, the humans' downfall, and your mission. A second-conscience in the form of a disembodied voice gives you subtle hints, not really helping you, so much as asking "Why are you here? What is your goal? Are you an Angel or a Demon?". A major element of the game is your ability to choose your path, and that that path always has consequences, good or bad.

Story Mode would be single player.

Sandbox mode could be multiplayer.

edited 5th Sep '11 8:17:20 AM by OrKuunArQenByundis

To begin, when I make "aliens" in my universes, they usually have there own Christianity-like religion,with a Bible similar, but not identical to ours,since, you know, they're not human (I think C.S. Lewis's Peralandra had something similar).

The style would be realistic.

I hope that it will be sold one day. When I originally thought of the idea, I looked at Minecraft and thought "Wow, that was made by only a few people? I bet I could do that." Then I realized that this game would probably be a thousand times more difficult to make.

I think as far as "Demonic creatures" goes, there will be A) Actual monstrous demons, B) Fallen Nobles, as I've mentioned, that look more like you but a bit darker, C) Extraterrestrial creatures, probably introduced to the humans' worlds from other sentient-bearing planets (who might also have gotten caught up in the whole disaster and pushed back to a more primitive state), and possibly D) Actual sentient extraterrestrials (although these might come up in sequels; the first game is centered around just humans.)

One Christian theme I'd really like to get across to the players is that no matter what you do or what happens, it happens for a good reason. No matter what you do, there will be a happy, or at least Bittersweet, ending. Examples:

• Let's say you spend the whole game helping your human friends, defending them, and you go forth to defeat the evil villain to ensure the safety of your charges. You vanquish him, but you're mortally wounded, lying in a forest. Your view starts to fade black... oh, is that the little boy you saved from wolves? Is that his mother the healer, whose house you saved when bandits tried to burn it down? Oh look, they're tending my wounds. Looks like I'm gonna live after all. Your inner-voice gives a speech about how you've earned your happy ending, and the Story Mode ends with happy music.
• Now, let's say you spent the whole game terrorizing your people, ignoring them being eaten by wild beasts, and stood there laughing as bandits beat up an old man. You confront the evil villain to ensure your slaves remain yours. You defeat him, but you're lying alone in a forest. Suddenly, the boy and his mother appears. But they just stand there as your view fades to black, while your inner voice asks you if what you did was worth it. You see a 3rd person view of the mother walking away. The boy, however, curiously takes off your helmet and puts it on. A flash of all the memories you've absorbed occurs, and the voice says "Welcome, Noble. What's your name?" Implying that a new, better Noble will be created who will learn from your mistakes.

It's important that I don't actually go "Wow, player, you suck for not being a good guy", as that wouldn't endear people to the game. I think I've figured out a good compromise, don't you?

Managing your village will probably involve you finding a location, be it a forest, plain, mountain, desert, etc. and allowing your charges to build a village on their own. I might think of a more detailed way to influence your village, but, unless you're a grey or black side, uh, moraliter(?), the goal isn't really to dominate them. The atmosphere and style of your village will change according to the environment and which path you take (good path= nice, shiny, bustling village/ bad path= grey, dreary, worn-out village)

edited 5th Sep '11 9:05:09 AM by OrKuunArQenByundis

Not really. If it's a unified mankind struggling together after The End of the World as We Know It there would logically have to be a lot of syncretism or an 'enlightened middle way' in order for everyone to get along, unless the events of the apocalypse itself somehow reinforced the Christian perspective.

And besides, if the game is just going to use a vaguely Christian hierarchy/power levels thing for its cosmology then the OP will have a lot more freedom to experiment by just making up something out of whole cloth rather than trying to include certain hints of Christian eschatology.

edited 5th Sep '11 6:08:43 PM by Recon5