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| Worlds Astray |
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The idea behind the game is to allow people to explore beautiful worlds, and enjoy the show. The game is frequented by flashbacks, strange happenings and metaphor-entrenched worlds. The resulting effect is to be such that the whole game feels more like a movie than a game. Features multiple user interfaces (whatever makes the scenes flow together the best), a character who can actually think ahead (and come up with witty lines), and several other unusual twists to make the game-play as realistic as possible. Synopsis: Tossed through a rift in the fabric of our reality and pursued by strange creatures, you must to explore new worlds while searching for the way home. Interface: The interface varies from scene to scene throughout the game. The screen has an upper portion in movie (wide screen) ratio with the black area beneath housing the interface controls for the given scene. The overall concept is the interface changes to give the scenes movie-like continuity. For instance, during a given scene game play may have the familiar "Alone-in-the-Dark" type interface, until you come in contact with someone, at which point it may change to a close up, panning view and the interface would change to selecting from sentences to speak. After this is completed there could be a short movie sequence in which the player has no interface, and then control is returned in a "Dragon’s Lair" type style, where the player has a certain amount of time to select an action. And so on- Plot: Reality (in the game’s world) is made up of numerous parallel realities, called fabrics, each containing its own universe. The fabrics are each intertwined by certain metaphors, differing from one fabric to the next. The connecting "metaphor" may not be immediately evident, but exists to lend continuity to the game. Creatures in another fabric (the one below earth) have created a device to open a gateway between the worlds. The gateway was to be created by knocking certain objects free of their respective worlds. They had determined there was a fabric of "pure" energy above earth's and had utilized that to blast down through all known worlds, severing objects as it went. The creatures had explored and arranged inanimate objects in the worlds "below" them to be picked up, but had no way of discovering what to expect above (Objects may travel freely only in those worlds "below" them.) Thus, it is a by chance that you are the object tossed through from our fabric. The creatures need to collect all the severed objects to control the gateway - you included. The first goal of the game is to simply to figure out what is going on. The second goal, of course, is to stop the creatures from gaining control of all the fabrics. Introduction: Suffering from a pounding headache your character returns early from his work. Seeming hallucinations and flashbacks plague him as he stumbles to his bed. As he flops down, a bright blue light rips through a tear in the bed and disappears into the ceiling. Moments later a blast, like a bolt of electricity, appears from the ceiling and slams into him. When he awakens he is laying on a bed of whiteness with a light snow coming down around him. As he struggles to his feet he sees a large metal machine standing next to him in the middle of what otherwise would be a very barren landscape. Stumbling towards the machine he reaches out his hand, but at the moment of contact another blue flash of light erupts before his vision, and he lands in the middle of a muddy street near a old style tavern. As he enters the tavern and stares groggily around a man at a nearby table offers him a seat. "You’re a stranger in these parts, eh?" the man asks, "Where are you from?". "Ah, earth- most recently" is your half joking reply. There a short pause. "Earth!?!" mutters the man, "Can’t say I’ve seen many from there." The Tavern’s host is at the table now, "What can I get you gentlemen?" he says. "Err... nothing." you stammer "I am afraid I am at a loss for payment at the moment." "That’s OK" says the man at the table, "I’ll pay. My luck is on the up today" as he motions towards a bag of gold coins laying beside him on the table. "Two of my regulars, Harry" he says to the tavern keeper. After Harry has headed to the back, the man pulls out some of the coins from his bag. "Never seen anything like these before in all my travels." He says, then, lowering his voice a little, "I’m a traveler you realize, not one of these locals." He looks up to see the tavern keeper approaching with two mugs, then speaks again in a regular voice. "Take a look at these. Do you have any idea where they are from?" [At this point the player has the option to pick from one of the three coins laid out before him.] Your character reaches for the coin but, once again, there is a blue flash and he finds himself standing in a hallway of a large mansion. He looks down and realizes that the coin is still in his hand. As he looks up he sees a group of what appear to be hairless hound dogs surrounding a man against the wall. The man is holding a vase in his arms. A few of the dogs have cocked there heads towards you in notice of your sudden arrival and appear to be deciding the method of your demise. At that moment the man pinned against the wall notices your arrival as well. "Here catch!" he cries, and tosses the vase to you. The vase lands in your arms as the dogs turn to attack, but another flash of blue light again spurs you away. So it is that you land on a grass covered plain with a cliff to the sea on one side, and a hill downwards overlooking a smoldering village on the other, with a vase in one arm, and a coin in the other. [And game control is turned over to the player.] More Thoughts: What if "tie-in" between all levels is people and their lives. Their representation may change, but they relate. Thus all levels are really metaphors for some part of life here. Time and place do not relate, however. So the “creature” level could have them each representing a person, as they lived/are living/will live in our reality, and specifically their greed. The waste land would have moments of building representing peoples lives after the “purging with fire” and so on. I'd like to try to make the game as real as possible. The character, unlike most computer heroes, needs to eat and sleep. Deprivation of either of these can also result in loss of control. Sleep will give dreams that have clues to what is going on, and what needs to be done. Eating keeps the character moving. Also unlike most computer games, the character has a realistic inventory. In general, you will not be required to carry items around. Likewise, you shouldn't need to ask everyone you meet every question you can think of. Ask too many, and they might get annoyed. Use the rewind feature described below if you want to test other options. You are given full control of the character, however he may act on his own at times-especially if a quick reaction is needed. He tends to learn from your actions, and will sometimes attempt to think ahead and start doing what needs to be done. Likewise, if a player becomes overly violent, they will tend to lose some control of the character to the point where they can lose control altogether and he goes crazy. The game should have an auto-save feature that saves your game at predetermined "save spots". Thus, if you die, you are immediately returned to the last saved spot without having to restart or reload manually. likewise, at any time you can scroll back into your saved history, and watch it again. You can also jump in, and start the game from that point. Like Heartbeats from Extinction, by the end of the game you will have aquired quite a movie, which you can than watch at your leisure, or play for friends. |
| Worlds Astray |
The Fabrics:This is a sketch of the way in which the fabrics are layered. The top sketch in this picture was the original, the bottom is the latest. |
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| WAstry | ||||
 | CmpGms | |||
| Ideas | |||
| MotN |
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WDATM? |