Anyone care to take a stab at some unusual CS ideas?
Although I suppose whether they're unusual is in the eye of the beholder xD.
A little over a year ago, I decided to re-tool some of the original short stories from my book for potential CS production. I did quite a bit of planning on each one of them over the last year, leaving enough of each idea open-ended so that anyone I recruit to work on them can contribute ideas for the overall workings of the CS, whether it be story-wise, puzzles or general stuff [since they're only loosely based on my writings, anyway].
I need to put together a team because I am incapable of doing much in terms of CS creation, unfortunately. I can't effectively create maps due to the lack of a mouse, and I have a difficult time understanding scripting, mostly due to problems with understanding the way it's explained to me... Don't ask me how this works, but I understand things better when I figure them out on my own [which has been tricky with scripting because half the time I'm not quite sure what I'm looking at]; I also understand complex concepts more easily than simple ones, which impedes my ability to learn some things [I had a terrible time learning fractions and doing basic math, but I excelled at Algebra. Perfect example of what I mean]. But, there are some things I CAN do.
I can handle compiling music [or, alternatively, you can suggest something to me, of course], gathering and preparing voice audio [I probably won't do any voice-acting myself, though; live commentary is about all I'm comfortable with lol], and the Lang file [I AM the writer, after all], as well as anything of an artistic nature, like loading screen images or stuff that could be made into 2D entities [which does come into play in the one idea].
The CS concepts themselves might be a tad complex; I honestly have no idea, be cause my idea of simple is generally viewed as complex by other people :\
There are three I'll post here, although there are, in fact, others; I'm just not in the mood to mess with those right now. One of them I'm still unsure about whether it would be feasible to even do anything with, as the story is rather complex, and I don't know if I've even come across a CS before that would be as long as that one would end up being [not to mention the sheer amount of work it would require to pull off].
But, I digress. Here are the three ideas I am looking to work on:
--- Eclipsed ---
Before anything else, I should warn you - the story behind this particular idea is quite dark. It was inspired by Marquis de Sade's 120 Days in Sodom, although it's extremely toned-down in comparison xD. It is revealed that the primary antagonist not only abuses his wife, but subjects her to the physical and sexual abuse of his friends, as well, and she stays with him because this is punctuated by him actually acting like a half-decent person. This is one idea I'd really like to make into a CS [because it would make for a pretty disturbing one - albeit, the Amnesia version of Law and Order: SVU lol], but I can't say I'd blame anyone for being uncomfortable with the idea. I would half expect a negative response to it from women, although I wrote it, and I'm a woman myself.
Eclipsed is about a woman, Julie, whose husband just inherited a long-abandoned mansion, into which they move, bringing along a group of his friends to keep them company. It takes place over the course of two days, separated by a brief dream sequence.
In addition some backstory, which gets introduced in the beginning, Julie spends the early portion of the CS [the first day] musing over how her husband's parents had always instructed him to avoid the place, due to all of the family members who had lived their previously disappearing, while she explores, occasionally uncovering bits of cryptic information, including a blurb about an alien god. Her husband and his friends hole up inside part of the library, working on something he won't explain to her. As she explores, she witnesses at least one major unexplained event, which leaves her questioning the nature of the place as she retreats to bed that night.
She dreams of a creepy landscape [which happens to be one of the primary universes from my book lol], a solar eclipse [the physical form of the entity that rules over aforementioned universe], and freakish creatures that she sees briefly before waking up [I'm debating over how exaclty to do this part at the moment, so that will be up for discussion]. She also makes contact with the former owner of the place, who explains the nature of what's going on.
The next day, she goes to her husband for reassurance, just to find out that he and his friends have been experimenting with summing aforementioned alien god, whom transforms them into hideous creatures [for which there is a reason that is explained, so you know]. Her husband tries to sell her on the idea of human sacrifice in exchange for eternal life, but she isn't down with that, so he decides to force it on her. She retreats to safety while attempting to find a way out [as all exits are now locked], and is hunted throughout the various areas of the property by the men. She finally winds up in the basement, where she discovers the imprisoned family members of the men, whom are presently awaiting death. Depending on her moral decisions at this point, there are two possible endings. And I think that's all I really need to explain.
I don't have any particular ideas for maps in this one, except for two basic ideas. So map design would be pretty much completely up to you and how you interpret it.
--- Operetta: Dreamscapes [working title lol] ---
I've now got a couple of people together to work on Operetta!
--- Realm of The Hellion ---
This one I have put the least amount of thought into, as I just came up with this one a couple months ago when I started a brand new story arc.
It's actually based on a series of stories as opposed to one, so the backstory is rather complex. I'm still debating over how to sum it up in an introduction lol, but it involves a war during which the protagonist leads a raid on a town in which most of the people are driven off or killed, and he takes in the kids of a woman whom he kills.
Jump ahead to the future, in which the CS takes place, and he has found out that the woman he killed is now enslaved by the Hellion [as in this universe, people very rarely die permanently - they usually come back in another form], whom resides in a remote part of the dreamworld. He goes into his dreams to enter the Hellion's realm, and once there, begins looking for the woman and is forced to contend with her captor, whom can twist reality to force people to relive terrible moments in their lives. These moments are punctuated by Hellion, a predominantly aquatic creature, coming after him - either in the form of a Kaernk, a giant fish lol, or potentially something else. The protagonist manages to find the woman and release her from Hellion's influence by killing her again. She is reincarnated in a new form, and asks him to reunite her with her deceased husband, whose ashes are in the posession of her children. He makes contact with one of his cohorts in the waking world, telling him to bring the ashes into the dreamworld. At this point, the player starts playing as the new guy, who is doggedly harassed by Hellion until he finally gets the ashes to the protagonist. And that's about all I need to write about that lol.
This one I have a relatively open-ended theme in mind that you could do whatever with.
--- "Amnesia 3" / Ad Infinitum ---
My take on the idea of a direct sequel to the Amnesia games – in this case, TDD, Justine and AMFP all in one. It was inspired in part by The Divine Comedy and The Pilgrim’s Progress, with a little touch of Goethe’s Faust xD.
I’m still working out the overall concept, so there’s plenty of room for collaboration on the plot - the broad idea can be thought of as an “examination of the metaphysical”, to put it simply. What I’ve already worked out would take me quite a while to explain, so I’ll keep this somewhat short.
It follows all three of the protagonists after they have found themselves in a different plane of existence, separate from the primary universe; the cosmic version of purgatory, if you will [loosely based on a place I’ve been writing about for a while, which, weirdly enough, was inspired by a terrible comic I made sixteen years ago lol]. You have almost no chance of leaving this world; you can't even technically die – you can be killed, but you just keep coming back – so you cannot pass on to the next life. It’s possible, though, to find a gateway that will allow you to go elsewhere, but there’s one major stipulation: you have exactly one day to get there before you become trapped forever in this place, and that’s far easier said than done.
The plot is essentially this:
Some governing force of the universe seeks to return balance to the universe by removing those who come into contact with artifacts from the primary world, moving them to the timeless realm. The realm is separated by centuries, so all people from the same century are lumped together. All people in the same realm have to work together towards leaving - the aim of this idea is, again, maintaining balance – no one person may take priority over another; they are all on equal footing.
For that reason, they work together towards the same goal, although they remain separated the entire time [ultimately, the actions of each allow the others to continue onwards]. Each of them travel through their own section of the world, in which they are forced to deal with various elements of their former lives which continue to haunt them, hindering their progress… And so on, and so forth.
--- Franz Kafka’s The Metamorphosis ---
I’m a total bibliomaniac [as if that wasn’t abundantly obvious by now], so this was bound to cross my mind sooner or later. As I’ve always adored The Metamorphosis, I thought it might be fun to play around with in the Amnesia universe. As such, the protagonist would probably become something other than a giant cockroach lol, but the theme would remain the same.
If you're interested at all in working on one of these with me, send me a PM and I'll get back to you ASAP. I'm only on one day a week, so be patient ;P
...The only people worthy of consideration are the unusual ones. Common folks are like the leaves of a tree, and live and die unnoticed. - L. Frank Baum
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[TEAM] Anyone care to take a stab at some unusual CS ideas?
