Old CS ideas I’ve lost interest in – anyone want to use them?

**ThatCrazyShaman** · 07-12-2014, 10:13 PM

I recently started working on a solo modding project [as well as an indie project], after which I have a few other things planned to keep me busy, and I feel that I’ve lost interest in these old ideas, honestly, and probably will never get around to doing much with them myself. Since a couple of them were quite well-liked by the people who I talked about them with at length during the course of planning them, it seems a shame to just let them go to waste.

So, I decided to post them here and see if anyone else wants to have a go at them. You can change anything you want, whatever. I really don’t care xD.
If you decide you’d like to work with one of my ideas, you can always ask me for help with the writing aspect, since a few of these ideas were planned out in a fair amount of detail, or were based on short stories I worked on a while back. I’m afraid I can’t be of much assistance otherwise, though, as I’m a hobbyist [and novice] modder at best, and I’m rather indisposed most of the time [not to mention I’m only online one day a week].

Alternatively, you can ask me to help you come up with story ideas, but I’m warning you right now, I’m not always terribly inspired. My muse is a bit fickle, and a lot of my inspiration just gets hurled at me unexpectedly from out of left field. Literally, what inspires me is completely random – for instance, the disease in the story below, Oasis, was inspired by The Wanted’s Chasing the Sun. Don’t ask.

A Little Foreword to Help Explain the Pervasive Themes Present in My Work

Spoiler below!

And now onto the ideas themselves:

Eclipsed
Inspired by 120 Days in Sodom… but with more interesting characters, and less gore

Spoiler below!

Oasis [working title – couldn’t think of anything else lol]
A secret government facility, aliens, mind control and torture – what more could you ask for?

Spoiler below!

This idea is rather complex. I doubt it would be remotely feasible to recreate it in a form that was perfectly true to the original concept, so feel free to hack it to pieces. I don’t mind.

This was actually the very first mod idea I ever had, going back nearly three years. It’s sort of Penumbra-ish, but it was a decent practice idea lol. It was also the first idea I ever toyed around with involving supporting human NPCs with a physical presence that aren’t dead or completely immobile when you encounter them lol [which adds a level of difficulty to making this, obviously… but it didn’t deter me at all].

The story follows a presently unnamed protagonist, whom works for a system of secret government facilities located all over the world in incredibly remote areas [and they’re so well-hidden that you need to know precisely where they are to ever stand a chance of finding them, as they’re virtually undetectable by satellite – unless, of course, someone knew what to look for]. They don’t use any methods of modern communication, due to the sensitive nature of whatever they’re working on [I had sort of an Area 51 idea going on there], so they have messengers who travel from facility to facility with information – the protagonist is one of those messengers. He had just returned to his home base, buried in the sands of the Sahara Desert, after a trip to another facility which had failed to make contact in a timely fashion [which is actually the prequel to this story lol – it was one of my early shorts], just to find that, in his absence, many of the employees have disappeared without a trace.

He is unaware of what has happened until he comes across a fellow named Atticus, whom has taken up refuge in an abandoned hangar and declines to help him in favor of hiding from his boss [I never actually named him – I’ll call him Bob, for the hell of it], who’s behind the goings-on. Bob is the head honcho over at another facility, which is said to be staffed by nearly zombie-like employees whom are intensely loyal to their leader, with the exception of a few people such as Atticus, who’s terrified of him. It becomes apparent over time that the boss has been getting into some strange stuff – namely reading up on occult practices involving a deity linked to insanity [whom was, in part, inspired by the Dahomey god of smallpox and mental illness, Shakpana – except almost his polar opposite]. As it turns out, he learned it was possible to make a pact with this deity, and convince her to give the summoner power over other people, which essentially causes weak-willed people to become intensely focused on doing whatever their leader wants, losing their personal identities in the process. People like Atticus, though, who are of stronger character, are spared this fate, though, and – unfortunately for him in particular – this sometimes leads to… issues.

The protagonist goes off on his own, eventually coming across some records left by the desert facility’s chief commander, stating that Bob [who isn’t terribly well-liked by anybody from outside of his own facility, including the chief commander], has a long history of being horrifically cruel to those in his employ. It’s about this time that Bob figures out where the protagonist is, and, not knowing quite what to do with him, starts trying to break down the door, threatening him soundly. In order to save himself, the protagonist does the douchiest thing possible and tells him where Atticus is, at which point Bob decides to go tend to him instead, ordering our “hero” to stay put until he returns. Of course he doesn’t, though.

When he finds Atticus afterwards in a fairly battered state, he gets the full backstory about how Atticus has been putting up with the brunt of Bob’s abuse for years, due to the fact that Bob has the hots for his wife, Athina. He is clearly worried for her safety, so he asks the protagonist to go looking for her while he recuperates.

This is when you have the first encounter with a monster [well, aside from Bob Tongue

] – I had something particular in mind for this, which I repurposed for some of my writing, so you’ll have to figure something out yourself. Right around that area where he encounters the creature, he starts finding strange symbols painted on the wall in what appears to be blood [which, as you’ll see, was intended to be a bit of a reference to The Serpent and the Rainbow]. He finds Athina, who turns out to be a Creole practitioner of Vodou, hiding out in an office area nearby, where she has set up a makeshift altar in an attempt to ward off whatever’s lurking about.

I’m a bit fuzzy on what was to happen next; I recall the three of them reuniting and trying to figure out what was going on while being antagonized by Bob frequently. The entire backstory of what happened unfolds after this – apparently in order to summon the aforementioned deity that caused this, you have to offer a sacrifice to her, which was made when Bob forced Athina to abort the child she was carrying by Atticus [I remember there being some blurb I jotted down somewhere describing how Bob’s facility had this policy in place due to the fact that employees couldn’t take pregnancy leave – also, there’s the fact that he’s a bastard], at which point employees of the desert facility, and Bob himself, began to change. The only people unaffected were members of Bob’s team, most of who ended up dead.

The only other survivor they come across was to be Bob’s right-hand man, who had a bad reputation due to his tendency towards ratting people out for the smallest possible offences. If memory serves me correctly, Atticus had a strong dislike for him since it was this guy who got him into trouble all the time, which, of course, led to a lot of misery on his part [somewhere I wrote down a vague description of some of the awful, awful things that happened to him, but I’m not sure where]. As it turns out, though, this guy was treated just as miserably and was just doing what he had to. I had planned to do a setup in which he asks them to put him out of his misery, and the player has to decide whether to actually do it or convince him to come along with them.

I don’t remember offhand how the ending was going to play out, but it involved them coming into contact with the deity who caused everything, and eventually getting out of there after she takes pity on them [since a couple of them are so emotionally traumatized – she has a soft spot for people like that lol]. I actually dabbled in writing something akin to a sequel that took place about twenty years later, when Atticus and Athina have had a pair of children that end up joining the cult devoted to that particular deity… I like irony, what can I say.

S M I L E S
Crazy happiness-obsessed cult that mutilates people to force them to be happy, anyone?

Spoiler below!

This is another one that leans toward the idea of having supporting human NPCs, but it doesn’t necessarily need them to work. A majority of what’s written here could be portrayed as flashbacks or in notes and then built upon.

S M I L E S is based on a short story of mine that, even though I’ve never posted it online, has a reputation among the people who are aware of it, both online and off. I had wanted to write a story that would disturb almost anybody, and I questioned what one thing that most people had in common was. Then it occurred to me; periods of unhappiness. Not necessarily depression, but periods in their lives during which they’re really unhappy about something, or they just don’t feel quite right.

S M I L E S is about an individual whom has been in a funk for a bit, and doesn’t know what to do about it. A close friend of theirs comes by to visit one day, and the protagonist is caught off-guard by his unsettling appearance – he, for whatever reason, has lines painted on his face that, when he smiles, extend his mouth into a freakishly long grin. When questioned about it, he explains that he is going to a gathering of some friends, whom form an organization of people who were in a similar situation to the protagonist at one point; they were all once terribly unhappy, but now they’re not. This intrigues the protagonist, whom figures ‘what the hell, I’ll go check this out’, and goes with him to the get-together.

The “people” [I use that term loosely here, as they remind me of Body Snatchers, really] at the meeting seem like relatively average people, although it turns out they’re all completely psychotic.

The goal of them having meetings is to draw new people into their group who are having a tough time, so that they can help them. Their idea of helping them, though, is to attempt to force them to be happy through various methods, namely torture. If all else fails, they turn to mutilation as the answer to their problem, cutting or stitching their facial features appropriately so that they have a permanent smile.

I never got around to figuring out much of what would happen after the party itself [since the actual story ends with the final moments of the party], but there’s enough to the description of what they do to people that you could probably think of something fairly easily and build upon what’s there.

Left and Right [another working title]
Inspired by binge-watching Spitting Image – I kid you not. God, I love that show.

Spoiler below!

This is another idea that’s quite old – well over a year old. So I doubt I’ll be using it for much.

This story has sort of an odd political angle to it. It focuses primarily on the relationship between a husband and wife who are from opposing political parties [I never defined specifically which ones, since I never decided exactly what country this was going to take place in xD], that, while they bicker a lot about politics, manage to get past that and focus on their adoration for each other. The relationship dynamic was modeled off of a good friend I used to have who was conservative [I’m more liberal], and we used to make fun of each other’s ideals and favorite candidates, but we got along swimmingly nonetheless. Sadly, we ended up losing touch with each other in high school when we began running with different crowds.

The disease featured in this is actually from some of my writing; it was part of a series I worked on that attempted to recreate the concept of a zombie-creating disease in as many new forms as I could think of. This particular example is just one of four variations I managed to cook up lol.

ANYWAY… The story begins with the wife waking up alone and expressing her confusion at why her husband isn’t around. She finds a note from him, saying that he won’t be coming back, but it doesn’t explain where he’s gone to or why. She browses through his papers and finds some diaries he wrote discussing how he had visited this strange establishment on behalf of his boss [it was to be implied that the protagonist and her husband are campaign managers, or something of that nature], populated by rather sickly people who lived on the fringe of society, rarely leaving their commune or interacting with outsiders.
He later goes on to describe having come down with some illness his doctor couldn’t readily identify, which he blamed the people at the commune for infecting him with. He went there to ask them about it and found out something which he doesn’t go into detail about, but he writes that he will be leaving home soon to join them. His wife does some research and finds out where the commune is and goes there looking for him.

The commune almost seems to have been abandoned, except for the inordinate amount of lighting in the place, which is constantly blazing. She catches glimpses of something humanoid meandering about, but never directly manages to make contact with it. Occasionally, something will come near to where she is, either banging on the door antagonistically or otherwise threatening her in some manner.

While searching the place, she learns that its inhabitants are infected with a very rare disease, supposedly caused by contact with something unearthly. They play host to a species of bacteria that needs almost constant exposure to light to survive. If they do not maintain the proper amount of light exposure, the bacteria will not be able to photosynthesize and begin to release toxins that cause severe necrosis of the flesh and internal organs, eventually killing the host unless the light is restored quickly enough that the damage can heal. Thus they rarely leave their commune, for fear of death; instead, everything is taken care of for them by an unknown benefactor [which, it’s later implied, is the “unearthly” thing that infected them].

Based on that information, she has a choice. She can either proceed with the lights still on and risk being found more easily by whatever’s there, or she can turn the lights off and potentially kill everyone in the place [working on the assumption that her husband’s infection isn’t so far along, and that he wouldn’t begin to die as quickly]. Of course, this will affect the ending.

After this, she is frequently hunted by the inhabitants of the commune, whom seemingly want to drive her out. She finally does manage to find her husband, who explains that he left because he didn’t want to burden her with such a life-altering issue, and decided it would be best for him to join those like him. This is where the different endings come in.

If she disables the lights, the already slightly-xenophobic inhabitants of the commune decide that they can’t trust her and tell her to leave. She can stay in contact with her husband, but they won’t allow her to come there anymore, for fear she’ll try to murder them again.

If she leaves the lights on, she’s given another choice. Either she can convince her husband to come home, or she can stay there with him and become one of them. Either of these choices leads to the good ending.

“Amnesia III” [working title: Ad Infinitum]
What does it sound like? A direct sequel to TDD, AMFP and Justine.

Spoiler below!

This was an idea I had out of the blue that I’d like to do something with, but don’t have the motivation. I’d prefer to stick to projects I can complete in relatively short periods of time so I don’t lose focus on them; this one is of titanic proportions compared to what I’m working on right now.
Bear with me here, because this is a somewhat complex concept and I have a rather tough time explaining it properly without digging out all of my liner notes, which are scattered everywhere right now xD.

This was inspired in part by The Divine Comedy and The Pilgrim’s Progress, with a little touch of Goethe’s Faust xD. Overall, it’s a really strange concept, even to me.

It follows all three of the Amnesia protagonists after they find themselves suddenly in a different plane of existence, separate from the mortal plane, but not an afterlife; the cosmic version of purgatory, if you will [based on a comic I made about such a place, roughly sixteen years ago lol] – depending on interpretation, they [excluding Oswald] could still actually be alive.
They are informed by an unseen entity known as Nischogunakhake [in the language of my people, “the day after tomorrow”] that he has brought them to this world specifically because of their involvement with artifacts [orb, star soapstone, “egg”], in an attempt to return balance to the universe by removing them from their own world [which, it is revealed, happens to all people who screw around with artifacts] to counteract the shift of power. This realm is timeless and, technically, deathless [you can die, but you just keep coming back and can never move on to the next life], and it’s rather unpleasant, so it’s not someplace you’d want to stay.

There is an upside, though – the gateway between their world and this world [which is exempt from the timeless thing] can only be opened once every century [hence why anyone involved from a given century is brought there together], and it takes a full day to close again. It is possible, if you are quick and cunning enough, to get back through the gateway and back to your own world, but it’s not easy; Nischo will do whatever he can to stop you, and there is the added stipulation of them having to work together in order to progress [they came there together, they have to leave together - in order to maintain balance, no one can receive special treatment; they are all on equal footing].
Thus they must 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. Because each of them exist in a different timeframe, so to speak [a sort of Corpse Party-esque concept], the day counts down for each of them individually, so they must reach the gateway before time runs out to trigger the next person’s turn to run the gauntlet.

… And there’s more, but I’m too tired to keep yapping on and on about this one [I doubt anyone read this one all the way up to this point, anyway xD]. One element I thought would be interesting for this is the implementation of multiple character-specific endings, since there’s a lot that could be done there [a bad ending for each and a good ending for each – which good ending you’d see would depend on what order you played the characters in].
And yeah, enough of that already.

Any takers?