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 Posted: Mon May 01, 2006 3:34 pm
I've been having a bit of writer's block lately. The game I've been working on for some time now, Technocracy, is progressing just fine on the programming front, but it seems to be lacking somewhat in story. Plenty of my offline friends have been trying to help, but I just can't seem to get a solid plotline put together. Here's what I have so far:
Some number of years in the future, software copyright lawsuits outnumbered all others combined two to one. Frantically searching for a solution to this money-burning crisis, the United States Supreme Court passed a ruling which nullified all copyrights on materials which could be digitally duplicated. Just as this was happening, two software security companies, Stonesoft and Relic Enterprises, came onto the scene. With perfect timing like this, both companies' stocks soared, and the two became national superpowers overnight. Their fields expanded to include all kinds of electronics, which the American population had become so dependent on. The two have remained in fierce competition since then, each with an illegitimate hand in the now-corrupt government, but in such equal balance that citizens don't seem to notice the change.
Shira Roseburn and her best friend Amiel Trenic are the city's youngest ninja and master hacker, respectively. Their school is planning a field trip to Europe, but neither of them has enough money to go. So they plan their first mission: a midnight break-in at Stonesoft headquarters, to gather as many expensive sellable gadgets as possible.
This serves as the tutorial mission, with Amiel at his home wired through his supercomputer to a radio in Shira's head as she ninjas her way past cameras and generic guards. Amiel guides her with his voice using his blueprints of the building. The mission end at Stonesoft's underground vault.
As Shira approaches the vault, she hears voices. Peering around a corner, she sees that it is already open, and that there are men with masks inside stealing everything she was planning on taking herself. Another, much closer voice startles her as a tall man claps his hand over her mouth and drags her into the vault. Shira passes out.
When she comes to, she is handcuffed to a chair in a dark room with a light over her head, interrogation-style. A very tall man in a turban steps into the light and speaks to her casually.
"My name is Marduk. What's yours?"
"S... Sarah."
"It is nice to meet you, Sarah. Do you know why you're here?"
"'Cause you're going to kill me."
"I assure you, if I was going to kill you, I'd not bother waiting until you woke up to do it. No, you're here because we're interested in your skills."
Marduk goes on to explain that he was watching you as you ninja'ed towards the vault (he doesn't say how, but you later learn that he's a nanopsychic). He offers Shira a job at Relic Enterprises, whom he is apparently representing. He gives her time to "think it over" while he gets her a drink.
Shira and Amiel begin speaking via radio again. Amiel heard the whole thing, and the two debate whether to take the job. At this point, the player has two options: sit comfortably and listen to Shira speak with Amiel until Marduk comes back, which is a "yes" to his offer, or kick the door down and escape the building with a chair handcuffed to your wrist, which is a "no".
That's it. From there on, I have no idea what's going to happen. I wonder if any of you creative types out there might be willing to help out? There's a nice open spot for a writer or two in the credits. wink
PS: Keep in mind that the game is not meant to be very serious. I don't want too much drama, if I can avoid it. Comedic irony is definitely welcome, though. biggrin
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Posted: Tue May 02, 2006 9:04 am
If she's a ninja, couldn't she simply get out of the handcuffs as soon as she's 'alone'? Are there cameras in the room?
If she can't get the handcuffs off, when/if she escapes have the chair get caught on something. Or have her use it as a weapon if possible.
Sounds good so far.
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Posted: Tue May 02, 2006 4:08 pm
yeah, the whole "ninja" aspect might be a little too much in conflict with the whole modern, technological setting. Maybe "spy" would be a better term.
I really like how you can choose to be "good" or "evil", so to speak. Perhaps she could be like a junior spy-in-training from a family of spies, and if she chooses to join the evil side, so to speak, her brother, sister, or cousin or some other would the infiltrate the Relic company to "convince" Shira to come back to the "good" side.
Although you say you'd like to avoid the drama, there's so many possibilies for it though rofl such as; Marduk really being someone of high position in the Stonesoft company doing double-duty, or the heads of Stonesoft and Relic being a divorced couple who hate each other's guts and Shira is really their child but they don't know it. And Amiel somewhere along the way is challenged by another hacker, so there could be like two independent storylines progressing at the same time; Shira's and Amiel's...and Amiel could have the choice of turning "evil" as well, getting bought by the Stonesoft company after they catch him hacking into their system and agree not to sue him in exchange for his "services" or something--therefore it'd set up a conflict between the two main characters, Amiel's 1337 hacking skillz vs. Shira's abilities....etc....
damn I rambled =__= eh, sorry about that. I suppose I'll go back to cramming for midterms now. :/
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Posted: Tue May 02, 2006 7:29 pm
Wow, so much to catch up with in only one day! eek
Alright, let's see if I can clear up what I hadn't really explained before:
Shira isn't exactly an official "ninja", so to speak. She learned everything she knows from internet lessons. She just calls herself a ninja because it sounds impressive and it describes pretty well what she's good at. So yeah, a better word for it could really be "spy", but I'm going to keep her calling herself a ninja throughout the game, as kind of a personal trademark. "Last Ninja in the World" and such.
Shira's mother is Japanese, and her father is Jewish, and both their characters are already vaguely defined, so I don't want to change her family for them to be the heads of Stonesoft and Relic. Amiel's parents, on the other hand, are both question marks as of right now. wink
Marduk already has a kind of equal-but-opposite counterpart at Stonesoft. His name is Colonel Hart (nicknamed "Purple Hart" by himself, "Bleeding Hart" by others). He's your basic gorilla-shaped marine with a cigar, except that he's been softened a bit by his cushy job (which consists mostly of calling other officers and barking orders rather loudly). Marduk being a double agent would set this off-balance, but I do have another character idea that might fit that spot nicely. As of right now, I'm only calling him Gas Mask. He's a mask-wearing oddball working under Hart, but as the game progresses, he kinda gets obsessed with Shira's persistence and tries harder and harder to kill her. He's got exactly the kind of stable-yet-unpredictable personality that I think would be fitting of a double agent, and best of all, if he were working for both sides, his character's feelings towards Shira would be the same no matter who she was working for. That simplifies the plot tree a bit.
Ghost is another character which I haven't mentioned yet, because he doesn't really have a solid place in the story. Basically, he's the last uncorrupted US senator by day, a spy-garbed cyberian by night. He might fit in as Amiel's rival if the user decides to work for either Stonesoft or Relic. Since Ghost's goal is to end the companies' control over the nation, fighting both of them simultaneously would be the only way for him to take them down without losing the balance of power. If the user decides to work for neither company, Ghost becomes an ally and occasionally e-mails the Core with information that Amiel couldn't quite figure out on his own.
And yeah, I had planned for the handcuff-chair to be Shira's right-hand weapon for the duration of that scene. Although I suppose hitting it enough could break either the chain or the chair itself. Again, I think that should depend on the user's actions.
Wow, I made a lot of those connections up just now. But you guys are a huge inspiration for me. Please, by all means, keep it up. biggrin
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Posted: Wed May 03, 2006 5:49 pm
Holy s**t theis isa a good story... I'll work on some characters for you soon... it'll be good practice. wink
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Posted: Thu May 04, 2006 10:47 am
Okay, so there's three main storylines that you need. One for Relic, one for Stonesoft, and one for neither. The spying for the company plotlines will/should be similar and as for working for neither... you do have some kind of end in mind, right?
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Posted: Thu May 04, 2006 3:52 pm
I'd like the game to end with both companies falling, but Shira being mostly unaffected by it. If she's working for either, she backs out before she gets caught up in whatever causes their downfall. Gas Mask does something similar, but he doesn't fall out of his obsession with killing Shira. I want him to be a reusable character if I end up doing a sequel.
Yeah, I know, that's vague. Like I said, I don't have very much structure yet. confused
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Posted: Fri May 05, 2006 2:10 am
ooooh~ what you said cleared up a lot of things. The additional characters you mentioned sound interesting, too! LOL Gas mask. I keep thinking of my friend under that mask xd ;;;
sounds like a game with lots of choices biggrin I like. 3nodding
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Posted: Sat May 06, 2006 7:19 pm
Well I was thinking...instead of or in addition to the neutral storyline, we could add another faction trying to restore intellectual property rights. They could get their funds from oversea companies that are losing millions of dollars in pirated property. The primary goal of the storyline is I'm thinking a more diplomatic and/or "mafia" styled one. In which this faction has the money and can eventually get the equipment however the only problem is lack of manpower and diplomatic power. So you could spend missions trying to recruit people and rigging elections since you know, in this future most people want pirated s**t, and protecting these elected people.
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