Story line, Story and character progression, game design Ideas.Survival, non linear narrative
DavidHudson
Azores Join Date: 2015-11-05 Member: 208976Members
Azores Join Date: 2015-11-05 Member: 208976Members
This is last hour top of the head, just made a 2 hour session with subnautica and wanted to write some ideas while they are still fresh.
Pre-Crash cafeteria or ship grand hall intro to certain tools and crew,welding.
Character is on the end of his shift and runs towards the big windows where many crew members are excited on seeing the planet for the first time, that sensation of conquerors and discovery,a sense of excitement and joy, while captain talks on the speakers congratulating and inspiring them,as soon as another bridge member tells people to prepare for descent, and they are slowly starting to move away, from the surface a flash of light makes the remaining few bystanders at the window, jump on their feet and raise their hands to their mouths luring the gaze of the ones that were moving away.
The energy surge hits fast , breaking the communication, last thing heard from the bridge is someone screaming about activity.
The ship starts the wild descent, people are thrown to the walls and ceiling, some hold the security rails on the corridors, others free fall through the halls. The character almost slips then someone grabs his hand, as soon as he gets his grip on the railing, machinery falls hitting on his/her savior.
He meanders through the corridors while debris blockades passages, the speaker comes back up ordering the evacuation of the ship. More crew members are seen in different situations,some in heroic acts others acting more cowardly, abandoning a friend or simply holding onto something tightly in shock.
From the windows escape pods are seen launching, as soon as the character tries to get into one, two people pull him back out and shove him into the ground taking the pod for themselves, they launch but a small piece of debris hits it, making it spiral out of control into an uncontrolled descent, the character goes to the last escape pod on his corridor, in single player- another crew member tries to get into the pod and the hero waits as much as he can, then an explosion force kicks in the security measures and shuts the door releasing the pod.In co-op the explosion happens as soon as the door is locked and two players are inside.
The Crash, as soon as it hits the atmosphere the G force is very high so the player view and sound is cut in a intermittent way(flickering?), these cuts are intensified with the speed of the fall.
The player wakes up,the AI is already running background checks on his surroundings and vitals and trying to establish a link to the Aurora or other pods, but there is a field permeating and blocking certain wave lengths making communication difficult.and before going outside, analysis runs on the background regarding the atmosphere levels,at this point an item resembling a breather should be equipped to inject nanites into the lungs in order to rearrange them to "sanitize" for the biological cell entities on the atmosphere and the difference on oxygen levels and foreign gases.(The player has to do this breathing process for at least a month,until his lungs and immune system are adapted to the new environment.It is not Earth.This opens up another branch for early exploration,with each use, the need decreases until it is not needed, or it is rarely needed.)
The player tries to get in contact with other survivors, at this moment he/she is on rations that came with the pod, and should avoid getting into the water, only climbing up to see his/her surroundings.
Radio from someone inside Aurora-- an automatic broadcast for the survivors reminding them of the importance to establish contact with the point of origin, the pod downloads parcels of the mission and objectives in the short and long run to establish a colony on the planet.feed cut and warning from AI and then the reactor explosion. The explosion and radiation break the field that blocks them for a while, another survivor is heard on the coms screaming about the radiation levels and the impact on the mission and the pods, alluring to a planet wide contamination and the demise of everyone who made it down. The AI then explains in technical details the status of the Aurora and the biological decaying that is already ongoing, mentioning a wider second explosion that could originate from the reactor leak that would make the planet not viable for colonization for at least an half of a millenia.
The player at this point starts exploration,in the "safe shallows" guided by the AI, his/her first objective is to develop the means to reach the aurora and shut down the reactor. At this point the player should be vulnerable, and with access to just a few tools, inc knife and welder,the laser cutter should be found in a box on the Aurora to compel exploration and puzzle solving. The first vehicle should be a kind of raft, impeding the player to see the dangers bellow and focusing him mainly on the ship, it should hide the deep unknown bellow. The player then moves onto the aurora, dodging falling debris.
Before reaching the reactor room the player must be submerged, The reactor is currently very near to it's front,only surfacing on small pockets of air. There should be a contrast between electric flashes of light and darkness, raising the tension while shadows dash from one side to the next, upon reaching the reactor room a lot of "steam" should vent out.Since this is the place where the radiation is originating the player should avoid at all costs entering the water,using verticality to climb and repair, or fast dives to repair the breaches bellow, these dives will affect the player and open up another branch of exploration dedicated to radiation poisoning treatment.(new fragment like a automatic medbay bed that scans and repairs DNA due to foreign elements exposure,poisoning,wounds,parasites,sickness). While the player tries to go back, his passage becomes blocked, so he needs to meander through the corridors, checking some rooms along the way and picking up a few fragments or items, the player finds another underwater passage that leads outside to a new unblocked passage near the entrance of the "level". This is his first encounter with the bleeders.
Player gets back to the pod, with new found rations and a couple more tools.As of now the pod is just a starting area and should become the players home base for at least the first 3/4 hours of gameplay,making whatever other structures spread across the world viable to have been built in the day/night cycles that occur within that time.
Smaller wrecks should be near the starting point encouraging exploration, or temporary safe havens(air pockets, rooms with air filtration, rations,storage)this gives emphasis to the importance of scanning,and with the dimming of rations the importance of scanning flora and fauna for sustenance.
The player analyzes the data downloaded from the aurora and mission priorities, and the AI establishes a short term survival plan that adapts and changes as the player evolves. Seismic activity should be of importance,pushing the player out of the surface into the great deep, because of tsunami danger,dangerous currents etc.At this point it is also interesting to add an airborne predator that stalks around the pod from time to time. To establish him/herself on a floating island should consist of a danger itself,due to earth mass being sunk from time to time. The flora and fauna are already adapted to this cycle.
As soon as the player gets his base ready and his "second" vehicle. Comes the priority of finding other survivors, with each pod or sunken base other fragments and information on the mission is downloaded.
The sense of isolation should come from the hopes of finding a survivor,and when finding watching his demise.Not getting to him/her on time, or simply finding corpses, or empty pods/bases. From time to time the field goes down and the pod sends signals, the player should be able to build a operations center(unique module with specific equipment for it). Contact could be established with another survivor. A recovered piece of equipment would make the player able to send a signal and from time to time, after exploration the player would enter his/her base and hear a recorded message of the other survivor, on the other side of the planet speaking about his/her difficulties or the death of someone in his/her group.
This would open up the fictional team work, as the player would be able to send pieces of information that he/she gathered on the field.This interaction should seize due to an event and the player remain as the sole survivor,left pondering what happened to the other group.
From this interaction the need would rise to continue the scientific mission and to find the source of the signal to shut it down. The player would take to him/herself the responsibility of exploring the planet, maybe even mapping the outer layers of its core and also search for visual Easter eggs.These pieces should convey a sort of lore of what the planet really is and what happened to it, or what the signal(energy burst) could be.A foreign signal should be captured by the AI as the player reaches certain landmarks and open up a mini game where the player analyses or establishes some arrays to try and get a clearer version of the signal. Regarding the Visual Easter Eggs, This information could be gathered by video or screen shot and uploaded into the main terminal throughout the course of the game, the AI would point to the player which data should be gathered but only when the player stands right in front of it. This jigsaw puzzle would not only open up more exploration but would also enrich the home base giving it a purpose alongside survival and maintenance needs.
Floating debris like the rocks with floaters should occasionally hit the base,seismic activity should also damage it from time to time.
The pod should be coupled with the cyclops or another ship, since it is an important piece it should be reusable.
Player should have a pet.Biological or robotic, maybe both.
With the time frame lifted and focusing on exploration and data gathering, the world itself and the different biomes, with their exploration which builds the technological stairs to allow the descent into higher depths,the story would unveil, not from direct narrative at this point(except the AI advise) but from experience, as the player leaves the "cradle" and starts to figure out the patterns of exploration for him/herself and gets toe to toe with the dangers of the deep. The reward of this exploration would be the untold but guiding lore from whatever he finds, his experience and the cunning of the explorer himself while putting the pieces together of whatever he/she may come across. As a player i think it is important not to stop on the magma floor at 3 Km,but to reach out and truly know an unknown world from the inside out at great depths, to descend into higher depths into a world older than the newly magmatic floor This is where the true magic begins and things become really alien, and old.
These are my ideas for story progression, i'm sorry for my English, i normally am a good writer but its late here and i haven't had a decent shut eye in a while.
Pre-Crash cafeteria or ship grand hall intro to certain tools and crew,welding.
Character is on the end of his shift and runs towards the big windows where many crew members are excited on seeing the planet for the first time, that sensation of conquerors and discovery,a sense of excitement and joy, while captain talks on the speakers congratulating and inspiring them,as soon as another bridge member tells people to prepare for descent, and they are slowly starting to move away, from the surface a flash of light makes the remaining few bystanders at the window, jump on their feet and raise their hands to their mouths luring the gaze of the ones that were moving away.
The energy surge hits fast , breaking the communication, last thing heard from the bridge is someone screaming about activity.
The ship starts the wild descent, people are thrown to the walls and ceiling, some hold the security rails on the corridors, others free fall through the halls. The character almost slips then someone grabs his hand, as soon as he gets his grip on the railing, machinery falls hitting on his/her savior.
He meanders through the corridors while debris blockades passages, the speaker comes back up ordering the evacuation of the ship. More crew members are seen in different situations,some in heroic acts others acting more cowardly, abandoning a friend or simply holding onto something tightly in shock.
From the windows escape pods are seen launching, as soon as the character tries to get into one, two people pull him back out and shove him into the ground taking the pod for themselves, they launch but a small piece of debris hits it, making it spiral out of control into an uncontrolled descent, the character goes to the last escape pod on his corridor, in single player- another crew member tries to get into the pod and the hero waits as much as he can, then an explosion force kicks in the security measures and shuts the door releasing the pod.In co-op the explosion happens as soon as the door is locked and two players are inside.
The Crash, as soon as it hits the atmosphere the G force is very high so the player view and sound is cut in a intermittent way(flickering?), these cuts are intensified with the speed of the fall.
The player wakes up,the AI is already running background checks on his surroundings and vitals and trying to establish a link to the Aurora or other pods, but there is a field permeating and blocking certain wave lengths making communication difficult.and before going outside, analysis runs on the background regarding the atmosphere levels,at this point an item resembling a breather should be equipped to inject nanites into the lungs in order to rearrange them to "sanitize" for the biological cell entities on the atmosphere and the difference on oxygen levels and foreign gases.(The player has to do this breathing process for at least a month,until his lungs and immune system are adapted to the new environment.It is not Earth.This opens up another branch for early exploration,with each use, the need decreases until it is not needed, or it is rarely needed.)
The player tries to get in contact with other survivors, at this moment he/she is on rations that came with the pod, and should avoid getting into the water, only climbing up to see his/her surroundings.
Radio from someone inside Aurora-- an automatic broadcast for the survivors reminding them of the importance to establish contact with the point of origin, the pod downloads parcels of the mission and objectives in the short and long run to establish a colony on the planet.feed cut and warning from AI and then the reactor explosion. The explosion and radiation break the field that blocks them for a while, another survivor is heard on the coms screaming about the radiation levels and the impact on the mission and the pods, alluring to a planet wide contamination and the demise of everyone who made it down. The AI then explains in technical details the status of the Aurora and the biological decaying that is already ongoing, mentioning a wider second explosion that could originate from the reactor leak that would make the planet not viable for colonization for at least an half of a millenia.
The player at this point starts exploration,in the "safe shallows" guided by the AI, his/her first objective is to develop the means to reach the aurora and shut down the reactor. At this point the player should be vulnerable, and with access to just a few tools, inc knife and welder,the laser cutter should be found in a box on the Aurora to compel exploration and puzzle solving. The first vehicle should be a kind of raft, impeding the player to see the dangers bellow and focusing him mainly on the ship, it should hide the deep unknown bellow. The player then moves onto the aurora, dodging falling debris.
Before reaching the reactor room the player must be submerged, The reactor is currently very near to it's front,only surfacing on small pockets of air. There should be a contrast between electric flashes of light and darkness, raising the tension while shadows dash from one side to the next, upon reaching the reactor room a lot of "steam" should vent out.Since this is the place where the radiation is originating the player should avoid at all costs entering the water,using verticality to climb and repair, or fast dives to repair the breaches bellow, these dives will affect the player and open up another branch of exploration dedicated to radiation poisoning treatment.(new fragment like a automatic medbay bed that scans and repairs DNA due to foreign elements exposure,poisoning,wounds,parasites,sickness). While the player tries to go back, his passage becomes blocked, so he needs to meander through the corridors, checking some rooms along the way and picking up a few fragments or items, the player finds another underwater passage that leads outside to a new unblocked passage near the entrance of the "level". This is his first encounter with the bleeders.
Player gets back to the pod, with new found rations and a couple more tools.As of now the pod is just a starting area and should become the players home base for at least the first 3/4 hours of gameplay,making whatever other structures spread across the world viable to have been built in the day/night cycles that occur within that time.
Smaller wrecks should be near the starting point encouraging exploration, or temporary safe havens(air pockets, rooms with air filtration, rations,storage)this gives emphasis to the importance of scanning,and with the dimming of rations the importance of scanning flora and fauna for sustenance.
The player analyzes the data downloaded from the aurora and mission priorities, and the AI establishes a short term survival plan that adapts and changes as the player evolves. Seismic activity should be of importance,pushing the player out of the surface into the great deep, because of tsunami danger,dangerous currents etc.At this point it is also interesting to add an airborne predator that stalks around the pod from time to time. To establish him/herself on a floating island should consist of a danger itself,due to earth mass being sunk from time to time. The flora and fauna are already adapted to this cycle.
As soon as the player gets his base ready and his "second" vehicle. Comes the priority of finding other survivors, with each pod or sunken base other fragments and information on the mission is downloaded.
The sense of isolation should come from the hopes of finding a survivor,and when finding watching his demise.Not getting to him/her on time, or simply finding corpses, or empty pods/bases. From time to time the field goes down and the pod sends signals, the player should be able to build a operations center(unique module with specific equipment for it). Contact could be established with another survivor. A recovered piece of equipment would make the player able to send a signal and from time to time, after exploration the player would enter his/her base and hear a recorded message of the other survivor, on the other side of the planet speaking about his/her difficulties or the death of someone in his/her group.
This would open up the fictional team work, as the player would be able to send pieces of information that he/she gathered on the field.This interaction should seize due to an event and the player remain as the sole survivor,left pondering what happened to the other group.
From this interaction the need would rise to continue the scientific mission and to find the source of the signal to shut it down. The player would take to him/herself the responsibility of exploring the planet, maybe even mapping the outer layers of its core and also search for visual Easter eggs.These pieces should convey a sort of lore of what the planet really is and what happened to it, or what the signal(energy burst) could be.A foreign signal should be captured by the AI as the player reaches certain landmarks and open up a mini game where the player analyses or establishes some arrays to try and get a clearer version of the signal. Regarding the Visual Easter Eggs, This information could be gathered by video or screen shot and uploaded into the main terminal throughout the course of the game, the AI would point to the player which data should be gathered but only when the player stands right in front of it. This jigsaw puzzle would not only open up more exploration but would also enrich the home base giving it a purpose alongside survival and maintenance needs.
Floating debris like the rocks with floaters should occasionally hit the base,seismic activity should also damage it from time to time.
The pod should be coupled with the cyclops or another ship, since it is an important piece it should be reusable.
Player should have a pet.Biological or robotic, maybe both.
With the time frame lifted and focusing on exploration and data gathering, the world itself and the different biomes, with their exploration which builds the technological stairs to allow the descent into higher depths,the story would unveil, not from direct narrative at this point(except the AI advise) but from experience, as the player leaves the "cradle" and starts to figure out the patterns of exploration for him/herself and gets toe to toe with the dangers of the deep. The reward of this exploration would be the untold but guiding lore from whatever he finds, his experience and the cunning of the explorer himself while putting the pieces together of whatever he/she may come across. As a player i think it is important not to stop on the magma floor at 3 Km,but to reach out and truly know an unknown world from the inside out at great depths, to descend into higher depths into a world older than the newly magmatic floor This is where the true magic begins and things become really alien, and old.
These are my ideas for story progression, i'm sorry for my English, i normally am a good writer but its late here and i haven't had a decent shut eye in a while.
Comments
about pre-crash gameplay: I think this would be more effective as a flashback. the game formally starts exactly the way it does, until you explore the crashed aurora enough to re-discover the very room you were in when the beam hit the aurora, triggering the flashback.
then again, they need to come up with a very good reason why the player is the sole survivor.