Transcendant State info

Note to self: fill out the section below, but don't forget to write about areas other than the poor cities. Talk about the capital as well.

Note to others: this isn't done yet. Feel free to read, but there's more coming.

Leprosy is common in certain areas. Those not inoculated are forced to adopt prosthetics, for obvious reasons. Official prosthetic surgeons are often weeks away and far too expensive for the common leper, so being a street doc is a profitable business. Street docs tend to be somewhat lax about safety, unless it directly concerns them. Street prosthetics tend to be rather haphazard and cheap, and aren't always accepted by the body. The process of installing the prosthetic is very painful and bloody, necessitating the application of painkillers. Unfortunately for would-be cyborgs, the only available painkiller is a homemade alcoholic drink that usually contains motor oil among other creative ingredients. This is also used as an antiseptic.

More notes.

Somehow, a Transcendant State spy has managed to infiltrate (MAGIC NATION). Your job is to take the place of his contact, and reroute any useful information to us.

(MAGIC NATION) technology is about advanced as Earth's, minus anything to do with computers. It's never stated outright, but (MAGIC NATION) are kind of like the Amish. It's not that they hate technology or advancement, but that certain things are outlawed- mostly computers and prosthetics.

Opening for an RPG idea

The player starts in an office, at a computer. The PC is reading an article titled Cartographer I project delayed, researchers refuse to explain why. We hear a door opening, and the PC quickly alt-tabs to a program with various data on it. He swings around to face the person that just entered the room. It is a man in his late twenties, wearing a lab coat.

PC: Yes?

PERSON IN LAB COAT: Well, since we're going to be using your soul for the project, we thought it would only be right for you to decide the physical features of the host body. I've uploaded a program to our intranet. You can use that to decide what you'll look like in your next life. It's in a hidden folder in the main directory, so you should be able to find it pretty quickly.

PC: Thanks. I'll get right on it.

PERSON IN LAB COAT: I'll leave you to it, then. (beat) By the way, your reaction times have slowed. I managed to read that headline before you switched windows.

PC: (muttering) Dammit...

The PC opens a terminal window and opens the program. Another window pops up, and this is where the player designs their character. Options are body shape, skin tone, facial features, sex, etc. The player also names the PC here.

Once the player is done, fade to black.

The player sees nothing, initially. After a few seconds, the player's eyes open to reveal a white room with a door. It takes a few seconds for their eyes to focus. The PC is on a bed, and gets up. The PC stumbles for a bit before regaining its balance.

VOICE: Ah, you're awake. Glad to see that, I am. How are you feeling? Good, I take it? If not, feel free to rest.

PC: What's going on? Where am I?

VOICE: Hm. Seems you haven't recovered any of your personal memories yet. At least you know our language. Anyway, you are the result of an experiment to capture a soul and put it in a dormant body. As you can tell, the experiment was a success. You are free to leave the room now. If you have any questions- and I'm sure you do, feel free to direct them to anyone who's not working.

The player hears a click, and a light just above the door handle changes from red to green. Once the player exits the room, they are free to explore the lab. Talking to the staff lets you learn more about the project, and the surrounding world. You can also visit an obstacle course and a firing range, as a combat tutorial. It's about lunchtime when you wake up, so there are a lot of people with free time. The in-game clock doesn't advance until the player exits the lab, by the way. This section of the game is basically a tutorial, so the player isn't required to talk to all of these people and is thus skippable. I'm looking at you, Custom Robo.

At the firing range, the player has access to various firearms and is allowed to train with them. The guns available are mostly (BORDER NATION) weapons, but a few (CYBERPUNK NATION) and (MAGIC NATION) weapons are there as well. You are allowed to fire at targets, and can choose the range. Moving targets are available as well.

The person at the firing range has some knowledge he's willing to spare you for, mostly about weapons. Which weapons are best for what situations, the differences between various manufacturers, etc. He talks at some length, and you have the option to request (politely or not) that he stop.

He also mentions a challenge he has for you. Give him however much money you're willing to bet. Complete the challenge, and he'll double it. Try as many times as you want. The challenge is designed to be impossible, but you can win it. You'll just have to cheat. Sneak in your own weapon, mod it, use special ammo, rig the course, etc. If he isn't going to play fair, you don't have to either. Bet a small to medium amount, and you'll get double if you win. If you bet a lot, he'll still accept, thinking that you can't win. If you beat him, he'll admit this and offer you everything he has on him. Since this challenge was off the books from the start, and he tried to con you, you have a lot of leverage. Thus, you have a few options.

1) Give me the money.

2) Bullshit. You're holding out. (He is. If your speech skill is high enough, you get the extra cash. If not, you get the regular amount and he hates you a little more. May be this could tie into a later quest?)

3) Keep your money. I'll take a favor. (He thinks you're talking about a sexual favor, which the PC corrects. I'm not sure what to do with this option. Maybe have it tie into the same quest? Any advantage this gives you should not be required to complete said quest, but would make it easier.)

4) Keep your money. I'll take a gun. (He can't give you one of the range's weapons, since they're all licensed to the range and kept in stock. If one of them went missing, the bureaucrats would know. Instead, you get to choose from his collection. All the guns have women's names. Mabel, Vera, Beatrice, Jayne, Seras, etc.)

Whether you take the challenge or not, you can pay this guy to mod your weapons.

In the cafeteria, the player can ask about the outside world. If they do, they're directed to a specific person. In-game, this is because he knows a lot about history, politics, etc. Design-wise, it's so a bunch of dialog doesn't have to be recorded several times over by different VAs. Once the player talks to this person, they can discuss the following topics.

- What is the soul transfer project? (An experiment to capture and transplant a soul into a dormant body. The project director's health was failing, so he offered himself as the donor.)

- I remember the name Cartographer I. Do you know what that is? (The Cartographer I is the first man-made satellite, currently under development. Its main purpose is to see what's behind the Fog Wall.)

-- Fog Wall (A border of fog surrounding the continent, about three miles from the shore in every direction. Nobody that has gone into the Fog Wall has ever returned. The player doesn't learn this for some time, but it's actually utility fog.)

- What's outside the lab? (Player's question is answered, and conversation turns to the political state and how it got there. From then on the player can ask about any of these topics.)

-- (MAGIC NATION)

--- Magic (Not as diverse as the magic you'd find in a "normal" fantasy setting, but very powerful. The downside is that you're literally using your soul as ammunition. It's also possible to absorb memories, adding them to your soul. This results in more "ammunition" for spells, but is likely to drive the receiver insane. Since this isn't like regular fantasy magic, maybe I should call it something else?)

---- Sleeper agents with false memories

--- Political state

-- (BORDER NATION)

--- History and founding (Born out of the latest of many conflicts between (MAGIC NATION) and (CYBERPUNK NATION). The two nations have been fighting for as long as anyone can remember. )

--- Political state

-- (CYBERPUNK NATION)

--- Prosthetics (Think Ghost in the Shell. Prosthetic eyes are common, as are minor body mods. In the poorer cities, you can't afford a good prosthetic. Thus, infections and rejection from the body are common problems. Moonshine is a common antibiotic.)

--- Political state

Quest idea for Operation Mindfuck

Your (BORDER NATION) contact mentions a suspicious man they found. he claims to have lost his memory, but he is really a dangerous man working for the (BLACK MAGIC NATION). Since using black magic uses your soul (and thus memories) as ammunition, it is possible that he may be telling the truth. It is up to the player to determine what to do. Options are as follows;

Kill him- better safe than sorry.

Not sure yet- keep him around for study.

He's harmless- keep him around, and give him a life here.

He's harmless- Tell him the truth, and let him decide what he wants to do.

He's useful- Lie to him. Since he has no memories, he has no reason not to trust you.

(Note: Make up a new name for this game.)

List of Game Concepts

Note: This is old as fuck, and won't be updated. If you want a list of my game ideas, use the "concepts" tag!

This list will be updated as I come up with more ideas for games.

BLADE (Now renamed Farming Armageddon)
A series of sci-fi FPS games centered on war. The games in in-universe chronological order are: War of the Masters, World War III, Civil War. The first deals with an alien threat known as the Masters, and their various genetically modified servants. The second game is about WWIII. The third game involves a Civil War between the BLADE colonies. As you can see, all three titles are somewhat self-explanatory.

Gods Among Us
In this game, there is a god for everything. You play as one of these gods- the God of Kinetics, specifically. One god is trying to use his powers to take over the world. Naturally, it's your job to beat his ass into the pavement.

Let's Play Dancing!
A video game-themed DDR clone. Will feature songs and characters from any series we can license. Once you beat all he song on Very Hard, You can select which dancer to use for each song.

Mach Racing
An F-Zero clone with Mario Kart-style deathmatch and a track editor. Also includes weapons. Each vehicle has a special trick. For example, one can strafe. Another can recharge health very slowly.

"Operation Infiltration"
You're a merc hired by some shady corperation to get intel they need. You get this intel from complexes owned by the target corporations. Sometimes, they may require you to destroy or otherwise sabotoge things owned by the enemy corps. You can sneak your way in, blast your way through with stunts and speed, or blow the place to hell. Expect resistance.

"Operation Mindfuck"
An RPG codenamed for its plot style. Will include many plot twists. Will use an expanded version of the engine for the latest Elder Scrolls game, or whatever engine Crytek's using.

Paradox Mansion
You are trapped in a living mansion, where all temporal laws have gone to hell. Actually, that may be where you are, considering the things you've seen. Doorways no longer lead to the same place they did a few minutes ago. Objects form into golems. Even gravity doesn't apply here. Oh well... at least there are some people here who are willing to help you.

Tei Tenga

What DOOM was supposed to be. The game was originally a lot more complex, but John Carmack turned down that concept. However, this version of DOOM may still see the light of day. Read the DOOM Bible here.

Fuck Utopia!

Alternatative title: What's So Good About Utopias?

The game takes place in a perfect world, where there are no poor people, the economy is stable, the government is completely uncorrupted, and everybody is happy. Except for you. The PC doesn't get what people see in utopias. What's so good about a perfect world? What's wrong with mindless chaos? Let's do something about it!

You have no goal except to turn the city into rubble. There are no story missions, and you get your weapons off of the corpses of your enemies. On that note, take only what you can handle- the cops will send bigger guns after you the more attention you get, and thus the opportunity for bigger loot.

The game will have completely destroyable terrain and objects, which will repair itself over time due to some Applied Phlebotinum- only for you to destroy it again.

Ideas are welcome.

Dusk

This is an idea I found when looking through my email. I originally sent this to Oog, another person on the team.

An optional location, but there's a mighty big sidequest here. EVERYONE in Dusk seems to be out of their mind. For example, there's the kid with the gas mask asking if you're his mummy, the gravekeeper/butcher, etc. Basically, the whole town's fucked up pretty bad. Your job is to find how it became this way, and how to turn it back to normal.

Keep in mind however, a store in Dusk sells some very... interesting equipment. The equipment's effectiveness increases with the amount of kills you've ranked up. Still, all this stuff's rather expensive, so if you want to get the equipment, you might want to "purify" Dusk a bit later.

Once you purify the town, it will quickly grow, becoming something very different. The poor people will move in, making the place their own. They have pretty good prices on everything, but not all of it's top quality. Still, there's a way to rectify that, by donating to the "Rebuild Dusk Fund". Others will occasionally donate as well, but you'll have to do most of the spending yourself.

Partially inspired by the Doctor Who episode "The Empty Child". Do a search for it on Google Video.

~Joel