Fantasy’s Curse

It’s Friday, January 13th and it seems like no better day to ramble about one of the fears I have about this project or rather game design in general. Can the dive into fantasy break sequels in a series focused on realistic gameplay?

Most games don’t have this problem as they’re either one or the other, however some realistic games may shift towards fantasy elements when ideas are slim (ahem, not to say that’s what I’m doing…. Fantasy is just a lot quicker to produce). The advantage of fantasy is that you’re not working inside of a box, you can use any idea at your disposal. Once you go back into that box there’s just going to be some things you won’t be able to do.

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Whimsy Background

I probably should cover this type of information at a later point, but I guess it wouldn’t hurt to go over it now. I’ll probably go back over adding a bit of detail overtime.

One thing I never really go over is the game background, leaving people asking “Why are these wolves jumping out of trees?” I’ll do a much better job trying to layout the whole story in future games but I’d like to try explaining things a bit now. I don’t think my games are complex enough to give make you feel lost in the story but I believe most of them are set up in a way to make you not even care there is one (I’m a fox, I guess that blue guy’s a fox too, lets kill stuff).

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Mature in a different way?

It seems to me, to a lot of people maturity means sawing a guys head off and putting C4 inside of it, then using expletives describing how cool the explosion was. I on the other hand, tend to avoid swearing all together and only use blood in areas that really call for it. Considering my latest release will be relatively cute animals playing inside a story written by an adolescent girl, it probably seems like the exact OPPOSITE of mature.

I tend to use maturity as the subjects you won’t really want to delve into with kids.

  • Death
  • Teen Pregnancy
  • Homosexuality
  • Speciesism (yes it’s a real word)
  • Homicide
  • Politics and Political Corruption
  • Religion

Sex, pointless gore, and vulgarity however aren’t really my forte. While humor is usually glazed over these subjects I intend to approach them in a serious and realistic fashion. “So you say got raped yesterday, did he call you back?” probably isn’t something I’d write. Some people are turned off by serious situations but writing wouldn’t really be fun if I were catering to people.

So where is this proposed maturity? Vulpicide on dream rainbows? It sorta comes and goes on its own as opposed to forcing it. However, I may have to force a few things to maintain a consistent rating. I can’t have a game full of unicorns that’s family friendly, and then a have a scene of dead horses next game. If my games were longer my rapid change of tone would be less of a problem.

Regardless of the scenario I want to present  things in a realistic thought provoking manner (when story is actually important), and to me that within itself is the key to maturity. But of course that alone won’t do you a lot of good if your game cover looks like Teletubbies.

This isn’t so much a post to give details about the story, but more about to give a better idea of the series I have on paper, where story is a lot more inclusive. I’m trying to transition that to game a bit. (not too much I hope)

Stories Untold I: Swords and Snowfall

I think collision detection is finally coming together. If it doesn’t go as planned, I do have a back up plan. I’ve been so caught up it feels I’ve deviated miles from any realistic time for release. I was supposed to just be copying and pasting, but alas, I just couldn’t help myself.

Working with collision leaves me with very boring things to show, and feeling so far behind prevents me from really creating any web content. I really wish I had someone for that. So to combat this dry spell I’d like to talk about a chapter from (what will hopefully be) the later Felix game. I’ve touched up on it a few times already.

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Catrina Novotny

A picture of Catrina has been added to the art section. Because I don’t have a profile, I guess I’ll add a bit of information here.

Although I’ve pretty much overshadowed her with Karina, (it’s a bit ironic actually), Catrina plays a very active role. Contrary to having access to the same funding as her sister, her wealth often plays a more positive role on the environment rather than a negative one. On occasions where Felix may need money, Catrina is usually his go to person. Likewise Catrina considers Felix her personal escort. Her bubbly and outgoing personality can become taxing at times.

Location, Location, Location

Using a place outside Evergreen for the next game has required me to think more about other countries which I’ve yet to discuss. I’ll take the time to do that now!

There are 3 territories, green, red, and blue. Each territory is respectively named, Evergreen, Everred, and Everblue, each containing one city named after the territory. Each country has varieties of biomes and climates but are relatively named after their obvious extremes. Evergreen is the middle man with a cool climate and grasslands, Everred can get hot with deserts and rocky mountains, Everblue is water oriented with a lot of rainfall, it also has artic regions.

Lithodora takes place in a temperate blue district. Expect rain!