Well as I was talking before about a prototype heavy method wherein I build the prototypes to in essence design the game. I’m coming to realize that for an adventure game this method might not work out so well. Since this is primarily an interactive narrative (sounds like an oxymoron doesn’t it), I need to plan stuff out. I’ve ran across a wonderful book on design entitled “The Art of Interactive Entertainment Design” by Eddie Dombrower. The author has been in the biz since the early days (can anyone remember the 80’s ;-) ). Essentially it takes you on the process of designing a game, from concept to completion (well completion as design is concerned, as it’s a design book not a programming book). It’s a great resource. There isn’t alot of boring lecturing, it’s filled with the author’s anecdotes and stories, and his philosophies on design. Even though the beginning chapters (dealing with stuff like the proposal and the computer/game systems of the times) are a bit dated, this to me is one of the best books on design i’ve come across. To get back on point, i’m going to be using this book to help me build the Enchanted Lands Resort.
I’m still figuring out a way to combine the stories in a coherent way, but as I stated in Enchanted Lands : No Real Progress Today I will post the opening intro to one of the stories. This is something that if I were reading a screenplay would get me instantly hooked. However it may be just my false pride, so you can decide if it’s interesting or not. I’m going to work some version of this intro in my game.
A young man upon reaching his 18th birthday, finds a stranger, an old man has gotten into his apartment. Considering no locks were broken or windows open, he doesn’t know what to make of the old man. The man looks sick, close to death. As he gets closer to the old man, the man smiles and says “At last” Just then he starts coughing, and tries to get some words out… “7 gems…” “…find” “7th-” “home”, “before it’s too late…”. The old man seems to be at a whisper now, with kind eyes he looks at the young man “Nathan…”, “you must get home…”, “coin…” “you… must… save….” “home…” “Actum Circulum… coin… actum circulum… coi…” Just then the old man coughs his last and dies…
Nathan, rushes to his phone, removing some old papers, and picks up and dials, 9-1-1. As the operator comes on he says “There’s an old man, I think he’s dead… I need…” as he turns around he notices the old man is no longer there. He stops for a moment and then says into the phone “I-I’m sorry, umm, no emergency, sorry!” and hangs up. How did the old man know his name? What did he mean by “coin” ? Perhaps the little medalion Nathan has had as long as he can remember. He goes to his room and opens a drawer and pulls out a coin, large, and heavy he rubs the surface of the coin with his thumb, and it glows a little. Only a little though, as though it could be just his imagination.
He holds up the coin, looks at the inscription “actum circulum”, and starts to toss it up into the air… The coint starts glowing even more than before, as he puts a spin onto the coin it seems to hover in midair. Then the whole room seems to start shaking, like an earthquake. He then says the words “ACTUM CIRCULUM!!” out loud and the hovering spinning disk turns into a glowing orb, which gets bigger and bigger. By this time the whole room seems to shake, and wind begins to blow as the orb seems to disrupt space itself… An image shows up in the middle of the orb, a beautiful woman. Somehow she seems familiar. She seems troubled… A series of images flash in rapid succession… Now for some seemingly magical reason, he knows she’s the Princess Calista, and that her Father, the king was killed in an accident, or at least what appeared to be an accident, and that the King’s brother claimed the throne from then on. The last thing that flashes is the princess’s beautiful face.
Finally an image of the inside of a train flashes, the princess seems to be sitting there along with other members of the royal court, and the more common people toward the back. The image seems to stay for minutes if not hours before Nathan attempts to walk through. To his surprise it’s quite easy and no one seems to notice him on the train. Just then a short fellow steps out into the aisle in front of Nathan. He seemed to be about 4 feet, a bit fat, wore a pointed forest green hat, and a green suit. The suit pants fit into his socks and he wore green shoes that were pointed up, at the toes.
The gnome (since he could hardly be called anything else) moved toward the middle of the cabin, to reach one of the mergency exit doors on either side of the cabin. He pulls a little device out of his pocket. It was circular with 3 gems extending from it, in 3 different colors, (red, yellow, and blue), each with a different shape and size. The gnome leans up against the door on the right hand side. Nathan couldn’t really see what he did next.. The gnome returned to his seat, seemingly unaware of Nathan… Nathan walked a ways till he could see the gnome from the back, he noticed the gnome had a different device in his hand. It looks alot closer to a standard remote control, a box, with a small antenna, and instead of buttons were 3 crystals with the same color as the gems in the other device. The gnome pressed the three crystals in a certain order, just then the whole cabin turned over with a lurch!
The gnome was holding on to his arm rest, as everyone seemed to tumble, along with bags, and various loose items. The cabin seemed to stablize, but was shaking violently… Appearently they were starting to drop, in this plane, train, or whatever it was. The gnome went to the front of the cabin and grabbed the princess, sprinkled some magic dust on her which put her to sleep, and slung her over his short, fat shoulder… He made his way toward the door which originally had the other device on it… He opened the door, and air started whooshing in, adding to the confusion.
All this time Nathan was holding on to the coin as it has appeared in his hand after he had went through the portal. The cabin lurched forward, this time knocking Nathan off balance… He flew into one of the seat backs so hard it knocked the coin out of his hand and rolled on the floor. The gnome noticing it down at his feet picked it up and jumped out with the princess. That was the last thing nathan saw after he hit the chair, he blanked out.
When he woke up he was still in the cabin, all was quiet, and anything that wasn’t bolted down seemed strewed about the cabin… He managed to pick himself up and walk to the door and climb outside. What he saw was puzzling… He seemed to have climbed out of a train, as he had first thought… He was in a Forest only the trees had no leaves, it was almost as if it were winter, and yet the air was warm. There were a few various people, and some creatures he didn’t recognize, getting out of the other cabins, some grabbing bags and setting them up in piles obviously to see about getting out. As he was taking in his surroundings, he heard a voice.
‘Hey, you there, BOY!” It was the voice of an old man. “I noticed you appeared on the train, no doubt by some magic portal, so tell me, who are you, and where do you come from?” Spinning around Nathan saw a little old man with the typical Wizard’s appearance. Long white beard, midnight blue cloak, pointed blue hat. “Uhh, my name is Nathan, and i’m from… well… Not from here” The old wizard took off his pointed cap and scratched his bald head for a moment. “You’ve got to be from somewhere, lad, you can’t just be jumping through magic portals without having to come from someplace.” Nathan was a bit bewildered, how could he explain, Earth, and the country he lived in. This old man surely wouldn’t have had a clue, but as the old Wizard was quite insistant he decided to answer him.
“Umm, I come from, Portland… Oregon, not Maine.” “I see… Nathan of Port Land, Or-Ee-Gone” He seemed to pronounce Oregon, like many people from other states do, instead of “Or-e-gun” as Oregonians did. Of course Nathan said it perfectly normal, but the Wizard still kept pronouncing it Or-ee-gone. The wizard looked thoughtfully at him, “Now then, how did you happen to come upon a magic portal?” “Some old man came to visit me, kept mentioning something about gems, and a coin. Why, to come to think about it he looked alot like you!” The wizard’s eyes began to get big “Oh dear, of course, of course. Came just in time, just-in-time. Umm, that was my brother, ‘Buddle’, what news do you have of him?” Nathan was a bit sad, but then proceeded with. “He passed on before I had a chance to do anything.” The wizard’s eyes started tearing up… “Bless his soul” and then he quickly wiped away the tears and said “No time for mourning, must get out of this forest.” “You said ‘just in time’. Just in time for what?” “Can’t talk here, must get out of the forest, spies everywhere you know.”
“What’s so bad about a forest?” “Not a forest, my lad, THE forest - of fading thoughts. The longer we stay here, the more time we have to lose our memory. And we have to avoid ‘The Beast’ You see… If the forest doesn’t make us lose our memories, then the beast will certainly eat us. He was put here as a protective measure by self-proclaimed King Malstrom — he didn’t want anyone coming through any of the other worlds, in any case, that should be elaborated on later. It is said, that the beast is really a man, who was enchanted by an evil wizard for refusing to give allegience to him. Who knows really, all I know is we need to go. You still have that coin, lad?” “Yeah it’s righ..frmf” The old wizard put his hand over his mouth and said “Shhh! We mustn’t say anything about that…” The old man started to whisper “As long as we have that, we’re protected from fading thoughts, although the beast is still something to worry about… come, let’s get my bag and start moving”.
There seemed to be alot less people and creatures now, and the last ones were heading in different directions. The old wizard picked up his bag, which was as blue as his hat, and they started off in a direction. Just then they heard a cry, the most terrible cry anyone has ever heard, a cross between a wolf’s howl and a lions roar. They started picking up speed. The sound started getting closer, and closer, until…
This was from my “7th gem” story, where the gem’s of the kindom (the 7 princes of the kingdom) were sent secretly away to different worlds in hopes of returning to reclaim the kingdom from the badguy (who was using slaves to mine the quicksilver ore, the magical substance the kingdom runs on). Of course the one that returns is the last one ie the “7th gem”. And now that I think about it, I might could fold this back into the main story. In any case here it is (assuming anyone reads it).
