The town of Cogshire was a thriving gnomish community. Set within the protective confines of the crater of a dormant volcano, the citizens of Cogshire spent their days happily gathering crystals from the rock walls of the volcano they called home. These crystals however were no ordinary gems. Years prior, the founders of Cogshire had discovered that these crystals could hold energy that they were exposed to. A visionary gnomish inventor Whizzbang Fiddlesprocket, devised a contraption that purified and focused the energy of the sun itself, and for decades, crystals powered the myriad devices of Cogshire.
Today however, the thriving town of Cogshire is dying. Our hero enters the town via elevator systems that are running a little too slow and a little too sluggish. He/She finds the townsfolk are scared that their entire way of life is dying, and the only person who can save them, a direct descendant of Fiddlesprocket, has vanished. Our hero must question the townspeople which will eventually lead him/her to an ascetic witchdoctor, who lives near the mine entrance.
The witchdoctor tells our hero that an aberrant crystal was found in the mine, Fiddlesprocket’s grandson had gone into the mine to investigate it and when he did not return guards were sent in who found that Fiddlesprocket’s grandson and the aberrant gem had both vanished. He explains that the town is dying because the machine that Fiddlesprocket invented which is housed in the statue located by the library in the middle of town is slowing down. The only person who can fix it is Fiddlesprocket’s grandson. He also tells the hero that the crystals in the mine are being corrupted by an imbalance between the planes which started shortly after the disappearance of Fiddlesprocket’s grandson. Our hero is asked to journey to the nightmare realm with the help of the witchdoctor to restore the balance and rescue Fiddlesprocket’s grandson who can fix the statue and stop Cogshire from plummeting to what the gnomes view as the equivalent of the dark ages.
Once our hero meets with the witchdoctor, he/she is asked to take two crystals to the statue in the middle of town. One is mounted atop some sort of arcane staff of some cryptic significance, the other is the last uncorrupted power crystal in Cogshire. The staff is to be used by the witchdoctor to transport the hero to the nightmare realm. The other is to be used to restore balance to the planes and thus save the mine from complete corruption.
Upon reaching the nightmare plane our hero finds that Fiddlesprocket’s grandson has gone mad from being trapped in the nightmarish world he was transported to. He has transformed this plane’s version of the statue into a giant golem-like robot and this tampering is the cause of the imbalance corrupting the gems in the material plane. Our hero must defeat the golem robot and replace its corrupted crystal with the one given to him/her by the witchdoctor. Once the robot is restored to its rightful place our hero brings Fiddlesprocket’s grandson back to the portal where his madness can be cured by the witchdoctor and the town of Cogshire can be restored to its prior glory.
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1. The volcano is off in the distance. They are more in a crater that has been caused by geothermic activity but when you say they harvest the crystals from the side of the volcano it seems weird when it is so far away.
ReplyDelete2. I thought we had it set that all the crystals were fine and one of the crystals brought back is contaminated, which gets the gnome dude stuck in the nightmare realm. From my understanding the the Statue merely chargers up the crystals not purifies them. The clockwork gnome charging them up gives them there power which they can then use to power there inventions.
3. I thought we were going with the Nightmare idea of the people more afraid of going to sleep then there town dying. This explains why everything will be Nightmarish in node 2. Not to say there stuff isnt running semi slugging now but I dont think its that the town is dying.
4. If Fiddlesprocket (think this is too WoW of a name) disappears in the mine then it would make sense that they player would go adventure into the mine when they dont. The fact that one contaminated crystal is brought in the town and Fiddle then disappears and is in the Nightmare realm of the town makes more sense.
5. I thought we were going to have the player port into the Nightmare realm at the witch doctors hut so that he can have the vista view of the entire town in Nightmare.
6. The statue is a giant Clockwork gnome created by the gnomes. It has moving gears and what not. Take out the golem thing as it makes it sound as if its made out of stone.
7. The player should see that the statue is no longer in the middle of the town square so he is not directly told that the gnome is mad.
8. Instead of directly telling the player the gnome has gone mad if can be implied by him riding the menacing clockwork robot. This is a better then just telling the player the gnome has gone mad.
9. From the ideas Jimmy had the player must use both Crystals (one from the town, one in the staff) to gain access to the Nightmare realm. In the Nightmare realm he can destroy the corrupted crystal releasing the gnome from its spell.
10. Instead of making the player go to town, go to the witch doctor, go back to the town to get the crystal, go back to the witch doctor we can have the witch doctor tell the player he needs them to help the gnomes by getting the crystal in the center of town and bringing it to his hut.
This eliminates all backtracking, gives the player a reason to go to the town and a direction to go after being in the town.
I'll get a revised version up ASAP. A few notes regarding the points you mentioned:
ReplyDelete1.) My bad misunderstanding on my part. Will be fixed in Story v1.01b
2.) Andres had suggested the corruption of the other crystals in class. Andres? Is this something we are scrapping?
3.) The nightmares was going to be a result of the contaminated river certain things changed when we scrapped that idea, but I'm sure I can work this back in as it does help with justifying the theme of the alternate world.
4.) The player is on his way to the mine when he meets the witchdoctor who stops him and redirects the story arc into the nightmare world.
5.) Where in what I wrote do you get the impression that the hero is not being ported from the hut?
6.) done
7. & 8.) never said he was told that the guy went mad. I said he finds that out after reaching the nightmare plane. I'll work on making that a little more clear.
9.) According to my discussions with Jimmy, there are two staves not two crystals; The staff the witchdoctor holds and the staff with a crystal mounted on top. Jimmy, has this changed or did I misinterpret something?
10.) Three things:
a.) The player doesn't meet the witchdoctor before going out to the hut. How can the witchdoctor tell him to bring something to him before he meets him.
b.) The crystal in the middle of town is far too large to carry and is vital to the town functioning.
c.) Receiving a quest. Undertaking a quest. Reporting back to the quest giver is standard procedure in games. Why is this a problem?
1. Yep, thanks for clearing that up.
ReplyDelete2 & 3. Ok, so we got to clear this up, cause it gets kinda confusing really quickly. The role of the statue in the city is to purify the LIGHT from the sun using his lens (the three rings), which create a beam that hits the main crystal in the middle of the town square. Then the gnomes take their smaller crystals up to the main crystal in order to recharge it. Then in order to justify a problem with the town and to explain the nightmare realm this is what I had in mind: The crystal found in the mine is a "Nightmare Crystal", and when some gnome was working trying to get it out of the cave he hits the crystal with his pick, and he gets sent into the nightmare realm.(That's the gnome we will have to rescue later on). Then I was thinking that after he hits the crystal either:
a)we have a cloud that affects the crystals from the whole town and starts to corrupt them, and they can whole less energy and thus the town is kinda slowing down or "decaying", this way we can through some sense of urgency into the player. Since the crystals don't have that much energy, the giant robot is slowing down, cause it is crystal powered as well.
b)that cloud that comes out starts to corrupt the crystals and it's the corrupted crystals that make the gnomes have nightmares. Justifying the nightmare realm.
c)Both things, a and b. Corrupted crystals that start to hold less and less energy as they get corrupted and these make the gnomes have more and more nightmares. (This is my fav..)
4. I believe that the gnome dude should disappear inside the mine. This way when you are assigned the quest in the town, it makes sense to the player to go towards the mine, and then it's there when the witchdoctor explains that you need to go into the nightmare realm to repair the main crystal in the town square by taking a "healthy" crystal that the withcdoctor gives you. So even though the Fiddlesporcket disappeared in the mine, the players objective is to go to the townsquare. Once they get to there in the nightmare realm, they realize that the robot is missing and the main stone has been moved to NODE 3. THEN the player finds Fiddlesprocket in the nightmare realm and this will come as a surprise to the player making it more interesting, but we don't find this out until we go into the nightmare realm. The player is told that he disappeared, but not that he is in the nightmare realm, if the player is smart he will figure that out himself and is not, he will find out once he finds him protecting the corrupted crystal in the node 3, using the robot.
5.Maybe we can state it a bit more clearly but yes both of of you guys are correct, the player is porting to the nightmare realm through the witchdoctor hut.
(continue in next comments...)
4. (Extra:) The player might not necessarily need to heal the corrupted crystal in the town square,he might just destroy that crystal like Anthony suggested.
ReplyDelete6. Check out the concepts that Gene posted on the Dropbox, so you can get a more accurate description just to make it a bit clearer inside the design doc. Thanks.
7. & 8. I think I went over this answering some other question. Maybe just add that I think it's a cool idea to let Fiddlesprocket come as a surprise in the nightmare realm, so they are not expecting everything. Give them some twists, and then either Fiddlesprocket himself can tell them he "embraced the power of the crystal or something", or the player can just figure out himself that he went mad and corrupted in the nightmare realm. Or maybe he can thank you and explain you what happened once you take him out. Just some thoughts.
9. I think you are both kinda saying the same thing with different words, but just to settle any doubts. Yes, there are two staffs, one is the witchdoctor's and the other one is also the witchdoctor's haha, but it has a crystal that the player must charge. And both of these staffs are needed to open the portal.
10. I agree we need to optimize the path, and not have the player go back and forth and have him backtracking, not because we don't do it in games, but I think it would be kinda boring for SONY if when we are presenting we are just going back and forth on the same route two or three times, but instead of having you meet the witchdoctor first. I believe it would be best if the player starts on the path, take the main bridge to the town. Meets some people they explain the problem, they give him a crystal when he accepts the quest maybe with some excuse like "You will need it for a mine cart, or to light some light or something simple". Then when the player goes to the mine, and finds the witchdoctor, and he tells him he needs a charged crystal the player already has one, removing the need for any backtracking. :D
What do you guys think?