The idea for my game concept began with an illustration by Guillaume Ospital, called 'The National'. For some time, it was the wallpaper on my phone, and the more I looked at it, the more I was drawn in by this female character leaping down a massive flight of stairs. It gave off this really cathartic, defiant vibe that I wanted to somehow capture in my game concept.
Plot Summary:
The game takes place in a vibrant cityscape known as Magnolia; a sprawling metropolis ruled by a group of politicians known as The Coalition of Triumvirates, who seek to pull Magnolia out of the gutters of economic instability and high crime rates into a better tomorrow. But not everything is as it seems. Organised crime syndicates work in the shadows, and as a terrible disease befouls the lower districts of the city, the populace are questioning the safety of their proud home. There are those, however, that seek to resolve what the authorities try to hide. A secretive resistance known as The Drifters are driven to truth in a society where such profundities are obscured by their twisted government. You play as Sharla, a novice drifter who seeks to earn her place in the world. Having known this line of work all her life, she has good background knowledge, especially considering her Mother, since passed, was one of the founding Drifters. Whilst resilient and street-smart, she has much to learn along her way. Will The Drifters spark a revolution from within? Or will the terrible disease engulf all of Magnolia? The whims of fate will decide...
Storytelling Structure:
The storytelling could be done in one of two formats:
FORMAT 1:
[*] lots of open-ended lore with speculation abounds
[*] tertiary material for the player to discover such as:
# character dialogue
# item descriptions
# background noise/ vignettes
An example of this kind of story-telling is done in Supergiant Games titles: Bastion, Transistor, Pyre.
FORMAT 2:
[*] no speech or text
[*] player interprets the story for themselves
[*] story is told through action
This format is a bit harder to accomplish properly, but some examples include: Hyper Light Drifter, Limbo, and Journey.
Gameplay Concepts:
First and foremost, this is an action platformer with very minor puzzle elements throughout, with some relatively basic mechanics introduced as the player progresses. for example, throughout the level, the player may find a cosmetic item (like a cape or shoes) which grants new abilities, such as performing a mid-air dash after executing a jump. While I was contemplating the gameplay mechanics, I noticed my cat on our kitchen bench making a jump for our dinner table. This gave me the idea of pertaining the fundamentals of the gameplay to catlike movement. How I implement this, however, I'm still unsure.
A majority of the movement through the level is atop buildings. As such, the movement should feel improvised and have some level of tension (breaking platforms/other dynamic systems...?).
More on gameplay to come, please ask questions and give feedback!
