Hello, friends! I’ve begun work on a new game and I feel satisfied that it’s at a point where I can show it off – in part, at least.
H E R O E S - O F - N E W - U T O P I A (working title)
The city of New Utopia is a shining beacon of truth, liberty, and justice. Under the watchful benevolence of the metahuman hero known as The Shield and his Vigilance Wing, the metropolis has enjoyed years of growth and prosperity.
You, the player, are one of the newest wave of young hopefuls eager to join the Vigilance Wing and defend the city. It is the opportunity of a lifetime. For some, it is a chance to fulfill their civic duties. For others, this is a chance at a better life. For others, it’s just a chance to demonstrate their fantastical prowess. And for those who succeed, it is an opportunity to earn fame and celebrity while defending what is held up as the best city in the world.
But all cities have secrets buried in their past, and secrets have a way of getting out. Sometimes the past is nothing more than a prologue.
A new dawn will rise over the city of New Utopia and it is up to you – the player – to determine what that dawn will stand for.
F E A T U R E S
NOTE: As Heroes is in a state of active development, these features may change. At this time, they are considered goals.
- Choose your superpower, and harness it to conquer challenges both major and minor!
- Multiple endings, with differences both big and small!
- Work within the traditions of Utopia City’s greatest defenders, or embrace the part of the radical. Or go further beyond that divide and work with the side of the villains!
- Embrace a team of varied characters, or spurn them and work alone! When the time comes, will they stand by you?
- Pick a partner (the term sidekick is detrimental to team morale, you see) and embrace the power of teamwork! Will you effect on them be positive or negative?
- Four romance options to choose from (two male, two female) – or don’t, and keep things strictly professional!
- Customisable cast! NOTE: Of all the goals, this is the one I’m most on the fence about. If I think it won’t undermine the characters, I’ll work to fit it in.
- An undetermined amount of achievements!
- Customise your outfit and choose your superhero name!
- Play as male, female or non-binary!
- Wear a tactically-inadvisable-but-really-stylish cape – if you want! Again!
TESTING LINK: CLICK HERE.
F A Q
Where is Paradigm City 2, you hack fraud?
It’s coming, but don’t hold your breath.
Oh. Does this have something to do with Paradigm City 2?
No! But you could consider this a companion piece. If Paradigm City fits into the nebulous genre of capepunk, which illustrates how superhumans wouldn’t necessarily fix the world of its existing problems, Heroes is much more, well, heroic. Where the Paradigm series has grit and cynicism and characters grappling to hold the world together for just one more day, Heroes has bright-eyed romantic idealism and characters who want to do the right thing. Where PC is muted and apocalyptic, HNU is melodramatic and revelatory.
Do I need to know anything about Paradigm City to play HNU?
Absolutely not. It’s a separate world with a separate cast of characters. There may be some cheeky nods here and there.
What does this do differently to Paradigm City?
This is a hard question to answer before it is complete. Beyond the aforementioned stuff about tone, however, my goal is to craft an experience that is an inversion of Paradigm City. Where Paradigm City was relatively linear and was more about reactive delayed branching, I hope for HNU to have wider branches and a less rigid structure. If Paradigm was ‘thinking with action’, I hope for HNU to be ‘action with thinking’.
What else have you written?
Paradigm City, a Hosted Game. And the in-progress web novel Not All Heroes which is set in the same world.
Let’s talk mechanics. How are you handling stats and stat checks?
To borrow a line from Emily Short: Stats will be set during ‘normal’ play by the decisions players make, they will be checked during ‘special’ events, and rarely will choices be ‘gated’ behind what stats the player possesses.
For example, if the player constantly chooses options that reduce their empathy stat, this will reduce the stat (normal play). At a key point, where the player may need to have empathy to help someone, or may wish to have empathy for someone to avoid doing something rash, they may not be able to do so successfully(special event). However, the option will not be greyed out (gating).
Typicaly, ‘special events’ will be when either outcome (pass/fail) could put the story on a different, interesting path without having the player feel like control is being taken away from them.
How many romance options, and who are they?
Four, and check below for the specific set.
How many superpowers can we choose from? Can we have ones you have not already prepared? How will they work?
You may pick one of ten. It is unlikely that any other powers will be included, just because ten is a fair amount of work as it is. Speaking mechanically, if using your power is the obvious response to an easy success (using super strength to jump over an alley), the player will do so automatically. But if it is ever a more complicated situation (throwing a fireball to try and catch someone on a busy city street), then it will be a choice with a check.
How long did this take you?
Just over a week. And a bit of that time was reacquainting myself with Choicescript.
How long will this take you?
Uncertain. I feel I will have it complete before the end of the year, but that’s all it is – a feeling.
S P O I L E R S
Below, here are some more detailed bits of information for people who are curious about where this project is heading. For example, who the ROs are and what the spoiler-free outline is. All of this information is beyond the current WIP (Chapter 1).
Romance Options: Aphelion, Dynamique, Eidolon and Roulette
Partner Options: Aphelion (telekinetic forcefield), Dynamique (gadgets), Eidolon (strength, invulnerability), Roulette (random)
Plot Outline
Prologue (Sunrise): The player experiences a vivid nightmare – what does it mean?
Chapter 1 (Daylight): The player attends the final trials to become a member of the city’s leading hero team, the Vigilance Wing.
Chapter 2 (Morning): Having passed the final trials, the player works with their new team on a trial basis. At the end, the player picks their partner.
Chapter 3 (Zenith): Working with their partner, the player brings down a variety of oddly-coordinated criminals – but what is this talk of a mysterious reckoning?
Chapter 4 (Sunset): The player confronts the villain behind the criminal wave. The plot thickens, secrets come out, and the city shuffles ever closer towards that nightmare vision…
Chapter 5 (Nightfall): The player confronts the architect of their nightmare. On the eve of reckoning, they are made an offer…
Chapter 6A (Sunrise (Redux)): The day of reckoning. The player works against the antagonist to stop their mad plan.
Chapter 6B (Sunrise (Redux)): The day of reckoning. The player works with the antagonist to ensure their plan goes through – or to try and avert the fire from the inside.
Chapter 7 (A New Dawn): The end. How does Utopia City continue onward, if it survives at all? Who is brought to justice and who escapes? Who has a happy ending, and who does not?
P R O J E C T - S T A T U S
Prologue: Available for testing (UPD: 3/3/18)
Chapter 1: Available for testing (UPD: 3/3/18)
Chapter 2: WIP.
Chapter 3: WIP.
Chapter 4: WIP.
Chapter 5: WIP.
Chapter 6: WIP.
Chapter 7: WIP.
Word Count: 27k (without code), 30k (with)
Available for testing: Chapter has been quicktested and can be played through but significant revisions may be made, particularly in regards to prose and numerical balance.
WIP: Chapter is being worked on and is not available for testing.
Complete: Chapter is considered complete and it is unlikely any significant changes will be made.
For one thing, most cape-wearing superheroes are literally the most powerful characters, like Superman, Thor, the Vision, and Captain Marvel/Shazam, for whom getting the cape caught is really not a problem. Meanwhile, they can use the cape to help intimidate opponents, and convince normal people that they’re something more than human, which helps to obscure the fact that they might have normal secret identities… For someone like Batman, this applies, too, but he also uses his cape as both camouflage and as part of his fighting style, obscuring his movements. True, he doesn’t have the superhuman strength of the other characters, so getting the cape caught is a potential issue, but I’d be surprised if he doesn’t have some kind of way to instantly unclip it. 
I think name selection would probably work better before The Shield’s speech, unless the file corruption is actually a plot point, or is supposed to show that Vigilance Wing is already imperfect. (If it is, it’s a pretty meta way of foreshadowing it… 
)
Just a dead mom or dad.
