Memoria (WIP)

“Memoria”.
The story takes place in a world of the same name. I plan to have the game be very unique in a lot of ways, especially in how the storyline progresses, how your choices are made and affect the world around you, along with character creation and evolution. In fact, you literally shape and dictate the appearance of your surroundings, though its not always clear when you do or how its done, least of all what the outcome will be. You are subject to creating your world just as much as your character. I really wish to emphasize the point that you -create- your story and world; not merely ‘choose’ them, like selecting food from a menu.

You literally start off as a blank slate. The MC has amnesia, and cannot recall anything about themselves. Past, present and future has become a distant idea, an unrelatable concept. They do know that, for some as of yet unknown reason, they have the ability to see and manipulate the psyches of others. Pieces of the psyche are represented by memories, as they are inherited from experiences, and our experiences shape us as individuals, hence making up multiple parts of our unique psyche. Memories in this world aren’t just idle thoughts that randomly pop up; they are complex, unique and artistic in design and are represented as such with their visual quality. They have emotional weight and a quality of power that doesn’t seem normal, and any alteration to their existence, or the addition / destruction of such, has an impact on the outside. Your character has turned up at just the right time it seems, as monstrous shadowy figures of an unknown, alien nature seem to possess similar abilities to your own, stealing and altering human memories, disrupting humanity’s ability to retain its independence as the alien creatures swarm over civilization. Sensing a connection between yourself and these beings due to your shared powers, you decide to take the fight to them, and hopefully learn something about your past - and even your future - from destroying these strange hostiles. And luckily for you, without memories of your own, their powers do not work on you. The question is, how alike are you really to these apparently evil monsters? And what other dangers do they hold, aside from their powers?
Do you want to find out? And if you do - can you survive the knowledge?

Feel free to tell me what you think! I’d love to hear it, or ideas. Anything.

5 Likes

Sounds interesting I like the idea!

I realy like the sounds of this wip and wish you luck in its development :)>-

Sounds pretty unique, looking forward to it.

sounds awesome :smiley:

this sounds really interesting. I can’t wait to play your game. Will you be able to choose if your MC female or male ?

Will there be romance?

@vampierkid222 Thank you I appreciate it.

@Equilibrium Hehe, thank you! Hopefully I won’t disappoint.~ I plan on pumping as much juice into it as I can.

@CrossOver That’s one of the things I was going for. I wanted something unique but not so over the top that people couldn’t understand or grasp it. Thank you~

@Bloodhawkereaper Sweet! Thanks a bunch :smiley:

@PurpleMonkey121 Thank you ^^ Yes, you can choose your gender. There will be lots of customization options available, both at the beginning of the game and then later during it as you make your choices, since what you do affects not just the world and other people, but you as well. Kind of like the Fable series, where your actions as either good or evil were outwardly portrayed in your appearance. But here its a bit more ambiguous and varied, beyond just ‘good’ and ‘evil’.

@StarWarsMaster Yep! I’m a fan of romance myself, so there will certainly be options for it. In fact, while not necessarily romance in particular, its highly advisable (for what I have planned later in the story) that you at least get very friendly / close with one or two other characters, because certain parts are very difficult or almost impossible without help, unless you go the darker route, which gives you more power at the expense of your friends.

Also I’ve decided that, since I’m at least decent enough at simple drawings and maybe a bit more, I’ll draw up some WIP sketches for some of the characters and whatnot while I work on this in between, so I don’t lose my muse or get burned out, and give you guys an idea of what some of the things look like.

I bet a lot of people wonder just what these shadowy monsters look like xD

And I hope to have a demo up soon so keep a look out

Well, these few posts have made me curious.
Especially when you say: “you literally shape and dictate the appearance of your surroundings, though its not always clear when you do or how its done, least of all what the outcome will be. You are subject to creating your world just as much as your character. I really wish to emphasize the point that you -create- your story and world; not merely ‘choose’ them, like selecting food from a menu.” Wow, I want to see what you are going to offer us in this area. Because it seems difficult as hell to implement.

And now, the questions:

  • “MC has amnesia”. I am not familiar with this so I browsed the web and learnt a little more (thanks to you ^^) but if possible I would like to know what kind of amnesia she/he suffers from. Also, is the memory loss a central axis for the story? Will we be able to play as a MC that does/doesn’t want to recover her/his memories (and can/can’t retrieve them)?
  • “And luckily for you, without memories of your own, their powers do not work on you.” It is linked with the question above. If the MC’s amnesia doesn’t affect his/her short term memory, he/she can create new memories, meaning they will have some power on him/her. No ? And if the MC tries to recover what is lost, they will earn more and more power too, I think.
  • This leads to the third question about this topic: do the alien creatures have memories?
  • “I bet a lot of people wonder just what these shadowy monsters look like xD” Well I guess that I am amongst them, but part of me would also want to know why they have to be shadowy monsters. (To be honest, it was my first instinctive question, but I can understand that a dark threatening form always works for a chosen antagonist. I am just nitpicking.)

“I’ll draw up some WIP sketches. […] And I hope to have a demo up soon so keep a look out.” I look forward to it!

@Tehani

Haha it does seem difficult, but I’ve always been one for a challenge and I do think its possible. It starts small at first, but the bigger decisions have more impact. It’s implemented in a similar way to how your choices affect your character too, which I imagine to be a lot like the Fable series (evil choices give you more of an evil appearance, good choices give you a good appearance, etc, but much more ambiguous and not restricted to just ‘good’ and ‘evil’).

  • The memory loss is definitely a MAJOR central axis for the story. Which is why I don’t want to give too much away, and also that it will change slightly in nature if certain choices are made. I will say it IS possible for the MC to regain their memory in the story, but it comes at a great cost, so you’ll have to decide whether or not the cost is worth knowing the truth behind your past. I will say that the MC has repressed memory retrograde amnesia (that is to say, they cannot remember anything of their prior life before the onset of amnesia, caused by something traumatic in their past). And yes, it is entirely possible that the MC will never recover their memories, at least not fully. There will always be a lingering curiosity of the MC as to the memories, but it is a viable option for them to avoid pursuing the knowledge out of fear of the unknown, or perhaps just wanting to start a new life. You’ll be able to determine this.

  • The creatures’ powers focus heavily on the long term memory, those of our past, childhood and significant events that shape our personalities. They can play with the short term to a lesser degree, but it doesn’t have as much of the effect they are going for, only to just ‘erase’ memories of a certain time so they can get away cleanly. Without your MC’s long term memory intact, and the powers they have, it becomes much easier for them to protect their short term memory, and even as the story progresses and they develop memories, they will become more competent at protecting themselves. (Or they should, provided you don’t get a game over for making some bad choices) But you are wholly correct that the creatures CAN affect your new memories, which is why you cannot depend solely on your powers. They simply cannot unhinge your personality and ‘take you over’ as they’ve done for a lot of other humans.

  • That’s a secret! They don’t necessarily have memories, but they are connected to them. I just can’t say how. It would ruin the story. >.> But you’re onto something!

  • And I’m glad you brought up the shadowy monster bit. For one, this description is how everyone perceives them, because that is all their human eyes can perceive. They are not actually comprised of shadows or anything, its just a vague description to describe an even vaguer creature. Some of them take on the guise of humans, though they have to be significantly powerful to do so, because it involves absorbing ALL of a human’s psyche, and then they just inhabit the shell. Scary thought, isn’t it? But suffice it to say that the MC will be able to, soon enough, see past their murky exterior. Their appearance is actually partially connected to the above answer. :3

Thanks for your comprehensive little quiz~ I love when people do these things, gets me brainstorming for more stuff and helps me more firmly settle on others. ^^ And I appreciate the interest!

@Tehani I also wanted to add (but edit time ran out):
Gaining memories for more power is definitely one of the major concepts of the story, for the more memories you regain, the stronger you become – and they don’t have to be just your memories either. For a less moral route, you have the option of seizing memories and stolen psyches, and instead of returning them, absorbing them yourself for additional power, which is part of the whole ‘how alike are you to these monsters?’ question. But the more memories you gain, yours or not, also make you more susceptible to the monsters’ powers, so you have to strike a balance, depending on how strong you are not just with your abilities, but in other areas too.

Never played Fable :-" but I get the idea.

Wow thanks a lot for the insightful answers, it was worth reading! It always feels good to see that the author knows where he/she wants to go and I like what you have in store for us. :slight_smile: Hehehe, I guess it will be hard to find the good balance between all the possibilities that are likely to appear in the character development, so the “game over” screen will certainly become a good friend of a lot of players, but this is exciting.

I’ll stay tuned for the demo.

I love how this sounds. Looking forward to seeing it when it’s out!

sounds interesting

Sounds like a great WIP

@Tehine well you could get the jist by reading up on it too. it explains the mechanic pretty well I think, but that’s just if you wanna understand it more. And you’re welcome. ^^ But its questions like yours that help me more solidify my grip on my story and where I want to go with it. Y’know, when you have it more in writing instead of just in your thoughts? It seems clearer, more concrete and crisp. Set in stone kind of. But yes I think the game over screen will probably show up a bit for some xDD but its a learning experience!~

@gkkiller Thank you ^^ I’ll try to get the demo out ASAP! I’m excited to see people play it too.

@Azraeldrake9 Thank you, I’ll try not to disappoint with the demo C:

@jcsunshine_3 Sweet, glad you approve ^^

Very sorry for my long absence and lack of updates on this. I had gallbladder surgery last month and have been busy in between recovery and then other things, including trying to find a job after finally getting my college degree, attending my SS hearing and all that entails, etc.

Anyway, I will have a very detailed update for you very soon (within the next 24 hours), so look for it in the coming day! <3

@Skyler
I’ve half-read, half-skimmed through your older posts, and this WIP seems very ambitious (interpret that as you will), yet interesting as well. I’m looking forward to seeing what you will do with this,

@Skyler, hope you get better