Tales of an Orphan

https://dl.dropbox.com/u/89297536/web/Orphan/index.html

An orphan stows away aboard a ship to escape the murderers of his family. He does not know what awaits him but you can be certain that along the way, he will make friends and enemies. He will learn various skills to survive. A mysterious city far away across the ocean lies in wait. It may well be the most deadly city upon this world teeming with politics, intrigue and bloodshed.

Does the orphan have what it takes to survive the trials of the city and mature into a man? His destiny is in your hands!


Hi everyone.

This is only the prologue so far and it’s barely even finished. My main intention in posting it up so early was to get feedback and constructive criticism. I will be constantly updating this every day. My current goal is to finish the male prologue which I should be able to do by next week.

I would like to point out that for now, to keep things simple, the orphan is a male but I plan to add a female orphan to play as with its own unique choices.

I am willing to listen to any suggestions e.t.c so don’t hesitate!

Disclaimer: Everything is subject to change.

I think that what you have done so far is quite good. I noticed only one or two run on sentences and spelling errors, which is pretty darn good for a rough-draft partial post. I am not certain what direction the game is going to take, based on the little bit available. Will the character spend most of his time on the ship? Or in this mysterious city? Is the main goal of the game to survive in a new place, or will we be able to track down the ones who murdered our parents? I look forward to reading more of this.

It has potential, but not much backstory, are you planning to elaborate on that?

Thanks for taking the time to read Orphan.

I apologise for any spelling and grammar mistakes in the prologue. Once I am done with the prologue, I will do a final sweep to iron out any kinks.

@wolfwriter20 As for what happens in the future, truth be told, it’s going to be quite ambitious. The orphan starts out at 11 years old. I have plotted the major and minor events up to 21 years old. I intend to go further beyond this but that’s a long way yet. I mostly just have to crack on with the writing and coding. The stats system right now is simple. I intend to change this after the prologue is done.

The ship does have significance depending on whether you’re interested in that or not by your choices. The setting is in a fictional world that mirrors our 17th-18th century technology with a very low presence of magic. (At its current state, the magic system is still being worked out but for quite a few years, it will be mostly be only used for tricks and simple things but yes, the Orphan can learn magic.)

The orphan won’t have the option to return to his original land until he is much older. By the end of the prologue, you will be able to choose if you want to find out what happened to your parents and that will trigger a certain plot.

1)Join the crew, willingly or not. This would result in you spending more time on the ship with the crew sailing the high seas, taking you to the City much later.

2)Arrive at the City via a major event which means you will be there as early as possible and have more time to build up relations within the city.

3)Shipwreck on unknown lands. Same as 1) but instead of the ocean, you get to deal with the wilderness and strange beasts eventually reaching the City.

As you can tell, the game will be heavily focused on the City. I don’t want to reveal too much at this stage but it’s massive in size and spilt into districts. There will be guilds (Yes, there will be a thieves guild. I can’t wait until I get far enough to write this storyline.) you will be able to join with each having major plots that can factor into the ending. As the Orphan, you can rise to command any of them if you choose to do so or even take part in the political struggle of city or plot your way to become ‘supreme leader’. Depending on when you arrive there, the current leader will be assassinated or still living and you will be able to influence the direction of the City if you want.

There will be endings and epilogues based on what you did. Essentially, it’s you playing someone who has the potential to be a legend or a nobody.

@Daisuke Definitely! It’s not going to be dumped on you directly. Some parts of the backstory can only be found by searching, certain events and interlaced with the story. However, you will be able to choose exactly what happened in the Orphan’s past and that will unlock events that have consequences in your playthough.

Sounds like a heck of a project. I look forward to reading this as time permits me.

@Marius, that does sound quite ambitious. I wholeheartedly approve.

@Marius,
Change the ship’s name.
Dawnstar is a city in SKYRIM.

@Zed, do you really think it needs to be changed? Whether it is a reference or an honest coincidence, the fact that the name is used in another item of pop culture does not seem enough to be sole grounds to have to amend said name. However, that is my personal opinion, one which could be entirely misinformed.


Very bottom below privacy policy
It’s copyrighted

That will do it to you :slight_smile: Thanks for the link.

Your very welcome. It’s always good to prevent a choice game creator from getting sued over a Name.

I suppose Bethesda is pretty sue happy aren’t they? Still, I doubt there’s any danger in this instance.

I think I am going to have to google every name I come up with now.

@Shoelip,
Their legal department started a lawsuit over the word Scrolls because the title of a Mojang game, Scrolls was too similar to the Elder Scrolls.

Yes, that’s what I was referring to. They made an insanely idiotic legal claim, and won.

I was curious as to what the outcome of that case was. They do not own the name ‘scrolls’. Elder Scrolls, yes, but not Scrolls. Stranger things have happened I suppose. If I ever make a game called The Fallout of the Dishonored Elders, I’m going to be pretty much screwed.

Yep, though Dishonored is only being published by them not developed. It’s Arkane studios you’d be fighting with the Dishonored bit.

Ahh, yes very true. It just happened to be the first thing that came to mind.

@Marius, sorry, we kinda took over your thread there for a bit.

Back on topic, while the intro is short, it’s definitely enticing. I look forward to reading more of this!

@Zed You’d be fighting whoever owns the copyright, and that’s usually the publisher, not the developer. That’s why Bohemia interactive had to name the sequel to Operation Flashpoint “ARMA” while the publishers of the original game made a console game with the Operation Flashpoint name.

@wolfwriter20 They own the rights to the “Scrolls” franchise now. Mojang can finish their one game named “Scrolls” but then Bethesda gets the rights to that word. Of course none of this would have happened if it weren’t for Disney.