Ok, so I have little experience in story telling and making games, hence why I’m asking for any advice. I’m drafting the story for an space adventure game. I know there have been more and more space related games coming out on Choice of Games lately, but it’s easily my favorite genre and I feel I have the best grasp out of the type of game for what I want. Another reason is because I had this super awesome dream which I’m basing the game off of, but as is the case for a lot of my dreams it’s only half remembered.
Anyway, I literally only started this project yesterday, so I don’t even have a title for the game yet, so any ideas on that would be appreciated. Even though I’m learning as I go, I’m hoping to distinguish my game from others by making it really fleshed out and longer. I’m wanting to make the experience as close as possible to a tabletop game with a DM that makes major decisions. As for the length, while I enjoy many of the games on Choice of Games, they’re usually too short for my preference and can be gotten through in under an hour. My game will (hopefully) be much longer, like at least six or seven hours at least, maybe more. Now, obviously I’ll have to break this up into episode and chapters, but if people can enjoy themselves by making a day of playing the game, then I’ll consider my job accomplished.
As for game itself, since I only started this yesterday I don’t have enough of the plot worked out yet to post yet, but what I have so far is this: it takes place in an distant future where humankind has spanned the galaxy and settled on countless worlds, although there are still pockets of hazardous areas that are undiscovered. You start the game as a commander in the fleet and are about to get your first ship to command. In this future, most ships are a blend of traditional metal alloys and organic parts, but you will be given the first fully organic ship. Needless to say, this is a huge honor and the eyes of the galaxy will be on you. As you progress through the episodes, you will gain in reputation and rank, and as you gain in rank your ship, which is telepathically linked with you, will gain more abilities, size, and power.
More about the ship, since it’s a central character in the game (yes, it’s a character), being fully organic it has an actual brain and is fully self aware and sentient and as such when you start the game it will still be an egg or embryo about the size of a beach ball awaiting you so it can imprint on you. Imprinting in this case requires a blood sample from you to be injected into the embryo and them making physical contact. Once imprinted, it will be taken to a special facility to be “hatched” and grown, a process that with special feeding techniques only takes a couple of days. Once fully grown it’ll only be about 100 meters long due to being basically a “child”, and this youth will be reflected in the ships personality. As you progress through the game, the ship will mature and grow, and by the last episode will be the largest and most powerful shis in the fleet, measuring in about ten kilometers long and being able take on most fleets by itself (which will happen).
As for the crew, you won’t have a normal crew in the normal sense. The “crew” will be humanoid clones that the ship grew to man essential functions, and they look a bit like you in fact. When you and the ship first start off, you’ll only have about 20 of these clones manning the ship, but you will naturally get more as the ship gets bigger, where you will eventually have an entire army of clones. These clones can perform any task needed, from manning controls on the ship to being infantry. Like the ship itself, as the ship gets more advanced, so to will the clones. Starting off with, you’ll only have one type of clone, kind of scrawny and a bit fragile. As you advance, the clones will become more diverse, both in size and ability, including a powerfully armored and armed tank of a clone three meters tall specifically for battle or lifting really heavy things (think of the Hunters in Halo).
Another aspect I was thinking of adding, although I’m not sure yet how I’m going to make it work, is adding the option at the beginning of the game when you imprint with the ship, letting the player decide on a type of career, which would determine the type of ship it becomes.
The careers I’m thinking about are as follows:
Command: would result in the ship having generally more powerful armaments but fewer fighters.
Support: would have longer range weapons but fairly weak short range weapons and would rely on other ships for protection, but would have the ability repair other vessels.
Carrier: has decent weapons coverage for short range combat, mainly for self defense, but has extra mass to accommodate the thousands of fighters within it.
Stealth: will be much smaller than the other ones, especially later in the game, has the ability to shield itself from sensors, although to start with the stealth will be relatively weak and can be disrupted, and you have to unstealth to fire, but later you can fire while stealthed and even deploy weapons satellites so the enemy can't pinpoint your location. Will have few but powerful short range weapons for disabling hit and run attacks.
I’m also thinking of adding in the option later on to become a pirate, but I’m not sure.
Well, what do you guys think? I jotted down everything I could think of and welcome criticism and ideas.
