Hey guys! I’ve decided to start working on a game iv’e been planning to make for some time this summer. It’s taken me a while to get a good feel for using choicescript, but I think Iv’e gotten to the point where I can focus mostly on making the game instead of trying to learn HOW to do it.
Iv’e decided having my progress on it public will help motivate me! I also think having some discussion going on about these characters Iv’e been thinking off for over a year will keep the idea interesting while I’m writing everything out. It might even give me some completely new ideas. 
I’d like to finish the second chapter before I put add a link to the demo, but I’ll put up what I have done later this month regardless!
Some Background Information
[details=Summary]Incredible scientific advancements are being made by mankind in the year 2600. Namely, their recent breakthroughs in space travel, and the rapid improvements in their understanding of how DNA can be manipulated and changed in an unborn human being. As they’re exploring the far off corners of their galaxy for the first time, altering a human’s “natural” traits before they’re born is beginning to be normalized throughout the general public.
Some of these alterations involve manipulating genes that already existed in the organism, attempting to trigger desirable mutations, and even creating chimera-like hybridized human children with various strands of animal DNA. One unforeseen product of these experiments were a handful of children born who showed drastically increased development in cognitive abilities for their age. Further studies conducted with these children as participants showed that the human brain may hold the capacity for precognition, or predicting the future, if only we could figure out how to access it.
While thought provoking, these studies were mostly rejected throughout the scientific community. When these same children began speaking of visions of the apocalypse, it was widely dismissed as the result of an unknown psychological disorder caused by gene manipulation. Still, the visions they spoke of were fascinating, and seemed to be consistent throughout every child that claimed to experience them. Their talk of a gaping wound that would open on earth and eventually consume everything was reported on right up until the day their visions came true.[/details]
The Ulcaceur
is an endless pit that opened up in what was the middle of the North Pacific Ocean.
[details=Summary] Its several hundred miles wide, and the exact coordinates of it are unknown, as it’s boundaries tend to shift. With it came gigantic sea creatures, enough water to increase the global sea level by roughly 1,500 feet, and strange, toxic clouds of gas that caused widespread infertility and death.
Detailed records of what happened to the generation to witness the birth of the Ulcaceur have been lost. Most societies have constructed their own stories detailing just how mankind fell from their technological pillars into the post-apocalyptic state they struggle to survive in. Many people do assume their hardships originated from the Ulcaceur, but it’s origins are still highly debated nearly 400 years after the fact.[/details]
The Story
[details=Summary]You play as Arc, a 19 year old soothsayer living in the desert strips known as the Wastelands, or what is left of the Americas. You see the future in your dreams, and lately your dreams haven’t been great. Your existence, along with your destiny to share your visions of the true end of the world has been foreseen in your family for countless generations. You, for reasons that will be revealed in-game, are far away from your family, and events have taken place that have caused most societies aware of you to think you haven’t been born yet. Because of this, you’ve been able to abandon the destiny appointed to you centuries ago.
Your main goal is to cover up any signs of the impending final apocalypse. The Ulcaceur will tear your planet apart, and after that it will expand to tear everything else apart. No matter what your goal is, you will need to prevent whats left of mankind from figuring out just how near the end is, otherwise they will destroy themselves years before the very decomposition of existence has a chance to.
Living in the wastelands has it’s perks. You’re as far from anyone that could identify you as who you really are as possible. However, this is the most dangerous place on earth that is technically still habitable. People with your abilities are widely regarded as “witches” in the Wastelands, and if you were captured by the wrong people, you could be burned alive.
While your most powerful tool to surviving the Wastelands are your precognitive abilities, you also have the chance to improve several different forms of combat throughout the game. You will also have the ability to learn new languages which will enable trading, reasoning, and general interaction with different npcs, choose which npcs you’d like to take with you on journeys to take advantage of their specific skill set, and improve your relationship with almost every character you meet. Your personality, and what you’re trying to accomplish aside from hiding the apocalypse will have an impact on ever npc you talk with.[/details]
Misc Game Features
[details=Summary]- Arc can be played as a man, women, or nonbinary.
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While your name starts out as Arc, you have the option to introduce yourself with a different name to every person you meet. You could even refuse to give a name if you wanted to.
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The way you interact with every single npc will change how other npcs think of you (aka relationship stats) This doesn’t necessarily mean treating one npc well will cause every other one to dislike you, but rather how you treat people in general can change everyone’s opinion of you.
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Several npcs will be romancable, but pursuing a romance is in no way needed to finish the game.[/details]
characters
These four characters are the ones you will be immediately introduced to. These npcs make up "your group’, which means they are the people you have been living with for whatever amount of time up until this point. These are also the only characters you will have a pre-existing relationship with.
Mare
[details=Summary]Mare is an ex gang member you convinced to leave to live with you while you were both preteens. Shes 18, only a year younger than you.
Her childhood was rough, and has left her with experience using many types of weapons, which she has a bit of an obsession with now. Despite her violent past, Mare is an extremely friendly person that craves social contact.
This can even be a flaw. She has been known to approach strangers and risk getting attacked just for a chance to meet somebody new. Thankfully, she is extremely charismatic, so shes able to talk herself out of most hostile encounters she finds herself in with other humans.
Mare has vertically slit pupils, and trait she shares with maybe a third of everybody born in the wasteland.[/details]
Ruben
[details=Summary]A skilled engineer that stumbled across your mainstay purely by chance about a year ago. He had been traveling between trade posts when you met, and decided to stay indefinitely after doing some work for you for room and board. Hes now 22 years old.
Ruben is very kind, and more than a little naive. He came from a well protected community in the Cap Islands, and had never been traveling on his own before. It was truly amazing that he made it as far as he did without getting robber or kidnapped by a gang member, which is part of what made Mare so insistent on asking him to stay.
He knows a great number of languages, and is well-educated. Despite his lack of experience with any sort of combat, hes a world traveler, which is highly regarded in a world where oceans are filled with dangerous sea creatures. He and Mare are good friends.[/details]
Bertrand
Summary
A mysterious man that joined the ground a couple of months ago. Shortly after he joined, the community he was staying at burned to the ground. Not very much is known about him, other than he likes to keep to himself and is in his late 20s. He will avoid people that ask him a lot of questions.
Marty
[details=Summary]Marty is a Cockroach girl who previously lived in a mutant roach colony deep in the heart of Agritudo (a large city located somewhere in present-day North America) before finding and eventually tagging along with Archem. She’s known for struggling to care for other people or causes when it doesn’t directly benefit her, and collecting random pre-apocalyptic human items. Shes around 15 years old.
Shes very resourceful and unlikely to run out of steam when trying to figure something out. Marty deals with stress and confrontation like its nothing, but is averse to pain and will more than likely panic and try to ditch the situation any way she can if she’s been physically injured in some way. Despite her aversion its very difficult to fatally wound her. She possesses regenerative abilities similar to a cockroach.
Shes egotistical, especially when it comes to her own survival and putting it in any amount of jeopardy for others sake. This makes it hard for her to be accepted or seen as an equal member in team settings, and makes her generally unlikable to many people she meets.[/details]
Planned encounters
[details=Summary]These are some encounters I plan on including on the game. Mostly hostile/ enemies.
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Roaming bands of cannibals.
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Sea monsters, compared to Leviathan because of their often reptilian appearance.
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Gang members. Located in The Dunes (a strip of sandy deserts in the Wastelands) and ride around on armored big cats.
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A cult that recognizes you as their deity’s offspring. Their may be an option to control/essentially take over this cult.
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“Witch Hunters” that see your abilities as demonic or the cause of the Ulcaceur, etc.
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The Mutant Colonies. Mutants, like Marty, are descendants of those chimera-like humans that have continued to develop more of those traits throughout generations of reproducing, resulting in a separate species. Mutant colonies form when people with these desirable traits group together. The two most common mutants in the Wastelands are roaches and rats.
Nonhuman traits such as tails or slit pupils aren’t uncommon, but people are generally considered “mutants” when they appear more animal than human.[/details]
