Wayward Skies RPG


Hello everyone!
I am Autonomy, and this is my thread about the game I’m making, called Wayward Skies.
I’m fairly new to the forums, though I’ve been meddling with choicescript on my own for the past few months, trying to get a knack for it. I’m not much of an author, and human dialect eludes me, and hope to improve my skills!


Wayward Skies is a SciFantasy RPG that is trying to achieve a balance between story and gameplay (though I’m not sure how that goal will turn out)
It takes place in a universe similar to the FTL: Faster than Light Universe, but with a few cultural, historical, and technological differences, along with a few more races I’ve come up with.


tl;dr
Here is the storyline I have so far for the humans (the game will vary greatly depending on what race you choose, though you are required to play the story below for your first time):

97 years ago, Humanity, along with Earth as a whole was almost wiped out. A deadly disease known as PAX-12 (Plague Inc. reference!) killed almost 2/3 of the human race, and set the ecology of the planet on a sharp downwards spiral, ensuring that anything remaining on the planet for more than about 70 years would decay. The humans managed a cure, but it couldn’t stop the inevitable rotting of Earth.
The surviving nations, realizing that their time was short, banded together in a last attempt to combine their resources for a way off the planet, and the humans quickly advanced as a race, discovering FTL travel in a matter of 20 years of research.
About 38 years ago, 12 years after the discovery of FTL travel, the humans have finally designed a functioning colony ship that could hold nearly a tenth of Earth’s surviving population of creatures, and have given you, the pilot of that ship, the mission to find a suitable planet for the humans to colonize so the remaining humans, animals, and plants on earth can live on a new planet safe from the disease.

From that point on, it’s the player’s choices that affect how to story progresses, and travels from planet to planet scouting a good place for the colony ship to land.

Challenges along the way may include:

  • Making sure your crew and passengers don’t die (probably important)
  • Finding a planet hospitable enough for the plants and animals of Earth
  • Not offending Aliens (quite difficult I’m afraid)

There are going to be a total of 2 story options per race:

  • The Main Story
  • The Sandbox

The main story is pretty much someone has set you up to do something, and you do it.
The part of the game is going to be more focused on story, and is where you’ll probably learn to start from.

The sandbox is where you choose your profession, and wander the galaxy doing whatever you can, from ship battles, to piracy, to joining the military, etc.

(~sigh~ yes I know this is a lot of work, but I at least want to try, if nothing, I’ll just get the main story part done)


Oh yes, and before I get, the 13 races

  • The Humans - A race of extremely adaptive ape descendants, the Humans are one of the more varying races in the galaxy. The humans are on the verge of dying off, and have recently been developing advanced cloning technology as a final attempt to survive.

  • The Mantis - Violent & Impulsive Preying Mantis resembling aliens, the Mantis may be a bit dim, but are one of the more fearsome races in the galaxy. The Mantis often tend to invade other species, but usually only out of boredom. The Mantis have the most superior weaponry in the galaxy, but tend to stay in their home system unless invading.

  • The Zoltans - A race of green and glowing humanoids, the Zoltans are the most mysterious and probably the most useful race in the galaxy, seeing how any electrical device near them is powered.The Zoltan have lacking physical skills, but are great barterers.

  • The Graeitor (A new one I made up) - The Graeitor are a strange religious race of creatures that worship gravity. They seem to be extremely peaceful, but also nearly indestructable, and claim to be made of solid gravity, though that doesn’t logically make sense. They have the ability to manipulate gravitational fields, but don’t have communities, they often tend to wander the planet they are on, searching for the answers of some question they wish to solve.

  • The Engi - The Engi are a graceful bio-mechanical race of seemingly yeti-shaped people. They have an extreme knack for mechanics, and are often seen meddling with some device or another. They are extremely kind and sharing, and wish only for the best of the galaxy. The Engi, being made of trillions of tiny nanites, adapt to many forms according to their wish, but tend to stay humanoid as it makes other races feel comfortable. It is unknown what part of the Engi isn’t robotic, but it remains unidentified on the inside.

  • The Slugs - The Slugs are a race of, well, you guessed it, giant slugs. They cannot see, but have psychic abilities that allow them to detect things around them, as well as telekinesis that allows them to move objects with their mind (which is quite helpful, since they don’t have arms or legs). Slugs are usually extremely greedy and weak, but grow a layer of bone on the top section of their body that functions as armor.

  • The Rock - The Rock are a race of stone people that can attach part of a pre-existing mineral or rock, and have it grow on them like skin. The Rock are very tribal and social, and value strength over intelligence, but Rock have been known to steal parts from crashed Spaceships and make their own. The Rock are immune to fire, and require less oxygen than other races (The exception being the Lanius).

  • The Crystal - The Crystal are a diverse subspecies of The Rock that have adapted themselves to only be able to absorb gemstones. The Crystal shatter easily, but have the ability to launch shards of their body and have the shards grow elsewhere, and grow crystal faster than the rock can grow their shell.

  • The Coalpyr (one that I came up with) - The Coalpyr are another subspecies of Rock that have adapted to live on extremely volcanic planets, and grow only coal. The Coalpyr are violent and unstable, and tend to light themselves on fire easily, though they don’t seem to mind. The Coalpyr are masters of destruction, but are often seen around the universe as mercenaries.

  • The Lanius - The Lanius are a strange race of Anaerobic aliens that realllllyy freak people out. They do not need to breathe, yet eat by sucking oxygen out of rooms, making it hard to station any other races inside a room with the Lanius. Despite being quite freaky, the other races respect Lanius anonymity and ingenuity. The Lanius have the most advanced architecture in the galaxy, and the other race’s respect that.

  • The Kestral (the playable last race that I made) - The Kestral are a race of winged fish people, and are a recent discovery. The Kestral prefer to be left alone to make art, but socialize just as easily. The Kestral tend to live underwater or high on mountainsides. The Kestral are extremely nimble, and can hold their breathe for days if needed.

  • The Viskal (a last minute addon, this race isn’t playable at the moment, but may be in the future.) The Viskal a race of plant people made entirely out of vines. They tend to fill themselves full of water as to store it for long journies.

  • The Arthkartan (unplayable) - The Arthkartan are a race of humanoid oil people, and love lighting themselves on fire, much like the Coalpyr. The Arthkartan as calm and have an excellant economy, however, they are unfriendly and reclusive, and try to be left alone.

  • The ArcanYu (final race, unplayable) - The ArcanYu are an extremely varying race that bring the fantasy element to the game. They resemble the demihumans from common fantasy elements such as orcs, elves, & dwarves. They each have their own magic, and will teach it to anyone they deem worthy.

Thanks everyone!
If you have any feedback, please post below!
I’m not completely done making the lore yet, as I’m starting with the humans and working forwards as I go., but I have a good chunk finished. :smile:


Plans for the future!

I may plan to publish this on hosted games or something, but -if- I actually finish it, it will probably be a huge project.


The results of this poll will decide how I balance the gameplay. For instance, if the Humans are voted as the most popular race, then I will probably not include as many achievements for the Humans.

Which race sounds the most interesting, and the most fun to play?

  • Humans
  • Mantis
  • Zoltans
  • Graeitor
  • Engi
  • Slugs
  • The Rock
  • The Crystal
  • The Coalpyr
  • Lanius
  • Kestral
0 voters

(I’m kinda dissapointed that human is most popular, but I suppose it’s fair, seeing how it’s the only one I described)


If anyone would like to help in any way, PM me or comment if you’re interested! Suggestions for the story/gameplay are welcome, as well as any offers for future beta testers!
If you wish to beta test:

Do not comment about it!

There is a link to the beta in that comment, however, in order for YOU to play it, you have to catch me at the random times I host it for testing it myself, or when I host it for the entire day after I finish a major update.


If you want to help with the coding, you’ll need to make a c9.io account, but you can view the source as of right now.
Cloud9 Workspace

Screenshots

Statistics Screen
Main Page

I’m currently looking for anyone who would like to help program the story!


Just for a heads up, the names of the aliens in the actual game will be different.
The Lanius will be the Apraxhia, the Zoltans will be the Vitanis, The Rocks name will remain the same (due to their name in FTL being “Rockmen”), The Crystal will be renamed to Shardaran, The Mantis will be renamed Xenekas, The Engi will be renamed to The Mecharin, and The Slugs will be The Snails. However, until the game is released, the names will be the same (or for as long as I can get away with it!)

25 Likes

I’m watching this thread from now on. This is a great project but I alway hoped for a big project on choicescript. Everyone make great stories but you are going to push the engine to its limit and even if you dont finish the project its something that I want to follow. I only wonder, are you not worried about borrowing FTL aliens? I am not an expert on these things but I’m pretty sure they are licenced.

2 Likes

I’m probably not publishing it or liscensing it, I’m doing this purely for fun! ~big cheesy smile~
(If I decide to publish it on hosted games, it will most likely be free, and I’ll probably find some way to diversify the FTL races to make them different)

1 Like

Well an Idea I had was that you could do something like zombie exodus did and release you game uncomplete but update it with new content once in a while and have it run by ads. That way every new update bring in a new wave of income without anyone having to pay for it. And the aliens would be very easy to change. I mean, a few simple change in appearance and name would remove any licencing problems it could cause. I encourage you to find a way to have some revenues from this because while doing all this for fun is a great thing, some cash alway help keep the motivation up and it would be a shame that the time invested in this doesnt bring any revenue. I mean, you really will be pushing the engine to its limit. No choicescript game out there is as ambitious as this is and a lot of them died very fast.

What I hope is that you proving that choicescript is more flexible than peoples think might encourage peoples to team up and write projects of bigger scope. If there is anything that the IF industry need its innovation and quality titles.

You could start off doing the story from a human perspective and update it adding new races with new contents that would actualy change the story. That way you have a linear but flexible storyline you can modify at every update. You could see it as a published WIP. On the side you could develop the sandbox version or even publish it as a separate game. If you are even motivated enough or find talented peoples interested in helping you you could make it so the sandbox world is the same as the storyworld and port your story character history into the sandbox world to see how they affected it, leading to even more replayability.

Of course this is all just suggestions and ideas but this project really got me excited.

3 Likes

I’m very interested in being a beta tester for this game

@DJB
I’ll make sure you get a copy when the game is ready!

It would be cool if you made the slug one have like a queen or somthing but that just could be me.

2 Likes

ooh heheh yes that would be pretty sweet

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I’m starting to think this might have been your plan already.

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uhhh… Of course not…

Crap they caught me :weary:

4 Likes

Sounds like fun, haven’t seen a space explorers game being made for a long time here. Question: if you select and alien option, are you on earth or on another planet and is it the same backstory as the humans?

I’d love to be a part of the beta! Also, I’m not sure what my vote showed up as, but whatever it is, I meant to vote Kestral, because I identify with artist fish people on a spiritual level.

The answer to your question is: no.
Each alien will have a unique story for it’s story mode, and you will start on that alien’s home planet (or in special cases, a ship).

And yes Dolphin, I’ll add you!

4 Likes

Well,this certainly seems interesting.

I’ll be sure to keep an eye out on this one.

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A hawks eye perhaps :smile:?

hawks eye for what? (I’m a bit confused)

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Sounds like a silly pun to me. :expressionless:

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I was ment to say eagle eye, but I’m reading Hawkeye Vs Deadpool at the moments so I accidentally said hawk eye :smile:.

This game surely sounds amazing, I’m not a big of a help into the science fiction but if you ever need someone to translate your game to portuguese count me on.
I’d love to be a beta tester for you.

:smiley: thanks, you’re added