Massive Collaberation GP : Project Overview

[bspeers]

EDIT: Didn't delete idea to avoid confusion, but hadn't noticed SSH's idea, so striketrhough so people know it's not *the* idea.

Okay, 3 opening (obvious) remarks:

1.  No one decided that I should start a thread on this--I have no interest in being a leader anyway.

2.  The old thread seems to be going on a lot about general meta-theory stuff, but a few people have suggested that we just get started, thus, I decided to offer a new thread for the very preliminary stages.

3.  Feel free to lock this if Andail or anyone else has any objections.  I will not be the least bit offended, and neither should anyone else be.  I just thought I'd be proactive and throw some ideas out there.  Since we're talking about being completely open and collaberative, I thought the forums would be a decent place to get started, and we would eventually need several different individual posts each on different aspects.

Again, please lock this if I'm overstepping my bounds here.  OR, erase what I've said and let someone like SSH or Andail post a more formal document.

That said, here is my suggestion for a general idea for the massive collaberative project:

1.  It should be fun--that doesn't mean it can't be a drama, but should not be so serious that people get too heavily involved and attached to one idea that is to be altered by other people.

2.  The basic outline should be a smash hit with just about all potentially involved--otherwise it's going to be tough to get large numbers of people to commit hours to the project.  Individual bits may meet some niggles, but if the whole thing isn't well liked, there isn't going to be much point.

3.  The possibilities for locations and characters must be diverse.  Since a uniform art-style and writing level would be exceptionally difficult given the massive collaberative model (unless all sub-par artists or writers were denied the right to contribute, a bad idea IMO).

That is why I suggest that ideas be well -hashed out with disagreements and adjustments made public.  If people don't like the idea presented below, please say so, and we can A) reject it, or B) adjust it as needed.  The only principle I ask we follow is that responses be respectful and collaberative--no one genious is going to make the ideas better on their own.

I propose dimension travelling as the core concept.  Why?  The idea of multiple intersecting realities is not often included in adventure games, and it rife with possibilities for action and comedy, plus since every imaginable possibility can be played out, graphics have an excuse to be variable, as do situations.

I propose a comedy, or at least a humorous adventure--that is my bias, plain and simple.  It's not any easier than a drama, but it does allow for some slightly more outlandsish ideas to be incorporated.

Here is the idea I thought of this morning.

Three officers and a low-ranking "red uniform" fodder from the Inter-Dimensional Physics Enforcement Squad (IDPES) are on the trail of an at-large physics criminal currently in violation of 3 of the fundamental laws of physics.  Unlike Star Trek, since the IDPES are constantly in other dimensions than their own, there is no desire to prevent massive change to the flow of history, thus there is no "Prime Directive."  For those that aren't Star Trek nerds, that means bascially the police have a carte blanche and investigations often end up being exceptionally violent and random.

Unfortunately for IDPES, about 45 minutes into a high-speed inter-dimensional chase, the four being crew is hit by an angry Hat-rack (in a dimension of intellegent hat-racks and ottomans), tearing open the fuel cells, leading to a last minute crash landing on an alien world in a potentially hostile dimension.

Now the Chief Investigator (man? woman? thing?), the Physician/Scientist, the enormous, head crushing enforcer and the guy who clearly has no purpose other than to be killed part-way through the game must find a way to patch up their ship, re-fuel (hopefully permenantly altering the flow of history in the dimension) and track down their criminal before IDPES command finds out what happened and cuts their doughnut rations for the month.

Perhaps the characters will have to do dimension hopping without their ship, maybe using a lot of cooperative puzzle-solving using all three useful members of the team?  Perhaps there is a larger conspiracy afoot?  Or maybe the adventure is even more straightforward and pointless than it originally seemed?  And what happens when people get away with breaking several laws of physics for any length of time?  Only time will tell.

Additions?  Subtractions?  Cursing my name and family for generations to come?  Please delete or move if it is deemed necessary or this simply isn't all that useful.

[Babar]

Interesting idea. However, I thought it was decided that SSH's story be used. I'm sure that's not final, though, so I don't think there is anything wrong with posting this.

The problem with your idea is that it's too specific. Perhaps the plot you described could be used for 1 part of the game, as opposed to the whole game, which could deal with an overall IDPES(?) vs. Secret Physics Law Violators Corporation.

[bspeers]

Oops, my bad,

didn't see SSH's idea in the posts.

[Janik]

Interesting idea. However, I thought it was decided that SSH's story be used. I'm sure that's not final, though, so I don't think there is anything wrong with posting this.

I saw SSH's suggestion, but where was it said that it was decided?

P.S. bspeers: You misspelled "collaboration" in the subject line

[Snarky]

I don't think anything was decided. It's all still wide open.

There's something to be said for starting with a game-in-development "donated" by one of the contributors. It would allow us to hit the ground running, not spend weeks or months hashing out a basic design before people could start working on graphics, dialogue, code, etc. Also, starting from something fairly well defined might keep everyone focused, instead of going off in all kinds of incompatible directions.

SSH is obviously a talented guy, and I think his proposal deserves serious consideration. From what I have been able to gather about Awakening of the Sphinx, I think there are a few points that speak against this particular game for use by the project, though: 1) It's set in ancient Egypt, the most over-used adventure game setting there is. 2) It seems to aim for historical accuracy (or at least plausibility), which would require a lot of research by the people who would want to get involved. 3) It deals with politics and religion, which can be sensitive subjects. I'm all for controversial games, but I think a project like this should try to be as inclusive as possible.

As for your proposal, bspeers, I first of all think it's great that you're making one. It gets the ball rolling, so to speak. I don't agree with everything you say, though. Specifically, I'm not sure a comedy adventure is the way to go. Sure, the game could be funny, but making an implicit promise to be funny is very risky. Few things are more painful than jokes that fall flat. Also, I worry that a "humorous" label will be taken as a license to throw in all kinds of "wacky" ideas. Your summary does not reassure me. Finally, it sounds a bit derivative of Day of the Tentacle?

Maybe I'm all wrong, and one or both of the above ideas would work great for the project. In any case, I'll put up my own proposal for you all to consider:

I propose that we make a game that is ... adventurous!

What I mean is to aim for the atmosphere of those children's cartoons from the eighties (when most of us were kids) where a group of people (kids, mostly) are looking for something, and have to travel through many strange lands and deal with many tough situations on the way.

People from the UK will probably remember Mysterious Cities of Gold:



If you're from France, Norway, or a handful of other countries scattered across the world, you may know Les Mondes Engloutis (aka Spartakus and the Sun Beneath the Sea, aka Arkadia, aka Shagma):



Americans will most likely first think of the animated Dungeons & Dragons series:



(I'm not saying the game would necessarily look anything like these pictures.)

Often in these shows, each episode would have the characters travel to a new land or city, with a different culture and people. They would have to deal with a dangerous or challenging situation, and then be on their way (apparently not any closer to their ultimate goal). There was usually a recurring antagonist, some villain who kept following them and making trouble. That kind of episodic format seems like it would work well for a project like this.

It could go a little something like this: It's pretty far into the future, on Earth or some alien planet. Things are quite primitive, so it's difficult to travel, and people know very little of the world outside of their own local area. In a small city-state, the Queen lies dying. When she is dead, her cousin the evil Duke will take the throne. However, the Queen's young handmaid overhears the Duke mention that the Queen secretely had a daughter, somewhere in a foreign land. She resolves to set out to find the heir before the Queen passes away. She is joined by several companions (more by chance than anything). However, one of the Duke's agents is following them, determined to stop them, or kill the heir to the throne before they can locate her. Their search will take them far and wide across a strange world they hardly know, teach them unexpected things about themselves, and reveal a far bigger secret than who should inherit the throne.

It's rough, but it's purposefully rough. The entire plot is essentially a macguffin, a relatively arbitrary motivation to keep the characters going. We could all work on revising it and filling in the blanks. What do you think?

[Evil]

Why not a Captain Planet style game? Except pollution, you take down some other evil to "zero".

[SSH]

I'd like to set up a forums for the game project specifically, so that we can talk about this without cluttering up these ofurms, and so, if we decide to keep things secret we can set up appropriate permissions for different members, etc. We can also keep links for data, files, etc. and so on.

So, most important I think is to get this set up and then have this debate there. Once people see more ofthe AOTS outline they might be more keen on it. Or not, but i really dont want to have spilers in a thread this early on. We can also have the debate about whether to let everyone see spoilers or not, but until that is dcided, the default should be secret...

I seem to have been elected as director though... any objections?

[Andail]

The new forum is set up, so we'll continue there.
http://agsproject.proboards76.com/index.cgi

Right now I would like to point out a few facts that go with my initial scheme for this project:
* I will hold the ultimate adimistrating functions, although I will not interfere with the game process itself.
* The members of the design and direction team all have the same authority, and must agree on all decisions made. Ther is no one director.
* Their discussions will be kept public, but other members cannot affect these discussions, apart from elements that have been expressively been made subject for c&c in the designated forum.
* The overall plot and outlines worked out by the d&d team must leave a fair amount of free space, so that the individual production cells may form the more detailed plot elements rather freely. It's a matter of loose outlines rather than exact instructions, in other words.

Bspeers is a member whom I would whole-heartedly encourage to take part in this project, and I'd recommend a function as a leader of a production-cell.