Tag: worldbuilding

The world in construction pt.3: An inner perspective

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Alright, we have the ludings roughly designed, and now we want to imagine how they perceive a game setting. It is essential to visualise the player’s experience, as the game protagonist will be a luding. The first shot was to tell a world’s recent history with a mouth of regular inhabitant. A bit ignorant and playful, but that’s what the most of ludings are. We had to play a bit with the original backstory, reform it and adjust to ludings instead of humans. We wanted the backstory to be less pompous and more carefree, including the naming convention. Stay awhile and listen.

Our life and civilization started on Mom, our homeplanet orbiting around gas giant that we dubbed the Red Lamp. Some scientists claim we come from some cosmic jelly, but who cares. Anyway, ludon civilization expanded and after many generations we managed to populate all planets in Red Lamp system. It was so cool for ludings to live on various planets, build cities, develop some crazy technology, robots and stuff. It was a golden age of automationism – the progressive mindset of liberating the ludings from any toil and sorrow through widespread automation. Automationism also made an ultimate promise of curing the ludings from demastosa – that innate disease that makes each luding to fade and die overtime.

It was going well until we had this massive crisis a few generations ago called The Fail. I don`t entirely understand how did it come to this, because all seemed fine: the technology was so advanced that actually almost no one needed to work. How cool is that! Robots and computers got all things done and the ludings could do whatever they pleased all days long. But for some reasons, many folks could not afford the living. Without understanding of that new order, without work and without livelihood, they remained unfit and unnecessary. So they got angry and then mad. They protested and rioted heavily against some powerful corporations, so the suits lost their patience and smacked them really hard. Then it got even worse, the riots scaled up to local wars. Finally the corps released the Gloom – that demastosa accelerating virus to ‚optimize the population’ and ‚pacify the instigators’. Many, many ludings perished at the time.

And then came the Ludon Collective. These guys started as a bunch of rebels fighting against automationists supremacy, but it was The Fail, that made them really stand out. They sabotaged and infiltrated corporate facilities and finally managed to steal the remedy for the Gloom. The chaos went to a halt, as they gave away the remedy to infected ludings. With the support of frustrated majority, they felt confident enough to reach for political power, bringing back some order during the times of bumpy ride. They established a regime that was meant to ‘protect our civilization from falling into oblivion of technological debauchery’ – their words. The Collective embraced luding hand as their symbol and struggled to provide the meaning of life through work for every luding. It looked cool at the beginning because they kicked away the robots from factories and brought back the work back to the hands of ludings. They banned the AI, talking computers and many other beeping devices. Only tools and hand-operated machines were declared legal. What’s more, they blocked all genetic research., which resulted in abrupt halt of all pending projects aimed at finding the cure for demastosa. They justified it that this kind of research is more likely to result in another Gloom, rather than wonder-cure for demastosa, and that the ludings must learn to accept their mortality. The omasta was to remain the ‘uncharted essence of life allowing us all to retain true luding spirit’ – their words. And folks did like it, it seemed to them fair to even the odds between rich and poor, at least organic-wise. In order to keep the progressive aspirations at bay Ludon Collective formulated the Prime Doc – a set of rules preventing the ludings from losing their nature in lieu of technologically improved existence and reaching technological singularity. Most of population was happy with the decrees of Ludon Collective, as they balanced social inequalities, gave work and threw away many hindrances of freedom of a choice (by simply limiting or canceling any choices). There were of course few malcontents that opposed the populist politics of Ludon Collective but they quickly felt the breath of SPUX on their backs. The SPUX was the special security force tasked with suppressing any expressions of non-adherence with Prime Doc. SPUX stood for Special Prevention Unit, and X was added to make it sound more badass.

And so it lasted for a good deal of time. Folks say it wasn’t that bad – a bit boring and ridiculously bureaucratic. The paperwork was inflated to absurd scale in order to improve control over population and satisfy the demand for work. Civil rights were reduced, just in case, and wealth was redistributed. For generations no one died in misery but also no-one died in luxury.

But no power is given for all times. The Ludon Collective regime finally collapsed under its own weight, and regulated lives of our folk went completely off the rails. With pre-Fail generations long gone, the explosion of freedom completely twisted the rules of existence. The most cunning individuals made a rapid profit before the masses made out what actually just happened. The most clueless ludings were immediately pushed into poverty or economic slavery. Some made fortunes overnight, some lost the lifetime savings in shady, ill-placed transactions. Freaky Science and gene-engineering, finally unleashed, allowed to expand the lifespan, cure diseases and sculpt hot bodies for those who could afford it. Free trade flooded the planets with wanted and unwanted stuff.

The luding folk, united up to that day under the emblem of a toiled hand, now became split into quarreling factions following conflicting ideas. The remnants of the regime administration, desperately tried to make out the most of new situation: the suits and officials placed their bets on those who held power in various factions, SPUX enforcers went rogue lending their firepower to the highest bidder in sight, some tried to make quick and easy money on raiding and pillaging. Daring enterprises were launched to scavenge the resources of fallen regime. Cool new cities were built upon public buildings and blocks of flats. A toiled hand of Ludon Collective became only a symbol of times that passed.

And now we are finally free and, again, we can do whatever we want.

 

The world in construction pt.2: Inhabitants

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When designing SF setting there is a temptation to throw humans into it because ‚why not?’. If it’s space opera then add some altered humans that will imitate some alien races, maybe some robots and that’s it, right? Well, not this time. While there’s nothing wrong actually with humans in SF worlds, we wanted our universe and its inhabitants to be more symbolic and less literal. We wanted the game universe to be populated by creatures seemingly human, but featuring some traits that will amplify the theme of ‚power vs. impotence’ formulated in our creative vision statement. Completely clueless,  I scratched my head and proposed some hallmarks giving the proper spin to world inhabitants design. Here they are:

1. Short-lived: that’s a key component of the ‚impotence’ aspect. Human lifespan is just an eyeblink compared to the history of universe, and the efforts of individuals look pretty meaningless from afar. We wanted our creatures to live even drastically shorter than humans, and let the player experience the passing of time. Given that player character will also feature limited lifespan, it will put a pressure and experience of rush. From a practical point of view, it will allow us to present social and economical changes in the game universe in reasonable play-time of 10-20 hours (single run).

2. Fragile: or, more precisely, an impression of fragility. While our creatures don’t have to be exceptionally easy to kill, they should appear as they were. It contributes both to ‚power’ and ‚impotence’ components because their helpless look would naturally associate with ‚impotence’, and on the other hand it will contrast with the power that technology gives them at further stages of the game, which is fun!

3. Vividly mortal: It should be clear at first glance when our creature is in full health, as well as, when it is a step from perishing. Some easily distinctable features should give a clues about creature’s condition.

4. Adorable: the creatures, through most of their lifetime, should be fun to look at and easy to sympathize with. This will give us a chance to spark a feeling of care in the player  and  also turn-up the contrast when it comes to drastic events. What’s important, the ‚cuteness’ fades away with the time passing by, making the creatures off-putting.

5. Peaceful/Pacifist: at least when the majority of the population is considered. This feature gives the brutal advantage to those individuals that choose the way of violence, contributing to ‚power’ component of vision statement theme.

6. Avoid animal features: while cats and other furries could be really cute and support the adorability requirement from point no.4, we actually want our creatures to resemble humans. We’re still on the far left of uncanny valley, but keeping it human-ish nevertheless.

Few beers later, I figured out, that design-wise, we should fit somewhere within the triad of classic PC games characters: Lemmings (mortality, simplicity), Worms (contrast cuteness vs. violence) and Kerbal (anthropomorphic features).

And that’s how the Luding was born.

Ludings are human-like race populating a small planetary system ‚somewhere else’. Their name comes from words ‚ludic’ and ‚ludek’ (polish word for tiny creature resembling human). They tend to live short, because as a species, they suffer from genetic flaw – ‚demastosa’, which makes their organic essence (that we called ‚omasta’) degrade over time. Their anatomy is pretty simple, but their physiology, though omasta-driven, is fairly similar to human. Luding morphology was inspired by anemones – those strange plant-like animals living underwater. These creatures have no skeleton, but their shape is kept by contractile body. They can walk and talk, they feature sex dimorphism, so after all the appear pretty human. When they die from omasta degeneration they don’t leave the corpse, but rather a shapeless goo called ‚poomasta’. Ages long poomasta evolves into omastite – the mineral that can be mined and processed to acquire construction materials or fuels. What’s important, it’s not only the ludings that are based on omasta, but all the organic life in the game universe. But the ludings are only sapient race that we put into the setting. I bet you can clearly see an obvious connection between omasta and it’s real-life analog and that’s perfectly fine. That is how it’s supposed to work, giving us a practical advantage of simplicity and safe margin for some fictional twists, as well as fueling overall symbolism.

And so we have seeded a setting with a concept of sapient life forms. We’ll see what will grow out of it.

Stay tuned, there’s more to come.

The world in construction pt. 1: Backstory

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We started to build the world for our next PC game. This will be the science-fiction trading game with transhuman tropes. We’re still exploring the idea, but I managed to put together some backstory based on our discussions with Rafał. We agreed on the concept that the world of our game will be on the brink of transhuman revolution, after the fall of regime that regulated the lifes and suppressed technological progress of people populating fictional solar system.  For starter, I came up with short generic backstory, which we may use to buid the setting upon. Rafał prepared some decent visuals. Here’s what we have.

The reign of Humane Collective is over. Consumed from the inside by beurocracy, corruption, inner friction and other afflictions of power, the Humane Collective party has left the stage after decades of ruling the Hearthstar solar system.

Once they were the heroes, the saviors shielding the people from aggressive capitalism and dashing industrialization. They stood up for the laws of toiling masses against the corporations. They helped those who couldn’t catch up with dynamics of digital industry. They protested against replacing people with robots and AI. They fiercely fought the powerful establishment. When the Humane Collective finally reached for political power they were given a great credit from the Hearthstar population, granting them almost absolute power.

Humane Collective put a great legislative effort to protect the mankind from its own inventions. They formulated the Prime Doctrine – a set of rules preventing the mankind from losing the nature of humanity in lieu of technologically improved existence and reaching technological singularity. This enabled the HC to ban the AI research and advanced robotics, leaving only man-operated tools and machines legal. The genetic research and transplant surgery was also blocked by Prime Doctrine that was constantly inflated with new regulations and interdictions. The people of Hearthstar system were given back the right and privilege to work with their own hands. The Humane Collective cared that everyone has a job to do and feels necessary. They valued the life and work of ordinary men and women. Once again, the work – the act of creation, was the domain of people, hence the symbol of Humane Collective: a human hand.

While protective towards obedient citizens, Humane Collective enforced the Prime Doctrine with full power at anyone who questioned this order. The Scrutiny Office – versatile security force, was founded and tasked with suppressing any expressions of non-adherence with Prime Doctrine.

In order to improve the control over the population, the bureaucracy was increased and civil rights were reduced. However still, no one died in misery but also no-one died in luxury.

But no power is given for eternity. Like many regimes in history, Humane Collective collapsed under its own power, and the regulated lives of Hearthstar system citizens went off the rails. The explosion of freedom re-evaluated the rules of existence. The smartest profited from rapid socio-political transformations, others were pushed into poverty or economic slavery. Science and gene-engineering, finally unleashed, allowed to expand the lifespan, cure diseases and sculpt perfect bodies. The free trade flooded the planets of Hearthstar system with wanted and unwanted goods. Some made fortunes overnight, some lost the lifetime savings in shady, ill-placed transactions. The population of Heartstar system, united to this day under the emblem of human hand, split into quarreling factions following conflicting ideas. The remnants of Humane Collective regime tried to find their place in emerging new order. The bureaucrats and officials placed their bets on those who held power in various factions, the Scrutiny Office enforcers went rogue lending their firepower to the highest bidder in sight. Some tried to carve their place in the world by raiding and conquering. Daring enterprises were launched to scavenge material and non-material resources of fallen regime. New cities were built upon public buildings and blocks of flats. Soaring skyscrapers towered over monuments and crude palaces of Humane Collective. A toiled hand of Humane Collective became only a symbol of times that passed.

Hearthstar System faces more than more than just the crisis. After slipping into decentralization and federalism, it stands on the doorstep of turbulent new age. The Prime Doctrine ceased to apply and restrictive laws are no longer enforced. Ungoverned, unchecked and unleashed technological progress, pushes the Hearthstar system toward the brink of transhuman revolution.

The future is uncertain. Again.