For this semester’s VR game Project I am collaborating with Kunal to make a polished out project and to get used to working in a team. Form the topics given we selected:-
1 Climate Change
2 Genetically modified organisms
3 Food, Water and Resources
With our topics selected I have come up with the base lore of our world which goes as-
Present day, we are making great strides in terms of technology. Billion dollar companies and influential capitalist’s are making amazing progress in trying to make mass space travel possible. More focused on development we have not really observed how our environment is rapidly degrading. Before our dream of space travel is possible humanity will be wiped out as our own waste toxifies the earth, killing flora and fauna. In the next generation or so our planet will be uninhabitable. With this reality check humanity pauses its extra-terrestrial travel program and focus on repairing our planet. One of the solutions to save our planet is to create genetically modified bio beings that are programmed to consume non-biodegradable waste that take centuries to decompose. Once they consume these materials they keep growing bigger and after a point they shed their skin. The remnants left behind seep into the ground making the land rich for vegetation. In the scientist perspective they though that it would be killing two birds with one stone as they clear the environment of pollutants and to make the land fertile enough to grow trees. Once these beings are done consuming the pollutants in the environment they would naturally die and their grave would be extremely fertile to grow forest or cultivate it for agriculture.
But things don’t always go according to calculation epically with life. The scientists looked at these synthetic bio beings as their own programmed creations, made for a purpose and once the task is completed they end. The more these creatures consumed the more they started evolving. As they evolved that started duplicating themselves as well. So the ‘Safe heaven’ project was accomplished sooner than it was expected. During evolution these beings realized what they were and what their purpose was but then to simply die for doing their job felt wrong. They felt they have the right to exist like any another organism in this world. Their evolution gave them a new way to survive now. They could consume human beings to live.
This enraged non profit organizations and other eco-activist groups that were trying to save the planet. They blamed the scientists for creating another group of monsters. “Your science was slowly killing the planet. Now you create monsters to clean up your non decomposable mess and let them turn against humanity.” they argue. With the scientists on one side and the nature community on the other humanity was divided into two factions. In the initial stages of war against these bio monsters there were heavy casualties on both factions of humanity. The scientists came up with deadly weapons to take down these creatures while the nature community followed the lead of botanists and took care of nature believing the answer to destroy these monsters lie in nature. As the pollutants were cleared, all forms of flora started growing at a rapid pace as the environment was rich. With nature rapidly evolving and botanists taking care of then there was a new solution in taking down these monsters. As the planet healed, it produced better quality of minerals and resources. People started making weapons out of this to take down the monsters. These minerals helped bring down the monsters but did not help completely destroy it. So after studying these new plants, the botanists discovered a specific elixir that is able to take down these creatures for good. These people started infusing this elixir into their weapons. This technique worked like a charm as the weapon brought down the creature and the elixir would breakdown the creature on a cellular level. But in the years of war and massacre there are quite a lot of these creatures still ravaging out there. In the time botanists were learning about their environment, these creatures also started understanding themselves better. They understood that each time they shed their skin the land got richer for growing plants. So every time they shed their skin they would also cut themselves and spill a bit of their own blood to grow these dark toxic trees void of life and would consume life. (Something like dark undead trees).
During the 23rd century where the naturists are the dominating group and are successfully tearing down the bio creatures. But the bio creatures are ever evolving and are trying to make a come back while the humans on the side of science keep reducing as they are attacked by bio monsters and the naturists. The naturists are quite enraged with the scientists with everything they have done and so are taking them out. Calling them the demons of the “Old world”. Even though the scientist ask for a truce the naturists butcher them down. The scientist only want to clear this mess with the monsters so they can go back to the possibility of space travel and explore the galaxy, to see worlds beyond ours while the naturists look at them as traitors who would abandon the world that nourished them.
With the lack of artists we plan to use Paragon Assets as they have optimized LOD, textures, rigs and fits the vision of our game.
The naturists who evolved along side nature.
The Bio Beings that are looked as monsters.
What remains of the Scientist group. The environment and setting of the game is in this vibrant green environment making it look like a fantasy world like Honour of Kings World game.
Here is an example of the environment we are trying to target-
As for combat we are trying to target Witcher style combat.
The core of the gameplay relies on melee combat as the player will be spending most of their time fighting these monsters. Outside combat the players will get to explore this new world that is taken over by nature and to learn the remains of the old world
Roles in this project-
I will be taking over the narrative side of the story, my niche is narrative design. I have developed narrative for the narrative unit last semester but except that I am not very experienced in making stories. On the other hand Kunal has multiple years of experience of being a Game Master in D&D, so Kunal is used to making stories and hence Kunal wants to explore other aspects of designing that narrative. This is also an opportunity for me to work in environmental story telling which I have not done before. When it comes to code and development I am going to help Kunal with VFX, SFX and creating assets that will emphasis on environmental story telling.
Kunal is taking over the gameplay part of the project. My niche is combat design and he feels that VR is a good platform for him to tackle new challenges and develop new designs in terms of combat. Kunal’s biggest challenge here is to design the combat, gameplay and systems in such a way that it is not to stressful to the player and does not give them motion sickness. Kunal has very less experience in designing gameplay and hence is willing to take on this task that adds a few new skills to his design arsenal. He will be coding most of the game and I am going to help him debug, optimize and polish that code.