First
note is on writing without pronouns, to convey player's choice and that
in the reader's imagination. A literary experiment in of itself,
yielding a writing style all its own.
No one does this, there is no prototype, welcome to it.
~ Midwich Proper ~
As
each time the player watches it unfold into a small town in the early
nineteens, each of three play-throughs in the prologue effects the next,
if all three are played the effect that much more profound on the final
city in the future unknown.
Many of these will be simple like the businesses you've favored having prospered, those you did jobs
for have prospered, all as though these things had happened in a past
with these outcomes.
Each of these changes are counted as though a
progression in time, but effecting the unfolding of the Midwich's next
version at the same time one prologue to the next, whichever third chosen character seeing its final form.
And
then these three are used to synthesize the final form seen in the main
game, how that history created that future. The prologue stories are
brief, but a player could spend a lot of time collecting all 72 demons
in the wood to fill the book of names.
Collect the grimoires and
pages, but most of these finds can still be found in the same places in
the main game. Still some will have master plans on how to set up the
perfect main game scenario from its history when they see how these
changes work.
Incredible replay value, while every stone floating in future's field is an add-on or mod. But it's in these historicals that the player is introduced to the game's own faulty premise, surmised in the murmurs about town.
What Gabrielle sees is a social experiment, which is occurring in a closed set. So, as it means to the game itself, every person has a purpose in an already counted population, with a set number.
Everyone has a job, everyone has a
home to go to, everyone shops for food and clothes, a serene and perfect
'video game environment'.
She's very proud of that balance.
But
what that means to the player is talk about town of a family having one
child too many so now when that child grows old enough to do their
parent's job, either they go to the woods or the parent.
In game
it's like when they resist the code, become excessive to the experiment
it creates a madness. Very psychological. It starts with struggling to
fit in to a rage which in the end will always turn to murder so they
can replace somebody's place but by then too mad to do the job.
If
they're lucky or graceful, maybe the vampires will let them into their
layabout cult, where apparently vampyrism is the only way to stave off
that madness only to replace it with another.
And note each
play-through they become more debaucherous and desperate to stave off
their fates from their minds, as they wait for the experiment they're
victim to to close.
So it's them or cast out.
And if
someone with a function dies in that perfect place, someone outside of
it goes perfectly sane, to come wandering through the gate like they've
seen the light of God ... and then get to work.
Gabrielle sees
her perfect formula where none of it's real anyway, just a way to run
numbers but the player sees parents divided, murder in the streets,
friend store-keep going mad to soon be replaced by his son in tears.
None of this is spoken of
Most
of it not put together until the third prologue, whichever in what
order and then to the main game where Gabrielle doesn't seem to come up
much until the end.
This is the story to everything unknown about
her in XO. By that time even if she knows it was all just a
simulation, a darkness over her for doing what had to be done.
A
thing she couldn't communicate, her soul shredded with nothing left of
her but the job. But Raphael's a good brother, and he has the eyes to
see.
~ Solomonic Biospheres ~
The beasts of these woods are ruled by Solomon's work, each species derived from his chimera described demons. These Solomonic beasts range closer to Hell's overgrowth, the natural to the natural.
Reverse mapped for example there are many with the parts of a lion but in only two places in our world can they be found. So one can assume that the birds associated come from one region or the other, this giving clues to which regional deity it was.
Here we map these regions as Pangaea, one mass. And the flora required to support this, mapping it has much to do with what's collected by the Explorer.
As a social experiment, Midwich has a set population count, with everyone serving a purpose. Everyone who does not goes insane and is exiled. These people live in the woods, sent without skill so following predators to scavenge.
A particular example is those who follow the dragon, the only escape from which is into the treeline. So there they wait, caring not if beast or man what flees to their plate.
These tribes are set over by the demons in Solomon which are humanesque in form. Ultimately they balance as just another species in the woods. But those more closely connected with the regional beast representing humanity evolve.
Through the trees as in the swamp, those become less feral create walkways and dwelling between the trees, safely above the mostly ground based predators both human and otherwise.
There would be
reason to believe the hellish vineworks of this land support this,
lining these walkways as reinforcement by their relevant demon's will.
These demons can be found in these places, while those representing
animals lead the packs.
They also often watch from the treeline while the rest perform their will, but the stronger in battle will often run with them, the largest and most notable among them.
And like Solomon there are seventy-two of them, themselves to be hunted if the player wishes, and each with their own reward. This will appease the pack and make it less aggressive to humans, but only the Learner can convert them, by converting the demon.
Important concerning
unicorns. Yes there is a unicorn demon in Solomon. Also a sea-monster
whale ruling the sea, a mermaid, and an ass. The ruler of all asses so perfect in form one may wonder if they're the ass and they just saw an angel.
And there's also a peacock !
And a Mario Star !
Indeed a demon shaped like an upright pentagram. You'll find that one in the sky. If you can fly. Which the Explorer can. Most stars are set in the skybox which scrolls the constellations, the sun and the moon with passing of time.
Inside the city wall Cherubim twinkle among stars as well, difficult to see among the rest and bleached from sight in the day's sun but they're there and they do move. Outside there is this demon alone, and it does not.
Cherubim move as they choose to and fro, responsive. You spot them by the fact that they move faster than the sky, here and there outside the cycling pattern of astronomy and rotation.
But this demon is always perpendicular to the place on the map it's set over. If you know that place, you can find that demon.
And thieves beware.
Stealing from these works in particular, will bring a wrath even I can't control but will absolutely watch with the greatest relish a hot-dog ever knew. And there is a dog. Werewolf too.
But
the overall map itself of their assortments will be hidden for now,
we'll unfold it with the tale. The Learner seals these demons in The
Book of Names, to make them fight. Many will want them all but any you
kill here, you can't find there.
And these populations are counted as well.
A
species you've hunted may be extinct or gone with its demon, its
natural predator moved on to new prey. Or if a predator species, its
prey
overgrown.
Something that fed on the berries dying means those berries
go with it, as their seed prosper by the nutrient of their defecation.
PS ~ The bouncy mushrooms
have nothing to do with any that, they're part of the place's natural
biosphere that coexists with the Solomonian, evolving alongside.
A lot like a mushroom. Different comet entirely.
~ The Dragon ~
While mad humans turned cannibal, human being the easiest beast to hunt in the wood, have learned to follow the dragon under treetops, because into the trees is the only way to escape it.
Most beasts in flight are dangerous to be in the path of when they're fleeing in terror, one can pretty much just trip a scared human. Cannibalism is like low hanging fruit for people with no survival skills.
Any effect you have on the dragon's eco-system will also effect how it deals with you later. It sees the cause and effect of things. Otherwise the natural world is mostly the same in any time period, the many species count adjustments aside.
~ The Auto-Director ~
A simple enough concept, but it may not work. Essentially the placement of camera points throughout the game, recording.
Understand that when a game records, it isn't technically 'recording', it's making a numeric record of the player's actions, and re-rendering it as though it were being played.
So we're not talking about hard drive space.
Anyway, these recordings then cut with automatically with preference to sweet kills and stunts as well as they can be registered as such, spliced between the cutscenes to make a watchable, hour and a half film.
With three prologue shorts.
They can upload it to you-tube, they can try to make it funny, they can try to make it art and debate who's got the best one. And when they beat the game they can replay the individual levels for a retake of that scene.
Great concept, not hard in theory, may be impossible.
Nonetheless, these drafts are from that view as though we were watching those films and shorts for literary shorthand. To make a game script that's readable.