Game start (and progression)
For some reason, I have the notion that the start of the game is a very important aspect, as it will define the player character's motivations for progressing through the game world. I'm of the opinion that the player's character (and thus the player) needs a clear reason to want to move from city to city, a reason to stay in each city for a significant period of time (since the game does not currently feature a seamless map), and at the same time the player (of the game) should be able to retain complete freedom of action, by not finding that he is tied down to one particular faction at the start of the game.
Case studies
- GTA 1 - Protagonist is a nameless individual with no explained history. However he appears to be motivated to become a criminal, thus he accepts jobs from the local crime lords of the current city he is in, until he amasses a certain amount of money and moves on to the next city. Choice of which crime lords to work for is relatively limited, making the progression fairly linear. Even seemingly big choices (rastas or corrupt cops) in the later levels have no effect on the outcome of the game, as the two choices have predetermined outcomes that always lead the player to the rastas.
Summary: Criminally motivated main character, limited choice of faction (presumably due to association - factions wouldn't trust an unknown individual), forced progression to end goal of crime lord
- GTA 2 - Protagonist is a nameless invdividual with no explained history. However he appears to be motivated to become a criminal, thus he accepts jobs from the local crime lords of the current area of the city he is in, until he amasses a certain amount of money. The player is free to choose which factions to work for, and in order to attain the required money in any reasonable amount of time he will have to work for multiple factions. The factions are in conflict with each other, and the missions serve to deepen those conflicts; however when the player amasses enough money, the nameless guide character reveals that the factions have discovered that the player has been playing them off against each other (or that he is trying to rival their positions as crime lords?), forcing the player to assasinate the leaders who are out to get him. He then proceeds to the next area of the city; presumably this is his attempt to become crime lord of the entire city, by drawing the different crime lords out into the open where he can assasinate them?
Summary: Criminally motivated main character, open choice of faction (but how does the player discover them? the guide character?), forced progression to end goal of crime lord
- GTA 3 - Protagonist is a nameless individual, who has been betrayed by his girlfriend during a bank robbery. After a coincidental set of events allows him to escape from prison, he retains criminal motivations, and resumes living a life of crime. However he does so as a lackey to the local crime lords, once again changing sides several times and playing them off against each other, in his quest for power and/or revenge.
Summary: Criminally motivated main character, limited choice of faction (by association), free progression to end goal of revenge (rather than becoming crime lord)
- GTA Vice City - Protagonist is a named individual, a member of the mafia who has just been released from prison. A failed drug deal leaves him $2m in debt to the mafia, in an unfamiliar city. He then attempts to use his criminal connections within the city to climb to power, (a) taking over the city for the benefit of the mafia, (b) getting the money back, and (c) getting revenge. Eventually he decides that since he did all the work he should keep it, betraying his mafia masters.
Summary: Criminally motivated main character, limited choice of faction (by association), free progression to end goal of crime lord
- GTA San Andreas - Protagonist is a named individual, who is pulled back into a world of crime and gang warfare by the gangland killing of his mother. Corrupt cops and government agents constrain him, preventing him from leaving the life of crime, and the betrayal and corruption of friends gives him the motivation to stay and get revenge. The motivations for playing the different criminal organisations off against each other are much clearer, but the storyline does tie the protagonist down to one side of the conflict, whereas in previous games the protagonist was in it for himself.
Summary: Not entirely criminally motivated main character, limited choice of faction (by association), free progression to end goal of freedom (following elimination or appeasement of all controlling characters)
Summary:
- GTA 1 and 2 feature a protagonist that makes the decision himself to become crime lord (unless it's all circumstance, and he's just happy living as a criminal?)
- GTA 3 features a protagonist that is after revenge; revenge reason is clearly spelled out to the player, making him want revenge as well
- Vice City protagonist is held accountable for the loss of the $2m, and thus is forced to find a way to regain it or be killed. Greed forces the protagonist to become a crime lord himself - not necessarily a goal he shares with the player
- San Andreas protagonist is forced into a life of crime by his loyalty to his family and the manipulative powers of the corrupt law enforcers. Greed leads him to become a crime lord himself - not necessarily a goal he shares with the player (or his family), but eventually he gains enough power to be able to overthrow his controllers (a goal shared with the player) and live a free life
Summary summary:
It's all about finding a shared goal between the protagonist and the player.
Goal ideas
- Survival. Most basic of all goals.
Would therefore need some kind of threat to survival - zombies/terminators, war, famine, disease, or debt to some individual or organisation.
A goal that is very suited to a post-apocalyptic survivalfest, since it's just a case of being on the wrong planet at the wrong time.
- Revenge. Someone who has been wronged in the past, and is out for revenge.
Would therefore need someone to get revenge against, and a reason why he was wronged in the first place.
A goal that is suited to a dystopian/cyberpunk world, but may seem somewhat contrived as the player has to be important enough to have been betrayed by someone (unless he is one of millions who have been betrayed by a megacorp, etc. - but in that case it still predisposes him to hate that corporation, thus makes that one corporation more significant than the others in the course of the game, thus deminishing freedom of the player's actions)
- Freedom. He's being manipulated or oppressed against his will.
Would therefore need someone manipulating him, and a reason why the manipulation/opression is occuring - along with manipulation/opression to the extent that the player would immediately want to strike out against it.
A goal that is suited to a dystopian/cyberpunk world, but unless he is after freedom for everyone (and not just himself) his main grievance will be against one corporation in particular - thus the favouratism rule of the Revenge goal will be placed in effect.
- Greed. He wants to be the man!
But is he going to attain his riches through criminal or non-criminal means? Also, there is no guarantee that the player would be interested in greed - limiting the protagonist's goal to greed would limit the synergy between player and protagonist.
A nice simple goal that places no bias upon the players actions - but does limit them to the pursuit of greed, a goal that not all players may be interested in.
- Vengeance. Revenge that is not for the protagonist's benefit
Would therefore need someone to get vengeance against, and someone to avenge (family member, etc.). But no guarantee that the player would have any interest in vengeance!
Similar to Revenge, in that the protagonist will have a predispostion against a certain corp/faction, except that the reasons for following that goal may be weaker.
Summary:
Survival goal is probably the best to start with, as it does not give the protagonist any predispositions towards factions (apart from whatever factions are threatening his survival - zombies, terminators, some tribes, etc. - which are factions we want the player & protagonist to hate anyway). This goal can then have other goals layered ontop of it, in response to the player's actions - if he sides with one corporation then he may join them only to find his freedom is limited; or he may be betrayed by them and go after revenge/vengeance; or he (the player) may decide that the best way to survive is to go after greed and become a crime/faction lord.
The threat to survival
If there is going to be a pre-game sequence, and an immediate threat to survival is going to be the trigger that starts the game, then the threat to survival needs to be one which (a) does not feel contrived (i.e. it must threaten several thousand or million people), and (b) doesn't place the blame upon any particular faction (apart from the pure evil ones - zombies, terminators, criminals) - otherwise the protagonist would have survival+vengeance/revenge as a goal, rather than survival.
Thus potential threats are:
- Environmental/natural disaster - earthquake, storm, etc. destroying the city the player is in
- Mechanical/structural failure - power plant dies, etc. Could have train crash, but if the player is in the train then it may seem too contrived - better to have the train at the only station out of town to crash as it arrives? etc.
- Zombies/Terminators - Wave 'o zombies/terminators approaches the town/city the player is in, forcing him to flee for his life (or try to stay and fight).
- Bandits/criminals - Group of bandits/criminals arrive and try to take over, killing people, looting, etc. As long as no major factions intervene, the protagonist/player will retain his neutral stance towards them, thus not influencing his later actions in the game. However, unless they are an unstoppable wave of bandits/criminals, it may feel contrived that they chose to strike exactly where the player lives.
Summary: All threats listed above make the starting area of the game uninhabitable for the player (unless he joins with the bandits?), forcing him to choose an action - to go into the wilderness, join with the attackers (bandits), stay and fight, escape by road/train, etc. Thus giving him complete freedom of action for the rest of the game (apart from those instances where his prior actions limit his future actions).
Contrivance
Is it a major issue if it appears to be a contrived occurence? It's the only predetermined occurence in the game, after all...
Family
If the protagonists' friends or family survive the game start scenario, then surely he would want to stay with them? Therefore, need a situation that uncategorically kills them all (or, although their deaths are not mentioned, the player can assume that the protagonist is now all alone and must survive on his own)
But if everyone the protagonist knows dies, isn't it a major contrivance that the protagonist survives? And during the pre-game section, wouldn't the protagonist be in contact with people he knows?
Therefore protagonist must simply lose contact with them in the chaos, rather than assume that they're dead. This also allows for more than the protagonist to survive the disaster; it's then up to the player if he wants to go looking for his friends/family (perhaps with appropriate missions to support that goal), or to go off on his own.
The threat
So if the protagonist is to lose contact with everyone he knows, it must be an event that fractures the community rather than destroys it outright. Ideas:
- Train full of zombies/terminators arrives in city center; they start spreading, forcing the player and everyone else away if they are to survive. Perhaps the city has builtin defences that seal off the center, leaving (a) lots of people to get killed on the inside, (b) everyone on the outside safe, but (c) seperated from the other parts of the city (including proper transportation to other cities)
- Earthquake, etc. shatters the city into several pieces - but what would the player's motivation be for leaving the city, as opposed to staying and rebuilding it?
- Nuke explodes, irradiating the area and forcing the survivors to flee?
Out of the above, the train 'o zombies looks like the best approach - it's somewhat of a cliche in worlds of mass zombification, but is a good way of fracturing the city and forcing the inhabitants to flee before all becoming zombies. If the train crashes it can also take out the station, thus cutting the city off, and any other transportation lines in/out are likely to be cut off to prevent the zombie disease from spreading.
Choice of start town
If the town is small, it could be one controlled by a major tribe/minor faction, thus have weaker zombie protection, and be seen as one of the outlying territories more likely to be near the zombie horde. But it may seem a bit more contrived, as the effects of the zombification will be less.
If the town is large, it will almost certainly be under the control of a major faction/corporation. This means it will have better security, and the faction/corporation will have a vested interest in protecting (or pacifying) the populace. It will also give the protagonist a predisposition for/against that faction.
Alternatively, the town could be a refugee town - a small town used as a transport route to move refugees to/from cities, or a junction in the middle of nowhere that the refugees have formed a town around and is used as a way of gaining entries to the different cities. The player could start here, either entering via train, or in the train station waiting to leave. The corporations won't feel much motivation to protect the refugees, and the low security levels makes a zombie infestation plausible. It also gives the message that the protagonist is already a drifter, or has been forced out of his old home and is in search of a new one, helping free him from his friend/family ties. The only question is whether to make him start on a train coming into town (which would imply he has recently been evicted), or in the town already (which could equally be seen as him living there, or is en route to somewhere better).
Choice of start location
The location is obvious - you start outside a hotel/motel. The player could interpret this as either a temporary residence while the protagonist waits for his pre-scheduled train out of town, or that the protagonist is down on his luck and is living in refugee town until he is able to get to somewhere better. A carpark can also provide a few cars for use during the first minutes of the game, although there is no indication given as to which one belongs to the player (just make several of them have no alarm, to make it ambiguous).
Lost
It's important to give the player a goal at the start of the game, otherwise he will feel lost and not know what to do. But if ambiguity is to be kept about the protagonists' status, then no clear goal can be given.
Get to the train
A simple solution would be to have a cryptic "get to the train station" message, with a timer, implying that the protagonist has a train to catch. This could be a train to another town, or a train to take him to work, or a train where he is meeting someone, etc. Regardless, it gives the player a clear, attainable goal, and if followed it will show him the zombie event unfolding. If it isn't followed then ... what? The player just sits around until the zombies arrive, then works it out from there?
Alternatively, there could be no timer given. The player just assumes that he needs to get to the train station at some point during the day, and at this point the zombification will occur. This gives the pre-game segment an unlimitless length, allowing the player to prepare for what happens (if he knows in advance) - but is there any reason why we would want it to be infinite? Surely it's more a of a challenge for a seasoned player to do mad dash around the town, collecting whatever he can before the zombies arrive?
Zombie arrival
Assuming the timed "get to the train" message is used, then the game needs to take into account what happens if the player doesn't follow the advice and the zombie train arrives while the player is absent. In this situation, mass panic could spread throughout the city (evident in the behaviour of the peds) - once the panic is complete (or has reached the player), the compass pointing to the train can disappear, and a message telling him to GTFO can appear. Alternatively, TV screens throughout the city can change to show scenes of the carnage - perhaps a radio/TV/etc. broadcast appears on the screen (pager, etc.) telling the player of the situation? Could the protagonist have a pocket radio or other device with him, which can be used as a way of relaying the state of the game world to the player, for events which the player is not around to witness?
Progression
Once the order has been given to evacuate, the player will have to decide for himself which direction to head for, how many resources to take with him, etc. (perhaps under the guidance of a few nearby peds - i.e. he can simply follow their cars). Without the proper identification on him (passport, etc.) he can take up the role of a nameless wanderer, where he must bargain with local authorities for entrance into cities, etc. But once he's in a city, there is no motivation for him to do anything, as the survival goal is satisfied.
Therefore, this is the time another goal is introduced? Perhaps he is only allowed in under the condition that the powers in control of the city are able to manipulate him - or he wasn't allowed in at all, and thus must constantly run from the police or try and prove his worth to the corporations? (he would presumably need a job in order to stay alive - or turn criminal, in which case the "run from the police" clause takes effect).
Maybe this is simply the situation where the player's motivations take effect - if we place the requirement that the protagonist needs to eat to survive (or needs a home to sleep in at night, etc.) then the survival goal will still be in effect, and it will be down to the player to decide how that is achieved (the boring way by staying away from missions, or the fun way of killing people for money and working for corporations that are in conflict with one another).
Maybe eating and sleeping is would make the game too complex - so instead, assume that the player is interested in criminal greed, and construct the world so that the missions on offer help him to attain that goal? It would then fuel all the other motivations (revenge, freedom, etc.) as the corporations react to his actions.
City life
It seems to be becoming clear that the act of entering and leaving a city in DeathDawn should be a hard one. With many cities owned by opposing factions, you will need good standings to be able to enter a city - unless you find a way to break in. This will help reduce city hopping by the player, and make the trek between cities (if unlawful entry is the aim) more dangerous. For lawful entry, the player may be able to obtain a passport, train ticket, or other device that allows him to travel between train stations of friendly towns. I.e. he could visit a recruitment officer for cybertech in the genetics town, thus giving him a train ticket out of genetics town and into cybertech (maybe with a stopoff in a neutral town, etc.). To obtain the ticket he would have to complete certain goals, etc.
This would make the "attainment of train tickets" one of the game goals - essentially the unlock system for the cities. Forced entry to cities is possible, but if the player wants to achieve a goal of freedom, he will surely have to find ways of finding safe travel between the cities, so that each city welcomes him. Without any official passport, the only way for him to do this would be to become friends with the factions in control of the cities, etc.
Endgame
The eventual goal of the game (if played in the city-to-city manner) would be to have gained (lawful?) access to all the cities, so that you are free to travel the world and do whatever it is you do.
For the loner approach... there would be no endgame. It would just be the endless battle for survival against roaming tribes, zombies, terminators, etc., as per the initial idea of a nethack/GTA crossover.
TODO:
DOCS: UNKNOWN: Merge this into main story doc, since it covers progression as well?
???
Profit!