Bubble Diagrams

Design Document

Rite of Youth/Fountain of Youth

Introduction

The purpose of this project is to create a game experience that emerses the player in complex storyline through an extensively interactive environment. My goal is to successfully detach the player from the objective of finishing a level or accomplishing a task and consume them with the developing story line. I want to accomplish this through implementing a high degree of realism incorporated with a complexed, fully-developed, and intriguing storyline. While the genre of first person demands that guidelines be followed to manage the attention span of the user, I want the substance of the storyline to be the driving force behind the player's desire to complete the game. Many games in the last year have been able to accomplish this successfully. Building on what has been done, my hope is to not only match the quality of the interactive experience in contemporary games, but to enrich an environment to a higher level of realism. The end result of the interactive experience that I hope to create would provide the player with the same sense of satisfaction and enjoyment that one experiences when reading a complex and exciting novel.

Background

The concept for this game originated from a video game concept I produced while brainstorming in my non-linear story-telling course. I wasn’t planning to use the concept for anything, but I liked the idea so much, developing a board game for the concept could definitely help me to take it a step further.

The story began with a two scientist studying the afterlife. Using research they had obtained from ancient religions and new technology, they developed a method that they believed would allow them to look into the afterlife. However, on their first attempt to use their new process, the experienced more than they expected. They did succeed in opening a rift into the afterlife, but they did not expect that something would be waiting on the other side. Some form of an ethereal being entered through the rift that they created and stole the very body of one of the scientists. It was not merely a simple possession of the body and soul, the being actually displaced the spirit of the scientist and sent into the world of the dead. Being free with a corporeal form in the real world, the being began to develop its malevolent plans to exist eternally in the living world by feeding on the life force of all humanity. It is in this state that the scientist finds himself in the world of the dead without identity. Fortunately, his former partner uses the same technology that made the rift into afterlife to contact him and together they discover how to find and enter ‘Soul Windows’ with which he can locate certain individuals in the living world and displace their souls to allow him to reenter the world of the living. Once back in the world of the living, the scientist uses the identities of the bodies that he assumes to hunt down the rogue spirit that stole his body. Through re-death and displacement, the scientist eventual tracks down the being and uses a collection of skills and abilities to displace the being back into the world of the dead.

Description

This scenario begins as the player obtains contract work with a wealthy aging entrepreneur who had sought him out because of his versatile background. The man goes by the name of Velasquez. He has employed the player to assist him in locating the legendary fountain of youth that Alexander the Great sought after in the Arabic legends. Velasquez believes he has located the site in West Asia in a high mountain monastery. The story begins in this location as the player works with Velasquez to find the hidden location of the fountain that he believes is somewhere in the Monastery.

Unknown to the player, Velasquez has brought him along for a very specific purpose. The player will be given cues as the level the progresses that begin to hint that things are not what he expected and there are definitely things that indicate that what they are doing may not have a good ending.

Key features

This story line deals with two parallel worlds, the living and the dead. In the story, the player will discover through information and personal experience the intricacies of the world of the dead. Among the many discoveries the player will find is that the Sun acts as a gateway to the next life. When a persons dies and they die with a clear conscience, they’re instinctively drawn towards the Sun. Those who do not have a clear conscience have a natural fear of what lies beyond and do everything possible to hide from the sun an the draw that is causes. However, by avoiding the sun, they become vulnerable to becoming absorbed by the earth itself. If their essence comes in contact with RAW soil, their soul can be pulled to the earth’s core where it held indefinitely without possibility of escape in a literal hell of gaseous magma.

However, one can learn to survive in the world of the dead. Water has properties that protect souls from both the earth and the Sun. Hence the true value of the fountain of youth becomes more apparent and more sinister because its properties actually protect a spirit that has died from passing over or being absorbed.

The fountain of youth ultimately will be discovered to be just a tool in a process called the soul rend. This process is where a spirit exposes itself to the sun during a solar eclipse where the spirit is effectively torn between the two worlds. This endows the spirit with unique abilities that allow a spirit to enter an individual’s soul window and displace them from their body. The is in fact how youth is maintained by perpetually stealing bodies through out time. The player will begin to comprehend this too late and they discover the real intent of Velasquez.

Genre

First Person

Platform

PC

Concept Art: