Embedded Files
2.2, 5.1
Maur Backstory
Maur Backstory
The inspiration behind this character is, as you will see in my main character subpage, “A lone ant away from her colony”. This doesn't just feed into her design, but her lore as well. I imagine that this game sets place in the distant future, and while humankind is not the focus of the game, there will still be some lore connected to this character, and therefore to the human race. I imagine that people have managed to break the space barrier, and have moved on to inhabiting many planets and solar systems within their galaxy. They have grown so dependent on cybernetic tools such as limb enhancers, breathing tools, and robotic organs that they are unable to live without them. This has caused their mouths to dissipate due to the absence of a need to eat. Their eyes and ears have grown so they can hear and see better in their environments, and their flesh and muscle has grown significantly weaker due to their limb enhancements.
In order to prevent separation and war due to the species' wide berth, they have developed robotic chips in their brains that link up to a giant social system, similar to the internet but far more advanced. This allows them to sense the feeling and actions of their society, and more quickly receive orders and direction for their higher ups. This chip has slowly grown larger over time, and now encompasses a full half of the human brain. Their lifespan has grown due to the elimination of many forms of cancer and airborne diseases, and a child being born is a much rarer and more sacred event. The implementation of the cybernetic aspects into an infant is a long, difficult procedure, however it is seen as a form of entry into society. Children grow up much faster due to the cyber aspects of their brain, and reach educational maturity at 12.
Your character has been separated from her “colony” of people, and as such is mentally hindered, due to the separation from the mental link she has become used to — this could be a tool of motivation, and part of the plot can be to try to discover where you came from and where the rest of your colony is. I decided to make the player character a girl, partially as a reference to the fun fact that generally all worker ants are female. I gave this character the name “Maur”, which literally translates to ant in several Scandinavian languages (such as Swedish, Norwegian, and Danish). Norwegian is one of the easiest modern languages to learn, and so could be a language that carries forward to the distant future.
I have linked a song by my favourite singer Cavetown (see above), which really reminds me of this character. I would play it while designing her, and the soft, melancholy tones gave me massive inspiration for the themes of isolation and robotic calm that I want Maur to emanate. Of course, Maur is part robot, and so the soft robotic twitches at the beginning of this song, as well as the highly robotic/distorted vocals, call to me as a part of her character I want to be important. Plus, it's just a really good song.
Plot
Plot
This game starts when you, the player (canonically named Maur, but the player seems to be given no explicit name) is crash-landing on an alien planet. You have been hurtling through deep space in a protective piece of debris, specifically designed to bounce off space junk and leave you unharmed — you are curled into a tight ball, with the intro sequence showing the tiny pane displaying the endless space before you. You slowly begin to hit more and more asteroids and rocks, and then loop into the gravity of a moon before flying back out again. A purple/green/blue mottled plant comes closer and closer into view, dead on; you shoot through the atmosphere, gaining more and more heat, your character stats flashing up as overheating more and more intensely. Finally, the heat wares off, and you plummet into the sea just off from some land. Bubbles surround the pod, and eventually you wash up on dry land.
The game traverses multiple different environments; from the high skies to the deep caverns, your character must journey on to try to find help. Without contact with the outside world, you are completely alone in your own mind, and in this unfamiliar planet lurks terrors. Your memory was mostly hooked up to the shared database your species maintains, so you can't exactly remember your mission. Over time, you have to try to find ways of repairing your mind and reconnecting with other humans. You realise people have been to this planet before, and they have left remnants of their missions.
You befriend the sentient aliens that inhabit this planet, help them improve their society by completing tasks for them. Finally, you realise that you were sent here by the mother of your species to essentially be a vessel, and learn information about the aliens of this planet.
Worldbuilding
Worldbuilding
The game is going to be mostly 2D in style, and you will have to manoeuvre your character through different environments — you meet characters, explore the landscape, and run from enemies. I would like to make a point of not including many aspects of hunting/fighting in this game, as I personally think it would take away from the cosmic horror and world design aspects.
I had a think about ways I can make the ecosystem of this planet unique, and my peers mentioned something interesting; what if instead of plants evolving to be the main organisms on the planet, it was instead fungi. Fungi dues not need light in the same way plants do, and instead contributes to the ecosystem through breaking down matter.
From a familiarity point of view, fungus is something that tends to be recognised as an “otherworldly”, and is commonly associated with witchcraft. They also come in all sorts of colours, and some of them have natural bioluminescence. All of this makes them perfect for an alien environment.
Other Notes
Other Notes
Aliens are hunted every day by an unfathomably large beast, and while the beast hunts, they all freeze and gaze up at the sky. The beast swoops down and takes one alien every day, but they're unfazed; these aliens do not fear death. They are so used to one member dying each day that they have no funeral rites, no mourning process. The parents simply have more children.
Each dangerous creature in the game is based off a different phobia; for example, a beast which flies you into the air and drops you (acrophobia) or a beast which creates/hides in the shadows (nyctophobia)
About how someone mentioned the fear of not dying in my survey — having a terrifying creature (maybe spider inspired?) that takes you to die, and is renowned for being a killer, and yet when the player gets taken by it, you are put into a very slow cutscene where your organs get slowly sucked out of you one by one, and you can see everything that's happening. You are alive the whole time, in agony, and your vision is blurred and red, but because your cyborg brain is intact you are still conscious. The death animation happens after several minutes of this.
Page updated
Google Sites
Report abuse