Only Time Heals

Brief

Adapt a piece of media into a video game pitch.

Premise

Chosen Media: 

I will be adapting Doctor Who into a Souls like. Like ‘Lies of P’ I will be applying the lore of doctor who into the common mechanics of Souls like and then forming a narrative that fits the dark theme adding a unique twist to the TV shows story as well as the game style.  

Title of Game: 

Only Time Heals by Sean Browne 

Tagline: 

‘There are twelve faces on the clock that keeps time still.’ 

Game type: 

Non-Linear Soulslike. 

Target Demographic: 

The target demographic includes people who love soulslike games and enjoy challenging bosses. 

It also includes people who love doctor who or are even aware of the show enough to realize it's an adaptation. 

It includes people who like non-linear narratives or games that don't hold your hand. 

Platform: 

PC and Console (PS5 and XBOX) 

PEGI Rating: 

16: Violence, Horror 

Gameplay

Mechanics Adaptation/Core Systems. 

Bonfires: 

The checkpoint system will become Time Rifts; these are rifts in time that allow players to travel fast and unlock leveling and other customization mechanics. The lore of this will be adapted to make sense for a time travelling time lord and will be linked to the regenerative powers that time lords possess.  

Bosses: 

These will be concepted and replaced with all versions of enemies and friends that the doctor faces along his travels.  Due to there being over 300 species this adaptation can fuel a massive amount of content and unique interactions that are inspired by the numerous enemies that show up. For example, a common enemy could be a cyberman, a mini boss could be an Abzorbaloff, and a significant boss could be a Slitheen or even Davros. 

Gathering Hub: 

The gathering Hub is an area where numerous NPCs can gather to provide leveling elements, side quests, and narrative points. It ties into the lore heavily, so I want to adapt this by making it the carcass of the TARDIS. The TARDIS being dead will heavily link into the main storyline within the game and serves as a place to constantly remind the player of the time decay happening in this world. It also gives the opportunity to introduce many NPC characters such as the doctors' various companions or variations of them and other interesting characters that I could use to increase the standard of the story.  

Souls: 

These are used to level the character as normal but are integrated into the story of the game by tying into the time lord's regeneration. The more the character dies and regenerates the more tainted they become; souls are replaced with Vortex Strength. Carrying lots of vortex strength can amend this slightly but aging and corruption is increased with a loss of it. 

Leveling: 

Vigor, strength, endurance, mind, dexterity, chrono technique (Time based Arcana) 

Lore: 

In a tainted realm the absence of time has corrupted the galaxy. A once lost planet has become the only inhabitable place. Many races and species have been corrupted by the temporal energy on this planet, deforming them and stripping their willpower away. The time lords feed on this event to cheat the natural order of decay. Their leader represents the destruction of healing and was a distorted Doctor, they were a symbol for power across the universe but now forcefully let it bleed for his own rise of status and strength. 

Now an atemporal outcast of the time lord species travels the biomes of Gallifrey collecting vortex strength in the pursuit of an unspoken name prophesized to restart the time war, restoring the TARDIS and bringing a blossoming anti-decay across the galaxies.  

Regions – Red deserts, green forests, snowing mountains 

POIs – Arcadia, The Citadel of the Time Lords, The Death Zone, The Academy, The Spatial View 

Smaller POIs – Relevant catacombs/dungeons linked to the Weeping Angels and other dungeon like enemies.   

Bosses:  

All forms of enemies across the doctor who series, distorted/deformed/corrupted in many manners such as scale, blood, strength, dysmorphia etc. 

Main Story Bosses: 

The first 11 regenerative forms of the doctor in similar corruption styles as most other beings. 

Final Objective: 

Collecting all 11 of the forms of the doctor's essence deciphers his true name allowing you to summon his 12th form in an epic final battle to rid his corrupted root from all it has taken across the universe. 

Post Mortem

Flesh out the visuals of the game. create mood boards and bring it to life. I'm really proud of this idea and with the time constraints I think I did a good job adapting doctor who into the soulslike template. going forward blocking out environments and boss zones/fights would be a great way to protype going forward.