Story Nexus Projects: What will YOU create?

StoryNexus
41

Since I can’t get the idea out of my head, it looks like I’ll be working on an educational game that mimics evolution, geological change, and ecosystem creation. Players would start the game as a single-celled organism and have multiple paths they can take towards becoming a larger, more complex creature over time. They wouldn’t necessarily follow real-life evolutionary patterns, and the ecosystems that develop around them would be based on the choices they made in game. “Plot” would follow the way their world develops, and locations would potentially open up (be created) as they evolve in different ways.

Cards would help them make choices about the necessities of life (food, shelter, mates) as well as provide random events that have the chance for further evolution (“Flood! Maybe lungs would be helpful? Or fins?”).

I’m not sure what stats I would like them to have. I want it to stay simple, with a max of 4 traits that help determine what sort of creature they are. Like Resourceful and Adaptive. You could also pick up labels like Common or Uncommon, as well as some basic ecological terms (K-selective vs. R-selective species, different types of speciation). I intend it to be a lot like going through an Intro to Ecology textbook, except hopefully more fun.

I like the idea of actions taking “1 million years” or something similar, to reflect just how much time passes as evolution occurs. Or 100,000 years, just something large so people understand these are often long-term processes. Random events would speed up evolution so that major changes happen in just one action.

That’s what I’ve got for now! It could be simple or complicated, totally depends on what players demand. Maybe they all want to become dinosaurs or deep sea hot-vent creatures. Wouldn’t be a problem. :-)

42

That sounds a bit like Spore, only more educationally-oriented. In other words, it sounds awesome.

That opens up a new possibility: educational games! I wonder what other enriching material can be incorporated into the system?

43

I have an idea set in the Industrial Era of where the character is exceptional in one way or the other and of a wealthy family. So naturally they send you to a far off University to study for eight years. You arrive to find the port side city crawling with crime and intrigue. Not long after your father dies, leaving you with only your first semester paid for. So you have to find a way to continue your education and find a way to get the Will argument between your relatives over so you can inherit as much of the will as possible. You can choose your subjects(which will provide a real benefit to you in-game). Additionally you can get through the years as a scholar student or you can solve crimes to earn your rent or naturally commit them (Possibly both). But will you solve the mystery surrounding the not quite there parts of town…?

44

@Caitydid: I would play the heck out of that.

45

A steampunkish airship-captainery extragavanza in an alternate history (well, duh) 18-19th century, with adventures from Istanbul to the darkest reachest of mysterious India and distant Cathay. Nothing too ambitious to start with.

I am very, very excited already to see this, though.

46

The team behind project ICED OOLONG, our near-future western set in a desolate American southwest, is currently soliciting visual artists. Obviously we can’t pay anybody at this point (ourselves included); we’re looking for several artists interested in contributing a few pieces, with the goal of developing an art stock for initial release and generating a roster of folks we could tap for paid work if that ever happens down the line. If you’re interested, hit me up at levineg85@gmail.com and I’ll send you the full request pitch. :)

47

I’m thinking of making a game where you’re a high-ranking operative for the Illuminati, and you go around doing typical conspiracy stuff - silencing journalists, embezzling money, that sort of thing. Along the way, you’ll uncover a conspiracy within your own ranks (a conspiracy within a conspiracy), and compete with those bloody second-rate Freemasons. You’ll have to use outside knowledge to play. If you find a code, you’ll have to use cryptography to decrypt it, for example.

48

So, more than anything my story idea is shaping up to be a game about working with others. As I’ve mentioned before, I will have the players pick a side early on, which will determine the plot for the first half of the game, as well as determine your companions during that half. Building up your companions will be as important for your progress as your main stats, and they will also be who you can pursue romance options with, which I will try to pace so that rather than a short storylet like in EBZ, pursuing a romance spans the entirety of the game like the ambitions, with your actions during normal storylets impacting this.

This focus on working with others will extend to other players as well, and oddly enough splitting up the players at the start will not mean that players on opposing sides can’t play together. Quite the contrary! Both sides will have opposing goals, and social actions will be possible with your “teammates” to further your own cause. However, at the same time players can share correspondence with players on the other side, to try and get an idea for what’s going on. I intend to have both types help the player in different ways, and lorewise the idea will be that as you work with your teammates you are working towards reaching your goal, but as you work with the enemy, you are trying to dig into the deeper mysteries and get a broader understanding of the situation. The ideal situation will have players with friends on both sides of the conflict, all working together.

I’d also like to see if it’s possible to get players who aren’t playing to help out. I was inspired by the invitation cards in EBZ, which a number of people send to people who aren’t interested in playing, simply because sending the invite still helps. However, while it’s a neat concept in my head, I imagine this may give issues with spam, it encourages folks to dissuade some friends from playing (Or persuades more alt accounts), and I’m not sure if the engine can allow for input from those outside the game, outside of noticing when they sign up. My ideal option would be letting someone post a message to their social network that other folks might be interested in (Perhaps a snippet about what they’ve been doing in their adventures lately), and allowing those who click the link to click on something to help them out (Or even just make following the link itself useful)
edited by Urthdigger on 7/24/2012

49

[quote=Urthdigger]
I’d also like to see if it’s possible to get players who aren’t playing to help out. I was inspired by the invitation cards in EBZ, which a number of people send to people who aren’t interested in playing, simply because sending the invite still helps. However, while it’s a neat concept in my head, I imagine this may give issues with spam, it encourages folks to dissuade some friends from playing (Or persuades more alt accounts), and I’m not sure if the engine can allow for input from those outside the game, outside of noticing when they sign up. My ideal option would be letting someone post a message to their social network that other folks might be interested in (Perhaps a snippet about what they’ve been doing in their adventures lately), and allowing those who click the link to click on something to help them out (Or even just make following the link itself useful)
edited by Urthdigger on 7/24/2012[/quote]

Neat idea. Why don’t you just ask Alexis Kennedy on the question thread whether can they support it or not? Although I personally think it is unlikely, it doesn’t hurt to ask :)

50

My own plan is for a prelude to the LARP I’m helping to run. But working out just how to do that may be challenging…

51

[color=#009900]Hi all[/color]
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[color=#009900]As the beta widens, we’ll be sending a weekly email with details of feature updates and upcoming features. We’d like to include a showcase or case study of an interesting project with each mail.[/color]
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[color=#009900]These projects will need to be playable. Finished is best, playtested beta is good, interesting alpha is possible. But playable is essential. The more polished and the larger the team, the better.[/color]
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[color=#009900]We’ll provide details on how to submit your worlds soon.[/color]

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[color=#009900](While I’m in here, we’re going to be adding social features and messaging - more and different than we have in FL right now. We’ll also be adding the kind of coupon codes we’ve used a few times in FL. Urthdigger, you’ll probably be able to get somewhere near what you want…)[/color]

52

This makes me very happy. Now to see if I can get into the next beta, I thought I’d signed up for Storynexus ages ago. Finally did so a few days ago :/

53

I’m sketching ideas for a sort of comedic noir set in a never-future, inspired by the science fiction I used to grow up with. Half Penny-Arcade’s Automata, and half Robert Sheckley. I’m digging through old short stories of mine, looking for material to cannibalize, either as content or backstory.

I’m also thinking a lot about structural particulars. Since I imagine I’ll be writing substantially less content than Fallen London, I’m wondering how I can cleverly make more content repeat without padding. I have some ideas for mixing CYOA structures with something textually like Wilmot’s End. We’ll see.

54

That’s good news for me, too- after you mentioned the coupon codes as puzzle answers and didn’t do that in Fallen London (yet?), I thought something more puzzly might be an interesting way to push the StoryNexus mechanics. There are probably interesting that can be done when you have an interface that’s different from “Here’s a PDF, type in an answer word.” For instance, I’m pretty sure it could handle the “measure 4 gallons with a 3 and 5 gallon jug” puzzle.

55

I actually joined this forum because of this topic and the ideas it created. So. For making something…I’ve got two things that won’t leave me alone. They both involve war.

One is fantasy and steampunk/clockwork countries fighting against each other. You’d have to choose a side first thing (by saying whether people are looking at your chest because that’s where you have the Goddess of revenge’s symbol or because you have a watch locket around your neck) and you’d have one different goal (ambition) and one different quality. You could learn the other side’s quality, but that’d be difficult and I am not thinking of how to work it out now. Not yet.

So Fantasy side is ‘Incomprehensible Magic’ quality and ‘Become Immortal’ goal. And Steampunk is ‘Clockwork’ quality and ‘Build a flying metal suit’.

Either way, you’ll have at least two other qualities and you’ll start out on a ship. The end of ship ride, would, presumably, be the end of the prologue.

Also, there are flying ladies who just want to make money off the war. And stopping and winning the war can be a goal as well. You can have more than one goal. If you succeed in becoming immortal or making flying suit, people are going to pressure you into front lines. You’ve avoided being a soldier somehow, but you can be one. I think. There are strange glowing lights around, six winged birds and clockwork cats and limbs. Red deserts and deep, magical forests. Something like this. All these tendrils are driving me nuts. I do have pretty little quotes, though, that makes me feel better.

  • And then there’s the soldier, nitty gritty, off to battle one. Where you can choose two qualities from the four qualities of Light, Dark, Love, and Hate. It isn’t as fleshed out, luckily for me, and probably won’t be worked on. Hopefully. Wish me luck?
    edited by crownoflaurel on 8/3/2012
56

[quote=crownoflaurel]I actually joined this forum because of this topic and the ideas it created. So. For making something…I’ve got two things that won’t leave me alone. They both involve war.

One is fantasy and steampunk/clockwork countries fighting against each other. You’d have to choose a side first thing (by saying whether people are looking at your chest because that’s where you have the Goddess of revenge’s symbol or because you have a watch locket around your neck) and you’d have one different goal (ambition) and one different quality. You could learn the other side’s quality, but that’d be difficult and I am not thinking of how to work it out now. Not yet.

So Fantasy side is ‘Incomprehensible Magic’ quality and ‘Become Immortal’ goal. And Steampunk is ‘Clockwork’ quality and ‘Build a flying metal suit’.

Either way, you’ll have at least two other qualities and you’ll start out on a ship. The end of ship ride, would, presumably, be the end of the prologue.

Also, there are flying ladies who just want to make money off the war. And stopping and winning the war can be a goal as well. You can have more than one goal. If you succeed in becoming immortal or making flying suit, people are going to pressure you into front lines. You’ve avoided being a soldier somehow, but you can be one. I think. There are strange glowing lights around, six winged birds and clockwork cats and limbs. Red deserts and deep, magical forests. Something like this. All these tendrils are driving me nuts. I do have pretty little quotes, though, that makes me feel better.

  • And then there’s the soldier, nitty gritty, off to battle one. Where you can choose two qualities from the four qualities of Light, Dark, Love, and Hate. It isn’t as fleshed out, luckily for me, and probably won’t be worked on. Hopefully. Wish me luck?
    edited by crownoflaurel on 8/3/2012[/quote]

This game sounds awesome. I think its the first time I’ve heard the term steampunk and not wanted to close the window right afterwards.

57

[quote=Branden Linton][quote=crownoflaurel]I actually joined this forum because of this topic and the ideas it created. So. For making something…I’ve got two things that won’t leave me alone. They both involve war.

One is fantasy and steampunk/clockwork countries fighting against each other. You’d have to choose a side first thing (by saying whether people are looking at your chest because that’s where you have the Goddess of revenge’s symbol or because you have a watch locket around your neck) and you’d have one different goal (ambition) and one different quality. You could learn the other side’s quality, but that’d be difficult and I am not thinking of how to work it out now. Not yet.

So Fantasy side is ‘Incomprehensible Magic’ quality and ‘Become Immortal’ goal. And Steampunk is ‘Clockwork’ quality and ‘Build a flying metal suit’.

Either way, you’ll have at least two other qualities and you’ll start out on a ship. The end of ship ride, would, presumably, be the end of the prologue.

Also, there are flying ladies who just want to make money off the war. And stopping and winning the war can be a goal as well. You can have more than one goal. If you succeed in becoming immortal or making flying suit, people are going to pressure you into front lines. You’ve avoided being a soldier somehow, but you can be one. I think. There are strange glowing lights around, six winged birds and clockwork cats and limbs. Red deserts and deep, magical forests. Something like this. All these tendrils are driving me nuts. I do have pretty little quotes, though, that makes me feel better.

  • And then there’s the soldier, nitty gritty, off to battle one. Where you can choose two qualities from the four qualities of Light, Dark, Love, and Hate. It isn’t as fleshed out, luckily for me, and probably won’t be worked on. Hopefully. Wish me luck?
    edited by crownoflaurel on 8/3/2012[/quote]

This game sounds awesome. I think its the first time I’ve heard the term steampunk and not wanted to close the window right afterwards.[/quote]

Thank you. That’s quite a compliment; I can be the same way with certain things, though I love both steampunk and fantasy. I love them combined as well, so if I ever manage to write this story, there’s potential for a sequel. Yeah. But right now I should get to work on the ship prologue ~

(There are clockwork cats because real cats got infected by magic, being very receptive to magic, and now actual cats can’t really be found. I think mechanical cats may mimic their owner’s personality…or deliver messages. Or both. But there’ll be a side quest to find ‘a real cat’, which of course you could have for a pet if you succeed. But you can only get this side question if you have the quirk ‘Curious - Inquisitive -something - Why Aren’t You Dead Yet? - Okay, You’re Really A Cat’ at the last level. This and ‘Cautious - Sensible - something - something - Master Of Common Sense’ are my only quirks so far and I’d love to keep it that way.)

My mind’s running ahead of me a bit here, but I think it’ll turn out find. (Maybe I can put in a storylet where you actually lose limbs somewhere? Or warn that it’s possible if you get involved in the war? Then you can try to get 'em replaced with clockwork or maybe by a magical creature…)
edited by crownoflaurel on 8/4/2012

58

Oh goodness, all these ideas. I suppose, since I signed up recently (I really should have started following all these failbettergames things sooner. I mean, come on, a year of Fallen London and I haven’t been involved in the community? How messed up is that!?) it would be prudent to, you know, throw in my two cents.

I think an old idea of mine would fit perfectly in this. Character centric, this story would be about you, after making a kind of Deal with the Devil, but not the Devil of any kind of Hell. The theme of this story would be Human Potentiality. The Devil, or in this case Demon, is inside yourself, and it’s not the only one. After discovering the existence of this Demon, you find that there are more and more inside yourself, Demons of Hate and Fear and Rage and Gluttony and Primal Ferocity, etc.

The Deal made would be character specific in detail, but the end result would be the same: In exchange for your own Potentiality being unlocked, allowing you incredible feats of Power, Strength, Focus, etc. you forgo some of your own Free Will, giving in to the Urges that allow the Demon to take control momentarily (this last detail would, of course, be the fine print you did not realize and would be worded much differently). It would be a struggle to keep your own Humanity, while still keeping control of your unlimited Potentiality. Too far gone into your Urges, make too much of a ruckus with your Power, and people in power, governments, armies, other facilities with income and purpose, will hunt you down. Push down your Potentiality too much, and you become duller and greyer, as to suppress Human Potential is to suppress Humanity itself.

Thus, from the decision of one deal, your life is changed forever, and is as much an internal struggle as an external, as you are thrust into a world that knows what lives inside Humanity. The plot would be character specific, perhaps depending on your reasons for the Deal, your reaction to the truth of the Deal, and what you decide to do with this Gift/Curse.

59

I’d love to create… Pandemonium~

I’ve been thinking about this for a while. I used to run a narrative-style forum-based RPG that I think would translate well to this format, but I really need to tweak how it would operate. It’s a mashup of horror, suspense, supernatural, and dark humor with elements of whodunit based within a mansion. You character arrives against their will at Pandemonium Mansion (in the original, the characters all woke up to find themselves there) just in time for a will-reading. And then things get weird. You have the heir to the house and property who isn’t all she seems, and servants who give you the heebee-jeebees. A mansion where the rooms and hallways have a problem with spacial continuity-- a doorway that led from the living room to the hallway now leads from the hallway to the attic on the third floor. Or one of the cells in the old private clinic/asylum wing. And then there’s the fog outside the wall surrounding the house, making it impossible to leave. (You can try of course, but I wouldn’t. There are Things in there, and you always end up back at the front gate. If you make it back.)

One immediate problem I know I’d have in the translation from forum to FL-style is that in the original, the players chose where the doorways led. Obviously that wouldn’t be possible (or desirable) in a Nexus-based game, but I don’t know how feasible it would be to randomize the movement on my end. Or if FB will allow it. I’d hate to cut that out of the story, though. The random changes made it easy to get lost and encounter things most people would avoid, and it added an element of suspense to the atmosphere that I’d rather not lose. I suppose I’ll have to think on it some more and sketch out some more concrete ideas before I get started.

60

(Aside: Don’t you just hate it when you hit the Back button by accident, hit Forward and your post in progress has disappeared? Take two.)

Alice - That sounds like an intriguing and darkly exciting setting. I hope you make something of it. In regards to shifting locations, I have some ideas how it could be implemented.

1 - Apparently-identical ‘moving rooms’ Sometimes cards with secretly different move-to-area effects. In this case each room or wing of the mansion would be a different Area.

2 - Assume the mansion is one big Area and give each room their own Sometimes card. Every time a player draws and plays a room card, they are assumed to have moved to it from the previous one they visited/played. I think this would be the preferred style for a SN story.

3 - Area transition could be a challenge tied to an ability. Say that each wing of the house is an Area with Sometimes cards for each room or event in that wing. Players can, uh, play a transition card (either randomly drawn from a Sometimes deck or Pinned depending on how often you want them to be able to attempt it) which has a branch for each wing. If the ‘transition’ ability check succeeds, they move to the new area. If not, they don’t, obviously.

Hope that makes sense and is of some use. I have got to learn to stop writing forum posts in the early hours of the morning.