http://weblog.probablynot.com/2009/02/26/that-which-you-must-do/ -emptying my brain onto the internet since 1998... Fri, 12 Mar 2010 06:38:39 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 hourly 1 http://weblog.probablynot.com/2009/02/26/that-which-you-must-do/comment-page-1/#comment-77628 teknoarcanist Wed, 04 Mar 2009 15:42:45 +0000 http://weblog.probablynot.com/?p=1331#comment-77628 I had an idea for a game like this once. You would get the ability to travel freely throughout the timeline of a given world, with a very specific goal being given "Make sure X doesn't die by the end" or something similar that portrays that sense of inevitability. From the moment you get the ability to travel through time, you can go to any point in the game's time-line and do whatever you like. Changes create causal branches into new realities with alternate futures (you let the bad guy become general, he burns the city to the ground, becomes a post-apocalyptic wasteland world) which you can either explore, or return to the prime universe with the knowledge of how that change would affect the world. As you do this, the game is slowly building on this giant map/journal of cause and effect, which you can view, contribute to, annotate with your own notes, etc. The idea is to give the player that sort of god complex, desire to preserve, struggling to find the solution, the inevitability of some disaster, etc (ala The Butterfly Effect). To mix things up, maybe you lose the ability to return to the prime universe, or have your map of time taken away. I had an idea for a game like this once. You would get the ability to travel freely throughout the timeline of a given world, with a very specific goal being given “Make sure X doesn’t die by the end” or something similar that portrays that sense of inevitability. From the moment you get the ability to travel through time, you can go to any point in the game’s time-line and do whatever you like. Changes create causal branches into new realities with alternate futures (you let the bad guy become general, he burns the city to the ground, becomes a post-apocalyptic wasteland world) which you can either explore, or return to the prime universe with the knowledge of how that change would affect the world.
As you do this, the game is slowly building on this giant map/journal of cause and effect, which you can view, contribute to, annotate with your own notes, etc. The idea is to give the player that sort of god complex, desire to preserve, struggling to find the solution, the inevitability of some disaster, etc (ala The Butterfly Effect).
To mix things up, maybe you lose the ability to return to the prime universe, or have your map of time taken away.

]]> http://weblog.probablynot.com/2009/02/26/that-which-you-must-do/comment-page-1/#comment-77595 February ‘09 Round Table - Updated 02-26 : Man Bytes Blog Thu, 26 Feb 2009 18:55:31 +0000 http://weblog.probablynot.com/?p=1331#comment-77595 [...] 26 - Aim for the Head: That Which You Must Do. Jason wrecks havoc with the idea of a fixed timeline when Oedipus goes medieval on your [...] [...] 26 – Aim for the Head: That Which You Must Do. Jason wrecks havoc with the idea of a fixed timeline when Oedipus goes medieval on your [...]

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