So a while ago I talked about a random idea I had, it originated from
my brain causing a collision between batman and the assassin’s creed game.
http://thoughtsofarandomtransexual.blogspot.com/2011/10/cross-over-fan-fic.html?zx=a2b3373a99b8bc57
Now since then I've been toying around with making a game using this idea, I
was originally planning on trying to use the editor in star craft 2 (but that
thing is kind of intimidating, and online tutorials exit but they're pretty big
and unwieldy looking from what I've seen) while I should just bite the bullet
and start learning it (especially since I want to be a programmer later) I
wanted to focus more on developing the game itself, not learn a
specific
set of tools. To make delaying all the more tempting a recent kickstarter
allowed a shadowrun game to be put in production, and the developers are
already saying a robust editing tool is a major feature of their planned game.
add the facts that the core game play of the game and art assets depicting a
dystopian future fit my concept a lot better, and well you get the idea.
OK that ended up longer then I'd hoped, anyway despite nothing concrete
coming up I have spent time thinking about how I want the game to run, what the
players place is among the factions will be, the major themes of the game.
First thing this did is cement the idea that "the batman side" will
be a group of people, rather than an individual. This should allow me to set up
some conversations to both show the groups philosophy and show some problems
with it. Most importantly I've been trying to balance the philosophy and
actions of the groups to allow me to create moral ambiguity and put the player
in a position to tip the scales towards the faction they support. I'm still
trying to work it out, and since I haven't come up with new names I'm currently
using their inspiration as working titles.
the Templar, group has been the easiest to define, murder, infiltration
theft, all on the table for them, though they tend to focus on infiltrating
groups with influence (both government and crime lord) and making sweeping
changes and spreading propaganda, allowing them a great deal of control. Their
direct actions will be the easiest to condemn, but I'm going to try and show a
world falling apart (with the city/small country being at some sort of apex)
and they'll have the plan and recourses to pull the world out of it. Basically
"the ends justify the means".
the assassins, willing to kill, and experts at spying and gathering Intel,
but in theory a very strict rule to not harm innocent people (with the problem
being whether or not some people qualify as innocent, for example, guards hired
to protect a target, the guards are just doing their jobs, but their combatants
protecting their main target, in this case the death of the guards would
be acceptable but would prefer to be avoided). They’re doing this for a
pretty noble cause, to allow freedom and free thought among the population,
letting humanity as a whole determine their future instead of an elite
minority. I'm also toying with the idea of making them apathetic towards the
plight of people around them, their only concern, is this one issue I think I
may be able to justify this by showing that they don't like the actions they
take, but resort to them solely for this big issue. If these guys win
very little in the world would change.
The batman group, their actions are the most moral, never ever killing or
using lethal weaponry. They do play fast and loose with stuff like breaking and
entering and stealing, but only for investigation purposes (only stealing what
appears to be evidence). I also want to try to pull the futility of their
efforts that I see happen in batman stories (they catch a criminal the criminal
only escapes and causes more harm) I'm also thinking I might throw in a bit of
escalation, that despite their attempt to do good, meaning that a continuation
of their action may lead to all out war, and a nearly apocalyptic level of breakdown
of society.
I need to balance these factions around a lot more, and ideally I would like
them to more closely reflect each other, making them seems as though only one
or two ideas in their core philosophies spawned the differences. I also
need to close the gap between the assassins and the batman's as I don't want a
compromise of well "why don't we just kill the crime lords" to be a
seemingly viable solution that I don't present.
I may end up giving the player that option,
but putting the war outcome under it.
