7even Nation
Hi all,
Just giving you a head up as I recently started planning and building a game called '7even Nation'. The game is going to be made on Unity using unity script (sometimes called java script but i think there are a few differences). It will be an action, adventure type game with some aspects of an RPG as there will be an inventory system as well as possibly having the ability to train skills. It is a medieval fantasy setting similar to Oblivion with some magical abilities and the player will use mainly swords and bows.
It is based on another world, with one 'supreme' race controlled by an Emperor. You are a member of this supreme race and works as an Imperial Assassin, a subset of the Imperial Gaurd (the emperors private army)
The brief story is:
you are summoned by the emperor and asked to perform a series of assassinations
Each figure that you are required to assassinate leads you to or tells you another piece of information
You start to realise that all this information adds up to one thing...
The emperor is not just quashing a small rebelious group, he plans to anhialate the other six races of the world
You realise you have been working for the wrong side the whole time and vouch to kill the emperor and dissolve the empire before they destroy everything.
It's lucky you were trained for this kind of thing ;)
You go about the bussiness of killing off important figures of the imperial guard and along with allies you pickup from the other races, fight your way to the gates of the Imperial city. (the same place as you start, by this time you and one other member are all thats left of the troop of warriors you gathered) Little resistance is given as you fight up through the city. You eventually kill the emperor and are simultaneously betrayed by the other remaining member of the group of warriors who stabs you in the back and leaves you for dead, on the floor of the Imperial palace next to the dead emperor.
Thanks for reading, if you found this interesting and would like to know more. There is the start of a more in-depth storyline here: http://opengameart.org/forumtopic/7even-nation-storyline
or you can check out my website here: http://gearedstudios.webs.com/
which I will be updating regularly (hopefully) with news and progress, and you can discuss ideas there if you register
Scribe
P.S please give comments and critisisms (constructive) about the idea so far and feel free to ask any questions that you have though I may not be able to answer them all but I'll try
I've also attached some photos of the progress I've made so far
You could make it less linear by staying at the emperors side when you "find things out" (he more or less tries to bribe and corrupt you), seeing the effect on the changing world due to your actions. From time to time you get a chance to correct things (as far as the story allows) and switch to the other side (against the emperor, the other six races will most likely cooperate to some extend to fight the emperor), but getting also more difficult to be accepted by the other side as the game progresses.
Dying at the end could also be determined on choices throughout the game, giving the possibility of multiple endings. From dying (not linked to be on any side) to ending as a homeless beggar to a hero or king of a country (in case the king dies, you survive and you have a high loyalty for the country).
Hey thanks for commenting,
Thoughs are some really great ideas, I said I wasn't a writer so I need comments and ideas like this so thank you. Yeah those ideas kind of make me think of Mass Effect - renegade and passifist or whatever they call it. I would really like to have a non linear story so I will try something likes this so outcomes are dependent on your actions throughout the game. might be a bit harder to implement when I build the game though, but I'll try
Thank you
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Many games have multiple paths (not only Mass Effect, although the renegade and paragon are not per se good vs evil, but more like talk first fight later vs. fight first talk later), but in many games the "evil" path is just a lesser good path.
Did you already have thoughts about the "races"? Races points to different races of humans (Asian, Negroid, Arian, etc.). This might give problems with many people (one race fighting an other). One way to prevent such things is to have the story that people got split due to some event, causing them to evolve in a different race. You can then come up with some nice things:
Remember Morrowind, where the game world contained a huge magic wall around Dagoth Uhr (with Ghost Gate as the only entrance). Lets say one of the countries had a major magical accident, where the land and the humans that inhabit it got exposed to it. There would then a similar magic wall placed around the land to prevent the magical exposure (corruption?) from spreading. The people also look different due to the magical influence (details to be worked out).
Second idea for a race. People that live already for centuries below ground. Due to this their vision has diminished a lot (some even don't have eyes any more) and to surface people they are often uglier and smaller. Some have evolved gills to breath in water filled caves. They don't know magic (but would accept it to some extend) and their society accepts slavery from captured surface humans (to do harder/tougher work for them).
Third idea for a race is set on an island that experienced an UFO crash. The aliens brought technology to the island and those humans excelled in adapting the technology for their benefits. Due to their strong belief in technology they strongly reject magic (it is forbidden for them to use it). Due to the technology the people were able to breed in some features of the aliens in their species, causing them to give a slight different appearance.
I have a few more ideas, but for now this is it.
I hope you can use them in one way or another.
Sorry, races was probably the wrong word in that case, there are 7 different species of intellegent life however one species have built themselves up to be the supreme race. But I can see this could still cause probablems.
This is written in a topic in the forum of my site but its only available to members so I'll post it here too (don't bother reading it all if you dont want, at the bottom I continue talking :P):
The Tanian are the superior race of the world and are native to the Tani Region which is a large central landmass which is advantageous to their reign over the other lesser races. The Tanian are based on large upright cats, they are very intellegent and fast and honour good politicians. It was their political advantage more than their warriors that gained them superiority over the other nations.
The inhabitants of Januperco''Lazanus are called Janus and are the closest rivals of the Tanian, they own the skies and sweep the land from above in there flying cities. The Janus have wings and use their ability of flight in their battle tactics as they are not stong and either use flight to escape to the skies or to outmanouver their opponents. They are intellegent, tall and light and try to avoid fighting, preffering to resolve the situation with words and politics.
The Jarlak, from the Unified Borders of Jarlanthia are large reptilian beasts. They have very expansive organised armies and pride themselves in being the best fighters on the planet using their strength and superior combat tactics to crush any foe. They are not very intellegent away from the battlefield however, having little to no political power.
Niee, the people of The Meeai za Grainoor (translates to The Kingdom of Grainoor), are amphibius beings enabling them to breath underwater. They are very intellegent, tall and slender and produce the best politicians and scientists. They are very weak in combat and stay underwater to protect themselves from most dangers.
The Ereshkish are a highly relgious culture from the Ereshkigal Dynasty, most of them are witches and their race is strongly influenced by the the magical arts both light and dark. they are intellegent in the runes and are very mysterious. It is highly likely that a person would travel through the middle of Ereshkigal without ever seeing an Ereshkish
Indri are a woodland race originating from the Forest of Indra. They are elf like and are intellegent, fast and silent. They are tall and can fight well at close range but they preffer to use ranged combat techniques and kill from afar. They are very light and don't enjoy fighting. They have great respect for their elders, some of which live through 2 millenias and they have high respects for life and try to protect their woodlands and the animals at all costs.
and finally
The Huksplan are very large, lumbering beasts living in small to medium sized clans on the ice fields of the South. They have amazing strength and are very heavy making hard foes but they are slow and stupid so they are easily out smarted or out manouvered. They are very secludid from the rest of the planet and some people have stared to think they are just myths and fairly tales made up to scare little children.
So those were my first ideas, the different species all look very different depending on the environments they live in, but I could use some of the ideas you gave to give a reason for why the Tanians think they are superior, at the moment I have their superiority based on them being good politically and reasonable fighters as well as being central in the know land however at this stage I'm very open to change. I could give the reason for their superiority is because of some magical event? sorry for being unclear to begin with about species and races.
Also I don't know entirely whether I should have the know world as the whole world or whether I should Just have a small are of the planet :/ having the whole world would more easily explain the large diversity in intellegent species rather than a small area...?
And one other thing, I wasn't planning on having any humans as a species on the planet however it could be quite intrested if your character was human or another, separate species as it could allow the player to relate better to the character. It would also explain why you might change sides from the emperor?
love to here more of your ideas, thanks you've already made me think a lot more indepth about it and given me some ideas
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I already thought you meant species, but I thought it would be fun to take a pull on the races idea as well, feel free to mix in some of the ideas I mentioned in your plans. If you don't plan to use humans, don't include them. Just make sure the protagonist isn't too "alien", people playing the game want a character they can relate to.
So, the emperor and the protagonist (=gamer) are from the Tanian species?
For the world, it would not matter for the diversity in species to use the whole world or only a continent (the elder scrolls show that a continent works just as well). So I would personally go for a continent (easier to enlarge the world when needed).
Thanks, I probably will take a few of the ideas you've given me. and I make make the Tanian race slightly less cat like and more human to make sure its realtable, thanks.
Yep thats the current idea, the emperor is definitely Tanian, as I said before I could make the gamer a completely different species possibly human or more human than the other species.
Thanks again I will take your advice and only use a region rather than the world I think as it will make creating a map easier and the whole map system will be less complicated.
Thanks a lot for the advice you've given, it will have saved me a lot of time in the long run to think about all this now :)
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When making a race based on an animal, it is sometimes good to try to make it more subtle. For example, the Na'vi from Avatar are cat people, but not in a glaring fashion.
Thanks johndh thats agood tip, I'll keep it in mind when I do the concepts for the species.
Also I noticed that despite upload picture on my first post they haven't shown up so I'm going to try again here:
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Some concept art for the Jarlaks':
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I'm going to take the oposite opinion of Johndh and suggest you use the the anatomy of a velociraptor for the Jarlaks. Althought making a burly velociraptor is going to be tricky
nice renderings and nice art. Btw is there a target audience in mind, I'm on an Intel dual-core machine with embedded graphics (read that as no graphics card) hence would I be able to play this game ?