Percept Reverie: An Idea in the making

[solshadow 0]

So Waaaaay back when (about two years ago) I had an idea for a game that was basically two games in one. You "shifted" between different time periods which turned out to be two different time planes, however the idea got complicated and then a crappy game "Time shift" or something came out and made my idea unappealing to me. However, recently I actually found a way to make this idea more refined and I feel it is workable now. However, I am somewhat at odds about how the story should play out so let me tell you more about the game and then see if I can get any feedback.

 

Exhaustion System

Sleeping will be a huge factor in this game. Since the game will operate on a time schedule (days will pass, months, etc.), sleeping will be a need. You are human and we humans need normal regulated sleep, otherwise we become Exhausted. In the game, exhaustion will cause you to start hallucinate (both voices and figures). People may become warped, as will scenery. You will start to hear voices, low at first but eventually they will be become audible and speak horrible things. Time will begin to slow down as you lose your grasp on what is real or not.

After about 50% exhaustion you start to become blended into the Dream world. At 100% exhaustion, you are more or less fully immersed into the Dream world.

 

Since this game is played at parallels with each world, some puzzles or obstacles may become easier to bypass by traversing through the other world but there is always a cost.

 

 

Story

While in the real world, you will be playing as a college journalist, who is trying to investigate a series of grisly murders that have recently began to occur.

 

Vice versa, in the Dream world, you are falsely framed and used as a scapegoat by the leader of a criminal group of daemons, The Mares. In this world you are still human, but in a world full of inner daemons, you are the lowest on the totem pole. You are outnumbered, under powered and out of luck. Traversing this world is challenging as it seems that once you enter you can't escape as daemons don't sleep. No bed = No sleep. Beds will be few and far apart as there are a minute amount of humans left in this time space.

I plan to have you eventually be placed within a daemon skin to allow you to move around majorly unnoticed which prohibits sleep and scares off other humans but may illicit challenges from other daemons.

 

 

While I don't have the entire plot set out yet, keep in mind that every event that happens in one setting must be able to be solved both in the Real and Dream world as exhaustion will set in rather quickly.

 

For example: I plan to create a short demo that showcases the player playing through a jail escape at 50% exhaustion. They will be walking towards being put in a cell while a hallucination tells them that the only way to escape is to kill the creatures imprisoning him. However, the creatures will be cops in Reality but through the player's view will be different creatures in vaguely resembling cops uniforms walking through a fantasy styled prison fused with a modern police station with holding cells. When both the player and cop arrive at his cell the player will have the option to break free, grab the cop's gun, shoot him and free himself of the handcuffs while attempting escape through the ensuing chaos.

 

The game's tagline is "If you can't wake up from the nightmare, then perhaps you're not asleep..."

I built the game around this specifically because I want people to think about this game and question whether the "Reality" is real or if the Dream real?

The Mares from the Dream world is a organization run by 3 brothers, and these guys are basically the stuff of nightMARES for the creatures that give us nightmares. They kidnap lesser daemons and perform different experiments on them inorder to test the limits of bettering themselves to be stronger. So this part will be filled with gore and a large variety of horror themed atrocities that I have found. Also, the "Voices" that I referenced before that you hear in the real world? They play an important role in this as they are the army these brothers have started to build that transcend time.

[shakey2 0]

I must ask, have you ever played Eternal Darkness?

[solshadow 0]

I have, it was a nice series with a lot of great surreal ideas but I think that broke the fourth wall too much. Well at least, that's not the approach I wish to go for.

[shakey2 0]

Well personally I liked the fourth wall breaking, the bluescreen crap freaked me out in a different kind of way lol

 

But yeah I can see what you are getting at.

[Moonpearl 32]

Very interesting idea, sounds quite like my Daily Life system for RMXP (adds day/night with dynamic lighting and manages actors' exhaustion) in a programming perspective.

[Jon Bon 43]

I agree with Moonpearl, he is making a day night system with an exaustion type stat built in and it has dynamic lighting. I saw some teaser photos of it and when I was reading the paragraph up top it's all I could think about. So yeah Moonpearl is essentially designing the main game dynamic for your game already. Should be awesome.

 

As far as the story and the overall elements, I really like it. It sounds pretty ironed out to me. Reminds me a little of max pain which I loved. Definitely like the whole idea man, this would be cool.