Story Development

I’m still bit hazy in terms of storyline for my game, which is strange for me as usually it’s always the story and characters which come first when I am presented with a brief and usually I will not add gameplay mechanics or ideas until can figure what sort of tone the game will have.

I don’t want my game world to be tied down by a certain genre or theme, for instance I wouldn’t want it to have a medieval theme and not be able to feature machinery or out of era characters such as pirates.  Obviously this is within reason however as I wouldn’t want to make the world based around historical eras and feature ray guns or hover cars, this however can be replaced by the inclusion of magic to allow for certain liberties.

I have a basic idea in my head that came from recently watching Marvel Comics movie Thor. In Thor the protagonist Thor, is brother to Loki and they share a close relationship. As the film progresses Loki and Thor’s relationship gets increasingly strained and as Thor witnesses his brothers decent into darkness he is unable to save him from himself and eventually fails in saving Loki from apparent death. The Reason for the relationships decay is the right to rule. Loki and Thor are close in age, I believe Thor to be a little older, Loki as a child was always envious of Thor but it was a sense of admiration. When it came to there father Odin naming the next king Loki became jealous and felt that he was always in his brother shadow. Loki proceeded to manipulate events so that Thor would be banished and Loki would become king, despite his actions however Thor try to save Loki.

The family within Marvel comics Thor has been described multiple times as Shakespearean in nature and it is this theme I would like to replicate.

Watching Thor & Loki's relationship dissolve is a powerful aspect of Thor's story

I’m not fond of the name Zork; it’s hard to take a character seriously with that name and as a world Zork sounds a little juvenile; therefore I am trying to feature something as Zork that won’t give the wrong impression on the games tone.

My idea is to have a race of humans that differ in some aspect to standard humanity reminiscent of Tolkien’s Elves and Dwarves, by this I mean they have a longer life span and are more hardy compared to humans, this is also like the Asgardians in Marvels Thor Mythos.

Tolkien's Elves have a larger lifespan and are generally wiser then the humans of middle earth
Elrond stubbed his toe. 

This race stays on an island offshore of the mainland and mainly stick to their own community, there rules state they mustn’t interfere with the affairs of other races, this includes war. If others seek there help then they will give it otherwise they are very solitary. This race however breaks this rule for one person in every generation when a youth is selected as the next to complete the Zork ritual.

In my games mythology Zork was an ancestor of this race, and stopped a century long war and united the land by vanquishing the Demon Xorn, shortly after he exiled himself and founded the races home island. In his honour one person from the race is selected at random to complete a large heroic task or good deed.

Sometimes this means a mammoth task for the person or sometimes it means just building a hospital depending on the state of the world at the time of the participant.

Your Brother has dreamed of leaving the island since a young age and becoming the lands savour like the legend of Zork, however he finds out by act of sleuth that you, his younger brother have been picked to complete the ritual. This makes him insanely jealous and in a fit of rage kills the priest who selected you. Scared and deprived your brother leaves the island and continues to wreak havoc among the land. When you’re announced as the next Zork you are aware that in order to uphold your duty, you must stop your brothers rampage.

You are tasked with either returning him home or stopping him altogether.

From this point the game begins properly and you are free to roam the world committing good deeds however soon on in the story you realise that a great veil of evil has covered the land such as monsters and mayhem as a result of your brothers madness. Later on in the story you become aware that the spirit of the Demon Xorn that was vanquished by your ancestor years ago is manipulating your brother. Xorns aim is to use your brother to release him so he can unleash chaos upon the world once more.

Xorns power is held captive by various artefacts that Zork used to seal Xorn away centuries ago, the player has to seek these objects out and return them to the resting place of Xorn to reinforce his Jail.

Throughout the game I want to emphasize the relationship between the brothers and have the player witness your brothers decent into madness. At one point I want the brother to seem like he is finally coming around and redeemable but that is when Xorn makes his sanity go from bad to worse and most hope is lost for your brother. If I can emphasize the brother’s relationship early on then I believe the player will sympathise with your characters situation and want to save the brother as much as the fictional character wants to.

This is complex to say the least but in the next post I will simplify the main points of the plot/gameplay.

Thor and Loki - http://www.aceshowbiz.com/still/00002535/thor_chris09.html

Tolkiens elf -  http://www.modaruniversity.org/Blackmaille37.htm