Talk:Chapter Two
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[edit] Working Story
Just a quick suggestion. How about we have the entire Chapter 2 set on the train? I don't really like the idea of going straight from one town to another town. You could possibly have one of "The Twelve" on board and your task would be to avoid him for the duration of the journey in a variety of ingenious ways, or even kill him somehow. I really think a smaller location like a train would be better for the 2nd chapter than another town. Any thoughts? --DennisChow 18:42, 25 September 2007 (BST)
[edit] Story Arc
A few thoughts to start.
- What happens on the train? Is it a nice, quiet, "read the exposition" journey, or a crowbar-swinging kill-fest? Will there be a buffet car?
- Here's something I was toying with a while back. For some reason I liked the juxtaposition of dystopian and utopian so I wrote the train as incredibly luxurious. (Remember, these passengers are supposed to be pretty privileged to be escaping their nightmare villages)
- After boarding the train and escaping from the dystopian village of village1. Our hero Alex is comforted and perplexed to find that conditions on board are almost obscenely luxurious. The train, called the Odyssey, is occupied by only a handful of passengers; The privileged few who have managed to snag train tickets by hook or by crook. There are a mixture of well-heeled and well-to-do aristocratic types, and some more sinister governmental types all relaxing in plush chairs or enjoying mini epicurean banquets in the dining compartment. Alex then goes to sleep in a lovely cushioned seat. As you relax, you look up to the ceiling to see a small security camera blinking at you. And then you doze off.
- What time is it? I was assuming throughout Chapter One that it was "day", so is this a night train, or the next day train?
- Actually this is quite important, we never really decided on that for the last Chapter, which made it quite hard to write descriptions that conveyed the right atmosphere. Maybe we should time this Chapter specifically, starting at night and altering the descriptions over time.
- Do we include intermediate stations? Personally, I hope not: just be another headache on top of everything else. Besides, isn't the country infected?
- Hmm no extra stops I don't think.
- What is Village2? The12's headquarters, a disease-control centre, Alex's home (if so, how does s/he know?), or something else?
Oh, and we definitely need a small bit on the train roof. - PhilWal 18:51, 12 November 2007 (GMT)
- You read my mind :)
Here's an idea. It seems a little strange that Alex has boarded a train that is supposed to be carrying people to a safe area and yet Alex has not been tested for signs of the infection at all, therefore we could make the first train compartment a sort of quarantine area. Imagine it, you board the train to be greeted by a stark room with unopenable windows, a camera watching and no way to escape - type wait wait wait wait - and all of a sudden a gas starts seeping out from up above you (This gas would basically kill all infected passengers immediately. Those that survive, like Alex are then let into the main train compartments.) --DennisChow 20:01, 12 November 2007 (GMT)
We have a train right, which you board and then exit once the journey is complete, so we should probably make this section quite strictly timed, and have all the gameplay revolve around achieving a certain objective before the train arrives. We could also have a mid point objective.
- I'm not generally a fan of timed sections - but I just had an idea. After making your way through the train you go into the driver's carriage - just in time to see the driver collapse with the virus! Since it's a fancy new train, you also see that it is headed towards disaster unless you radio ahead to get the train-makey-runny-people to change the points in 20 turns - but there's no battery in the radio! Find radio battery in twenty turns or the entire train's gone to the highly radioactive wasteland that used to be Bristol. Then find out who killed the driver, and kill them. Then get decontaminated at the new place. - PhilWal 00:57, 2 December 2007 (GMT)
[edit] The train
We don't have any railway enthusiasts in our midst do we....? If no, then it may pay dividends to start researching some interesting train styles, looking at a few blueprints, pictures or whatever. I'll maybe try and do that some time. Since fuels are probably scarce in our world and we are in the future, then perhaps some kind of prototype, hybrid fuelled technology, chitty-chitty bang-bang, steam powered train is in order?
- The front carriage can be all sorts of cyber-punk if you want, or coal-powered by the re-opened Welsh mines. The rest of the train is dismal carriages from the eighties, though - this is still Britain. - PhilWal 00:57, 2 December 2007 (GMT)
[edit] The journey
Where is the train going? We should probably have a dummy journey mapped out here, possibly taking in some of the sights of Britain. As the train keeps moving, we could point out some interesting dystopianised sights out of the windows. (I know dystopianised isn't really word) This would make our train journey feel a lot more alive. Does anyone know any interesting train journeys?
- "Interesting train journeys"? Surely an oxymoron. The sights can probably be noticed when Alex is on the roof - looking around, he can see the smoke issuing from the mass funeral pyres constantly burning, and see one bulldozer-full of human corpses being added to one. - PhilWal 00:57, 2 December 2007 (GMT)
[edit] Characters
This is important. I was thinking that writing characters using the wiki format might work better if each of the writers were to take charge of an individual character themselves eg writing the descriptions, the dialogues, profiles etc. The train is the IDEAL opportunity to test this way of working since none of the passengers even have to be directly involved in the plot. They are just there to give life to the environment. I'll take a character, even though I don't really like writing dialogue. Aleks has to take one, sod the PhD ;), and whoever else we can muster. In fact, I think we need to step up to the plate on this NOW and see if we have enough writers. If you are willing to take a character then put your initials here. DC PW AK --DennisChow 22:40, 1 December 2007 (GMT)
- How about we come up with a template and pass it out to the gamesbloggers? this distributed community creative plundering is good four our sanities... (Will try to come up with a form asap, but as am on US Pacific time, things may be delayed until I get back to the UK.) --Aleksk 14:35, 3 December 2007 (GMT)
- Sounds good, I'll try and write up this template and structure it from a coder/designers perspective. If we get a good response then our entire chapter 2 could revolve mostly around talking to NPCs.--DennisChow 16:28, 3 December 2007 (GMT)
- is this going to turn into a great big trading circle type thing? if so, we need to decide before too many characters get written as going back and changing everything to fit will be a pain - also what will we need and why? i vote for the sterotypical you make your way to the cab and find it deserted, the driver having jumped out when the brake lever broke, so you have to find a replacement and stop the train
- it appears that we are just going to have our character make her/his way through to the cab, possibly with some lock and key puzzles along the way. I also like Phil's idea of having the driver collapse, maybe at a set interval. Let's say halfway through the train journey. If you have made your way through to the cab by this time then you get to see the driver croak it, otherwise, you just hear some train noises and eventually find the driver dead. As for the character thing, I'm not really sure what is going to happen there. I don't think Aleks has even blogged about the character page yet, but we already have a couple of characters written. Hopefully the bloggers will take to the idea, and we will have a wealth of characters to weave into the synopsis. --DennisChow 20:29, 13 December 2007 (GMT)
- is this going to turn into a great big trading circle type thing? if so, we need to decide before too many characters get written as going back and changing everything to fit will be a pain - also what will we need and why? i vote for the sterotypical you make your way to the cab and find it deserted, the driver having jumped out when the brake lever broke, so you have to find a replacement and stop the train
[edit] Other
[edit] Internal Links
[edit] Chapter Two Links
- Chapter Two (go to Working Design (Chapter 2) for the list of locations)
- Chapter Two Puzzles
- Chapter Two Characters
[edit] WikiGame Links
[edit] External Links
Chapter One demo [Launchpad page] [Bug Tracker] [The Guardian gamesblog]
