Feedback on a game plot concept.

[TNexus]

I don't really know how to preface this, so I'll just shoot straight.

The concept is as follows: The player plays as a Colonist during the 1500s, as a member of an Inquisitional Order that has been deployed to a particular colony. When they arrive, they find that all the blood sacrifices and rituals performed by native tribes have attracted the attention of several particularly powerful demons and vampires, and an enormous castle come temple structure has materialised nearby to the colony.

I haven't really thought much beyond this simple narrative, but the art style I was going for would be a mix between Gothic Horror and Inca. Very akin to Castlevania, I am aware.

 

[Woland]

4 brave warriors need to find 4 crystals to awaken the power of the 4 elements to save the world. Sounds like crap? Yes. It is also pretty much the story of Final Fantasy V which is a very good game with a much more compelling story than 90% of the games I've played.

My point is - it's impossible to tell based on what you wrote. There's colonists, vampires and a castle. Cool. There can also be cowboys, crab people and a hole in the ground. It doesn't matter at all. These are all just hollow set pieces that you need to know how to use to tell a compelling story. A story that's way beyond what you've presented here.

Start eventing. Tell a bit of the story. Present first 10 minutes of your game. Then we'll see if you're at least starting to pull this off. If it is in any way engaging or maybe it's just "Oh, fellow colonist, I feel compelled to expose that we're in the 16th century. Would you mind holding my rake as I stare at that majestic demon vampire flying to a medieval castle that feels wildly out of place? Oh no, it noticed us! Prepare for the generic battle!"

 

[bgillisp]

This actually belongs in Game Ideas and Prototypes so I'll move it there.

 

[gstv87]

this might be a very simplistic answer, but.... : "whatever it might be, *you* decide."

I mean, you can make the plot whatever you want, if that's your starting premise.
"something happened"...... ok.... then, what?.

pretty much everything religion-related at that time was free interpretation of the bible, or whatever main book they have.
so, if you state that something "is" because one of the character just eyeballed it, that's still valid.

 

[EthanFox]

This sounds cool, @TNexus!

Do you know what sort of story you want to tell? What you have is a good setting, but most settings can work if you know what kind of story you're after.

Typically, many stories have a central meaning; a core idea from which other story elements arise.

By "meaning", I don't mean that all stories have some preachy lesson within them. It's just an idea that forms the central spine of the story.

So, you might say that your central idea is that you want to explore the theme of "is there truly honour among thieves?".

From that, you could then derive your main character's identity. You probably need them to be a criminal; so you might, then, choose to make them a gangster, or some other profession with strong connections to the criminal underworld.

Then, you have a theme, and a character idea, so you need a setting - and for that, you might choose a setting based around prohibition-era Chicago.

Right away, you have a strong triumvirate there - you have an core idea, a character and a context.

However, you can do this in any order. Strictly speaking, you want...

• ... the strongest, most streamlined, most interesting idea you can think of.
• ... the character who is best equipped to either encounter or explore that idea.
• ... the absolute best setting which either grants them a chance to do that, or gets in their way.

Think of the stories you like; most of them can be thought of in this format.

So with that, what you have is a great start! The question would be which one of these things do you feel you could work out next?