Creation: Day One

[Neole]

Alright folks, it's time - bring on the plot and puzzle suggestions for creation game day 1!

To fill you all in - there's Mr. Herschel God,



who has been asked to resign for his sloppy work, but given a last chance to prove his worth to the Imperial Association of Immortals (or watsis called) by creating a universe with one world in running condition in 7 days (as an overconfident remark he tells them he'll finish it in 6 and have a day to spare).



God has with him his two trusty cherubs - an angel and a little devil,



who do little to help but do popup evey now and then to pass their juicy comments. But if they can be incorporated into puzzles - even better.


There's also Lucifer "Lucy" Satan we have to bring into the picture who wants to hinder God's progress (perhaps to get God's present job/post?). I'll sketch Lucy soon.

[Neole]

Introducing, Lucifer "Lucy" Satan -




One of the Immortals, assistant junior sub vise president of the Imperial Association of Immortals -



Herschel God's (il)legal advisor?



An overhelpful heavenly chappie -



A tiny background -



Incorporate these into the plot/puzzles, or come up with new characters/locations - but better make them good, people!

[Timosity]

Isn't Gluttony a sin??

[Barcik]

* Barcik opens up Genesis chapter 1.

In the begging there was chaos. And the spirit of god was floating above the water.
On the first day god created light and darkness.
So, obiously Day 1's goal is to creat light and darkness, from errr.... nothing. The problems here are -
1) Hot to illustrate this nothing.
2) How to make light out of, err, nothing.

I'll be thinking about it and posting my ideas later. But I do have one thing to say now: I suggest God to be able to play in two dimensions - one of the raw Universe and the second of these high divine spirits, where all these characters are. Anyway, I'll be back with more ideas.

[Neole]

"I suggest God to be able to play in two dimensions - one of the raw Universe and the second of these high divine spirits"

Yeah, that would be great! The divine universe can remain fairly constant with maybe a couple of backgrounds added every chapter. The lower one can expand more into different locations.


"Isn't Gluttony a sin?? "

Only in the universe Mr God created. These Immortals employ God and are not bound by his rather illegibly written words.


1) Hot to illustrate this nothing.
2) How to make light out of, err, nothing.

Am clueless. 'Nothing' could be a dark blank screen with no cursor or God visible. Jesus suggested god trying to find a lightbulb for light. Anyway, God has an entire divine universe to search for things to make the lower universe.. or shold they be separate?

[Ali]

The bible tells us that God made light and then he saw that it was good, but it doesn't tell us about the early monday morning prototypes.

First he made bikes (but he saw them to be without application).

Then he made trikes (and saw them also to be without application).

Then he made unicycles (and decided to get out of this whole damn bicycle vein and make something good for a change).

Then he made light (And saw that it was good, and he had a whle universe full of trikes and bikes an one-wheelers lying all over the place).

The only reason he made humans in the first place was to help tidy up, but did we? Did we Free Will.

Well those are my beliefs. I'm not entirely sure how relevant they are. I'm sorry if I've wasted time and space.

[Neole]

Heheh this could be funny! God experiments with various stuff and gets it wrong many times till he gets it right. Good idea Ali! Maybe mix 7 colors to get white light but before that get a lot of red and violet tinted screens.

[Barcik]

Am clueless. 'Nothing' could be a dark blank screen with no cursor or God visible. Jesus suggested god trying to find a lightbulb for light. Anyway, God has an entire divine universe to search for things to make the lower universe.. or shold they be separate?

That gives me an idea. How about we use one of these silly lightbulb jokes?

[Neole]

Yeah, how many 'Lucy's does it take to screw in a lightbulb. and how many Slobbering immortals does it take.. - the little devil asks the little angel.

[bspeers]

God needs a lightbulb.
God needs to make the light the right colour--there are strict rules about these things! Once a god made a disco universe, and that was a complete failure.  So only black darkness and white light.
God needs proper darkness, not this crappy "psudo" darkness that the last God put in.  Real pitch blackness.

At the end, the "light" should be the sun, and the darkness space.

Start off with a blue-screen, much like old dos or other os's.  Blue is neither white nor black.   There is a light-socket dangling from the ceiling.

Obviously the light bulb is in the basement of the celestial plane.  Light bulbs always are.
The lighting controls would logically be in some central control room.
The darkness could be a very large plastic sheet, or a roll of some sort of fabric.  Remember, God needs many of the powers of an interior decorator.  But he's clearly not good at organization.  Look at mountains!  They're not symetrical or straight at all!

So, the question then is, how does one get into the basement, how does one get into the control room, and where does one procure proper darkness.

If I were Lucy, I would sell some inferior darkness, but it could be a red herring.  Real darkness perhaps comes from "Fabric of the Universe" a fabric warehouse in the village of the Gods.  But of course, you need measurements, and some credit from the high-God.
Logically, the contol room would not be open to just "any" god.  You'd need permission, likely some forms filled out in triplicate.
Cerebus (to mix myths) could be chained in the basement by all the supplies.

What if there were something small left behind in the blue-screen from the previous universe.  Like some minor protozoic matter.  A fragment of stardust or some such.
What if Lucy's faux darkness was useful later in the game, just not now?

There'd be a lot of paperwork in this first quest, but it would also establish some of the conflicts between God and Lucy, between God and the other characters.

So what you need:

1. Something to placate cerebus.
2. Some credit for darkness.
3. The measurements of the Universe.
4. Authority to get into the central control room.

For these you would need: A measuring device (measuring tape, rope, or techno-gadget)
                                          Something like a bone or a traquilizer, or music.
                                          To speak to the high god and fill out the proper forms (or get someone else to do that for you)
                                          Some credit either from the high God, or from thin air (matter from the last universe involved somehow?)

The final puzzle would be getting the light colour right, which could simply consist of hitting all the buttons at once, or of turning on machines in the right order to get the right mix.

Does that help?

[Barcik]

A little pool of info: http://www.all-creatures.org/book-creation.html
I'll try and post a suggestion tomorrow.

[Raggit]

With all due respect, I find this offensive.

I mean, you're mocking religion. I fully believe in God and what the Bible teaches, and making a game of this type is rather disrespectful. It isn't my place to tell you what to do, but the way you're depicting God is very disrespectful and kind of sick.

God didn't need any tools or assitance in creating the universe. It was spoke into existance. There is only one God. There always has and always will be one God.

I know, it is just a game, but that doesn't make it okay to make fun of God.

I don't want to start a hugh debate, make people mad or insult your ideas Neole, I'm simply stating my views on this project. I am not your consence. You do whatever you think is okay.

Sorry if it seems like I'm trying to get people mad at me, I'm not.

--Raggit

[bspeers500]

Raggit, appreciate that I'm not making this game, nor do I disrespect your position.  Sure, making a game about God can be a bit disrespectful.

But I would argue this is actually not a sacreligious game.  Go back to Monty Python and the Quest for the Holy Grail.  Now there's a film that makes God seem silly.  Is it sacreligious?  I would say not.

Now, I'm no expert, but in my understanding, the bible does not describe God's personality.  It does not describe *how* God created the Earth, merely that he created it in seven days from nothing.  Obviously this game is not going to be a word for word copy of the original bible story, but not all God creation myths have to be.  In fact, evangelical types often make silly stories to illustrate creation myths and biblical values.  Take the "Veggie Tales" for example, Christian stories told with silly vegetables.

Now this god is silly, but is not obviously being mocked.  It's not as if he's being made out to be some idiotic bumbler who screwed up creation.  It's a light jibe at the orthodox version of creation, still maintaining the basic structure set out in the BIble--not the only book of creation, by the way (imagine how you would feel if you were say, Cree, and all the creation stories you saw implicitly mocked your world view).

There are many creation myth stories that include God that are probably more sacreligious.  Discworld is, in some of the books (particularly Small Gods, if you interpret it).  George Carlin makes his comedy career mocking orthodoxy.  Yes, he can be offensive, but even his barbs are enjoyed by many Christians.  Since this game obviously isn't meant to be a verbatim account from the bible, but a wry look at creation, it shouldn't be taken too seriously.  I mean, if George Burns can star in "Oh God, You Devil" in the height of cold war hysteria, certainly Neole can be forgiven for taking a slightly goofy tone on creation that theoretically fits right inside the Bible story's chronology.

Basically, if you take every word of the Bible as truth, then there is nothing in this game to contradict this view.

Lastly, I would look at Satan Quest.  There you got to play Satan as a main character, doing many things Satan would not do.  In my mind that's more sacreligous than this game, but it doens't bother me as I'm a non-Christian.

Even if this does offend you, remember, you don't have to play it.  I'm offended by games other people have made, and would probably be offended by an evangelical game, but unless a game actively promotes hate or conservative status quo ideas, I'm not likely to raise my hackles too much.  Just relax.  At least the game's not actively *attacking* religion.

Still, you're entitled to your feelings, so I'm not going more into it than that.  You might argue it's up to God to judge, not us.

Hope this helps,

[Snake]

Heh, I'm the complete opposite of you, Raggit. But I hope that doesn't make us less of on-line friends/acquaintances.


--Snake

[Raggit]

I respect you guy's opinions and I thank you for being kind to me.

I'm not condeming Neole for his idea and project. Like you said, I don't have to play it.

I'm not trying to judge anybody. As it is not my place to tell Neole what to do, it is not my place to judge humanity.

You have some interesting points.

Snake: You're intitled to your own opinion, and I still like you! So everything is still cool between us!

[Trapezoid]

Cool then. Keep in mind that there much more disrepectful things said about religion all over the internet. This game seems pretty non-hostile in comparison. In fact, it sort of reminds me of Veggietales sort of kiddifying of a Bible story, only instead of kiddified it's being... juvenile-adults-who-never-grew-up-ified.  

[Raggit]

Hey, I just learned a new word!!!

Never-grew-up-ified!

[Snake]

juvenile-adults-who-never-grew-up-ified.

New intriguing AGS-learned word. Must put in my vovabulary next to "Poobungies" and "Blargh"...

Raggit: Coolio-ho


--Snake

[Barcik]

Snake: You're intitled to your own opinion, and I still like you! So everything is still cool between us!

WHAT?! No bloodshed? No violence? You pussies!  

[Snake]

Oh, there will be bloodhsed and violence, you'll just have to wait until Evil Night is released.


--Snake