The cause of history ...

[Darth Mandarb]

Disclaimer:
I wasn't sure if this is the right forum to post an idea I have for a game.  So if this needs to be moved I apologize for the inconvenience.

I have this idea, which I am already working on (behind the scenes), as an online (Flash designed) cartoon series.  But I was wondering if you all thought it would make a good adventure game.

So here's the idea:
You play a character (who I've actually not come up with a clever name for) who finds a time traveling device.  He doesn't know what it is when he finds it.  It is just a silver box (think remote control size) with 1 single red button on it.  He, being slightly stupid, presses the button and is transported back in time.  Everytime he presses the button he's transported to a different part of history and must keep pressing the button until he gets back to his own time.  

The problem is, everytime he transports in time, he loses the box and must locate it.  It's always close by (in the next room or so) but he must solve a puzzle to get to the box.  Every solution to the puzzle (to get the box) causes something to major to happen at that point in history.

But here's the catch, the result(s) of solving the puzzle are what actually happened in history.

For example:
He teleports back to April 14, 1912 to the deck of the Titanic and he must locate the teleport box.  He over hears EJ Smith talking to Bruce Ismay telling him he found a wierd object with a red button and figured it had to do with the new telegraph system thing so he had it taken to the radio room.  So you must get to the radio room.   You enter the radio room and spy the device sitting on the table next to the telegraph machine.  You must distract the radio men in order to get the box.  After distracting them you grab the box and as you do you knock a telegraph message off the counter and it falls behind the desk.  The message was to alter course and there is an iceburg in their path.  But since you knocked the message off the table it will never be delivered and thus, the Titanic hits the iceburg and the rest is history ...

See what I mean?  And you go through this several times.  Visiting several points in history and causing it to happen the way it's supposed to happen.  Finally you'll get back home and vow to never use the device again ... until the sequel of course.

Let me know what you think!

dm

[shitar]

 :o That is the best and most original idea I have ever heard. Go for it. You've got one downloader right here.

[Bob The Hun]

I love the idea. It reminds me of that old episode of the twilight zone (where the guy tries to stop a schoolhouse from catching fire and ends up starting it)
I think it would make a great adventure game.

[Evil]

But if he keeps going back then... Ok how does he get back now? I am a little confused on that part... The rest sounds great...

[TerranRich]

Damn that sounds like an awesome game. If you do start work on it, remember the Games in Production forum

[Darth Mandarb]

evil - You've stumbled onto the one problem I've come up with so far.

In the cartoon I'm working on he never gets home ... it just keeps on going and going and going until I decide to end it and get him home.  But, in the game, I'm working on a way for him to know that if he keeps pressing the button he'll eventually get back to where he started from.

Scenario 1
Perhaps, after one jump, is intercepted by a bounty hunter who is hired by the orginization that created the time box thingee to track him (you the character) down and kill him before he can screw up time.  Before killing you he explains that the only way to get home is to keep pressing the button because, after 12 or so jumps you always end up back where you started.  You thank him and go to press the button and he tells you that he can't allow you to do that because each jump you make effects history and he must stop you from doing that.  (so it's kind of a time cop thing but don't worry ... he's not a big part of the story/game ... he just shows up occasionally)

Scenario 2
Or, another possibility, is he jumps into a time period where there are scientists and lab people all together in a lab.  He comes to realize he's jumped into the part of history where the people are creating the very device he's using to time-hop.  Before he can get to the box, the lead scientist sees it first and gets the inspiration he's been lacking ... you see?  By jumping to that point in time he actually caused what he's going through!!  What a paradox that would be huh??  But while there he overhears them talking about the device and how the time-loop thing works.  I'm going to make it silly and very non-scientific.  He'll hear them say that after no more than 12 jumps you end up where you started ...

So then you'd know that soon enough you'll end up back where you started.  You decide at this point to be very careful so as not to effect history greatly.  But, of course, you always do something unintentionally ...

I want the character's name to be something clever like Conrad C. Quences ... his friends call him Con. (get it?  Like consequences?) or something like that.  Something that is meaningful to him effecting history.

dm

[Sluggo]

Hmmm, I remember this game called the Last Dinosaur Egg, which was sort of similar (I never got that far into it because it was pretty badly done). I think the same thing happens with the transmitter getting lost every time and you have to go find it, but this idea sounds way better. That second scenario sounds really cool; I like paradox thingies worked into games.

[Trapezoid]

Very cool idea. I like time travel stuff. Especially semi-paradoxes like the ones your character keeps causing...
Maybe there could be an ending where he makes it back to his time and freaks out because everything is different-- to us, it's completely normal, but he originally came from a world where all the historical changes he caused hadn't happened. Like, say he had accidentally helped create the automobile on his adventure-- in his original world there were no automobiles, and when he gets back to the present he sees them and doesn't know what they are. So his time travelling made the world as it is for us. Or something.

[Darth Mandarb]

Trap - When he gets back everything is the same, so he thinks he was careful and didn't effect (infect) the time line in anyway.  But in reality he's the very reason why it happened the way it did.

So really, the only way the time line would get screwed up would be if he didn't go back in time?  You see?  He's the reason we have the history that we have.

dm

[Dmitri]

Darth Mandarb:

For the loophole as to how he 'gets back' to the future. We could say that time travels in a circular fashion. That is, the end of time and the beginning of time are the same. Therefore, since the present is the end of time, then the beginning of time is the present.



I dunno, that was confusing. Anyway, we say that time goes for infinity. Correct? But then we also recognise that it had to start somewhere.

Now that in itself is an oxymoron, because if it went for infinity then time wouldn't have to start, nor end. It's an infinite line. Anyway, since we are 3 dimensional creatures, we have perception of the 4th dimension, time. Since in the fourth dimension things like the kline bottle is possible http://www.kleinbottle.com/kline_bottle.htm (the kline bottle is a one sided object, like a sphere but it's not a sphere, therefore it's not possible in this dimension.) and because time is in the 4th dimension then we can say that time is looped.

the whole idea of a kline bottle or a moebius loop is that you can walk upon one in one direction for infinity and never hit yourself, or a wall, but you cover every part of the object in one loop. Which is why the sphere isn't 3 dimensional, because you have to change direction in order to cover every part

That's what time can be, a moebius loop. This means, if you continuously going backwards then eventually you will go over every point in time and wind up where you started. The moebius loop is the symbol of infinity, the 8 on it's side...

This leads onto the problem of that which hasn't yet happened, or the future, wouldn't the beginning of time lead into the end of time, and not the present. Well, if it hasn't happened, then we can say that it doesn't exist. If it doesn't exist, we can speculate that while it MIGHT happen, it hasn't happened and so is therefore not of this dimension. If it isn't of this dimension and it's not part of time it must be in a higher dimension. Since a time machine takes someone through the 5th dimension in order to go backwards in time and since the future is not of the 5th dimension, then it still doesn't exist. if the future doesn't exist in any of the dimensions we're using, then the future is irrelevant. Therefore, the present IS the end of time.

In short, if you keep going backwards, you wind up in the present. Because the present is the beginning of time.

[Trapezoid]

Ah, I get it. Yeah, that's right.

It sort of reminds me of the Terry Pratchett book "Night Watch", where Vimes ends up in the past and has to make sure history occurs as he remembers, so he can travel to the correct future.
Also sort of reminds me of 12 Monkeys... And Back to the Future... And Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure... God I love time travel stories.

[Darth Mandarb]

Trapezoid - I, too, love time travel.  Mostly because it's probably the greatest plot device for sparking discussions and debates.  The movie Frequency is one of my favorites.  My roommates and I used to get into huge arguments about the time line in that movie.

Dmitri - ... Wow.  That's quite a fascinating theory.  I'm still absorbing it all.  I don't want to, as stated above, make the game too scientific but I might steal something or other from what you just said.

dm

[Nostradamus]

Darth that is the coolest idea ever!  I love time travel stories. Mostly, in such stories people end up changing history here, people are actually creating the known history, that is a great idea!
You must make this game!


Oh, scenario 2 is a cooler scenario

[BOYD1981]

this kinda reminds me of that awful tv series "Sliders" only this actually sounds as if it may be fun because it's time rather than dimensions...
HEY! wouldn't it be great if he ends up being responsible for creating CJ or somehow gives him the inspiration to create AGS?

[Nellie]

He's going to get caught in some sticky moral dilemmas.  Presumably, after a few trips, he'll realise that his search for the box is causing these momentous historical events.  So what happens next time he finds himself at the scene of some terrible disaster?  If he knows that seeking the box is going to cause Disaster X and kill lots of people, how can he bring himself to do it?

[Barcik]

I like.

[Scummbuddy]

Oh, Barick,  a post like that is why we yell at newbies not following the rules.  

[Darth Mandarb]

Boyd - Silders sucked.  The only good thing that show ever had was Kari Wuhur ... and even that wasn't enough to keep me watching.

Nellie - the point is, he doesn't realize what's happening.  He doesn't get that he's causing these things to happen.  He's not the sharpest tool in the shed.  When he finally gets back to his time he realizes that the past is the same, so he actually thinks he was successful in not altering history.  He doesn't realize that he's actually the reason why we have the history that we do.

Possible Names:
Conrad C. Quences (consequences)
Conrad C. Quence (consequence)
Evan Chuality (eventuality)
J.P. Destiny
Jeffery Fortune
Robin Tyme (robbing time)

These are just a few I've come up with.  I think I'm more partial to J.P. Destiny or Conrad C. Quence.  What do you guys think?

dm

[DGMacphee]

There's a neat-o little AGI game called Time Quest that's in a similar vein.

Here's a link to the demo (I don't know if the full version is out yet):
http://www.classicgaming.com/agisci/games/timequest/timequest.shtml

[Darth Mandarb]

DG - Time Quest sounds a lot like The Time Machine (at least the movie!)  I wonder if they'll ever finish it?  It has/had potential.

I don't want the point of this game to be other than getting home.  He's not going back to change history, he just wants to get home.  In fact, I was even thinking of putting something on the box (when he finds it) that says "Under no circumstances are you to press this red button"  He's an unintentional time traveler.

In fact ... that might be a good name for the game.  The Unintentional Time Traveler (tUTT) ... hmmm ...

*Darth Mandarb ponders ...*

dm