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[Designer's notes - 10th September 2004]

Designer's notes - 10th September 2004

I have been working on The Zone for a year now. After finishing the first part of this interactive drama series (Force majeure), I was left with a feeling of emptiness. So much work put into a project... and yet one question remained unanswered. What is the Zone?

The Zone starts where Force majeure ends. In Force majeure, thirteen people find themselves trapped in an old air-raid shelter after a mysterious disaster and you get to experience the first two hours of entrapment. Physically. During Force majeure, you hear fragments of several radio messages broadcasted by a lone wanderer in a city struck by disaster. But these messages get more and more surreal and become a major topic for speculation in the shelter. Is it safe to leave? No one knows for sure. And those who do leave find themselves in quite a different city.

During work on Force majeure I got lots of ideas concerning what might have happened out there. But I soon realised that these notions were too surreal to enact physically. A different form of expression was needed.

I opted for a graphical point-and-click adventure. The focus would on telling the story of the Zone and to provide a audiovisual experience strong enough to give the player a sense of having been there. The story is primarily told using text, supported by images and sound. The alternative would have been to let animations bring the story across, but that unfortunately would be out of scope in a one person, non-funded project. There was so much to tell about the Zone, that I preferred being able to tell the whole story rather than making a short, graphically spectacular episode.

So far, the work has moved forward at a fairly steady pace. The basic structure of the game is mapped: you start out by escaping your confinement in the old air-raid shelter, meet other lost souls (or are they?) and get to visit your old work place. After that, the game becomes less linear and you get to explore the Zone freely. This is done by navigating a map, where you reach episodes at different locations. These are interconnected and trigger events and sub-stories in other sub-plots. The climax of the game is the journey into the mythical centre of the Zone, a journey, the outcome of which depends on your previous actions.

The storylines form an ujjjjjjjjh (oops, a cat stepped on the keyboard). What I was about to say was that the storylines together form a mirror image of the life the protagonist has lived previous to the disaster. Many of these stories originate in my own life: wierd thoughts about the nature of reality, strange visions and events that are better left untold. And a substantial amount of philosophy. Cultural studies sure can turn your head outside in.

The problem that the protagonist tries to solve is perhaps not what the Zone is, but what reality is. I'm not quite sure there are answers such questions. Only those who reach the centre of the Zone will ever know, and none of those who travel there ever return. As with all other pursuits of knowledge it is a one-way journey.

Enjoy your trips.

So far, all suggestions are interesting. Thanks for the feedback. I'm pretty sure about the graphic style I'll use. It's the interaction design that worries me.

I'm much into the notion of having a pop-up sort of inventory, but not which functions to include in it and how to design those...

I do not know if this is the right forum to post this, so please move this if it belongs somewhere else.

I am not very happy with the workings of the default inventory in AGS. I have noticed that most users are very confused with it, but I'm not quite sure what to replace it with. I don't want to clutter the screen with a large inventory (like the one in Monkey Island, for instance). Any suggestions for how to make a smooth interface?

Thank you all for the advice. Especially the one about doing what you're good at. I think I'll do some dadaist cut and paste stuff, with strong and moving (hopefully) narrative to accompany it. That could work.

P.S. simulacra, if you like my game's look, check "shadowplay" by Garage Gothic, we work in similar areas.

So I have noticed. Interested in helping each other out with beta testing? What is "shadowplay"? Is it a game?

This looks very cool.
But aren't you afraid that the lack of other character may make the gameplay rather dull?

That is actually somewhat of a problem. But there are some characters: zone wanderers, a long-lost love, a talking vat, some old collegues and ... umm... an elephant.

Here's my suggestion.

I seem to have locked myself up in my latest gaming project... It's the intro scene that worries me. I have the storyline ready, but is not quite sure on how to do it. I have a feeling I should do some serious and advanced animations, but that's not really my strong side.

Does anyone have any good examples of introduction scenes that felt moving and serious in some way?

It sounds interesting. I don't think there is any story that is too dark to be told, but it all depends on how it is done. To be frank, I've had one of the darkest periods of my life recently and have used much of that in my artistic work. (A classic way of dealing with such things by the way.)

I do not want to reveal too much, but there will be some strong suicide/post mortem themes in my upcoming game The Zone. It would be interesting too see how you plan such a story. Please tell us more.

Game web site released with screenshots, call for beta testers and sneak preview downloads of soundtrack bits and pieces.

http://interactingarts.org/thezone/

I am very excited by this project - I really like the style!

I have an old laptop as my main computer. Hi res games sometime's run slowly on it, and in those cases I prefer to set to lo res, as long as the game don't get unplayable. You could just put a noticement, about the game becoming nearly unplayable on lo res, in the readme file...

Yes, I will do that. Good suggestion.

Perhaps. But it looks more than an error than a feature in my game.

I was interested in getting an answer to a technical question, not discussion the ethics of using various screen resolutions. I see your point (have a 486 myself), but I have noticed that my game does not work properly in low res and would like to do something about it for the sake of usebility without having to remake all the graphics. I don't want to test the patience of the poor minority of people who still (for reasons unknown) use 320x200 (and refuse to use a higher resolutions) through a horrible game experience.

Believe me, it is. I have tried and it would take a complete remake of the graphics to make it playable, and it simply not worth the time. I'm sorry.

Well, I want people to be able to access the other options but not change the resolution. I know that backward compability is desireble, but the 640x480 VGA format has been around quite a while and I don't think it's too much to ask from a computer nowadays. I know that some people are very keen on using low resolutions and always want to be able to, but I think it should be something that the game author decides ultimately.

Is there a way to prevent the player from selecting a lower resolution than the game was intended for? It looks crap in 320x200.

No, I do not. It's a scren, which is wholly walkable. A character (which I can see). And then I've tried several walk to-command (both scipted and otherwise). And it didn't work. The computer froze and I got a wait cursor.

The whole screen is walkable, actually. It's not the main character.

I have a silly problem. I want to move a character, but get a lock-up every time, no matter how I script it. What could be wrong?

*laughing as hell*

When I watched the demo and the sound demonstration blared out in my soundsystem, the cat got all worked up and started to make strange noises as well. That's what I call special FX!

Nice track, I think you've got it. Only thing: the fill-in is a bit too simple. Perhaps you could make it sound less midiish and perhaps also insert a longer break at some point?