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[Force majeure II: The Zone]

You are the sole survivor of an unknown catastrophe, trapped in an air-raid shelter. Escaping your confinement, you face a delusional reality known only as the Zone â€" a place where your own mind is your enemy. The city is in ruins: explore a dreamy landscape through the eyes of a lone wanderer trying to piece together fragments of the past.



Force majeure II: The Zone is an audio-visual interactive story/adventure game by Leo Nordwall set in a ruined city where everything seems uncertain. The Zone is experienced from a first-person perspective and is navigated by pointing-and-clicking. Photos, drawings, 3D renderings and live video footage have been integrated into a unique visual experience. The soundtrack is over 70 minutes long and features new tracks in the tradition of electro-acoustic music, ambient and electronica.

While there are plenty of interactive works and games that entertain by providing puzzle solving, action and slapstick humour, the Zone is all about exploring the unknown territories of the mind. If you feel that issues such as philosophy, poetry, metaphysics and art is your cup of tea, the story might interest you. If not, the irreal meanderings of the Zone is best left alone.

Force majeure: The Zone is produced by Leo Nordwall in cooperation with Interacting Arts and Fabel Förlag.


Features

• Enjoy an emotional, philosophical and metaphysical experience
• Explore more than 60 locations
• Listen to over 70 minutes of soundtrack in CD-quality
• See several minutes of live video footage
• Independently produced

Game web site with demos, updates, screenshots, free music and video downloads: http://interactingarts.org/thezone/



Screenshots


First encounter


The Concrete Ziggurat


Our special place


Inside the old laboratory


Answering the phone


Rendezvous


Exploring the ruins


Printer problems


Rendezvous II


A dangerous Zone dweller

Yeah, I was considering that and it sounds like the best idea I suppose..
I still hate the thought of butchering my game idea with my own artwork.. >_<
Thanks though.

Why not use photos to start with? Check out http://www.sxc.hu/

And by the way, I really like the idea and have made an AGS game about insanity. It's quite difficult, getting the balance between insanity and normality right.

I could possibly show up, if I am in the area at the time.

Graham Nelson said that an adventure game is a narrative at war with a crossword.

For the game I've just finished, I more or less decided to skip the puzzle part and focus on the exploration/story part. I suspect that people will think that I "failed" to make puzzles, while I actually wanted to make more of a interactive graphical novel rather than a interactive graphical novel combined with minesweeper.

Tired of those MIDI files? Here are lots of good music that you are allowed to use.

http://creativecommons.org/audio/

 

I second that.

"It's a bored game developer."

I am looking for sites that discuss, list, preview, review and has information on indie games. Maybe we could make a comprehensive list together?

This would make a great MAGS topic - most clichéd game.

Or not.

That will only work if the player has the codec installed, which not everyone has.

A workaround is to include DivX or (better) XVid codecs with the game package.

I think we are going off-topic.

Good tip there with the fingerprint device. It could prove useful in real life.

But... what will we use the 3D features for? Any ideas so far?

I am considering an old school cyberspace interface.

Module! Module!

Yes, make a GUI with a large button and set the Text to "(INVSHR)". When the player picks up an item, set the active inventory item to the item picked up and display the gui. When the gui is clicked, turn it off.

How long are the MP3s?

I really liked your post bspeers. Great analysis!

I am sorry if I sounded a bit grumpy earlier in the thread. Clichés can be fine, but it depends on how they are used. The morfology of the narration remains the same (which can be said to be cliché), but as bspeers points out so nicely - it all depends on how it is constructed.

After having played many (or all) game genres there is, I have noticed that clichés have stopped working on me. Instead of being awed by the prospect that I need to save the world, I keep thinking "Why does it always have to be the whole world, why not just save the suburb I live in or that sad kid in school nobody cared for?" Though there still is the saving the ... goal, something more innovative would raise my interest in the game.

Now, have a look at this: http://project-apollo.net/text/rpg.html

It applies to RPG clichés mainly, but is still applicaple to other games as well. Many of these clichés happen because of limitations in the medium. For example, when talking to the same character several times, you get the same replies. The character is supposed to be a human being but certainly does not act like one. When designing System Shock, Warren Spector said that "If we can't make them act like humans, we won't have them" (not the exact wording) and made a devoid space station with traces of humans to tell a story. He avoided a cliché by surpassing it.

Kinoko: I never said that I didn't like the mainstream because it was mainstream. I dislike it because it is so predictable. I realise that there are many people that like the comfort of predictability, but I get bored of it whether it is music or games. The french sociologist Pierre Bourdieu has written an interesting book: "On television", which has lots of thoughts on why mediums are locked into the mainstream. The main theory is that investors want to be sure that the product is received well to get revenue. I'd say the same goes for many indie designers - you want to make something that you are sure works, not spend your time on some strange experiment.

One is definitely Executive Suite, another is The Incredible Machine. Not to mention Alter Ego, The Sims, Sim City, Civilization, Alpha Centauri, Populous, Noctis, Silent Hill 2, The Ring and Uplink.

http://www.the-underdogs.org/theme.php?id=27