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Storyline
15 years ago, humanity fled earth due to a world-ending calamity. Ever since, the remainder of the survivors have been aboard a ship bound for Alpha Centauri. Upon arrival, civilisation has been searching the solar system for habitable planets. You were meant to be one such individual, but an unforeseen massive solar flare fried your space ship’s electronics, causing you to crash down onto the surface of the planet.
The player’s goal after crash-landing is to make contact with humanity, and more generally, to make the planet habitable for them. However, upon crash landing, the player must first prove themselves worthy to live off of <ALIEN NPC>’s land.
We have two possible backgrounds for the quest-giver NPC, called <ALIEN NPC>. The studio is free to choose one or both of these backgrounds (or suggest alternatives):
- In this scenario, <ALIEN NPC> was a part of a civilisation lost to time - they are here searching for the remnants of their culture. <ALIEN NPC> wants to help the player because they feel a connection to the player and humanity’s plight, having also had most of their people wiped out. and/or
- In this scenario, <ALIEN NPC>’s planet was the subject to a global disaster (volcanic eruption, massive solar flares or small-ish scale meteor impact), causing toxification of the atmosphere. <ALIEN NPC> wants to help the player because they think that their farming and terraforming will be mutually beneficial for the two species.
To be added…
The storyline of the game will be told through text displayed on pop-up screens which will appear upon accepting certain quests, or completing certain quests. Mandatory quests also provide direction and progression to the game.
The game is broadly split up into 3 parts to reflect the different stages of the story. There is no mechanical significance to each part of the game, and they are simply distinguished by the quests which are available to the player.
These screens will display pixel art sprites and possibly small animations, along with text and a skip button. The text displayed on these screens will be used to convey storyline information to the player.
This screen introduces the game, and has an image of the planet coming into frame on a space background.
This screen will just have a picture of the alien npc along with the dialogue necessary. This screen helps to progress the story of the game by giving the alien a personality and also introducing the story behind various quests. Each Quest
will likely have dialogue on accepting the quest and upon completing the quest, the Quest
’s dialogue screen will be unique and give context to the player about the story of the game.
This screen will appear once in the middle of the game when the player successfully makes communication with the rest of humanity. Ideally, it will include some sprite of a radio-device, and display some text explaining the motivation for Part III of the story.
This screen would appear when the player lost the game through failing a quest, running out of oxygen, failing the 30 day deadline. It would also have the reason that the player lost, (eg: what quest objective that they have failed to complete). [Art to be added in sprint 4]
This screen will show a message saying that the player has won. It’ll also show the player’s oxygen level and an image of their satellite ship (if they built one). This screen should give the user the option to restart the game or exit.
This part of the game aims to introduce the player to the basics of the game, including how to use the basic tools, and what the core game loop is. After completing this section of the game (i.e., after completing the Quest
‘An Agreement’), the player will have earned the Achievement
‘Crash Landing’.
In terms of story, the player has crash landed onto this planet, and upon being discovered by <ALIEN NPC>, is forced to offer their services in return for surviving on <ALIEN NPC>’s land.
In this mandatory Quest
, automatically accepted, the player needs to go to the <ALIEN NPC> and talk to them, to understand what is going on.
This Quest
is mandatory
Time Limit: 2 hours
Task: Talk to <ALIEN NPC>
Rewards: Dialogue Screen, Shovel, Clearing Your Mess
quest
In this mandatory Quest
, the player is told by <ALIEN NPC> that they need to clear the area of spaceship debris caused by their crash landing, or there will be consequences. The player starts with a shovel in their inventory, and must use it to clear space shuttle debris within a number of hours.
Upon completion, <ALIEN NPC> will tell the player that they were surprised by the sudden visit from an unknown entity crash landing on their land. Understanding that the player needs help, <ALIEN NPC> offers to assist the player by providing items and tools to help them tend to the land and change the planet to allow the rest of humanity to live here. There’s one condition - the player must prove themselves responsible and capable of tending to the land by completing a series of tasks.
This Quest
is mandatory
Time Limit: 2 hours
Task: Clear 10 pieces of space shuttle debris near the crash landing site
Rewards: Dialogue Screen, Hoe, Cosmic Cob Seed, Sowing Your First Seeds
quest
In this mandatory Quest
, the player needs to prove their abilities to <ALIEN NPC> by planting seeds on crop tiles. Players will have to use the hoe and the seeds they received from the previous Quest
to plant crops.
Upon completion, <ALIEN NPC> will offer the player more tools to enhance their productivity, including a watering can, and a scythe to harvest the plants once they are done.
This Quest
is mandatory
Time Limit: 4 hours
Task: Plant 12 seeds on crop tiles created using the hoe
Rewards: Dialogue Screen, Scythe, Watering Can Reaping your Rewards
quest
In this Quest
, the player will need to harvest one of the crops they planted in the previous Quest
. They will need to tend to their crops until they reach full maturity, then use the scythe to harvest the mature plant.
This Quest
is not mandatory
Time Limit: 12 hours
Task: Harvest a single cosmic cob
Rewards:
For this Quest
, the player will have to tame animals using the crops harvested/an animal food reward from the previous quest (have to check what team 4 wanted to use to tame animals) so that they can start receiving item drops from animals, such as fertiliser.
This Quest
is mandatory
Time Limit:
Task: Tame 4 animals
Rewards: Dialogue Screen, Fertiliser,
The player will have to use the fertiliser drops from their tamed animals or from the reward from their “Making Friends” Quest
to fertilise some of their crops.
This Quest
is mandatory
Time Limit:
Task: Fertilise 20 crop tiles
Rewards: Dialogue Screen, Aliens Attack!
quest, Hammer Plant seed, Aloe Vera seed, Space Snapper Seed, weapon (Team 4).
The player will have to use everything they have to survive the initial wave of hostile mobs.
This Quest
is mandatory
Time Limit:
Task: Survive the initial raid and defeat all hostiles
Rewards: Dialogue Screen, unlocks hostile animal spawn.
This Quest
requires the completion of all other mandatory Quest
s in this part of the story.
Upon completion, the player and <ALIEN NPC> reach an agreement. <ALIEN NPC> reveals important parts of backstory to player, and offers to help the player make contact with their civilisation. The player knows they only have 10 days to make contact, otherwise the orbit of the spaceship will mean it will be out of range of any ground-based communication methods unless otherwise notified.
This Quest
is mandatory
Time Limit: 5 days from crash-landing
Task: Complete all other mandatory Quest
s
Rewards: Dialogue Screen, triggers next section of game, <ALIEN NPC> returns ship parts to the player
This part of the game will leave the player with more freedom to choose what to do and how to progress. There will not be many mandatory quests in this section, and the studio is free to add any quests they would like (these Quest
s should be added as a reward for the ‘An Agreement’ Quest
). However, there will be key mandatory Quest
s that the player will need to complete to move onto the next section.
In terms of story, the player has built a bit of trust with <ALIEN NPC>, and is allowed to stay on their land. In return for completing a variety of quests and tasks given out by <ALIEN NPC>, the player is offered rewards to let them rebuild their broken spaceship, in hopes of making communication with the rest of humanity.
This Quest
introduces the mechanics of interacting with and repairing the Ship. The player will be told to look around for some ship parts on the map (can be collected through shovelling various ShipDebris
entities throughout the map).
This Quest
is mandatory
Time Limit:
Task: Make repairs to the ship using the 10 ship parts <ALIEN NPC> saved from your initial crash landing
Rewards: Dialogue Screen, N ship repair parts, Home Sick
unlocked
Now that <ALIEN NPC> has started to warm up to the player they slowly start to let on more about their personality. <ALIEN NPC> has been missing the foods of their people, so have requested that the player grow and harvest <PLANT TYPE> for them.
Completion of this Quest
will unlock the ability to defeat alien hostiles by providing the player with <GAME WEAPON> as a reward so that they are able to move on to the next Quest
.
The <ALIEN NPC> has noticed that some more creatures have made their way onto the planet…
This Quest
is mandatory
Time Limit:
Task: Plant, grow and harvest 20 <PLANT TYPE>
Rewards: Dialogue screen, <GAME WEAPON>, Hostiles and Pest Control
unlocked, N ship repair parts
This Quest
introduces the hostile aliens which the player has to defeat to prevent them from destroying their crops. By completing this Quest
the player can unlock seeds to plant that can hurt the hostiles to make it easier for them once completing this Quest
.
By the end of this Quest
players may start to find the hostiles destroying their crops to be annoying so they will be rewarded with seeds that can hurt the hostiles.
This Quest
is mandatory
Time Limit:
Task: Defeat 20 hostile alien creatures to save your crops
Rewards: Dialogue Screen, <Seeds to hurt the hostiles to make it easier for the player once completing this…>, N ship parts
At the end of this Quest
the player receives a radio allowing them to make contact with the rest of civilisation. It requires the completion of all other mandatory Quest
s in this part of the game.
Upon completion, the player makes contact with the rest of humanity, and learns of an incoming Solar Surge which could wipe out the space ship, and possibly even the atmosphere of the planet they are on. The player now has a reason to terraform the planet, to make the atmosphere resistant enough to allow the rest of humanity (and <ALIEN NPC>’s civilisation) to survive the incoming flare. They tell the player they expect to land on the planet in (15 days). Just as the player learns of this, a massive solar flare occurs, severing communication once more, and wiping out most of the crop tiles.
This Quest
is mandatory
Time Limit: 10 days
Task: Complete all other mandatory Quest
s in this section of the game, and repair the ship
Rewards: Dialogue Screen, Triggers the next section of the game
This part of the game will give the player the tools to be super efficient at growing/harvesting plants. They also know of a hard deadline to finish the game, and so will have motivation to complete quests and progress through the game.
Understanding the plight of the player, and the risk that the incoming flare poses to not just humanity but also their own civilisation, <ALIEN NPC> continues to offer services and support to the player, allowing them to terraform the planet to make it habitable for humans and strong enough to weather the incoming storm.
This Quest
requires the completion of all other mandatory Quest
s in this part of the game. This will result in a win-state of the game, if it is completed in time.
Time Limit: 15 days
Task: Have an oxygen level of at least ##% on day 15
Rewards: Win screen/game over