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Storyline

Donghyug David Jeong edited this page Sep 27, 2023 · 44 revisions

Lore

Player

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.

Alien NPC

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):

  1. 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
  2. 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.

Alien NPC’s Civilisation

To be added…

Implementation Details

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.

Screens

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.

Introduction Screen

This screen introduces the game, and has an image of the planet coming into frame on a space background.

Alien NPC Dialogue Screen

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.

Radio Communications Screen

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.

Lose Screen

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]

Win Screen

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.

Part I: Crash Landing

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.

Quest: Wake up

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.

Details

This Quest is mandatory

Time Limit: 2 hours

Task: Talk to <ALIEN NPC>

Rewards: Dialogue Screen, Shovel, Clearing Your Mess quest

Quest: Clearing Your Mess

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.

Details

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

Quest: Sowing Your First Seeds

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.

Details

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

Quest: Reaping your Rewards

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.

Details

This Quest is not mandatory

Time Limit: 12 hours

Task: Harvest a single cosmic cob

Rewards:

Quest: Making Friends

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.

Details

This Quest is mandatory

Time Limit:

Task: Tame 4 animals

Rewards: Dialogue Screen, Fertiliser,

Quest: A Fertilising Fiesta

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.

Details

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).

Quest: Aliens Attack!

The player will have to use everything they have to survive the initial wave of hostile mobs.

Details

This Quest is mandatory

Time Limit:

Task: Survive the initial raid and defeat all hostiles

Rewards: Dialogue Screen, unlocks hostile animal spawn.

Quest: An Agreement

This Quest requires the completion of all other mandatory Quests 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.

Details

This Quest is mandatory

Time Limit: 5 days from crash-landing

Task: Complete all other mandatory Quests

Rewards: Dialogue Screen, triggers next section of game, <ALIEN NPC> returns ship parts to the player

Part II: Contact with Home

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 Quests should be added as a reward for the ‘An Agreement’ Quest). However, there will be key mandatory Quests 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.

Quest: Ship Repairs

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).

Details

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

Quest: Home Sick

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…

Details

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

Quest: Pest Control

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.

Details

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

Quest: Making Contact

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 Quests 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.

Details:

This Quest is mandatory

Time Limit: 10 days

Task: Complete all other mandatory Quests in this section of the game, and repair the ship

Rewards: Dialogue Screen, Triggers the next section of the game

Part III: Gardner of the Galaxy

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.

Quest: Weather the Storm

This Quest requires the completion of all other mandatory Quests in this part of the game. This will result in a win-state of the game, if it is completed in time.

Details:

Time Limit: 15 days

Task: Have an oxygen level of at least ##% on day 15

Rewards: Win screen/game over

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