Rogue World
A post-apocalyptic racing game where Mario meets Mega Man
A post-apocalyptic racing game where Mario meets Mega Man
Magnus Prison, my home, was virtually untouched by The Shower. The Earth shook. The guards didn't tell us much, but we gathered
that a meteor shower hit us. I could tell by the looks on their faces...it wasn't good. The sky changed. The lights flickered from time to time.Life carried on, if you could call being locked away a life.I had no idea...
~Samuel Kerd PhD
that a meteor shower hit us. I could tell by the looks on their faces...it wasn't good. The sky changed. The lights flickered from time to time.Life carried on, if you could call being locked away a life.I had no idea...
~Samuel Kerd PhD
3 years after The Shower, the world is a desolate place. One stronghold remains, AbidA (uh BEED uh), in the tundra of what was once Mongolia. Far enough inland, it was protected from the swelling oceans. By a complete stroke of luck, it was spared from the majority of the rocks pelting the planet. The rest of Earth... not so lucky.
Some of the meteors were enormous - miles wide. It seems that most of those hit the oceans. One of them hit the moon, and actually broke a big chunk of it off. That moon chunk was probably the worst of it. It plummeted to Earth and landed in between was was once America and Canada, shoving the planet off axis. The 'north' pole now resides somewhere closer to Alaska. This has had all sorts of negative effect on the weather, as one could imagine. Hot is now cold, and vice versa. Everything is wet from the tidal waves.
Europe is swampy and cold. Much of Africa is frozen tundra. The Philippines aren't so much islandic anymore. It's a different world.
Word spread of AbidA's well being. Many of the refugees made their way across the planet. Rescue teams scoured the globe for a year or so. Those that wanted saving were brought to the safe haven of AbidA. During its population, available resources were put towards building and expanding the colony to accommodate the influx of people. Shelter was hard, and much of the area consisted of a glorified camp ground, but it was important to AbidA to get energy to its people. Energy to keep them warm during the long nights. Energy to heat their food. Energy to survive. As the population stabilized, it plateaued around 1.5 billion. Life carried on...
AbidA has a secret, though. The energy they have is not without limits. The reserves that once seemed would last a lifetime were depleting quite steadily with the spike in population. The scientists responsible for creating the energy didn't survive The Shower, and AbidA's reverse engineering had been futile. Breakthroughs here or there gave glimmers of hope, but they were running out of time.
Time... "There seems to be plenty of it," Aldous Huxley once said. Chances are he'd change his mind with humans on the brink of extinction.
Time... "There seems to be plenty of it," Aldous Huxley once said. Chances are he'd change his mind with humans on the brink of extinction.
AbidA's energy consisted of plasmoids of sorts. Stable silicon spheres of light. The world had been running on these for years, as fossil fuels had essentially dried up. The cities were destroyed, the people were gone, but the energy had to be out there still... They decided to send out teams, into the now unknown, to collect . They needed soldiers, ideally disposable soldiers. They sent word to the neighboring Magnus Prison to ready 100 of their most well behaved prisoners.
The game starts with you, playing the role of Samuel Kerd, being jostled around as you're herded out of the prison with your 99 cohorts. As you're loaded onto the shuttle, you have a chance to see the outside world for the first time in nearly a decade, let alone since The Shower. With no walls to impede the horizon, the moon sets in the west, a huge section of the pie clearly missing.
An hour or so later, you arrive at AbidA sector 16. As you're unloaded, the epitome of a commanding officer comes into view, cigar and all. "The world has gone to shit, maggots. I hope you're hungry..." The fear in his voice barely discernible. "I won't build your egos and say you've been chosen. We need disposable soldiers, and prisoners seem to foot that bill. We are going to test you. We are going to use you. You... are going to serve AbidA." [ Being in first person view at the moment, you have the control of the camera. As you look around at your surroundings, if your attention leaves the Colonel for more than 10 seconds, you're reprimanded to pay attention - something about number 89. ] "Some of you will be commandeering the latest in Tactical Reconnaissance Vehicles. It is a privilege to even lay eyes on these TRVs, let alone drive them, and not to be confused as anything but."
Skip ahead to your turn at the helm of one of the TRVs. You step up to the side of the vehicle, and an opening reveals itself - not really a door, it just sort of opens... The camera scoots from first person on you to third person on the vehicle as you timidly step inside. You briefly see the 'steering wheel' of the TRV to actually be a console controller [ xbox or playstation, accordingly ]. A British woman's voice quickly goes over the controls. "Hello 89. As you noticed, we did away with the conventional steering wheel in the current build of the TRV to utilize something with a bit more control. To propel yourself forward, use the right trigger. Brakes are applied with the left trigger, and the left bumper locks all wheels. The analog sticks control movement, the left of the TRV, the right of your view. Your heads up display (HUD) is toggled with the left [ back/select ] and right [ start ] buttons - more on those later. The 4 main buttons allow you to tap into the TRVs energy reserves for various purposes. For now, you have access to A [ or X ] for boosting and jumping, but they are configurable if you are selected to join us. We will begin testing with a time trial."
Beep, beep, beep, GREEN!
Beep, beep, beep, GREEN!
Vehicle design by Tony Chen. This is the initial inspiration for this game...
Time trials begin, and you immediately notice how fast this vehicle takes off. It's electric, if you can call it that. The hum that comes out of it could almost be called... pure? You take off, and charge towards what appears to be an abandoned parking garage. As you enter it, running lights on the ceiling keep you on track. A handful of quick turns and short straightaways, and you're directed to bust out of the building on one of the higher floors. The TRV gracefully falls to the ground, and if you finished in time, you're directed to head back in to the garage for obstacle avoidance training. You're directed around a different path in the garage, now with steel pipes and blocks raising up from the floor randomly. Using combinations of Jump and / or the E-brake, you eventually make it to the finish - no time limit on this round. Next test combines the two, and adds the collection of energy. The plasmoids being collected are detected by the TRV's sensors and displayed on an overlay of the HUD. Collect all the energy, and make it to the finish in time, and you pass! Once familiarized with the TRV, and some of its abilities, you're given back to the Colonel.
"Listen up, larvae! Three dozen of you have been chosen to join the team. The rest of you can go back to rotting in prison." The Colonel walks off his soap box, and a loud ka-chunk magnetically pulls 74 prisoners to the ground. Screaming and griping ensues. You can guess which group you fall in to...
You're escorted onto a rather large hover ship of sorts, and assigned to a bay with your very own TRV. When approaching the vehicle, a holographic menu is emitted from it, showing a digitized form of itself on the left that can be controlled and articulated, and several options on the right. As you're tinkering with the settings, an ominous voice sounds, you recognize it as the same British lady you heard from within the TRV earlier. "Welcome to WASP. My name is Atlas, and I can be accessed from the ship or your vehicle by just calling my name. [ Voice recognition seems very feasible for many informational commands ] Our first stop will be France. Prepare for reconnaissance."
As previously mentioned, this is a racing game. The courses are countries, sometimes states, and the track is laid out by its particular shape. It'll essentially be a scaled down version of the real thing, with drastically different climates and environments.
Designer note - I'd like the terrain to form to how and where people ride on it. Here's the vision... I'd like to have a donut of sorts for the track, being the shape of the country, with some interior border. A free roam map has potential though... Anyway. I'd like to have just terrain - rocks, dirt, cities, trees, old cars... everything the way it would be a year or two after an apocalyptic meteor shower.Stage 1. At this point, I'd like to take a team into that 'world' for some freestyle riding and romping. I'm reminded of building mountain bike trails with my buddies. You ride around for quite some time, enjoying the unique parts of the terrain, then once you have a feel for the lay of the land, you start modifying it.Enter Stage 2. Ramps, bridges, walls, obstacles, anti-obstacles, etc, etc. Now that we've found the cool spots to ride, we start building an actual track. I'd even like to go as far as to have some dirt displacement (a la 'From Dust') to shape the lay of the land (I'd like to limit that to 6' from base level, maybe even less, to simulate real world capabilities, and no digging up rock). I'm not sure what technology From Dust used, but voxels seems to fit in my mind.
Again, though, the key here is to show the tracks and whatnot from riding around the environment, and to save every bit of that data so each time you come and go, it reflects all the riding everyone has done to date. I'd like to take this as far as to create the Stage 1 for several levels then pass them out to a few dozen enthusiastic individuals. Force the players to log 8+ hours of romping and riding (actual movement...) and then let them build the world the way they see it. Once they're happy with their 'home' of sorts, bring the courses back to the lab, and stitch together the best of the best to release to the masses.
So 'Home' was mentioned in that designer's note... The countries that are being probed for plasmoids are not uninhabited. Not everyone chose to join AbidA, and there was some fuss over this situation. Anyone who didn't join the masses was labeled as Rogue, and on their own with no further support. This gave rise to new leaders in many of the countries around the world, even if there wasn't necessarily a kingdom to lead. Some would call them gangs, bums, riff raff... rogues.
The mechanics of the game involve you collecting energy, and surviving while doing it. You'll be entering the Rogue's territories, and essentially taking their life force. It's a race in a sense, as you and the team want to get out of there as fast as possible, but more importantly, you want to come out of each country with as many plasmoids as possible. The Rogues won't be racing, per se, and their only goal is to stop you from making off with their goods. They'll likely be coming at you from all angles, and you'll be given the appropriate tools to keep them at bay. The environment will be destructible to a high degree. For example, imagine you are racing through France, and approaching the Eiffel tower with several bogies on your tail. Two properly timed shots to the base of the tower and the whole tower starts to fall towards you. If you timed it right, you'll make it past the falling rubble while it demolishes the cars behind you. Careful of your team mates, though, as that stunt is just as likely to take them out as it is the Rogues.
Speaking of friendly fire, after completing the first race, Sam will notice one of the other soldiers on the ship mounting a cannon of sorts onto his TRV. Interested, and a bit afraid, he heads back to his bay to assess the situation. Weapons have been enabled. The game will allow you to blow up the person next to you. This should develop some interesting game dynamics and alliances. More on that later...
Back to the action!
Again, though, the key here is to show the tracks and whatnot from riding around the environment, and to save every bit of that data so each time you come and go, it reflects all the riding everyone has done to date. I'd like to take this as far as to create the Stage 1 for several levels then pass them out to a few dozen enthusiastic individuals. Force the players to log 8+ hours of romping and riding (actual movement...) and then let them build the world the way they see it. Once they're happy with their 'home' of sorts, bring the courses back to the lab, and stitch together the best of the best to release to the masses.
So 'Home' was mentioned in that designer's note... The countries that are being probed for plasmoids are not uninhabited. Not everyone chose to join AbidA, and there was some fuss over this situation. Anyone who didn't join the masses was labeled as Rogue, and on their own with no further support. This gave rise to new leaders in many of the countries around the world, even if there wasn't necessarily a kingdom to lead. Some would call them gangs, bums, riff raff... rogues.
The mechanics of the game involve you collecting energy, and surviving while doing it. You'll be entering the Rogue's territories, and essentially taking their life force. It's a race in a sense, as you and the team want to get out of there as fast as possible, but more importantly, you want to come out of each country with as many plasmoids as possible. The Rogues won't be racing, per se, and their only goal is to stop you from making off with their goods. They'll likely be coming at you from all angles, and you'll be given the appropriate tools to keep them at bay. The environment will be destructible to a high degree. For example, imagine you are racing through France, and approaching the Eiffel tower with several bogies on your tail. Two properly timed shots to the base of the tower and the whole tower starts to fall towards you. If you timed it right, you'll make it past the falling rubble while it demolishes the cars behind you. Careful of your team mates, though, as that stunt is just as likely to take them out as it is the Rogues.
Speaking of friendly fire, after completing the first race, Sam will notice one of the other soldiers on the ship mounting a cannon of sorts onto his TRV. Interested, and a bit afraid, he heads back to his bay to assess the situation. Weapons have been enabled. The game will allow you to blow up the person next to you. This should develop some interesting game dynamics and alliances. More on that later...
Back to the action!
As you finish up tinkering, Atlas informs the crew that you're about to land in France, and to enter your vehicle. After a few moments of not so patiently waiting, the floor opens up and you're dropped from about 20 feet up to the swampy ground below. 5 [ this number subject to change ] of your fellow inmates land with you, simultaneously. Game on. As soon as you hit the ground you can put the pedal to the metal, mud flying everywhere. The energy is shown on the map and on the HUD, spaced out sporadically, but concentrated in areas of interest. As you bog along, sliding around in the wetlands, the Colonel comes on screen. "Listen up, Grubs! Suck this place dry! I want all the energy you can see collected. I'd suggest you save up on that energy, too. When you fill the tank up half way, I'll glitch you you a new blueprint for the TRV."
What?! Glitch? Blueprint? What the hell is this old man talking about? Doing as you're told, you use as little energy as possible, no boosting or jumping, and within minutes you're at half tank. As promised, incoming glitch.
Glitching a blueprint will be a game of 'match the sine wave' where you control the amplitude and frequency of the wave with the right analog stick. There will be a white noise at first, and a scrambled wave. As you match the wave, it's shape will comply to a more natural shape, its amplitude and frequency changing slightly as it comes into focus, and the noise will even out to the stereotypical sine hum. Upon a successful glitch, you'll be prompted to choose which blueprint bank you want to use, press and hold the D-pad in the direction corresponding to the appropriate bank [ 4 available ]. For now, that's not too big of a decision, as you've only started with the one. Glitch is a go.
Alright, now what about this blueprint? Atlas' omniscient voice comes in with an answer. "Blueprints are a unique frequency. Nanites in your vehicle can be programmed to match a certain shape with a particular frequency. With your energy gauge at least half full, the TRV can change it's form into a multitude of vehicles. Press and hold the desired direction on the D-pad for 1 second, then jump, to initiate the transformation."
Intrigued by this new information and ready to get into a vehicle more adept to this swampy mud mess, you follow Atlas' instructions. The TRV lurches into the air and morphs into a big ball of mercury looking metal, flashing brightly. Falling to the ground, the nanites morph everything to match the new blueprint, in this case a truck with some gnarly wheels. You land gracefully as the newly added suspension soaks up the fall and the wheels regain their momentum. You're back to barreling down the track, better than ever!
Alright, now what about this blueprint? Atlas' omniscient voice comes in with an answer. "Blueprints are a unique frequency. Nanites in your vehicle can be programmed to match a certain shape with a particular frequency. With your energy gauge at least half full, the TRV can change it's form into a multitude of vehicles. Press and hold the desired direction on the D-pad for 1 second, then jump, to initiate the transformation."
Intrigued by this new information and ready to get into a vehicle more adept to this swampy mud mess, you follow Atlas' instructions. The TRV lurches into the air and morphs into a big ball of mercury looking metal, flashing brightly. Falling to the ground, the nanites morph everything to match the new blueprint, in this case a truck with some gnarly wheels. You land gracefully as the newly added suspension soaks up the fall and the wheels regain their momentum. You're back to barreling down the track, better than ever!
This is a picture of a fun little game from google.pl a while back. It reminds me of glitching a bit. Also, the game hydrophobia has a good example of a 'match the wave' mini game when hacking consoles. Check out the first minute of this video to see how that works.
With a more capable blueprint for the terrain at hand, you can now more aggressively attack the track, and more efficiently gather plasmoids. Half way around the track, the team has attracted the attention of a few locals. At this point, you weren't entirely aware of their existence, so it's a bit surprising to see Rogue vehicles. Evasive maneuvers and pure speed get you to to the rendezvous point, as you haven't been given any weapons... yet. The ship hovers about 20 feet above the ground, and its bays open underneath it. A light below your bay blinks slowly, signaling you to it. As you enter the light, you're signaled to jump. As you do, the TRV melts into that same mercury ball from before, and is raised into the ship by what appears to be a magnetic hook on a cable.
All concept art done by Titus Lunter for Rogue World (working title) under direction of Brett Dudo, unless otherwise noted.
