This week I have been finalizing the story-line to my game, below is what I have come up with
Characters:
Young Síofra:
The main character in my game is going to be a small girl called Síofra. She will be the only playable character throughout the game. She lives at home with her parents in the county of Sligo. Síofra is your average, shy Irish girl who never causes any trouble at home or in school. But one day all this changes. When Síofra is taken by the fairies it forces her to grow up pretty quickly as she needs to escape from the fairies and make it back to her parents who miss her dearly. My character animations on the first level will reflect the innocence of Síofra, she will not know the gravity of the situation she is in but will come to know this later on in the game.
Old Síofra:
Another character that will be in the game is Síofra as an old woman. She will be narrating over the game itself giving the backstory to the players as they make their way through the game. With age comes plenty of wisdom. This is something I hope I can achieve with the voice overs. Old Síofra will be sitting by the fireplace looking through a photo album reflecting back on her life’s memories. My initial idea was for the story to play out during cut-scenes at the beginning. But I think if I have cut-scenes at the beginning that might lead people to skip past them and miss out on the emotional connection they might have to the protagonist. Ireland has a long history of storytelling and this is one aspect of Irish culture that I want to capture in my game.
Orlaith:
The fairy that is responsible for taking Síofra away from her family is called Orlaith. Orlaith in Irish means “Golden Princess”. Orlaith belongs to a family of elves who are in charge of this magical place. Recently her famous father “Brian” has stepped down from his role of “King of the Elves”. He has no sons so he must pass the throne onto his oldest daughter Medb who unfortunately is very ill. So Orlaith hatches up a plan to take a child from the outside world and drain the life from her to help restore her older sister back to full health. With this kind of story I want to make Orlaith a character that is not necessarily a bad guy. I want there to be a genuine reason for her to do something terrible for what she thinks is a greater good. I want the gamer to feel for this character and understand her reasoning behind every decision.
Amadán:
Amadán is the main enemy in the levels. In Irish mythology Amadán was the fool of the king. Someone that was looked down upon by everyone. In Irish Mythology it is said that Amadán had a deadly touch. If he outstretched his arm and touched you, you would die instantly on the spot. I thought this would be something interesting to include in the game.
Social Interactions:
To be honest in this game there will be little to no social interactions. For my game it will be directed at the age group of 6-12 year olds. At this age kids would be used to having stories read to them by either their parents or at school. By having narrations in the game the kids would hopefully be playing through what I would consider to be like an interactive storybook.
Important Places/Events:
The most important event of this game will be at the beginning. The main character Síofra will be taken away from her parents by the fairies by making her fall into a Fairy Ring. This Fairy Ring transports Síofra to the magical place where Fairies reside.
Key Symbols:
One of the key symbols that will be included in my game are Fairy Rings. In Irish folklore these are places that hold a sense of fear in rural communities. Farmers won’t go near them because it is believed these are places that fairies gather and should not be tampered with.
Values:
The main value that I want to come across in this game will be a respect for the uniqueness of Irish folklore and storytelling. In today’s society I believe we are losing a lot of what makes us uniquely Irish. For example most of the famous Irish people throughout history are storytellers like W.B Yeates, John B Keane and James Joyce. In my game I will be using narration to treat this game like an interactive storybook and I hope this will get kids to develop a love of reading if they haven’t already done so themselves.
Colour Scheme:
Inspired by the game “Child of Light” I will be incorporating a few of the colours used near the beginning of the game. I find that these colours perfectly fit the look and feel I want for my game. I want my game to feel welcoming but have an overall continuous ominous feeling. I don’t want the player to feel entirely comfortable when playing the game. I also think these colours will make my planned forest setting to feel like a mysterious, strange world. Somewhere completely different from the real world where Síofra comes from. Also the setting of my game will be in a forest and I think these off-green colours will make it look like a forest but make it look not like a natural forest that everyone expects. I want it to have some sort of mystical appearance to it so it’s almost like a character in itself.
Speaking of my game, I drew a quick picture of what I think my game will look like in Photoshop today.
At the bottom is where the character will be walking through the level. She will be traversing through various bits of land/terrain and will also come across rock platforms and other obstacles to get past. I know this quick sketch isn't totally clear so I will explain it. There are two floating platforms leading up to where the land comes back together. In the middle-ground there will be a stream or river of rushing water and also a few dark trees, In the background will be a dark sky and also some mountains/scenery.
At the end of this week I will be catching up on the design/animation side of this project. Overall I'm extremely happy with the game I have come up with. I'm really looking forward to what lies ahead in the coming weeks/months.