The Dream (Part 1)

Now that we established that we do not want to change the beginning of the game, we need to decide what and what for? I discussed some of it in the past (probably more than once). The most recent was post "Dream space".

Dream space is just an idea to turn Little Big Adventure intro, into a playable sequence. You know, get to the top of the mountain, see the end of the world. This is a very simple concept, but it is the seed of something that evolved over time. Simple walking around the snow is not really fun. This led to the introduction of the idea, what if there were some ancient temple in the mountains? Now we need to somehow connect it with the world and maybe introduce the world lore about the races. It would make sense that this whole temple would be for all four races. This went on for a little while, and over time it becamea crucial element of the storytelling.

Still, this is not enough as it feels artificial. We start the game in this dream space, which is in some ways detached from the world, and before we know it, we spawn in the prison. Yeah, something is not right, as I did not even tackle the problem that players do not know where Twinsen's house is. There was a missing proper introduction to the universe, something that will make us care about this world, about what will happen with the characters. Something that will allow us to explore the world before turning Twinsen into a troublemaker. 

The goal is that when Zoe is finally kidnapped, you know what she means for Twinsen and have a motivation to save her. This turned into the idea that Twinsen wants to propose to Zoe. He plans to do it at the dinner that day when he is taken to Prison. The benefit of this idea is that it provides a nice explanation of why Zoe dressed so nicely that day. She was ready for dinner, but Twinsen never showed up, which also explains why she was so worried when she saw him.

This gives us two elements: Dream & Preparation for engagement, which is still not enough to create an interesting introduction to the world. It feels artificial... That is why I am considering adding more to it. Going around the City, exploring, and finding a relatively normal island where, even with Fun Frock prison standing on it, life goes normally. Citizens will be trying to live their lives normally. Some will have some simple quests for you, which should give you hints about interesting places around the island, or at least uncover some game mechanics that would be otherwise discovered later. In some way, just how LBA2 introduces you softly to the world.

Dream will still be there, just moved to the second plan, because in the end, it is just a dream. Its design is changing a lot, and every new idea grounds it into the whole universe. 

A little bit more about my vision for it, I will share tomorrow.