PERFECTION

“I’ve seen the world bathed in blood.

I’ve seen the rain of fire.

I’ve seen the Reaper of Death, sharpen his blade and spreading his wings.

I’ve seen the martyrs die in vain, and the heroes throwing their swords away.

I’ve seen the ages of grieving, and they hadn’t come… yet.

 

The time has come for men to save themselves FROM themselves, and choose among two paths; one that will purify our souls, redeem our spirits, and lead us all to PERFECTION…

Or one that destroys us all.”

 

This is a story very close and very dear to me. Actually, it is a compilation of stories I wrote before. Each of these stories was empty individually, but when I put them together they are the closest I got to the perfect tale.

 

PERFECTION is an epic fantasy/sci-fi story set in a dramatic world. The whole plot is revealed throw personal stories of each of the main characters, and finally converges in a powerful ending. The most recurring characters are the seer Zyrkonia, who calls herself “the watcher of this age”, and the child Leni Herra, her young protégé. Through the eyes of both we see the stories of the others. The main characters of each game are conflicted or traumatized, they face several inner problems, and they will evolve according to the player’s decision. Despite the liberty the player has to develop the game as he likes, the goal is to improve these characters not only physically, but emotionally. It’s basically an action adventure game, but each game features different gameplay mode. For example, in the first game we are in the shoes of a woman trying to find out the people that attacked their city and that requires lots of investigation and tracking skills, but in other we play the role of a young man trying to get away from his captors and we should have a low profile and try to avoid confrontation. The characters evolve by facing their past, their conflicts and their actions, becoming closer to perfection. But if a character displays an evil way, he’ll have to fix their actions in the limited “Redemption Time” by helping others or solving emotional issues, depends on the game. When a character is beyond redemption, it’s Game Over! Sometimes there’s a variation, like characters unaffected by this Karma, or some that should go the other way and become evil (It has some sort of Karma thing in it, I know, but it’s not directly affiliated to any known religion). Another thing is that combat improvements are tools to make easier the progress but not the goal. In the first mentioned game we have a big amount of money and vehicles to buy weapons and armors but they won’t help you in your investigation; in the second we have little money but we can easily steal more, even when that will raise your notoriety. It might sound complicated… well, maybe it IS. But you can’t deny the originality in it! Most of the characters face common issues like a hard childhood, alcoholism and emotional isolation, while others have some Oedipus complex or a clear mental instability. To do this I had to create a plot that would suit them all at once. It was complicated, but I came out with a whole background history that catalyzed most of the events in their lives.

 

BACKGROUND: "The government of Russia has fallen under an extremist faction, andAmerica is threatened by their chance to use nuclear weapons. Against the counsel of the UN,America launched a nuclear weapon destroying the terrorist base of operations in Moscow and eradicating them, along with the whole city, the worst move they could have carried. After this, many countries commit to reduce their arsenal and weapon production, and even to highly restrict the distribution of handguns to the public. But a company in Eastern Europe, the Zlats Conglomerate continues their weapon production, becoming one of the most powerful corporations in the world. Anyway, many nations around the world were resentful with the USand cut all ties they had with them, sometimes even threatening with war; luckily this never happened. After the nuclear strike on Moscow (commonly referred to as the “Zero Hour”) the Russian government was unable to control the crisis. They delegated responsibilities to states, then to cities. In the end, it created autonomous cities with their own defense forces, governments and laws. But even then, the economical crisis caused riots and the land between cities was beyond any jurisdiction and law. Finally the former Russian Government was subdued by the state-cities authorities; the rest was land of no man. The European Union became the most important world peace organization, taking part in most of the conflicts as an intermediary.

One of the major events in the world was the design of the Armor Suit; a mechanical gear which boosted the users power to incredible levels. It was composed by a flexible full body armor made of Kevlar-alloy string, a slightly rigid but articulated protection for the weaker parts of the body, and a rigid titanium-based armor covering hands, forearms, legs, feet, chest and head. The helmet carried a visor and mini computer which processed the information and calculated movements and weapon trajectories. The armors had a variety of weapons that could easily be attached, modified or replaced for different missions. An incorporated hydraulic system allowed the user to lift massive objects with no effort, or jump higher and move faster. In the latest prototypes they even added some rocket boosters, giving the Armor Troopers the ability to boost speed up or jump even more, and in some aerodynamic designs, fly. The whole armor was powered by an internal Gravimetric (a fusion of electromagnetic and gravity forces) generator, capable of deflecting some energy-based weapons like EMPs or lasers. But when the final prototype was designed, it was stolen by the very first user, who destroyed the design lab, erasing all information of the project. The most tragic part was that the prototype had been sold to the Corporation, who produced it massively and sold it freely either as a weapon or as a tool. This generated a new cultural boom; the Armor Suit combats; a wrestling competition between armor suit users. Although the armor suits were incredibly expensive, it became so popular that nations from the whole world created their own leagues to regulate the users. Anyway, some unregulated users still remained, both in underground leagues or as mercenaries.

Despite the secrets that were unleashed, some things in the world were still hidden. There were many psychics in the world, millions perhaps, who would never know of their powers because they didn’t even knew they had it, and they knew much less about how to use them. Some governments knew about this, but it was still an important secret to conceal from the public. Telepaths, telekinetics, and others capable of channeling energy, alter states of the matter and more, were secret agents under training and research, and sometimes active agents. But beyond this, it was rare seeing these abilities beyond a circus or some magicians and few knew this secret. In the other hand, The Cult of Unity was a religion which believed we were one with the All, part of a Cosmic Conscience, and we had to reconnect with that conscience in order to restore our race to the universe. The cult was barely spread around the world, thought by the common men to be another harmless belief. Or it was so until the day she appeared… Vasilisa Vasilyeva was a traumatized young girl from Lyubertsy, her parents and brothers died victims of the nuclear radiation in the vicinity of Moscow when she was young. Raised in a small community near Ryazan outside the jurisdiction of any of the state-cities of Russia, her foster mother was killed along with the rest of the population in an assault of a rogue platoon of Moscow, and she survived hidden in a barn. She stood alone there for three weeks, hardly eating. Finally was found by a merchant who took her to Ryazan. She was hospitalized and when recovered, set in a mental institution due to her incapability to eat or talk after the trauma. Her condition improved and she left to Zlatoust in central Russia, where she was born. There she met with the main preacher of the Cult of Unity, and she conversed and dedicated her life to it. It was during an intense session where she accidentally manifested her powers, capable of casting dark energy fluxes resembling shades. This, mixed with her telepathic ability to listen thoughts made people believe it was a sign of her union with the All. The cult begun to grow incredibly, she was broadcasted to the whole world and in time it became a major religion. Scientist from around the world explained the psychic phenomena, but the belief was already in the hearts of people and that blind faith allowed them to subconsciously reach their own psychic powers. The cult grew so powerful that even influenced the government of the city, and became an autocracy under the rule of this girl. After some years, the city was renamed as Tsentr (“center” in Russian) and Vasilisa Vasilyeva renamed herself as Vasty (Вастй in Russian). She married with the Administrator (the maximum authority in a state-city) but he died soon after of a cancer and Vasty held direct government. She married again and had four sons, each with a unique skill, and they were known as the Barons. Some people said her second husband “grew tired of her” and left, but after that he was never seen again. She never married again, but it was rumored she had affairs with many Administrators and other VIPs from all around the world, and she gave birth to one children, but this was concealed from the public. By this time she was thirty eight years old and both her rule and priesthood were at the peak of power. In a public conference transmitted around the world she encouraged people to “connect again with the source and let the power flow”, and thousands of acolytes of the cult around the world, and even people who did not attend to the cult, displayed psychic abilities. This destroyed the government’s masquerade of psychic operations around the world, and they lost control of their own agents. Now there was a new weapon that anyone could have, and they didn’t knew yet how to contain it.

While America isolated itself to recuperate from their economical disaster and world-war threats, the united Europe became the most powerful military force in the world, while Chinaand Japan were the economical axis. But even now, the former Russian cities were a menace to the rest of the world, not respecting world protocols of peace and inciting other cities to do the same, weakening the authority of the nations. And so, in this boiling world, the story begins…”

 

I’ll give some hints about each of the stories written later on in this blog.

What do I know about game writing?

You know, that was the first question I made myself when I thought about making this blog.
What do I know about game writing? Nothing really. At least, not more than you do. But I do know this; the games are stories, and all tales must be told. And besides, if it likes me, it might like others too. I’ve been a games player for 20 years. I started at my early fours. Back then all I could play was some arcade, and I wasn’t pretty good at it anyway, but I still loved it. The other things I played were board games (you know, Snakes and Ladders type of games). But even then I wanted to make my own games, so I did board games (the only kind I could design at home at four). I created many, but the best was a RISK kind of game, but the objective was to capture all enemy bases, and it featured different type of units, like tanks, planes, infantry, submarines, etc. I consider that a great achievement because when I made that game, I had never heard of RISK before, so I’ve created from my mind a game of a similar caliber than a world renowned game and that was good for me, but it was far from being enough. Since I met electronic entertainment I’ve wanted to make my own game. After a long time trying I realized I was getting nowhere with my development skills. I did do some minor programming, some 3D rendering, some concept art… but that was it. I don’t have time so far (but still trying) to develop my own game. Then why this fixed idea, this obsession of making a game? I know the answers; the story. I wrote a couple short stories in paper and I’m very proud of them, but the real deal is the story for a game. The way is told is unique, somewhat like a movie, but still has a connection a film don’t. I used to play games to know the story but I left that behind. I mean, you are the character, is your duty to fulfill your mission, to reach your goal. That was a decade ago. Nowadays a gamer experiences the story like never before. And there’s the magic of writing for games, the way of telling stories, to make the people feel them like their own. And I have all these stories in my head; they are asking me to be told, to be experienced, to be lived. Maybe I cannot develop a game right now, but the tales will be told. And either if you are going to collaborate in their making or just to witness them, I hope you enjoy it. And if you find this inspiring, then write your story; because all tales must be told.