2060

Overview

This is a story and some gameplay ideas for my own video game. Is about our future and what happened to our planet. About a war between good and bad. A game where you play different perspectives. And a game with decisions. And last but not least a bit of magic is involved.

Story

It all starts with a narrator who tells the story of the past decades. The Beginning is the “Fridays for Future” movement in 2018. He explains how the humans destroyed the planet and that the young people got more and more angry about that. Pictures of natural disasters are shown. Especially the difference between rich and poor people grew over the years drastically. Poor people suffered and were affected by climate change much more than the rest of the world. Huge problems raised like famines, very long dry periods and a lot more. But the richest in the world ignored these problems. They continued drilling for oil and gas to run the world economy. One of the most devastating aspects of climate change was desertification. Huge regions in the world became unfriendly for life. On top of this came a lot of poison pumped in the ground to get the deeper located resources. All this together caused the poorer people to move away from their home countries. In 2035 80% of humans already lived in the northern hemisphere. And the world population decreased to 5 Billion. A lot of small wars destroyed a lot of countries just to collect their resources. Water became the main reason for many wars.

After this disturbing intro the game changes to the year 2060. This time the main story begins.

The narrator keeps telling some infos about the current status of the world. Leftover countries and people with power and money merged together to the “Future of Mankind”. Their leader is Victor Blackwell, a former leader of one of the biggest tech companies in the world. His vision is to save humanity and settle down on another planet. All members of this community live in small artificial cities or some kinds of military bases with very high security and hygiene standards. People who don't want to be part of this community live in harmony with nature. Some in old cities, some out in the wilds. Even in regions where a lot of people can’t live or don’t want to live, they found a way to get along with the conditions. This group of people is also structured in some kind of way. “Fight for Future” is their name and it evolved out of the “Fridays for Future” movement. Even though a lot of the members want to live a peaceful life in the nature that's left over, they have to fight against the FoM group because they still harvest everything they can get and need more energy to escape from the planet. And that's the reason for the word “Fight” inside their name. Now comes the key feature of the game. Because of the ongoing destruction of their natural habitats, the animals started to help the FfF resistance. First the people thought it was a coincidence and the animals are doing this driven by some kind of instinct. This is kind of true but throughout the fact that the people have lived in nature for a long time, a connection between the resistance and the animals began to grow. From time to time some rumors occurred that some people can communicate with one species of animals and can even learn their special abilities, that some animals have evolved over millions of years. It was some kind of signal of planet that it didn't want to die. All this happened until 2060 and the FfF fought a lot of wars against the FoM all over the planet to capture important points of interest for the FoM group.

The Narrator stops talking. And a small fireplace is shown. 2 childs with widely opened eyes appear. The narrator was the first main character who told this story of the past to his childs. “Why did you never fight for the FfF? Dad?”. “I am a pacifist. So I don't like violence. And I don’t want to belong to a group. And now you have to sleep.” This father lives alone with his childs. His wife died shortly after her second pregnancy because she was part of the FfF and was shot in a fight. But Scott (Name of the first character) doesn't want his childs to know this. It's a hard time for this small family living in a fire station at the border of an old city. Over the next weeks it's getting harder and harder to find food and Scott is worried about the future of his kids. He makes a hard decision and moves to a military camp of the FoM some miles away. Some people would think “How could he move to this group although they have killed his wife?” For him the FfF is guilty for the death of his wife, because they always wanted her to fight for them. She had a strong relation to animals especially to cats and was able to talk to them. And she had some kind of night vision if she was connected with her favorite cat. But nevertheless the decision to ask for help at the FoM camp is still a hard decision for scott.

Some weeks passed and the little family finally settled down in their new home camp. Scott starts to work as a mechanic for vehicles and machines, because he is a studied engineer. He is doing well and the local leader of the camp is proud to have support from Scott. Childs don't have to starve anymore, they have a small but warm flat, and the childs are able to play with other childs. So everything is fine. But sometimes Scott has to help out the military. Often only some security tasks to protect a konvoi or they need his expertise in engineering. Scared of the thought he really has to fight one day, Scott always tries to stay away from these additional tasks.

At the same time but in a different location the main character 2 is introduced. Mason is an 18 year old boy and grew up in the upper class of a small city of the FoM. His story starts with a film sequence where he is fighting against the troops of FoM. He is surrounded by multiple animals and looks like a superhero from an occurrence perspective in the cut scene. Fast like a cheetah, brutal like a bear, camouflaged like a chameleon he is slashing through the enemy. Rapidly changing his abilities and his tactics he is the invincible king of the battlefield. At one part a close up face to face scene is shown where Mason grabs a guy on the throat and wants to give him a vanomous bite. The soldier screams “Where the hell are you coming from? Beast!!”

Here the screen turns black and and a review starts where the story of Mason is told.

Mason grew up in a smaller military base and had a good childhood overall. At least until he and his family had to move to the bigger capital of the FoM. In “The Oasis” (name of the city) all leaders of the FoM are working together. (This is the scene where the player starts the journey of Mason).

The first famous person Mason meets is Sarah Fleming. The biologist of the community and the mind behind the health rules. But Mason doesn’t know why this honor is offered to him. His parents know it and they are absolutely excited to get new connections in the upper power levels of the FoM. The day comes and Mason is invited to the laboratory of Flemming to pass some tests. She makes a few scans and asks a lot of questions about his relationship to animals. Mason tells her a story of his past. “I was able to speak to a squirrel. He told how hard it was to find something to eat during winter. From there on I continued meeting him every week and we became good friends. But suddenly he disappeared and I never met him again. Nobody believed this was true. But I don't care, it felt real. ” “I think you are telling the truth, to be honest” , Flemming answers. This is the key to get Mason's trust, even though she really trusts his story it was a clever way to build a relationship with Mason to normalize the tests on him that will follow. So over the next few years Mason is the test bunny for a lot of research. He never really knows why he is the one who has the honor to work with such a famous person in the community. With all the knowledge Flemming has gained, the FoM was able to create a specific gas and couple of other things to prevent people from using their animal skills and to connect with certain animals. And they created a genetically modified DNA serum to prevent infants from evolving such kinds of skills or relationships to animals. Overall the FoM tried to find the reason for this unordinary connection between humans and animals and to exterminate humans with these skills. That's why they always tried to keep this secret and lots of people with knowledge about this got arrested or killed.

Short knowledge input

Just a few people in the FoM knew about the abilities the FfF fighters got. And when Mason was 13 the animal world already fought side by side with the FfF but it was more intuitive than controlled. Some rumors were already around about people talking and interacting with animals on another level.

It is a normal trip for Mason and his family to visit their old home town. It was always a funny trip for all of them and Mason always misses his old friends and the whole environment in his old town. These days Mason is already 17 years old. Sadly he and his family are getting attacked on the road during the ride to his old town. His parents have become one of the most important weapon dealers in the FoM that's why they are a priority target for the FfF. During this attack Mason realized that he isn’t the only one who is able to interact with animals in this specific kind of way. He sees one of the most talented fighters of the FfF, who has the ability to talk with a bunch of eagles which start the attack on their car. Luckily Mason's parents have a lot of guns inside their car and they hit the soldier from the FfF with specialized ammunition. Mason observes the behavior of the attacking birds change immediately, it isn’t as coordinated as before. Because of these circumstances they arrive in their old home town alive. At the same evening Mason tells this story to an old childhood friend ignoring the words from his parents. They have a conversation about everything that happened in the past years. His friend is concerned and said, “I don't know but for me these stories sound super suspicious. Don't you think they used your connection to animals to develop weapons against people like you?”.

This is a mental breakpoint for Mason. He realizes what happened during all these years. Heavily disturbed about this he makes the decision to leave the FoM. But before that he wants to have a last word with Flemming. For his parents he only writes an angry and disappointed letter. When entering Flemmings laboratory she asks, ”Mason what's going on you are not looking happy today.” With a harsh voice Mason answers, “No a I am not happy and you are the reason for that!!”. In a heavy conversation where Flemming denies everything about Masons theory they come to the point where Flemming thinks it's the best for him to give him a medication he doesn’t know. Justifying it with a post traumatic emotional outbreak because of the attack some days ago. Sha raises her arm to inject the medication. Suddenly everything starts to move dramatically slower. Mason perfectly dodges Flemmings attempt to inject the serum and immediately knocks her out with a heavy glas vessel. He knows he has to escape and so he does.

Some weeks passed and Mason had to survive on his own out in the wild during this time. From day to day Mason is more and more confused. He hears a voice and thinks he is going to be crazy, because he couldn't really figure out where this suspicious voice comes from. Always looking out for some animals around that try to contact him, Mason realizes that the voice tries to guide him to a specific place. After a one day trip Mason reaches a small lake surrounded by various trees and other plants. A beautiful little place on earth that wasn’t touched by all the destruction from the past decades. Mason shouts, “And now? What should I find here at this lake? The reason for life?”. Some seconds pass and nothing happens, but what is that? The water starts to shake and a snake like animal out of water forms itself. “Wow, what or who you are?'' Mason asks the spiritual, floating ghost that is getting closer and closer to him. It answers his question with a ground shaking voice, “I am the spirit of life you would say. Hahaah.” It feels like the voice is in his head and in front of him at the same time. Or to be more precise it is everywhere. “I think I'm hallucinating, must be the dehydration or something,” Mason says to himself. “No, you are not. And I will explain why. I guided you to this place for a reason. This place hasn't changed for thousands of years. Nobody ever touched it and it is the habitat of many different and beautiful animals and plants. Life is strong here. But we don't have the time to talk about me and my origin. You are the one whose destiny is to save the world.” After some seconds of deeply looking into the eyes of the appearance Mason tries to build a sentence: “W..what is this destiny about?”

Masons Destiny

In a long and breathtaking conversation the spirit explains to Mason why she contacted him. He is the only person on the planet who can get into a deeper relationship with multiple animals and learn their abilities and can even turn into an animal for some time. The spirit searched for a person like him for years. And it already contacted him. It was leading the squirrel back in the days when Mason was a child. This was the first sign that he has a strong connection to the animal world. Also the tests made on his body contributed to strengthen his connection. The spirit explains that the researchers and Flemming knew about that, but they needed this stronger connection to gather more infos for their own purpose. Mason sadly whispers: “That's why they chose me. I knew it.” Another point to prove its words the spirit mentions the situation in the laboratory of Flemming. The spirit was the one who gave Mason the ability to act this fast. In the end the spirit sends Mason on a quest around the world to learn all the abilities needed to defeat the FoM. Hard training is needed to form a relationship with all those animals and to master their way of life. “I will always be there to help you because I am inside of you and everything that lives. Don't forget that,” the spirits talk inside the head of Mason. “One last question I have. Why don't you just kill the bad people on this planet? If you are inside of everything ,” Mason asks. ”How should I kill myself? That's a paradox. I can only lead the individuals to a certain kind of way to kill a being that has forgotten me and sense of life. Because if I don't, this planet could die and humans are not made for life in the eternity of space.”

More about the spirit

The spirit could be described as some kind of god. Its story could be told during the whole game in smaller parts. Or it could be connected to certain situations where it fits to explain more of its origin. Mainly its the bundled consciousness of every piece of life. Over millions of years it grew and grew. Because more forms of life caused it to grow its energy. Natural security mechanics, like earth's magnetic field, were formed by it to save life on earth and guarantee stable conditions for more complex forms of life. Even humans were a result of its goal to create more and more complex creatures. Unknowing that this species could destroy all the efforts made by the spirit. So the whole circulation of nature is guided by the ideas of it. The density of life grew over the years and the spirit stabilized this growth by setting certain life spans for beings and the predator and prey system, mechanics like photosynthesis and the utilization of the sun's power in general. This all leads to this one consciousness.

Regarding the circumstances of this global connected, conscious system the destruction of nature made by humans would lead to a devastating disaster. A chain reaction would decrease the overall power of the spirit and the system would collapse. No protective magnetic field anymore, no ozone layer and all bad things follow up on these events.

Why did it create the human race?

The human race was a project to stabilize the power of the spirit even more. It needed a form of life that could understand the greater reason for things that happen. This whole idea was triggered by some incidents that happened. Especially when earth's whole atmosphere began to burn because of the high carbon dioxide concentration in the air. Some bad decisions kicked off this whole chain reaction and led to this terrifying event. The pure size of earth's life and complexity began to overcome the capabilities of the consciousness, although its power grew along with the life on earth, a cap has been reached to what it was capable of. And additionally there is no immediate solution for such kinds of problems. This needs a lot of time. So after these incidents happened a few times during the lifespan of earth a kind of security being was needed to be among the millions of beings. Skills like thinking ahead of your time, a very complex way of communication and a brain that's capable of all these kinds of skills.

Another approach why it created the human race is not as complex as the first one. Humans could just be the result of a long time experiment to see how intelligent life could become. It's a result of millions and millions of tests which lead to the human race and its unique skills. And every step before was planned to achieve the goal of a super intelligent being. But the spirit had not thought through the consequences of this experiment.

Religions and the greater being

All religions in the world could be interpreted with this explanation. Various people experienced a contact with the spirit and related with this they formulated the specific values and rules. If you look at the books of various religions in the world, they have a lot of things in common. Searching for the greater being, self-fulfillment, peace, nature is a god given thing and should be respected and some more examples. But more ancient cultures had a much stronger connection to nature and with their own body compared to modern religions where a few powerful people took advantage of these old values and tried to control other humans. Ancient people felt the spirit and gave it lots of names. In general the connection between the spirit and the humans got worse and worse. Until the point where this unique consciousness was forgotten at all.

Coming back to the mission, the spirit followed with the creation of humans. The humans began to care more about their own thoughts and needs instead of the ones from the spirit. Who could blame the humans for that? There were no consequences for any individual until a specific point of time. In order to save the planet the humans gained this connection back because they were forced to live in and along with nature and its animals. These special circumstances and some help from the spirit made the connections between humans and animals possible.

FoM Character Overview

Gameplay ideas

It could be a third person game
A given number of skills from animals, if you play as Mason. But Mason's story will have the main focus. Always need to choose before a fight/mission. Allows different play styles.
Call in animals for help
Metroidvania principal. Some areas need specific skills to get to.
Different kinds of rarity for animals to connect to. More unique animals are harder to learn. And leveling up these skills is harder but rewarding.
To become an animal or to learn its skills you need to transform into an animal and resolve quests. For example as a lion you will need to hunt an antelope.
Fast traveling is unlocked at the point you get a connection to a bird.
Communication between different groups on the earth could be done with fish and birds or insects. Or something like a natural data wire in the ground that uses the spirit's energy to communicate over big distances.
Each region brings its own master of animal life. The one person that already has a strong connection with a specific animal and you will learn from it.
Military side of the FoM. Equipped with slightly futuristic guns and technical equipment. Anti “shifter” ammunition for different kinds of animals and their masters. Outnumbered but heavily armed.
Open world gameplay. You always need to keep an eye on the influence of the FoM and the environment changes if the FoM or the FfF has an overhand in an area. Some things are harder or disabled for one fraction if it's not the superior of a region.

Core story goals

The FoM (Traci Moon) invents a special drill to harvest the spirit's energy from the earth's inner core. Mainly volcanoes are the point of access for this operation. Eruptions of volcanoes are some kind of valve for the spirit in situations where it was unable to keep the energy bundled inside earth. These drilling factories need to be destroyed.
The drilling and harvesting of any other resource is for the main goal to escape earth. An exoplanet is the destination of the FoM and a special spaceship engine needs the energy of the spirit.
FoM also works on a global bomb to eliminate all “wild” humans. And/or something to prevent them from connecting to animals.
FfF wants to stop them and save our planet.