I'm Making a Video Game Part Two - The Premise

Heyo. Zed here. This is my second post about the making of my upcoming video games Astral: Allegro and Astral: Alliance. Astral: Allegro will likely be out first so I’m focusing on it here. Astral: Alliance is more complex so I need to do the simpler one first. We’ve reached the second step of the game design process, concept. Naming a game is a hard job because a name has to sum up the game’s concept and purpose. Then, if they don’t fit together in that order, the name has to be redone. It’s a lot of work coming up with one name and often a project can go through six of them before it sticks.

So onto concept. In place of explaining the entirety of Allegro’s plot I’m going to give some samples of the character dialogue in the opening few chapters of the game. Allegro centres around a war that was brutal and utterly unnecessary. No one knows how it started or who is to blame, so our main character Reconnaissance Officer Araden Relgrove is sent in to find out what really happened. Most people in the nation he works for share the same surname so military officers there go by their rank and then their first name. Here’s the opening dialogue in his voice. All voice acting will be done by me. Yes, I am trained for that.

Araden: War was here. It was here. Past tense. I'll put it briefly. War was fought. Warsongs shouted. Guns fired. Swords drew red with blood. Soldiers breathed their last. Then it stopped. That was five days ago. The trouble is, no one knows what it was over. The records don't add up. And so I've been sent in. To find the leaders and soldiers and hear their stories. To find the reason this all happened. To put it longer, well, I'll write up that version when I'm done. Now, North. North to the field camp. One day’s journey away. My first assignment is there waiting for me.

Then the dialogue with him and his first assignment.

Grimar: Well. You look like a man who just walked three days through the wilderness to meet a complete stranger and ask him for his life story.
Araden: That about sums it up.
Grimar: Well met. I'm General Commander Grimar.
Araden: I'm Reconnaissance Officer Araden and you're wrong about one thing. We have met.
Grimar: Really? Where?
Araden: We did basic training together. I was the one who almost got discharged for reading a book during weapon drills.
Grimar: Oh, I remember you. By the way what book was it? I never knew.
Araden: It was the basic training manual. I stole it from one of the instructors.
Grimar: Did you ever graduate?
Araden: Yes. A year after you did. I did one tour aboard the navy and then mustered out to teach military ethics at Cess.
Grimar: Well I'd say that worked out well. (Pause.) Did all of your students die on you?
Araden: Yes.
Grimar: Mine did too.
Araden: Perhaps we should talk about that.
Grimar: Perhaps we should.

Araden: Record starts now. I’m writing.
Grimar: Good. This tale will be short. It will not be a tale of forgiveness, mercy or kindness. I fear I don’t have those things left in me anymore. It will be a tale of death. Well, that was all I had prepared. That was a bit shorter of a tale than I expected.
Araden: Just tell me, how did the fighting start?
Grimar: Very well. I heard gunshots while a routine border patrol was out scouting. I went out with the whole detachment to take a look. I’m going to point out here that I’m not a combat officer. My main job is handling logistics and food supplies for the patrol teams. I’m not trained for combat. Yet, here I was. Surrounded by three dead border patrol. All my students, with shots being fired at me and my men. I drew a blade and I fought. For the life of me I don’t know what it was over.

There’s the concept phrased in a plot. That’s proof it works. The gameplay will be built around this character and narrative. That part comes next. This is where the code part starts with assigning button mappings and damage calculations. More later.

Zed