Time for Video Game Design Again

 Hello. C J here. New project time. I have been working on Glaive, which was supposed to be my first video game project that sees full release. Glaive is running into some issues. Not technical or software ones, but I’m having no luck finding inspiration for it. I was hoping to use retro video games as the basis for the plot and genre. I can’t for the life of me find one that I like. Old MMOs have virtually no plot and RTS games reliably aren’t compatible with my setting or genre.

I’m going to have to work building the setting more without inspiration. Most of what I do involves some element of parody. In this case I have nothing to parody to give me a starting point. Glaive will happen, just not first. Glaive is set in the Arcane setting region. That region was scheduled to see a full book line as well to go with the game. Arcane will be worked on later once I figure out what direction to take it in.

So time for something new. Eternity. Eternity is in the modern day time period and is steampunk themed. The main race who dwell there are Eidolon, brightly coloured animal folk made out of the raw stuff of dreams and imagination. They are a young and naive race who have just ended a centuries long era of warfare. I’ve made a ruling here that any species from my setting can show up here in this setting region. I need that level of creative freedom to make this game work. So expect to see animalia, djinn, draconians and others here as well.

I have some sample Quantum cards detailing the setting region and its history in the Downloads link. Quantum will see a full release of the entire setting as cards later as one of its Expansions. This Expansion isn’t scheduled for years from now but I’m going to have to work on it early to make up for the lack of source material. I’m also going to look into making some PDF game manuals for the region. Steampunk has a lot more aesthetic and narrative to draw on than retro games.

Eternity is a single solar system with slower than light ships and a wide variety of creatures living within it. Despite the technologically advanced nations the planets are still mostly barren or inhospitable wilderness inhabited by monsters and their strange masters. These wilderness nations are also going to be playable. I’m repeating these concepts from my previous plans word for word in my notes. Just make the same structure with different species in it. This fix is not ideal but it has to happen. Here are the names of the ten playable nations and their descriptions. I’m still deciding on a main character.

Cydrath
Ranger
Blue Metal – Brass – Denim – Rucksack
The mostly blue scaled Maker nation occupies half of the planet with the same name and is prosperous and technologically advanced. They invented summoning and lost the most in the wars that followed.

Kydran
Industrial
Red Paint – Brass – Black Cloth – Rucksack
Kydran is a longtime rival of Cydrath politically and despite their similarities the lives of their people are utterly unlike one another. The industrialized nation favours big and strong over high tech and occupies the entire planet of the same name.

Carul
Hordes
Glossy Black – Black Metal – Black Cloth – Pale Leather
Carul is a strange nation of moors, toxic alchemy and converted people. Its people are mostly mutated monsters or the dark masters who make them but its culture is fair in its dealings with outsiders.

Basta
Exemplar
Silver – Blue Metal – White Cloth – Blue Cloth
Basta is a strange nation composed mostly of the orange furred Eidolon known as Stalwart. They are known for their unique magic fulled technology and their long slow descent as a culture into hedonism.

Mened
Knightly
Silver – Red Metal – Red Cloth – Gold Cloth
This prosperous but rigidly structured colony of Cydrath has declared itself its own nation within the last decade. Its mastery of the elements is absolute but no one knows why it is amassing military assets.

Beasts
Tribal
Steel – Brass – Hide – Teal Cloth
The Beasts are a breed of Eidolon with green scales who let anyone join their strange transformation based society. Buying or borrowing their technology off their neighbours, they occupy the other half of the planet Cydrath and the two nations have never worked well together.

Iliss
Imperial
Purple Metal – Brass – Black Cloth – Purple Cloth
Long ago Iliss was a prosperous land until an ancient cataclysm ruined it and turned it into a vast desert. Most races fled and founded nations like Cydrath but those who chose to remain have created a brutal and warlike culture unique to them.

Wild Lords
Clansmen
Green Metal – Brass – Black Cloth – Green Cloth
Someone has to take care of the wild places during this age of advancing technology. The Wild Lords are all part-beast shapeshifters who tread the line between noble beast and monstrous savage.

Crone
Shadowed
Green Paint – Black Metal – Dark Green Cloth – Black Cloth
Crone is a dark place, a whole planet of corrupted led by the god Ragnos to his own ends. Ragnos made the culture but lets the planet of raiders, pirates and criminals from other nations do as they please most of the time.

Darkflight
Zealous
Silver – Gold Metal – White Cloth – Gold Cloth
The Dark Gods are a cosmic mistake the true gods made ages ago. These dragon-shaped beings can turn others into more of themselves, creating a race of insect like monsters with draconic features known as Darkflight.

This is what I have so far. This is going far better and far faster than my previous game project did. I’m going to start looking into making those books soon as well.

C J Mcpherson