discussion Aria of the Oceans - a Twine Project about Mermaids!

[Cunny Lord]

Well, here I go.

Basically, I have a Twine Sugarcube-based Text-based Adventure idea that I am tentatively calling "Aria of the Oceans". In terms of progress it's barely started and I am planning to insert a character customization thing before moving on to the meat of the project.

I will have portraits of characters, or at least I intend to. In terms of scenes they're all written, no special CGs!

In terms of World Setting:

This is the Earth of the future. A great cataclysm caused humanity to no longer be the dominant species on the planet. It would've been hard too, since there was leagues less land and a lot more water covering the surface. This allowed a race of beings that had remained hidden for eons - the mermaids - to emerge from the depths (or stay there I guess) to become the new dominant species on the planet.

Unlike mermaids of myth & legend, while many do indeed have the lower halves of fish, this trait extends to all kinds of sea creatures, from crabs, to octopi, and more - even fantastical ones like mythical water horses and sea serpents! Mermaids can alter their forms to be legged and humanoid, or take the forms of full beasts! It is possible that the form most associated with the word "mermaid" is some kind of intermediate.

In this, you play either a human that has found themselves within mermaid territory, or a mermaid that has been freshly created by an Elder mermaid. What shenanigans await you?

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What I want to figure out is: Where or how would humans come into the picture? This will affect the setting, and of course,

1. They still live here. If this option is picked, humans will be scarce, but their civilizations will exist in the form of floating ships.

2. They placed themselves in some type of hibernation. If this option is picked, you will be able to find dehydrated cubes (think the Megamind thing) that turn out to be humans of eras long gone.

3. They're returning from space. In the eras long gone, humans escaped the cataclysm by fleeing into space, and either by chance or intentionally, a small handful have returned on their craft/s.

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In this game, you are free to go places and forge relationships. My priorities lie in forging bonds with the wide range of characters and exploring the world.

 

[maestromancer]

Sounds pretty cool and unique, best of luck!

As for the humans, you could combine options 1 and 3 and do something like *Gargantia on the Verdurous Planet* where humans fled Earth to resettle in distant space but small populations of humans still live there on a floating colonies built by hooking their ships together. That concept has always stuck with me for some reason.

That said, I do like the idea of some humans returning from space and converting their space ships into floating (perhaps even submersible) sea vessels. It'd be cool if humanity was very technologically advanced but there were only a small number of them on earth, maybe primarily scientists and military gathering data in preperation for resettlement. Perhaps they mainly use drones for exploration, defense, and labor to make up for their small numbers.

 

[Cunny Lord]

Funny you should mention Gargantia - the very first prototypes of this project had elements lifted from that - including the idea that the remaining humans had explorers that continuously scurry to the depths in deep-sea amphibious mech suits to relic hunt. People also compared it to Waterworld, but Waterworld did inspire Gargantia so... potato potato.

 

[maestromancer]

Funny you should mention Gargantia - the very first prototypes of this project had elements lifted from that - including the idea that the remaining humans had explorers that continuously scurry to the depths in deep-sea amphibious mech suits to relic hunt. People also compared it to Waterworld, but Waterworld did inspire Gargantia so... potato potato.

Everything is a remix after all

The whole Waterworld thing really is such a fun concept and really doesn't seem to have been explored enough in terms of post-apocalyptic settings. I've got a few games on Steam that I keep an eye on just because they have similar vibes.

 

[AlBetGam]

You could if you wanted do all three- when the cataclysm came some humans fled to the stars and their descendants are now beginning to return, some froze themselves in the hope of being revived in a better world and can be found and woken up, and some just survived on the surface as best they could and their descendants now live on the floating ship colonies (I guess at a fairly low tech level?),

Might be more complicated to work out, but would allow interactions and distinctions between at least two separate cultures of humans.

 

[Cunny Lord]

You could if you wanted do all three- when the cataclysm came some humans fled to the stars and their descendants are now beginning to return, some froze themselves in the hope of being revived in a better world and can be found and woken up, and some just survived on the surface as best they could and their descendants now live on the floating ship colonies (I guess at a fairly low tech level?),

Might be more complicated to work out, but would allow interactions and distinctions between at least two separate cultures of humans.

I was originally going to have to a system where - assuming I picked the option of humans being scarce but present in these lands - the player character could pick between different "classes" where it would grant you different buffs and debuffs, based on your origins on whether you were a pirate, explorer or slave.

Perhaps this can be reworked if I take your advice, where a player character revived from hibernation has advantages that lie in what we deem as "modern", explorers are more lower-tech but have higher stamina, strength and all from being trained in the rougher future Earth and spacemen are more high-tech, but reliance on better tech makes them more intelligent but less strong. Something like that.

The mermaids initially had an equivalent based on your animal form (e.g. a crab would be more defensive, a piscine creature would be faster, etc.) but I decided to redo it so that your buffs are based on your main ability, and you were allowed to select any animal form.

 

[AlBetGam]

I was originally going to have to a system where - assuming I picked the option of humans being scarce but present in these lands - the player character could pick between different "classes" where it would grant you different buffs and debuffs, based on your origins on whether you were a pirate, explorer or slave.

Perhaps this can be reworked if I take your advice, where a player character revived from hibernation has advantages that lie in what we deem as "modern", explorers are more lower-tech but have higher stamina, strength and all from being trained in the rougher future Earth and spacemen are more high-tech, but reliance on better tech makes them more intelligent but less strong. Something like that.

The mermaids initially had an equivalent based on your animal form (e.g. a crab would be more defensive, a piscine creature would be faster, etc.) but I decided to redo it so that your buffs are based on your main ability, and you were allowed to select any animal form.

That would be cool!

 

[Cunny Lord]

I have come to a conclusion:

Inserting images, especially for a versatile avatar system and then some, might prove a bit ambitious for a starting point.

Furthermore, I think the most important aspect of a text-based game is... well... the text.

As such, what I intend to do is code the avatar system, but all intended images are placeholders - blank pngs, to be filled down the line.

With that burden gone, I believe I can truly start!