Design notes

Pitch Concept

You can find the original pitch in this forum thread.

An aged adventurer has a form of memory loss. To solve a mystery, they must gain access to and travel into old memories (some real, some fake) to collect clues.

Mechanics

The hub area includes a bunch of different objects which, when selected, trigger a memory. Within each memory, you have to piece together clues. When you trigger a memory from within a memory, a new object appears in the hub.

Aesthetics

In keeping with the community-driven nature of the project, each scene can have its own visual style. The adventurer's appearance - gender, race, species - can also change per memory, although they will retain one notable characteristic throughout (e.g. a scar). It would be best to keep the reason for this shrouded in mystery at first - and then we can work out whether the character is just a human with dementia, or a being that can change form.

Suggested story ideas

(note: some may be alternatives to/contradict the current ideas in place)

• you've always wondered why this mysterious person kept showing up in your life but were never able to examine the clues. Now a new piece of tech has been developed that allows you to do so.
• a young space-detective comes to visit you one day because they're trying to piece together the identity of a mastermind criminal, and for whatever reason clues to their identity are scattered in your memories
• a former sidekick or fellow adventurer comes to visit you one day. They know that you always felt the presence of this mysterious figure but could never gather any evidence - now they've gained access to this tech that will allow the protagonist to travel into and interact with their memories and gather these clues. We could also see younger them in one or more of the memories.
• The character changing appearance is due to a cloaking device
• the mystery is them trying to figure out why they retired. They have woken up one day in their room and they try to take a job but get told they have retired.

Suggested mechanics

(note: some may be alternatives to/contradict the current ideas in place)

• The player must work out whether a memory is real or fake. This may be part of an end-game puzzle where they ahve to piece together the solution, change the ending of the story, or merely reflect the player's reading of the character.
• different mechanics/views per memory
• finding the trigger object inside each memory triggers something from the recent present to reveal itself and returns the player to the adventurer's room.
• a galactic database you put search parameters into - e.g. if you find a size five footprint, you can put their shoe size in.
• the database pulls up all possible suspects each time you enter some info in. So you put in size five shoes, it shows the result is ten billion known galactic residents, but once you've got ten specific things in there, it (randomly) generates twenty different suspects with various things that the clues point towards, so they're all in different fish-smelling jobs etc.

Suggested memories

• fought a beast on an alien planet
• got lost in the supermarket as a child
• crash-landed on a medieval planet and settled down in a happy relationship for a few years (but clashes with the local lord would soon lead to tragic consequences)
• were a cop in the 1970s (fake - tv show)
• were in a black and white mansion (fake?)
• studied wizardry
• end of the world on New Year's Eve
• the reveal of why the adventurer has amnesia (senility or Altzheimer's? Went mad trying to figure out the mysterious figure's identity? Conked on the head during an adventure?)
• the reveal of why the adventurer retired
• in space - the adventurer has to leave their capsule to recover the "master screw" that has floated off to space. Players control him/her with thrusters, which makes for a challenging screw chase! Once back in the capsule, the screw serves to something fun or cute. Like holding the portrait of a beloved into the walls, or putting it back on the space toilet
• You're an assassin in a fantasy world. Your target could be a prince next in line for the throne. The prince is always going out hunting and the best way to assassinate him would be to break into the stables and rig his saddle with a poisonous needle.

Suggested clues

• a distinctive smell (e.g raw fish - tells you where they work)
• discarded medicine (e.g. an inhaler - tells you they have asthma, perhaps extra details on the label)
• some spittle/phlegm near an animal or plant (tells you they have allergies to that specific thing)
• sampling a vapour trail from a spacecraft
• a song (their wedding song?)
• a footprint

Please also see the Longer Term Ideas page for ideas that are out of scope for now but will get included if we have the time and resources.