By Rainier Lin, ’25
Time, Time Machine!
In this series, we’ll be learning about the different aspects of creating a video game and, along the way, creating one of our own. As a quick disclaimer, I’m not a professional! Take this as my process for planning a video game I can’t possibly carry out, so let’s learn together.
WOOO!
This first article will be covering the importance of choosing a time period and the process of doing so. Or simply a small rambling.
Finding a time period in our real world helps with building the basis for what does and doesn’t exist in the game. This will eventually support the development of the storyline, goals, gameplay, characters, visual arts, music, and themes of the game. A time period, in this situation, refers to a period’s association, like Medieval and simple romance, Victorian and steampunk, or strictly historical -which also holds its own fun.
So let’s start by narrowing things down and choosing what time period we’d like to use. Most of you are likely familiar with the European periods as our social studies courses cover things from The Battle of Hastings to the creation of Frankenstein. I also really like the Medieval Period, so that will be my choice. Usually, stories with this foundation have supernatural elements, wonderful swordplay, gorgeous knights in shining armour, and dialogue in “Old English”. Historically, we know that the real-life counterpart wasn’t so fun. There was a lot of fighting and taxes were created. The feudal system and crusades were not exactly the best, but these romantic fantasies did exist, somewhere, in the collection of literature we have left from that time. Before large scientific discoveries, people liked to answer questions with more creative freedom, though religion had a firm grasp over it most of the time because there wasn’t anything else.
Metrical Romance (or Chivalric Romance) is a type of narrative poetry which deals with the matter of Britain (King Arthur and the Round Table Knights), the matter of France (Charlemagne and his knights), and the matter of Rome (The Trojan Wars and all that fun stuff). It often follows a knight and his journey to accomplish a task and end up with a lady or learn something more about himself and the Chivalric Code. There are also roaming giants and gods and magic. In short, even these writers (reciters and singers) were hopeless romantics, romanticizing their despairing condition in the Dark Ages. So this is where our little connotation of lovey-dovey-magical-fantasy-realm came to be.
I think.
But, this is where I’ll be drawing my building blocks from, because focusing on a stock world is easier than piecing together our world with what limited knowledge we have of the Medieval period. This allows us to do less research into things that existed or didn’t exist while keeping the world constant. It would be annoying if, in a time when people still used torches and candles, every household had one of those cool colour-changing electric-powered kettles. That does not mean that it’s impossible to add things you like into the story, just that you’ll need to fill in more plot holes. Some people fill those plot holes by making the world more futuristic fantasy, or in some actual game examples, making swords and swordplay on par with that of guns. This way you can bring a sword fight to a gun fight and not instantly lose. For the plot hole part, we over-exaggerate the guild factions and build the guns with the technology they had, which should be possible if we impose some interesting descriptions.
Fuse
Crafted from the hollowed bone of the Walhtur Beast (a magical creature known for its extreme and booming voice) it holds the signature power of its owner. Some great craftsmen from the Kingdom of Hoond used the innate wind within these bones to propel forward items of destruction. Most Fuses found on the market bear artistic designs from Spirit Carries and incantations that enforce its speed and power.
(Names and Descriptions are references to Apex Legends as I now have a new fascination. But naming is extremely important and we’ll do it sometime later.)
Anyways, I’ll take some (for the game) knights, poor princesses and princes, some mythical creatures, magic (but not a lot, as I’d like the game mechanics to focus more on the physical damage that could be done using period weapons and armour), and the concept of marrying kingdoms because what’s better than unrequited love -that and forbidden love.
Foundation of Game World: Check :DDDD