Story idea

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Akkernight
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Story idea

Post by Akkernight » Mon Nov 28, 2011 2:05 pm

So I just got an idea for a part of the story of Overgrowth that I find to be a bit original. The idea is still pretty rough, but in many stories there's always an ancient civilization that has gone extinct and traces of it's existence can be found, now what I thought would be interesting is if an ancient civilization in the Overgrowth universe, was humans. If I remember correctly, I believe I've gathered the information from Wolfire that they don't want humans in the game, but they don't have to be in with this idea.
A more detailed description of this idea is, that the story of the game Overgrowth takes place long after the extinction of the human race, and by now all the races used in Overgrowth have evolved to be as intelligent and humanoid as they are in the game. The reason for the extinction of the human race does not need to be known exactly. This also fits in as to why the races in Overgrowth use more primitive tools, they didn't learn anything from the human race, since the human race has gone extinct a long time ago.
With this idea, it is possible to have traces of the human civilization around in the world of Overgrowth, and perhaps some creatures can consider it as divine, etc. Along side it being original, or so I believe.
It would also be interesting to see human technology in the sky dome of the game.

This is just a rough idea, that I find interesting, please leave your thoughts and perhaps start an interesting discussion on the subject. Also I'm not acquainted with the story of Lugaru or Overgrowth ( Although I own both games, Lugaru is just too hard to beat), so I apologize in advance if there's a conflict with this idea, to the current canonical story of Overgrowth and Lugaru.

Thanks for reading.

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kehaar
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Re: Story idea

Post by kehaar » Mon Nov 28, 2011 6:26 pm

An excellent idea!

:wink:

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Korban3
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Re: Story idea

Post by Korban3 » Mon Nov 28, 2011 6:29 pm

Hm, I don't know if it'd be included in the game's storyline, but you can feel free to write some fan-fiction. I keep pushing it, but no one makes any. Maybe I should...
As I was reading the idea, I was thinking "Oh my geez this totally reminds me of that old DOS game, Inherit he Earth: Quest for the Orb. Like totally. There's the animal folk and they practically worship this orb that the humans made that controls the weather." After that, the story line goes into what makes it into Inherit the Earth rather than Overgrowth, but it just reminded me of it.

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kehaar
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Re: Story idea

Post by kehaar » Tue Nov 29, 2011 4:25 pm

Fan Fiction? Heck no, that's a story background for a Campaign plot!

All those awesome ruins had to be built by somebody... why not a vanished race of unknown ancestors? Heh heh.

Akkernight
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Re: Story idea

Post by Akkernight » Wed Nov 30, 2011 11:03 am

Korban3 wrote:Hm, I don't know if it'd be included in the game's storyline, but you can feel free to write some fan-fiction. I keep pushing it, but no one makes any. Maybe I should...
As I was reading the idea, I was thinking "Oh my geez this totally reminds me of that old DOS game, Inherit he Earth: Quest for the Orb. Like totally. There's the animal folk and they practically worship this orb that the humans made that controls the weather." After that, the story line goes into what makes it into Inherit the Earth rather than Overgrowth, but it just reminded me of it.
I guess the time needed to be put into writing a fan fiction, is probably the demoralizing factor. I have ideas for Overgrowth fan fiction, but there's little chance that I'll have any time until next summer. But fan fiction is always cool to read.
Also I don't know the game you mentioned.
kehaar wrote:Fan Fiction? Heck no, that's a story background for a Campaign plot!

All those awesome ruins had to be built by somebody... why not a vanished race of unknown ancestors? Heh heh.
The idea I had was that the story in Overgrowth is happening way after the humans made themselves extinct, perhaps after some conflict. So human ruins and artifacts would be highly technological, since the humans went extinct in what we'd consider way into the future. This explains how the mammals that are humanoid in Overgrowth, have evolved to become this intelligent and are walking on two legs.
So, relative to our time, humans perhaps went extinct in the year 10 000, and then Overgrowth goes on millions of years after that.

The more primitive ruins in Overgrowth could still be from the animal humanoids that are in Overgrowth.

SamW
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Re: Story idea

Post by SamW » Thu Dec 01, 2011 12:40 am

This is something small I just put together from what I understand of the crete monoliths. Along with references to the blog maybe you can find some interesting things in it. (In all honesty the history of the world is interesting flavor to add to the environment, however I think the story of Overgrowth will probably be more centered around the here and now) :


You may wonder what an old cat would be doing in a land dominated by the tribes of rabbits. It is true that the locals are most unwelcoming to my kind and it is true that most of my kin would rather not step near the many monoliths that inhabit the landscape. But, while others find their mysterious nature as reason to ignore them, I only see it as reason to study them in greater detail. You see these crete structures are the only thing that remains of a long past civilization.

http://blog.wolfire.com/2009/02/the-ruins-of-lugaru/

Nothing else of this civilization seems to exist anymore, at least nothing I could find. Anything else probably has been consumed by time. However, these structures and their peculiar tendency to repair themselves and resist degradation have made them particularly long lasting. This has also made them unimaginably sturdy. Even the deliberate chipping away at the rock surface and mining of the metal cores by the locals have not been able to topple the larger variations of these structures.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=pl ... xA2U#t=40s

Now, repair was an understatement, they seem to grow, but no one has kept a close enough record of these structures or been around long enough to verify this. Now if they do indeed grow, the don't seem to have any useful behavior. Perhaps such usefulness was also consumed by time. There is, however one thing that I noticed. They tend to flow upwards, and some structures reach higher than anything built by any existing species.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=pl ... 43s8#t=29s

In any case, if you ask anyone else, they aren't particularly interested in their origin or behavior. They seem to be more concerned about the pragmatic issues, how to best utilize the resources they provide. However, if you ask me, I have to wonder what kind of civilization would have such an obsession over such heights. What would they achieve by scraping the skies with their structures? Now I know vertical structures can be useful in creating more space on constrained land, but these structures have reached such astronomical heights as to be beyond the practical.

Akkernight
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Re: Story idea

Post by Akkernight » Thu Dec 01, 2011 11:39 am

That's a very cool idea with the monoliths, and it is nicely written cheers to that. The thing that excites me most about these monoliths now is that they fit in with my idea. The humans could have made self-repairing material, and the heights that they go to also fit, since humans are currently building upwards, and who's to know how far up we'll have gone in the future?
You wrote that yourself, right? Or was it a quotation from somewhere else, perhaps the blog?
But with the blog link, and the drawing, it seems that Wolfire already had the idea of the future setting, I didn't know of this.

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Korban3
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Re: Story idea

Post by Korban3 » Thu Dec 01, 2011 11:50 pm

Akkernight wrote: Also I don't know the game you mentioned.
Yeah, you wouldn't have :P It was on old DOS riddle game.
Here's some of the funnies in the game, although the video isn't the smoothest:


There also little things like some fox statues and when examined, Rif says something like "Those sure are some foxy statues." It's a pretty light-hearted game, and can be run using an emulator if you can find a disk or ROM.

But the game is pretty puzzly. I wasn't in the mood for puzzles once and didn't make it very far in. But it's cool.

Akkernight
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Re: Story idea

Post by Akkernight » Sat Dec 03, 2011 12:20 pm

Looks like Rush Hour 3 copied that "Who are you" scene from that game

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Korban3
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Re: Story idea

Post by Korban3 » Sat Dec 03, 2011 6:09 pm

Haha, really? I've never seen those films.

Nekros22
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Re: Story idea

Post by Nekros22 » Sun Dec 04, 2011 9:14 pm

The big question you need to answer is this: Why is it important that the characters in your story know or understand the "true" nature behind the monoliths?

What makes your setting fluff here important to your story?

Is there some sort of plague that only ancient human technology can cure? Is there an evil mastermind who wants to destroy another species so bad he's willing to repeat the mistakes of the distant past? Are the monoliths growing faster than they can be cut back?

Akkernight
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Re: Story idea

Post by Akkernight » Mon Dec 05, 2011 2:44 am

I never intended for the races in Overgrowth to know about the humans. I only had an idea for the story that players might find interesting, which can be built upon, so that players can perhaps see some monolith in the game and then think "oh yeah, humans made this", because they read the story on the wiki or somewhere else.
Other than that, by having such a distant back story, the game can include some technological artifacts and still have a solid story on why they exist. Also one of the ideas that I consider to be interesting, is that at a certain place in the game, where there's a clear sky, you could perhaps see some space ship, or other space related machinery, floating in the sky dome.

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Korban3
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Re: Story idea

Post by Korban3 » Mon Dec 05, 2011 5:52 pm

Nekros22 wrote: Are the monoliths growing faster than they can be cut back?
Never thought of that as a plot element. Having a (mostly) inanimate resource be too abundant isn't really the first conflict you think of when you write a story. :lol:

Nekros22
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Re: Story idea

Post by Nekros22 » Tue Dec 06, 2011 3:19 pm

Korban3 wrote:
Nekros22 wrote: Are the monoliths growing faster than they can be cut back?
Never thought of that as a plot element. Having a (mostly) inanimate resource be too abundant isn't really the first conflict you think of when you write a story. :lol:
Ha, yeah. At first glance it's not much of a conflict. Not very suitable for a quick and dirty action oriented story. Screenwriters call that a "Watch Out for That Iceberg!" plot. The source of the conflict is so slow and heavy handed that it kills the suspense.

But having too much of a resource, especially one that changes the face of a landscape, would be an interesting conflict. It's a double-edged sword. On the one hand, you'll never have to worry about resources again. On the other, the city you live in is being slowly consumed by the growth.

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Korban3
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Re: Story idea

Post by Korban3 » Tue Dec 06, 2011 5:29 pm

Yeah, serves to develop characters and the world better than actiony awesomeness.
Deer are the closest thing to that I can quickly think of. In the US at least, there are too many deer for how little forestry there is left and they actually can ruin their habitat because they over breed and flood the area with the population. So the government let's many of them be hunted. And they taste good. Very good.

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