Story Wise

[SuXoR]

I was wondering if any of you knew about anything that was being done in the plot/story or theme department of overgrowth. I've looked through the wiki that focuses mainly on lugaru and I've read a few posts I found with the search engine on various aspects or thoughts about overgrowth lore and race-specific traits, but nothing really on the themes that overgrowth addresses (or aims to address). Kind of along the lines of, besides making an anthropomorphic fighting game, is anything being done at the moment to make this game emotionally deep or thought provoking?

I just finished braid and what really struck me about the game wasn't necessarily some amazing game mechanic or cool graphics (which it had), but the way in which it decides to tell a story and convey a sense of real human sentiment. The whole mood was what really made the game great. I was wondering if anyone knew anything about the effort being put into this game to make it more than just another flashy fighting game

(and I completely get that it's not yet finished and still has a lot of potential for growth, I was just curious as to whether or not expansion into non technical sides of game creation and story telling had been taken yet. If not, oh well!) Thanks!

[Korban3]

I know some people who have information on Overgrowth's story. It's a bunch of weird guys down in California who spend all their time making some weird game about bunny ninjas. Problem is, they aren't going to be coughing up that info any time soon, capiche?
But this Ninjas guy down there is makin' a comic, see? While it's not directly the story Turner will follow, it should give their fans a pretty good sense of what to expect from the Overgrowth universe, see?

[underthedeep]

Lugaru's story was very grim, and i expect Overgrowth's story to be equally or even more so. It's a dog eat dog world out there, and this game will be a prime example.... i think.

[Fidchell]

Lugaru's story was very grim, and i expect Overgrowth's story to be equally or even more so. It's a dog eat dog world out there, and this game will be a prime example.... i think.

There's no doubt about that. I am too, however, hoping for a deeper story that is emotionally investing and possibly even epic alongside the grimness. Lugaru's story, regardless of the little twists and turns, turned out to be pretty straightforward and uninspiring. That doesn't mean it's not a hell of a fun game though.

[SuXoR]

As wolfire is an indie company, I suppose I hold different expectations of them (or would like to) than I do of big name games. I kind of think that the benefit of indie game designing is that you can take games in artistic directions that break out of mainstream molds, textbook story arcs, and overall subpar emotional content that fills most smash and bash games. Mirror's edge has probably the best parkour out there and is beautiful, but the story is rubbish. Why do we need just another one of those?

I'd imagine that the wolfire team would like to not only make a pretty cool game with some new features, but to make that game a piece of art that not only gets a lot of respect, but even possibly shows the gaming community how to take games in new directions. I really think strong story and emotional content (or at least thought provoking) is at the core of that. I was wondering what, if any, creative checkpoints the wolfire team has set up for their project - what messages do they want to deal with, how do they want to portray those themes, and how do they want their audience to interact and ultimately experience it. As violence is a major part of the game, will morality be addressed at all? Why use animal instead of human characters? Do the anthropomorphic characters serve any purpose other than to look cute? Will the game be a static experience that every player experiences in the same way (mission start: kill 3 wolves. mission end) or will there be story-altering choices, customization, and player agency? Do they want it to be a deeply moving game that addresses mature topics?

essentially what exactly is the thematic direction of the game? That's been left very ambiguous so far, and that's half of the intrigue for me at least. I would be disappointed if all they did with the animal characters was to divide the subtleties of human emotion and morality into easily categorized and generalized races (with the rogue exceptions of course, drizzt). There's probably a lot of this they couldn't release anyways, because of spoilers and preproduction craziness, but there's been very little mentioned so it makes me wonder if it's being considered. It's also interesting to hear what you guys have to say about it though ^^

[Korban3]

Hm, I think David answered the "why animals" question in the RPS interview. It was to avoid the uncanny valley, to play on stereotypes of species and so that he didn't have to look at gruesome wounds actual beings over and over again just to debug.
As for the rest, I dunno. I'm not sure how deep or moving they want the story. I'd personally love to see a storyline that follows realists of the 1800s: Everyone's fucked, get over it. For instance, if Turner meets a cat that wants to help him they buddy up for a while. After a few battles and some close calls, the player has begun to feel a connection to the cat character. So Turner and the cat get captured, the cat is skinned alive by raiders and roasted over a fire while Turner watches and waits his turn. He's suddenly saved because wolves come in and start tearing the raiders to pieces and his bindings are torn in the confusion. Turner escapes, but his mental stability is screwed and he won't be able to sleep for weeks because of the trauma. That's a storyline. But then again, I have a sick sense of humor and hate froofily plots.

[Count Roland]

Yeah the point of the anthropomorphic animals isn't to look cute, it is basically just to avoid the uncanny valley and all that. they have also said that they intend to have far more choices in this one than in the last one, especially in how to beat levels.

[blackwrapper]

Having an amazing story would made such a fun game that even better. I can see a lot of things being possible and can't wait to see where it goes. Maybe Whale man will come in at the end and be like the jesus of the world hahaha.

[Fidchell]

Now that I think about it, Lugaru actually has a very good and potential storyline; it's just the WAY IT'S PRESENTED that makes it fall flat. I understand it is an old game and all, but the story and dialogue just seemed very rushed through and not focused on enough. I understand this was probably the intention, but I'm just saying.

[David]

I'm hoping to focus the story more on emotional turning points this time, and less on conspiracies and organizations. I'm not sure how it will turn out, but I think that will be a better direction.

[SuXoR]

I'd just like to see more story and world lore availible to the public because it helps a lot of the community participate and contribute to the cannon (be it fan art, short stories, maps with connections to the worldlore, etc). Gives us guys who dont know anything about modding or game design things a chance to add our 2 cents

[Endoperez]

I'd just like to see more story and world lore availible to the public because it helps a lot of the community participate and contribute to the cannon (be it fan art, short stories, maps with connections to the worldlore, etc). Gives us guys who dont know anything about modding or game design things a chance to add our 2 cents

Pet peeve - it's CANON. Cannon is a weapon.

They wrote a blog postabout this few years ago. It's worth a read if you're interested in this sort of stuff.

[Korban3]

Also, the art asset video showing the world map concept also showed a lot rabbit runes that Aubrey was going to be able to use in his assets. I like how deep that shows OG might be I'm also going to appreciate an emotional storyline over an action storyline. That's what was sweet in Half-Life 2: you had those more psychological story bits that were all sorts of awesome.

[SuXoR]

@endo - I definitely dont want to see anything related to the actual overgrowth game storyline. I was more referring to a desire to see more general worldlore (timeline, official map, religions, more detailed racial/clan backgrounds, geopolitics, economics, famous cities (are there even cities?) etc). I think it would help give ppl a lot more to look forward to other than just whether or not they like cats as opposed to dogs or rats and etc. Basically there are a few scraps of info on parts of the world that you could hunt down but nothing for you to actually understand any particular aspect of the world.

On the flip side, fully articulating a detailed world where everything is explained can take away from the mystic of the overgrowth world (and open them up to a bunch of critiques). I dunno if it's their intention to leave a lot of the details behind "why?" questions a mystery. (Although from the sound of it there are already a bunch of politics so if that's already going to be there then not explaining how it works would be a shame)

[Shotgun Steve]

I mainly purchase games for the story setting alone, but I only pre-ordered this game because of how the gameplay works.

Even so, I'm curious to see how the plot works out in Overgrowth.

I'm sorry to say, I have not played Lugaru.