the big idea

ok, this is the idea in a nutshell.

you play a man, whom can be best described as a wizard in training. the term wizard however is one that i don't particularly like... (I'm thinking Witchdoctor, for the implications of him being an evil doctor of something, or sorcerer... hmm, or a new term entirely.) who is trying to learn more about magic, i havent decided upon his motavations, however narrative is the key here, so i will be writeing the story soon enougth.

gameplay will be a difficult subject to broach. as this game will be predominantly about manipulateing people, puzzles, environments etc... to give the impression that you are more powerfull than you actualy are.

within all mytho's (is that the word im looking for?...) a magician,wizard, warlock etc character is seen as all powerfull limeted only by his imagination and his physical form. i want to turn this into a mechanic where the player is limeted in power but needs to manipulate those around him to beleve that he is all powerfull. but to what end?... will it secure his place in the next magical accademy? or will it frighten or ennamour people to/ againt you to push the plot along? will it do both? and so i need a system to limit the player and to grant him use over terable and dangerous powers at the same time. and i beleve i have found a way...

as a wizzard you will have learnt spells (tho "spell" is a word i might not use, its too cliché.) and these spells have varying effects, and these effects are grouped into nine schools. simmilar to the old dungeons and dragons wizzard/sorcerer spells.
incodently the dungeons and dragons rulebook (the complete mage, is where i found these images. they are produced by various fantasy artists, and are a good example of where my recearch is going. and also reproduced here without their permission, but as they are not generateing any revenue i dont supose that will be a problem.)

within these nine schools are all the spells that can be learnt by the player. the school of evocation for instance is where the spells that use some kind of force, and necromancy is all things that manipulate the dead.

these spells come in various levels of power, and are unpredictable and dangerous. a firespell might just singe the bad guy and hurt him a little. or it might explode and turn everything in a five hundred meter radius into a rageing inferno. further more a player has very limmeted controll over what spells he can cast. for instance you are about to have a fray with a npc, he is an angry guard, you hear a noise indicateing that your spells have canged (and frankly the creepyer this noise the better!) and in the corner of your screen your heads up display (i say heads up display, because it implys an overlay of information regaurding the game that is not visible to the charicter but is to the player, rather than the more common "interface" with i feel is a term that better describes the controller than what is going on on the screen... rant over now!) you are given information about what two spells you can cast. (only two?... hmm i was thinking in terms of the left and right triggers of an xbox360 or playstation3 controller, but it could just as easaly be all four shoulder buttons or another spell selection wheel.) perhaps one will be a fireball spell and the other a charm spell, you can choose the fireball spell, which because it is not just a fireball, but an evocation of a primal force that consumes everything it touches. may just hurt the guard or it may burn him, the tavern you are in, and everything around it. or the charm spell, equily dangerous but in a lesser manner. furthermore magic takes its toll on you!

rather than useing that age old idea of "mana" (i think the word comes from polonesian witchdoctors to describe volumes of magical energys) i want magic powers to be a curse tather than a blessing. like contracting rabies, you slowly derteriate into a nasty end. so every time you use a spell, depending on its power you become more and more wretched, untill you are barely human. so players have to watch how many spells they cast (or not.) and so the player is limeted only by how healthy they wish to stay. furthermore if a spell fails to do what you intended it to do, you cant repeatedly press cast spell untill it works again. you need to wait untill it is ready, simmilar to the cooldown idea in World of Warcraft, only the cooldown is hidden.

lastly players dont just need to receive spells, they need to practace them. and practace untill they become better, and more controlled. practaceing spells under certan curcumstances does not deterioate your physical form, ie within magic circles, on hallowed ground. and often are not as simple as using the spell alot, and are usualy a QTE (quick time event, where button combinations at certan times progress you) or a mini game (balance the air consumption of the fireball with its size and strength for a certan amount of time and receive a better understanding of the firespell.) spells come in four flavors:

arcane focus: this is where you first learn the spell. you need to gather reagents, objects of magical sucnificance to be consumed by your magical energy in a ritual that binds you with a spell. this means that the spell can be performed if you have these reagents, but the spell has a long cooldown and isnt particularly powerfull. and when it messes up, it realy messes up!

incantation: the next step is to write the spell down in a grimore, to place the spell in your mind. and practace it with a gesture and a spoken magic word. the spell in question can now be performed without the reagent, but only a limmeted amount of times per day. and further more can be chosen to be cast only once (some spells can be picked and stored for later use at a a future point)

gesture: the word is lost, these spells tend to be immensely powerfull and can be cast a limmetless amount of times per day. the cooldown is considerably less, but it requires a strong understanding of the spell.

natureal magic: once you have practaced the spell to death you gain the spell as an instant cast no cooldown spell that hardly ever messes up. is very powerfull and barely damages your form, however attaining this level requires hard work and perhaps a great quest on behalf of the magician.


this all however is just ideas that is floating around in my head. the point of this game was to make a statement about the suspension of disbeleaf that is associated with illusion and fantasy. it has to be a fantasy game (because im dealing with fantasy). it has to be a hyperreal fantasy game (where it is more real than real, in order to be taken seriously.) it has to make the player suspend their disbeleaf, and have the player suspend the dissbelef of the in game non player characters. by making a massive effect with minimum effort least he be consumed by his own magic. (perhaps a metaphor for imersive and addictive games?...)

now i just need to make my learning agreement!