you're telling me a queer coded this?

12.mar.2024

turns out - trying to write a story for a game, including interesting characters and game play that fits the theme - is very difficult!

i've taken a book for help, this one right here. it's very long and thorough, but i'm getting alot of useful knowledge out of it. still, i've been struggling alot trying to build around the theme i'm going for, since there is so many possibilities to go about it. for now, it's all about input. give me knowledge about writing stories. i am eating it up. delicious book yum yum. there are lots of ideas floating around in the noggin' tho. shall they be sorted out god bless amen

27.feb.2024

"spread happiness at the end of a post-human cosmos. A reset has been long coming."

...that's the working premise, anyway.

i'm not sure what specifically set this idea in motion, but towards the start of december 2023 i became increasingly frustrated with the state of generative ai and how it seems to be seeping into every part of the internet and beyond.

world of mud takes place long after humanity's demise. with only a few left behind, their souls preserved in machine bodies, they seek to rebuild. the protagonist (as of now february 2024, unnamed, undesigned, but decidedly a silent protagonist) travels across a desolate, forgotten earth, meeting these survivors.

originally, i wanted to base the "levels" on the nine realms of norse mythology, since i've been watching marvel stuff and it's pretty cool (hi to marvel watching friend :3). i really like the idea of having the sacred tree yggdrasil visible in the distance at nearly all times - beautiful but also somewhat imposing, kind of like the imperial city in the elder scrolls: oblivion. however: i have NOT made a game before. i can NOT bite off more than i can chew. so i think making the setting just be midgard (or earth) would be the smartest move. i can't possible make atleast 5 fleshed out characters for nine different worlds and have the result be good.

i sort of have in mind what i want the "antagonist" to be, with a really cool design-idea as well, but i have no idea how to tie them into the story yet, apart from them being called nidhogg and leeching off yggdrasil. in general, i have lots of questions regarding the story and setting that i feel i have to answer thoroughly, before i can move forward at all:

• how did this antagonist come to be? are they a left behind human, or something else entirely?
• what is their motive for leeching off the sacred tree? or are they doing it a service?
• what is the impact of the antagonist's actions on midgard and its inhabitants?
• just how far past the 21th century are we?
• is midgard still home to wildlife? were some flora and fauna able to survive and evolve?
• who is our protagonist? are they a traveler from a different realm, or also a fallen human? what is their involvement? the big point of the game is to talk to the inhabitants, learn about their lives, and help them with stuff. how do i make that believable without it feeling like fetch quests and nothing else? how do i write these characters to be intriguing and enjoyable?
• how do i do an exposition dump tastefully? how much detail should i give on how the age of humans on midgard ended? should the survivors have any memory of their time as humans? how much of their cultures do they retain? obviously, i'm writing the entirety of the game in english, (and if i'm feeling so inclined, i could translate to german as well), but something i've come to really enjoy is multi-lingual characters mixing languages in sentences.
• how were the survivors preserved? the general idea is that their souls were built into the machines that were left behind as the rest of humanity perished. either that, or their brains were kept alive by the robot bodies. once again, how much exposition dump, how much detail, does it need to be (somewhat) realistic?

so, still alot to be done. give me like a decade and i'll have something tangible to share. i'll update this page in some sort of way, or maybe make subpages like for the blog.

27.mar.2024

this one is less serious, just something silly i came up with. i like mythical creatures. i like gnomes. why not make a platformer / collectathon where you play as one? this is a potential GOLDMINE for environmental design. jumping through huge forests, exploring mysterious mountains, making your way through caves. same thing with character / enemy (?) designs, plenty of room for fun ideas. no clue if this would have a plot or not. but i'm hoping to keep this one in mind for the future.