After Reset RPG [WIP]

[Mr-Nixon]

DESCRIPTION:
After Reset™ - a classic roleplaying open world game with old school top view, which action takes place in the future on Earth dying slowly after nuclear cataclysm that buried nearly all life on the planet.

PLOT:
Planet Earth. 132 years after the “Reset,” the thermonuclear apocalypse which ended human civilization. Around one third of the globe is covered by “Yellow Zones,” where the ruins of cities are covered with radioactive dust. In these areas, anarchist “Survivor” groups have taken control, and uncontaminated food and drinking water are valued at parity with human life. Another third of the Earth is in the agony of the “Red Zones,” the epicenters of the deadly anomalies which arose as a result of a nuclear chain reaction in the atmosphere, and the morphing of the planet. The majority of terrestrial organisms are not capable of surviving in the “Red Zones,” which makes it a perfect home for mutants and “guests” from deep space. The planet is unrecognizable and empty…

CORE FEATURES:
• EMOTIONAL AND PROFOUND STORY: it makes you feel nostalgic for the classics of RPG, such as Fallout 1/2, Torment Planescape, or Baldur’s Gate.
• LIFELIKE AND SERIOUS ENVIRONMENT: you are immersed in the tragic story of a dying world, surviving every day traveling among the ruins and anomalies, stealing and trading information, and interacting with other survivors.
• BRANCHING CHARACTER-DEVELOPMENT SYSTEM: Think, plan, and play through the development of your character in any way you choose, using our huge system of characteristics, items, perks, and skills, in the style of the best features of D20 and S.P.E.C.I.A.L.

GENRE: RPG.
TARGET AUDIENCE: males, 21+ y.o., from USA, Canada, Europe.
TARGET PLATFORM: PC (Windows, Linux), Mac OS X.
GAME ENGINE: Unity 3D.
GAME MODE: single-player, co-op.
WEB-SITE: www.afterreset.com

CONCEPT-ARTS:

CONCEPT-SKETCHES:

UNITY-SKETCHES:

[imaginaryhuman_1]

I really like the original concept artwork look and feel. For me it is far more intriguing and unique and gorgeous to look at than attempts made to convert these art scenes into low-polygon 3d models. If you could really do a great job of making your end product look VERY close to your original artwork, this game would be awesome.

[Myhijim]

I want it!

[Khyrid]

The art is pro.

[snowconesolid]

wow great art work. Looks really good.

[SevenBits]

Definetly one of the best sets of concept art I’ve ever seen. I hope you get somewhere with this.

[Gigabeat]

The concept art is beautiful! I’m looking forward to see more in the future.

[Mr-Nixon]

Thank you, dear fellows!

I will do my best to keep the work this way.

Btw, you can download several ambient tracks from http://www.afterreset.com/media in Media section. I am interested in your opinion about soundtrack too. E.g. main theme of AR series: http://www.afterreset.com/ARMEDIA/TEMPImages/Main%20Theme%20%5BFilippov%20Andrei%5D.wav

[piluve]

Love the music, love the art… Keep with it men!
See you!

[Mr-Nixon]

Recently, I read an article by game critic Sergei Tsiryulik for “Gameland,” in which, in my opinion, he takes a very deep look at the story component of games. In that the story in After Reset™ is set up as one of the pillars of the game’s concept, I wanted to take some time to look at some quotes from this article, which support my current opinion and point of view, and also add my comments, extrapolating on the issues touched upon in the article as they relate to the RPG After Reset™.

PLOT

Plots in games are typically overblown and clichéd. Naturally, demanding a totally original fable is inane, and generally speaking “there is nothing new under the sun.” Of course, a narrative will in some measure make use of genre cliché, but it is possible to play through the same scene in different ways, so you can give it an unusual context, give it a new meaning – why even bother talking about the whole plot! But the creators of the scenarios in games generally choose to (or have to) take the well-trodden path. This cannot be endorsed under any circumstances.

Mr.Nixon: I myself also suppose that the target audience was raised on such games as Fallout (1-2), Baldur’s Gate, Planescape: Torment, Fahrenheit, Mass Effect (1-2), and on such films as The Game, Identity, The Sixth Sense etc. We have been spoiled by plots. Most plot twists, entanglements, suspense clichés, and conclusions, we can predict in the first minutes of playing or watching – thereafter, we get bored, just as bored as we get with MMOs. In my years as a gamer, I’ve read many pre-release promises and nice words, which 95% of the time never came to fruition. So, I’ll be brief: the plot should be one of three pillars on which a game should be built; the idea that it should not be a trivial aspect comes not from marketing professionals, but from me myself.

SETTING

Of course, not every developer will be bothered with the depth of the plot, and not every game needs a plot, to be honest. But the world is a different story. In video games, the setting is more important than in any other type of art, though for the purposes of games, and interactivity: when we read a book, we try to reproduce the world by our own imagination, while graphic novels, films, and cartoons show exactly as much as the plot demands, games go further- they allow us to fully feel a part of new worlds, allow us to be in them, and interact with them.

Mr.Nixon: The level to which the setting of After Reset™ is thought out should not be less than that of PhB, D&D and the first Fallout games.

CHARACTERS

The character and outlook of a person largely formed by his or her surroundings – correspondingly, if we’re talking about some kind of thought-out world, then it is very important that the characters that live in it correspond with their biographies. In JRPGs, there are many times when a character who grew up in some backwater little town on the fringe of the inhabited world, is not just highly skilled, but the best swordsman on earth, who wears a super fashionable outfit with twenty-seven buttons.

Whether in medieval fantasy, or space operas – regardless of setting, the characters will of be one and the same archetype, born with a modern mentality, speaking a modern language, and concerned with the same problems that concern our contemporaries. This is especially clear in the aliens from Mass Effect: the ones who look least like people (Elcors, Hanars) are kept behind the scenes, and all the others can easily be imagined as earthlings with minor oddities.

Regardless of the uniqueness of the setting, a character’s personality and his biography should have something in common with what he has to do in the game. An illustrative example of a discordant non-correspondence is in Final Fantasy VIII, where the main characters act as an elite band of mercenaries, who kill tens and hundreds of enemy soldiers without a second thought, but in fact they are just normal school-kids, who know nothing of discipline and yet don’t experience even the tiniest worry for their life, or even a little doubt about the mountain of troops they leave behind them. And this is characteristic for a great many JRPGs.

And Western games are no less clichéd than their Japanese counterparts. The protagonist is almost always a middle-aged white man; if he has a partner or a group, then there is guaranteed to be a comic character, exuding his or her race/nationality. In general, everything is like a Hollywood action movie.

By the way, think about this: there is almost never a smart, or educated person among the protagonists- this is done so that the target audience can freely associate themselves with the characters. Know-it-alls are almost always the bad guys, who inevitably leave some kind of loophole in their genius plans, letting the heroes defeat him by their gumption, passionate, soulful impulses, and brute physical strength. Why not a smart, calculating hero for a change?

Mr.Nixon: Well sure, our protagonist is smart, educated and calculating. In any case, he starts out that way. The beginning of the game zeros out his abilities (which is harmoniously fit into the plot, no worse than in Planescape: Torment) and it is for the player to decide who the main character will become by the end of the game.

CONFLICT

In general, the overwhelming majority of artistic productions contain some kind of conflict. Having narrowed down the bounds of the current theme, let’s look at a conflict of interest of several sides, one of which is the protagonist.

In order to promise a suitable plot quality, it is necessary that the production reveal all sides in the conflict, and their motivations, to give a good basis as to why the conflict started, and show the consequences of its solution. An important quality of a good plot is moral ambivalence: it’s not for nothing that the black and white juxtaposition of good and evil is associated with primitive fairy tales for undemanding and unintelligent children.

The bigger the proportions of what happened, the more varied the sides drawn into the conflict, the better developed the interrelations and motivations of these sides and the more numerous and varied their clashes with each other, and thus the more full-bodied the plot becomes. Even if you throw away the concept background, a well-developed and well-depicted conflict can deserve credit all on its own. To illustrate this, one could take Martina from the epic novel “A Song of Ice and Fire,” or more relevant to gamers Suikoden II and III.

Mr.Nixon: I really want to give the atmosphere of incipient conflicts no worse than it was done in “A Song of Ice and Fire.” The proportions of what has happened can be insignificant to the player (eg. If he decides to live as a hermit, pilgrim, or desert researcher, not getting involved with things) or, very serious to him (eg. if he interferes in the business of concrete factions and the motives of independent people/beings). Thus, independent of the player’s actions, the conflicts should develop, but the player should have the ability to interfere in them and influence their development, and outcomes. Among a few of the factions in After Reset, I’d like to mention the United Governments, Stalkers, New Confederation, Black Sand etc.

THEME

The concept background, nonetheless, is that which immediately brings the plot to a principally new level. What exactly is the game about? What is it concerned with? Does it express any ideas, thought up by its creators? What is it trying to communicate to the gamer?

It is precisely on this ground that almost all plot-oriented games allow failure. What is the game about? About revenge. About good versus evil, light versus dark. About rags to riches. And that only. The majority of games confine their theme to a straightforward fable, which has nothing really original about it. And that is very, very pitiable.

Here it is easy to imagine an objection: there’s no reason to assign such advanced demands to gamers, we just make entertaining products, and not philosophic works. The answer to this is just as simple: first, we want to see videogames as a work of art, and not a shameful waste of time; second, there’s nothing preventing the product from being entertaining and communicating some thoughts; and third, even these ideas don’t have to be too profound on their own, or profess anything- it is enough that they give some food for thought.

And truly, there’s nothing to call it but fear. The makers of AAA-games are afraid that the public won’t accept deeper and more multifaceted stories, instead appealing only to the most primitive human emotions, not bringing any kind of light or food for though, nor elegant metaphors of day-to-day human problems. In fact, it is theme that separates the wheat from the chaff- that is, games which are not afraid to be called art become something more than a worthless consumer product, unfit for anything other than entertainment.

Mr.Nixon: I often get emails from players and representatives of publishers asking, “Is this a game about the apocalypse?” My answer is no. The atmosphere of the apocalypse is just a nice decoration. Right now, I don’t particularly want to answer questions like “What is this game about? What thoughts and ideas does it communicate,” because that would mean I would have to reveal maps, and details of the plot and other such things. I’d like to leave an element of pleasant surprise. But I can say that the theme touched on by After Reset, is very rare in videogames.

LOGICAL CONTINUITY

The second problem with continuity, which I’d like to mention, is the problem of plot holes, contradictions, and illogical events in the story telling. Everything is fairly clear here, and defending the right of such problems to be, is just stupid in my opinion.

Plot holes, all the same, are akin to banal aspects which aren’t fully explained, which many (not me) consider an important plot element, that go hand in hand with narrative: it is said that the more a game leaves to the player’s imagination the better. In my mind, leaving something unsaid in an important issue is only worth doing when the story demands it, when it is important to underline the irrationality of the setting, when an open ending is used to lead to important questions. Similar situations, by the way, are more often the exception than the rule and I am inclined to demand that everything in a game have an explanation.

Mr.Nixon: Yes. I don’t think you guys, nor I need another Lost. In the future, I’d like to make a list of questions from potential players, related to moral problems and on this basis try to bring them to life in the game. Personally, I also like the post-credit endings of Mass Effect 3 or Bioshock Infinity. If the developers have already decided linearly to kill the main character after a few sleepless nights, during which they fought with a player… if they’ve decided to kill him/us, then there’s no reason to take away that clearness with open endings after the credits- otherwise, the mind simply cannot make sense of it. It is good to marketing types, but bad for the player’s peace of mind.

SUSPENSION OF DISBELIEF

This point flows naturally from the last one. So that the user can fully feel a part of the game world, feel empathy in relation to the characters, and take the plot seriously, it is necessary that he believe in what is happening on the screen – even if multicolored bishonens are jumping from rooftop to rooftop on skyscrapers, and simultaneously growing wings. As a rule, a normal person has no trouble believing in any convention, in something unrealistic, to the point that the product applies its own internal logic in relation to this convention. The ability to abstract from the drive toward realism for normal perception of videogames is simply necessary – but unrealistic games should also have an internal logic. If the goal of the game is not the creation of a surreal atmosphere, the user should be informed of the rules and laws according to which this world lives, and all that happens in the game should stay within these confines.

A plot does not exist separately from the remaining game that makes it- or at least, should not exist this way. The unique features of the setting should have something to do with the other aspects of gameplay, and with the course of the story. In other words, if Spec Ops: The Line decides to reproach the player, then it should first give him a choice. If the plot tells you that ammunition is worth as much as gold, and desperate people have melted their silver jewelry into bullets, then a box with ten spare rounds should not be falling from each killed enemy. And of course, every genre has its gameplay conventions, but it’s important to try to minimize them, and the rest, which are really necessary, should be intelligibly explained, so that players don’t ask questions like “Why didn’t they use Phoenix Dawn on Aerith?”

Mr.Nixon: Guys, I want you to take a look at the fact that, our concept art notwithstanding, you can’t quickly find powerful armor, and a plasma cannon and go off to take everyone out. A large part of the game takes place at the technological level of Fallout 1 before energy weapons are discovered. With this, there is no cap- almost always realistic barter. Having a simple firearm and ammunition makes you practically a demi-god in this post-apocalyptic world. It’s not for nothing that many role-play gamers know me as a hardcore Game Master.

[Dooskington]

Fantastic work. Will be watching this. Closely.

[ShaneS]

That is impressive artwork

[squared55]

The art’s really good!

[Mr-Nixon]

A new piece of concept arts has been released for the upcoming After Reset™ Game.

THE PAST AGE

The golden era of humanity. A triumph of globalization personified by establishing United Governments. The concept of an organization representing interests of all civilized nations of the Earth was first proposed at the UN Security Council by the Alliance countries during the Second World War of the Past Age. After the war, unidentified members of the Council recognized that the organization was necessary and agreed to its creation, giving it the authority to act across the whole globe. This unit was given military as well as political resources to let it quietly suppress any armed conflict, from local ethnic disorders to regional wars anywhere in the world. The main aim of the organization at that time was to prevent global conflicts at short notice. After the collapse of the main geopolitical rival, who interfered with the organization and the commercialization of national interests of all the participating countries during the last century of the Past Age, any information on the organization hardly had appeared even on the pages of tabloids. However, as it turned out later, all the while the influence net of the consortium, its’ funding, membership, interests and character had been evolving, however, staying in the shade, even for some members of governments of the participating countries. The United Governments (UG) as a single organization representing the interests of all mankind became known to citizens only a few years before the Reset. By the time alien ships had appeared above and in the cities of megapolises the United Governments were forced to go public about their existence. For 2 BR years heads of the majority if countries possessing nuclear weapons, officially confirmed the existence and powers of the United Governments as an international organization representing the interests of the Earth and all humanity instead of the United Nations (in fact, being a political, economic, scientific and military elite of the society).

UG BUNKER INTERIOR

In the course of the Reset, after the nuclear strikes on the extraterrestrial objects, and the instantly ensuing chain reaction in Earth’s atmosphere, members of the UG elite, and the most advanced UG infrastructure, having previously been sheltered in deep-underground and underwater bunkers, were left to their fates, living in the bowels of the planet. All tunnels, mine-shafts, subway lines, and above-ground bunkers were either under impassable rubble, or sealed up tightly. Movements in the Earth’s crust, and a pole shift as a result of the Reset and t morphing, eventually led to the destruction of parts of the underground and underwater bunker-cities of the UG.

TARKOVSKY GHOSTS

During the Reset most of humanity of the Past Age died out, but several of its’ members managed to survive by turning to the deepest of all the human instincts - the instinct of survival. To the instinct, inevitably leading to the manifestation of other animal qualities of people: anarchy and struggling for resource remains, bloodlust and fighting for power, carnality, cannibalism and depravity. For the handful of those who survived the Reset and were left alone on the dying planet, primitive instincts became the only way to survive. These people began calling themselves the Survivors. In 98 AR in the epicenters of nuclear attacks (the destroyed capitals of the Past Age), as well as in some other post-industrial areas a dramatic change in the pattern of radiation background was detected: a sudden drop of irradiation to the acceptable for humans level, the appearance of migratory forms of radiation, as well as periodic bursts of radiation which remain unstudied. Covered with ash, but available for accommodation and looting, destroyed cities were almost immediately settled by the savviest groups.

EXPLORING AN ABANDONED CITY

Since the beginning of its existence, humanity endowed certain places and territories with personal features and consciousness, sometimes even adopting humanoid forms: “the spirits of the forest”, “swamp demons”, “genies of the desert” etc. In the technocratic turn in the development of the civilization, such beliefs fell into disuse, remaining only in folk traditions and legends. The allegory was revived by Strugatsky brothers at the beginning of the Past Age in their book “The Roadside Picnic”, later popularized with the screen-version by Andrey Tarkovsky. Even then, they predicted a chance of gaining self-awareness by some of the territories, which would influence everything happening in them to the boundless level: ranging from the behavior of organisms to the laws of physics.

YEAR 112AR THE RISE OF THE UNITED GOVERNMENTS

Nonetheless, the high level of scientific, economic, social and military development of the UG, the composition of the groups of UG members in the shelters, and the threat of the extinction of mankind as a species, have allowed the UG to not only survive, but thrive, becoming the living embodiment of the innovative tendencies of the Past Age. All the same, it is worth noting that the development of the UG was severely constricted by the limited amount of useful space in the underground and underwater areas, as well as by the Regimen of Silence, a program put in place to keep the Incorporeals from knowing of the continued existence of the UG after the Reset, and also to study the effects of the incident, and the possibilities for human survival. Such isolation allowed the UG to return to studying the Reset, and the extraordinarily advanced technology of the Incorporeals, which was apparently somehow connected with them. The simultaneous sharp decline of the aliens’ population on earth over the first 100 years, together with the growing strength of the morphing of Earth caused the UG’s priorities to shift from the expulsion of the aliens, to the rebirth of the true humanity, of which the UG considered itself the rightful representative. Having moved a whole epoch beyond the technology of the Past Age allowed the UG in 112 AR to establish a few outposts on the planet’s surface, and install barriers and radiation shields over industrial areas reclaimed from the Survivors. Having not encountered a preventative attack from the Incorporeals, and having analyzed the current situation, as of 132 AR, the United Governments are beginning to think about open expansion through the areas that can support life, currently in the hands of Survivors. As the UG gradually moves toward the “Green Zones,” of the Toltecs, the wheels of war begin to spin once again. A war for the remains of a planet, a planet which they consider their own…

You can find full list of After Reset™ concept arts on on http://www.afterreset.com/media.

[hippocoder]

And that’s how you kick ass in game dev, folks.

[Mr-Nixon]

We have done programming camera for old-school rpg top-down view. There are screen-shots below as demonstration.

Please, keep in mind that this is not level from the game setting, and the level of graphics in final build will be no worse than that.

[BlankBlank5454]

Please stop using that yellow font- I can’t read it.

[Mr-Nixon]

The video series of After Reset™ Developer Diaries began from “Diary #001: Camera Programming”.

Watch it on You Tube in HD: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LZv9Gu-0PHY&feature=youtu.be

[Mr-Nixon]

Hello, fellows,

There are new concepts and some relevant info from After Reset™ Wiki below (WARNING: spoilers!)

Stalkers – a little known group of Survivors, mostly encountered near Artifacts left behind by the Incorporeals. For most other Survivors, they remain legends, the keepers of these Artifacts. According to these legends, the Stalkers are former Survivors who found the entrance to an Artifact, and came under its control. The fact that these groups exist was not confirmed until the Dallas Incident* of 123 AR. After this the technical superiority of these groups over the other Survivors became obvious, though this was unlikely to be due solely to human technology.

• The Dallas Incident – a historically significant military incident, that happened in 129 AR in one of the largest cities of the Past Era, Dallas, Texas, USA. It was in this year that the United Governments went out onto the Earth’s surface for the first time since the Reset. Three UG Military Corps regiments made an attempt to tactically capture the ruins of the former metropolis, Dallas, chosen as a symbolic starting point for the revival of civilization from the ashes. The OG troops, centuries ahead technologically of the disparate anarchist Survivor groups, who then inhabited the city’s ruins, took the city center almost without bloodshed where the Artifact of the Incorporeals was. However, during the approach, the OG met a group previously unknown to them, the so-called Stalkers, who were technologically inferior to the OG. The small group held on to the approaches to the Artifact down to the last. They were able not only to fight of the UG forces, but also make the Military Corps regiments fire on one another. At a cost of only 843 soldiers, the UG managed to break the resistance of the Stalkers and destroy the Artifact. The historic significance of the Dallas Incident to the UG is impossible to overstate: the UG successfully destroyed that which all humanity of the Past Era was unable to, the Incorporeals didn’t appear, the UG became more convinced of their capabilities and the fact that they were chosen to revive humanity. In memory of the UG soldiers who gave their lives, they began the restoration of New Dallas with the construction of Tower 843 in the place where the UG artifact once was.

Mutated Citizen – a person affected by one of the varieties of Biomass, for whom the infection has already passed from the incubation period to become irreversible. Because of the characteristic features of the infection, which cause mutations in the musculoskeletal system and the central nervous system, this being moves much slower than a normal human and frequently dies from lack of food. However, the main danger they pose is the possibility of their infecting other people, thereby provoking a real epidemic.

[Gatto_matto]

Art is astonishing! You rock!