Uroboros Epic

Community Showcases
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As some of you know, I’ve been building a rather complex, interactive timeline, called the Maha Kalpa. I can’t even tell you how thrilled I am to say that its nearing completion.

Years ago, I had a vision of a story that spanned all of time. I called it the Uroboros Epic. It would explain all of the mysteries and mythologies in human history, as well as explain how and why the universe functions as it does. This story begins at the dawn of the universe and covers 24 billion years.

In my vision, I would have dozens of games, novels, graphic novels, web series, etc., that would each tell a chapter of this timeline. I originally began building the Maha Kalpa simply as a means of putting the whole story in one place, so people could see how all of these titles tied together; why things were as they were, what the large scale results were of their events, etc.

As I built the timeline, I also added in features, such as the ability to easily provide links to games and their development blogs. All the user has to do is find a highlighted event on the timeline (events that have games attached to them are highlighted in red), select the event and click the link to be taken to the game, download site, development blog, etc. They can then play out whichever game it is that was built to tell that event in history.

Now, after having built a couple of games, its become glaringly obvious to me that I could live a hundred lifetimes and never create enough games to cover the Uroboros. So I’ve decided to evolve the idea a bit further.


What I would like to do is open up the Uroboros Epic to other developers. In my vision, developers would choose an event on the timeline, and design a game that would tell that portion of the story. Not only would this give them a rich and fertile setting in which to build their game, but they would also benefit from other games designed by other indie developers (such as myself, and any other teams building games within the Uroboros). In essence, we’re promoting your game, and at the same time, you’re promoting ours.

Gamers could come to the site to view the timeline. They would then be able to select any of the events that appeal to them, as well as discover new titles emerging within the story. I, of course, also have more plans for this timeline, such as giving visitors the ability to “vote” on which events in history they would like to see become a game, web series, graphic novel, etc.


As this evolves, I would also like to build a collection of assets that, if suitable to a game, could be reused by multiple developers (without it looking like they’re using generic models). For example, one alien race has a particular style of battleship. This assets could be built and refined, then reused by any developers creating a game involving that species. This could also apply to characters, sound effects, even musical scores!

Of course, there would be a few restrictions in the games we could accept. For instance, developers couldn’t create a game in which the earth is destroyed, since we already have events that tell the fate of the earth. The title would also have to be part of the story; not just be written in for the sake of being written in. (While there were certainly mysterious murders on earth, that really has nothing to do with this… so no Slender games. Sorry.) However, I want to embrace the creativity and freedom of the indie world, and I’ve gone to great lengths to make sure that the Uroboros is as open and fertile as possible.

There are eras in this history that cater to every genre and setting you can imagine. There is high fantasy, steam punk, primitive, sci-fi, dystopian, horror, and dozens of eras that combine these and others into new and interesting settings. There are also more than a dozen significant (and very interesting) alien races, as well as room to develop others across several distinct and interesting worlds.

You want dragons? We have dragons! You want space pirates? We have space pirates! You want magic? Tribal warfare? Cyberpunk detectives? Secret Societies? Werewolves? Mutant Super Heroes? Angels battling demons? Zombie Apocalypse? How about dragons the size of planets, flying through space with ancient cities on their backs!?

(Not even kidding, there are events involving everything listed above. The best part is, they’re told in a way that actually makes them believable!)

If you can dream it up, you can most likely find a place for it in the Uroboros Epic. As much as I’ve built into this storyline, there are also hundreds of millions of years that are yet unaccounted for. This leaves plenty of room for creative writers to flex their abilities and bring even more culture and background into this universe.

I’d love to see the power of the indie community come together to weave this story, that would prove to be larger than even the most epic AAA title could ever imagine. So! Please let me know what you think about this idea. Love it? Hate it? Can you think of any problems, or possible ideas on how to make it more useful?

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My thing with all of this is please put a twist to all of this. Essentially, if you have angels battling demons (as an example), don’t do it like everyone else. Instead, twist it around and turn it on its head as much as you possibly can to avoid it becoming the same thing different creator.

Example, Dungeons and Dragons has a class called a Paladin. Paladin’s fight for the greater good (last I remember) but why do they have to be only good? You could have it to where Paladins originated from the evil side and the good people just reapplied the concept for the greater good. However, both sides to the paladin still fight for the greater good, but it depends on how you look at it.

Another example, why do trolls have to be the stereotypical ugly stupid things that swing their club and speak with broke english? You could have it where the trolls are so smart they rival Einstein.

Get what I mean?

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Absolutely. Actually, in that example, angels and demons are different races within the same alien species. At one point in their history, there is a race war, pitting the two breeds against each other.

As I said, all of it is done in a believable way. That means there is no actual “magic” or “gods” without some scientific backing.

4

Isn’t “Uroboros” the name of one of the resident evil viruses?

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I believe so.

Uroboros is a fairly common symbol, usually depicted by a sleeping dragon with its tail in its mouth. It was used to symbolize eternity and rebirth.

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The origin is likely pre-egyptian, with it being popular all over the world including norse myth:

And the egyptians:

It’s a bit insulting to attribute such a rich part of human history to just fluff like Resident Evil. You would do well to investigate strange names and things you don’t understand via Google, it will strengthen you as a game designer to be able to draw on the influences of history and the world.

khanstruct to his credit seems to be doing exactly that.

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Yooooooo hook me up I wanna make a game in this Uroboros Epic

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Not everybody is a historian, regardless of how much value you put on ancient lore. Sorry if I sometimes choose some form of human interaction over the automation of google (I use google a lot anyway), I merely asked an innocent question, it’s called being inquisitive, another good idea for one who wishes to be a game designer and to my credit I seem to be doing exactly that.

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Does it really matter to you that much to go around insulting other people like that?

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Thanks! And yes, you have no idea. In the symbolic sense, the story is about the cycle of creation, destruction and rebirth of the universe. In the literal sense, it revolves largely around massive dragons sleeping inside various planets (keeping warm around the sun).

Now, of course, if Khyrid isn’t working on anything in that arena, there’s no reason he would know the history of the symbol; so no harm, no foul. But I agree, you should do research into your work to give it more depth and meaning… now imagine that mindset when writing a story about everything. I’ve had to research ancient civilizations and languages, mythology, biology, astrology, genetics, etc, etc. I am now AMAZING at crossword puzzles.

Great! I have to get a few things together yet, such as updating my website to prep for hosting this thing, and fleshing out some of the existing content. Send me a PM and let me know some of the genres and game styles you’re interested in. I’ll show you the current build of the timeline and we can discuss what area you’d be interested in.

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Isn’t it “Ouroboros”?

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There’s several ways of spelling it.
Uroboros
Oroboros
Uroborus
Ouroboros
They’re all correct. Too many O’s make me nervous.

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Hey, this idea sounds awesome! Just a couple of questions, I’d love to see my current project fit somewhere on a timeline like this.

-Is there room for different artstyles? Like say, 2D games and 3D games? Realistic and cartoony games? If so, that’s awesome.

-How ridiculous can things get? My game doesn’t have flying space-city dragons, but it is kind of over-the-top and serious at the same time. I’ll PM you some of the details if you want, to give you a more specific idea of what I’m talking about.

All in all, I think this is an amazing idea. I’ve always loved mythology and legends, I would love to see this happen, especially if I can be a part of it. Just think of all the possibilities…

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Thanks Code_Of_Honour. There’s no restrictions on art or game styles. Cartoon puzzlers, gritty urban shooters; whatever best suits the game, go for it.

As for how ridiculous things can get, that depends. I’m pretty good at making bizarre concepts work in a believable way, but it does still have to remain within the boundaries of the story. But definitely, let me know what you have in mind and we’ll see what we can do.

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I like that concept. It has more weight than some other game concepts I’ve heard of.

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Thanks, SevenBits. That civil war is actually part of the story that hasn’t been entirely fleshed out yet (and I don’t have any immediate plans for games in it myself). So it’s definitely an interesting chapter for someone to work in. To enrich it even more, these aliens (called the Jothi) were the first to master an ability called “Wake”, which is essentially the ability to warp reality, and is the closest thing to “magic” in the story.

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Omniverse there are paladins that are evil. they are known as death knights. while Paladins usually use holy based spells for attacking, defense and various group or single target buffs and debuffs. A deathknight uses poison, disease, and arcane damage to its advantage

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I’m not talking about death knights.

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I personally don’t believe in “class” systems anyway. They are a crutch for developers who don’t want to take the time balancing their game.

This story was grown very organically and realistically, so there’s a reason for everything. There’s nothing like “this guy wears white armor and is kind to everyone, cuz he’s built that way”… unless he’s android, I guess…

As for the rest of it, my work has been focused primarily on the core species of the storyline. As for the individual creatures in the wild of the various planets, for now, its really open to interpretation. So, whoever chooses to build the first game on the planet “Sarva” will have the freedom to fill out the wildlife, terrain and creatures there (within reason).

The goal is to utilize the creativity of several teams, then respect their vision and build on it. So, if others want to later build a game on the planet Sarva, they will be building on the existing world as it was envisioned by previous teams.

Obviously there are some copyright issues involved there. When I get to the legal end of this, it will essentially be, “You own your game as a whole, as well as any unique mechanics/designs that would be covered by copyright law. But settings, creatures, lore, etc., that exist in the Uroboros Epic can be used by other developers as we see fit.”

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Wasn’t aware I was insulting. I suppose you consider anything insulting then.