Introduction
Hi everyone! My name is Harry and I am actually a composer, but I find this theme interesting and I thought I'd share my ideas in case anyone with the skills but no concept in mind, would like to join in. Once the jam starts I'll post a music track (hopefully a main theme or something like that) to help set the mood.
I should note that lordvark's topic here was quite impactful and it is what made me started thinking about the wars in ancient Greece. However, I think I would like to highlight different subjects and I decided to throw this here as a different topic instead of a long comment on lordvark's devlog. That being said, you should check it out because it seems promising. I'll probably take a shot at composing something for that as well. :-)
Genre
So, I'm thinking of it being a puzzle/adventure game, most likely 2-D and with little or no need of animation. I haven't figured out the details yet, but the idea is that you solve a few puzzles (probably something maze-like.. I'll try to become more specific in later posts but I would also like some help here!) and after you've solved them you have to answer a few questions (their answers may or may not play a role in the progress of the game - I'll explain later). This session of sorts, happens 3-4 times during the game and the completion of each one drives the story to the next chapter.
Philosophy
What I would hope to achieve with the game is firstly, to make it as a beautiful, artistic experience as possible (that's also the reason I'm thinking about 2-D and little -if any- animation). Secondly, I would like to ask the question of what drives wars and hostility among humans in general, and after exploring all the usual suspects like greed, or primitive insticts that we have yet to evolve from, propose (or rather, imply) the idea that death and mortality are the main reasons humans stick to those previous traits. Here is where the question-answering comes in. The player will be asked questions (by some God persumably) regarding the events occuring at that time (and maybe even unrelated ones) and every time they'll get closer to the answer. That's why the player's answers may not play a part at the progress of the game. They can be just a list of answers for the player to pick the one they feel resonates with them the most. There can even be a choice like "I think I'm not ready to answer something like that yet..". In any case, after answering the questions the story progresses by showing something related to the "correct" answer happening near the player. For example, people stealing what they can while their town is being burnt down (implies greed). Afterwards, the scenery changes and more puzzles have to be solved (probably more difficult every time) until the new series of questions comes up.
Now, I realise this is probably going to be a short game and since it's a gamejam we won't have the luxury of carefully sculpting all those ideas, so the most important thing is that it's a relaxing experience. It might seem like I want to do answer some great question or something like that, but my intension is actually to make the player ponder on a few things while drinking their coffee and waiting for the next puzzle, or pretty picture. I think once I post the music I have in mind you'll get the feel I'm going for.
Some concept details
My main inspiration came from the wiki entry about the siege of Melos Gia posted, but since that is a historic fact I wanted to see if I could somehow add the mythological element there. So, I thought I'd turn this into the classic story of ancient artifacts that predict destructions, plagues and all things evil, by bringing on the table the Antikythera mechanism. If you don't know what that is, you should take a few moments and check it out, but it's basically an ancient astronomical tool that was used to predict astronomical positions, eclipses, etc (bet you know where this is going!). Now, this doesn't classify as mythological either BUT, it is estimated to have been invented some 200+ years (at best) after the siege of Melos, so placing it at the same period is kind of mysterious.
And here's where the mythology comes in! It's pretty basic and I need to think about it in more detail but, the idea is that the Antikythera mechanism is actually a creation of some God, who gave it to humans in order to help them. In our game, the Peloponnesian War that was going on at the time was actually a game of Gods and one of them decided to help the humans escape their fates and the mechanism was the key. In fact, for all we know he or she has been trying for many years but keeps on failing. Our player tries to figure out what the God is trying to explain to them, but sadly, the only way for them to understand the answer seems to be to experience it themselves *SPOILER ALERT* you die at the end! :-P
What will follow
I'd like to elaborate more on how the story evolves but it has already taken me SO much time to write all this, because I was having a hard time putting my thoughts in order! Besides, I need to see if there's anyone interested in helping me bring this to life!
In any case, I'll definitely post some music and I'll probably work on writing the whole story at some point.
If anyone is interested or has any questions, please let me know because I feel I didn't explain a few things very well. If you ask me I'll know!
Good luck to everyone else taking a shot at this! And thank you Gia! Even by brainstorming about this I've had a ton of fun already! :-)