Mystical greetings. I'm Richard Garriott. You may know me from my work on Tabula Rasa.
Me.
In dungeon crawlers like Might and Magic, Wizardry, and Legend of Grimrock, we make our characters but don't have any real understanding of who they are. Why are they together? How do they interact? What are they like? How do they live? In most of these games, our characters aren't people, but arrays of numbers that we use to make enemy numbers go down. What I'd like to see is a first person dungeon crawler built on the Wizardry model that explores these questions and that's what my game proposal, which we're going to call Spelunkings for now, is about.
There are two core concepts behind Spelunkings. The first is that every character has a handful of random personality traits that determine their behavior and how they interact with other people. A greedy character will demand a greater share of found loot, perhaps going so far as to steal from other players or betray the party. Cowardly characters might run away if they get hurt during combat; excessively brave and boastful warriors might overevaluate their abilities and get themselves killed. The sanctimonious monk might refuse to work with the heretical alchemist, a racist gnome may refuse to help or even adventure with orcs and elves. Likewise, kind, loyal and dependable characters will find it easier to cooperate and synchronize their abilities with others. Every character has their own agenda that's determined by a combination of their personality traits, class, race, religion, personal wealth, reputation and skill level.
The party system in Ishar is a pretty big influence on this idea. Characters vote who leaves and joins the group.
The other core idea of Spelunkings is that you're living the life of an adventurer. Adventuring is usually portrayed as a full-time occupation in most games, almost a business, but I think it's different. I think the way adventurers live is similar to how sailors or oil rig workers live - they spend a short period of time doing extremely demanding, high-risk but high-pay work, spend the next 4 weeks blowing all their money until they're broke and then sign on with a new crew to go back. In Spelunkings, you play as a single adventurer that joins existing parties for dungeon excursions. As you adventure more, you acquire a reputation based on your reliability and skill and become friends with other adventurers with compatible skillsets and personalities, eventually becoming reputable enough to start your own party.
At the start of Spelunkings, you're a weak, solitary adventurer with no reputation, no connections and very few skills. You cruise taverns and other outlets for groups of adventurers looking for someone with your skills. If you meet their requirements and if enough of them like you, you can sign on as a member of the group. Because you're not the leader, you don't control the party in the dungeon, but instead play the game through a series of choose-your-own adventure vignettes that play dynamically on character personalities. You also fight in battles, but only control your character. If a battle isn't looking good, you can ditch your group, but at the expense of your reputation if they make it.
Through multiple successful dungeon excursions and good performance, you acquire reputation, experience and friends, eventually accumulating enough clout to start your own party, which marks the beginning of a more traditional dungeon crawling game segment. Characters could come and go depending on how compatible the personalities of your party members are, how consistently successful your dungeon excursions are and if they consider you a good leader. As characters begin to trust your leadership more, you can control them in combat. The game becomes as much about building and maintaining a strong, compatible party as it is progressively exploring a dungeon.
In Sorcerian, characters have occupations outside of adventuring. It's also a pretty big influence on this concept.
Another thing I want to emphasize is that this isn't about plumbing the depths of characters' psyches, this is about Wizardry-style characters dynamically reacting to and cooperating with one another. What I've learned from games like Crusader Kings and Dwarf Fortress is that the best game stories unfold within the framework of the mechanics. A greedy thief will run off with the great treasure you've just found. Someone unsatisfied with a party might quietly disappear never to be seen again. People come and go, lives are expendable, everyone's out for themselves because you kind of have to be a psychopath to take up this lifestyle to begin with.
So ultimately, Spelunkings is as much a first person dungeon crawler as it is an adventurer simulator. Its simulation aspects take inspiration from games like Ishar, where party members vote on who joins and leaves your group, Sorcerian, where party members have jobs and live their lives in between each adventure, and Wizardry: Tales of the Forsaken Land, which has a complicated party trust system.
Also it's a pay to win MMO with microtransactions and mandatory Facebook integration.
You sure did put a lot of effort into WINNING it. That's what this contest is for, remember?
