4 people, 4 countries, each one suffering from a different class of problems, yet all are intertwined. 1 commands an elite squad, loyal to the king to the bitter end. 1 is king of a frozen city in wind and frost. 1 is a traveling merchant, exploring the world for the first time. And 1 fights to prevent the extinction of their very race. Their stories will cross and mingle, and the outcome could very end with the fall of another. This is War.
Play as 1 of 4 heroes, each with differing abilities, and explore the world through their eyes as they struggle to keep their countries and people afloat. Combat opponents in battle and debate, as you strike down and manipulate each of your foes. Establish alliances, break them, romance characters, and explore all the alternate possibilities for the ending. You are the hero.
The game allows for the player to follow 1 of 4 storylines, each of them large and branching which allows for multiple endings and full immersive gameplay. Each character and their abilities differ, so the gameplay for certain scenarios is differing. For example, as a king you don’t so much combat as you do manipulate, so most of the scenarios will involve getting people to bow to your will with the occasional hack and slash gameplay. Meanwhile, for the commander, you get the more traditional shooting/sniper gameplay, while also able to control your squad and strategize with them. Each country also is very unique in culture and technology allowing for full exploration of each option, and giving each hero a different experience of the game. What’s unique is that your experience will be different depending on the hero, and will be very choice-heavy.
The scope for this game is… massive to say the least. Besides the 3 major countries, there are 2 countries that might also need designing due to how they do have to do with the storyline and all the heroes will eventually visit these countries, albeit for different reasons. As such, there’s going to be a TON of world building to do, though I do have a basic idea as to what each country’s aesthetic is and how they intertwine. However, for the sake of time, the world-building would be limited to these 5 countries, maybe more IF the storyline calls for it. Plus, since all the countries’ technology is different, that’s also going to entail a lot of designing, and the animals are different from our world’s, so there’s also the matter of that. And we’re going to have to figure out the culture and style of each group of people so that’s also going to entail some concept in that area.
Overall, the break down can be this:
Landscape
Each of these areas has an environment that are rather unique, so rather than dump the MASSIVE landscape on just 1 group, it may be easier if we divide the group into countries they’re interested in doing.
Lorcia The highly militarized country with mountains and valleys, they have a mixture of mountain cities and normal towns in the valley. The only really big feature about them is that they have tons of woods and many barracks. Their technology is more heavy and blocky, very militarized.
Bharata A massive empire based off of Indian culture with a mixed environment of thick forest and intensely hot areas. Their main thing is trade, so they have a lot of landing areas and ports, with most of their technology intertwined with the flow of air and water.
Marvansk An icy tundra with only bubbles of society survived by building into the mountains and underground, and is the most scientific-heavy one. They have a ton of scientific stuff based on fauna and flora that do very well in the cold, but poorly in the heat.
Vanators They’re the race that has no country, so they in colonies in the North where it’s cold, either by building into mountains or intermingling with human cities. As such, the design for their colonies will be easier since it meshes with whichever country they’re in. They typically use whichever technology is in the country they’re in.
Maybe (unsure if the heroes will really need to visit them for the story’s sake)
Aldorf This country is basically the same as Lorcia, and doesn’t have a hero, so the design doesn’t have to be as heavy and it can be a limited landscape to make things easier. They’re highly religious and very strict, living mostly in the mountains.
Fayer Again, it’s like Aldorf, since it may be easier to only mention them and not have the heroes deal with them directly, we might not have to design it. But if we do, it has a very powerful rich small group with a large lower class, so it will have small bubbles of high quality areas surrounded by walls to separate from the poor, factory areas.
Society: Figuring out what each society of each region is, and how the technology and people are from there.
Lorcia Very weaponized and militarized, their main focus in technology is how much fire power it has and how big and intimidating it is to the enemy. So maybe blockier, larger, more complicated. While most of the people seen by those passing through are in military clothing, the civilians might wear something one thinks of when they think of the Victorian era; petticoats, dresses, nice jackets and top hats, only with some steam punk elements mixed in.
Bharata Since they rely a lot of air traffic and water traffic for goods, a lot of their technology relies is very flowy, like water and air, and while simple in design is very efficient. The inspiration for them is India, so the design for the people and culture would be very much based off of that society. So it would incorporate things like clothing, system of society, etc., into the people’s design, while also adding a steampunk element to it.
Marvansk They usually make their technology more fauna and flora based, so their technology often mimics nature and looks like it. While their technology is very complicated, it is very elegant. Because of the fact they live in freezing areas, the people are going to be wearing warmer clothing that covers them and helps them maintain heat; warm coats with fur, thick clothing, etc.
Vanators They’re a rather young race, so they don’t really have a set technology; they usually use the technology of the country they’re in and maybe scrap it together to make it work. So their tech is usually scrappy looking. Since they have a different anatomy which will be covered, their clothing is flowier and not tight to make it easier to move. They also don’t really need to wear thick clothing since they resist the cold.
Creatures: The flora is pretty much the same as ours, so that won’t be a big focus. The creatures on the other hand can be completely crazy and out there; push the limit, feel free to make them as big and crazy or as small and unoffensive as you wish. There’s only some very small guidelines
Bharata Doesn’t really have a whole lot of terrifying fauna, but the fauna they do have is adapted to live in hot conditions
Marvansk Go crazy. The creatures here are all capable of killing you except for like maybe 1 cute tiny herbivore usually used for food. They can be big or small, however they look like they can all kill you one way or another. The really big ones are especially bad since they can wipe out entire maps if there’s as much as a glitch in the defense systems.
Lorcia Fair mixture of creatures.
Main character design: While I might have basic concepts for them, I’m all for exploring other alternative designs
Grace Vester (Lorcia) Soldier, she’s been hardened through training and is someone who shows it. She is very intimidating and lithe, someone who you could 100% believe she could sneak up on you and end you without leaving a trace.
Mavrock Krey (Marvansk) King. He’s tall, intimidating and cunning. He looks like an oaf but knows what he’s doing, and is someone who knows how to use his size to scare others into doing what he wants.
Arjun Parkash (Bharata) He’s actually the youngest person out of the 4 heroes, and the most sensitive one. He’s young, naïve, witty and someone who wants to see the world. He’s very smart when it comes to people and is very perceptive of emotion
Costine (Vanator) She’s an experiment meant to scare and meant to kill, and she looks like it. 7 ft plus, with multiple arms that could crush steel and wings, she is stronger than any human. She is also old, as one of the original Vanators created 200 years ago. She has seen her people rise and fall time and time again, and is exhausted by all of it.
The game is set in Victorian era and is steampunk, so there a TON of routes to go with the aesthetic. The colour palette can change accordingly to cities and forests (like cities can be dark greys and purples with the occasional splash of colour like Lorcia, or brown with bright rich colours like Bharata, or silver with blues and greens like Marvansk, or dark with reds and oranges for the Vanator colonies) with the forests having a natural palette with dark colours.
Good media points for it might be Girl Genius, or Dragon Age Inquisition (at least for colour palette)
The entire game is more on the realism side, though we could change that, and it almost feels like you’re there.