The ruins of the lost civilization contain powerful artifacts, and lost technology. This technology is extremely advanced, all of its secrets are lost to time. It is so advanced that it may as well be magic. Some sections of the ruins may have effects that counter normal laws of nature, such as space or gravity. You can retrofit collected tech that allows the last bastion of civilization, your home, to survive. You are your village’s last hope for survival.
The player is a scavenger who is scouring ruins in an attempt to save the village he is a part of. The village is one of last vestiges of civilization and without the artifacts the MC is bringing back to them the village will fade and be covered by sand. The player was part of a group of scavengers however after he was separated from the main group by a sand storm he found an artifact that attached to his feet when he touched them. He quickly found that this mysterious artifact was able to manipulate the sands in a way that allowed him to traverse at high speeds. Places in the ruins that were not accessible before suddenly could be found by the player. This game covers the story of the player as they discover more about this strange technology that they found as well as the mystery of what happened to the world ages ago.
The reason the village needs artifacts is because they use a device at the center of the village that keeps the sandstorms at bay. It is cobbled together from pieces of old technology, and since they don’t know how it works they can’t repair it, they can only try to find parts in the ruins that can replace any that break down.
Main Method of Conveyance:
The player should discover more about the technology of the race that left these ruins in the sand as well as what happened to such an advanced society. The player will do this by learning about the technology itself and about the people who made it.
It would be preferable to tell this to the player through experiencing it or through architecture of the ruins (for example the player finds a factory and by exploring finds out the purpose of the factory which is one piece of the puzzle). Another way of doing this is having the player experience “visions” whenever he activates certain devices in the ruins. In these visions the player will take the place of a one of the ancient race. The player will then act a certain event that was integral to the fall of civilization.
The story begins within The Village, a small collection of people and tents established on a relatively flat area of the desert. Located within the center of the village is circular dais that pulses a faint cyan light and hums a low-pitched sound with a cadence like that of a heartbeat. At the center of this dais is a small fountain that has a very weak flow of water, the only source the small village has. Three of the village’s occupants sit around the fountain with bowls and jars to collect what little they may, but as the last villager begins to fill their jar, the flow weakens, eliciting looks of worry from the group. From the distance, a fourth villager can be seen returning from a recent scavenging, a small sack carried with him. The three gather around him eagerly to see what he has brought back in hopes that something was found that could possibly prolong their survival in the desert, yet as he empties his sack, nothing of use is found amongst the artifacts retrieved. Disappointed, the group scatters as the scavenger approaches one of the tents.
Inside, The Nomad stands over a table with a map of mostly uncharted desert terrain, turning his gaze up to the returning scavenger as he enters. As the scavengers gaze meets The Nomads, he shakes his head slowly. Nomad looks off to the side for a moment with disappointment before he quickly makes his way out of the tent and towards the village entrance, holding on to the hope that there still may be something out there that can help the people.
As he leaves the village, this can serve as the games basic tutorial for the game’s controls for basic movement. Upon wandering a small distance, the Nomad will come across a small ruined structure that will attract the player towards it. There, a pile of rubble can be seen with a small stone gleaming within it. Upon investigation, the stone is fractured, looking to be broken in half. Not too far from the ruin the Nomad stands in, something reflecting light atop a series of small pillars can be seen in the sunlight. Here, the nomad can jump and/or climb to reach the top of the pillar. As he investigates the object, it is revealed to be the other fragment to the stone found earlier. Curious of this discover, the Nomad peers at it for a brief moment, noticing a strange pulsing from the rock. His curiosity gets the better of him as he begins to scour the small ruin for other relics. As he searches though, a sandstorm draws dangerously closer and closer. As he begins to leave, the Nomad spots the encroaching storm, staring at it in terror as he quickly tries to run away from it. Unfortunately, he is swept away by the great storm, being carried away and consumed by the great clouds of sand.
A day passes and the unconscious Nomad lays face down in the sand with nothing but his cloak and the stone found from earlier gripped tightly within his hand. The strange rock begins to pulse yet again, though this time, faster. As Nomad slowly comes to and realizes that he is lost in the desert, his attention is drawn to the stone as it casts a light leading further into the dunes. As he makes his way to the top of the dune, an expansive ruin can be seen. As the stone leads him further into the ruins, its pulse quickens in pace until he approaches a door where other stones like it are lodged into the wall. An open indention that the stone fits in perfectly ignites a light that serves as a circuit leading to the door. An armory lies within, and standing amongst the various oddities within are a pair of boots. The Nomad is drawn to them. Stepping closer to the boots causes them to levitate for a moment, pause, then launch towards the Nomad, taking him by surprise as they latch to his feet. Briefly panicked, he tries to take them off, struggling for a brief moment before utterly failing to remove them. As he picks himself up and slowly makes his way towards the exit, he discovers the sand-surfing abilities the boots grant him. This could potentially be done through the ‘pyramid puzzle’ we talked about in the last meeting. Further exploration leads to the discovery of a strangely humming gear-like relic which has sound all too similar to the dais back at the village, and as it is retrieved, a pillar of light leading back to the Nomad’s village shines from the dais back at the village, directing the Nomad where to go.
Upon his return, what few villagers are remaining have gathered around the dais, each of them uncertain as to what’s causing its strange behavior. As the Nomad draws closer, the gear hurls itself towards the dais, causing the water flow to speed and gives the machine greater potency. This could serve as a potential transition from the introduction to the first chapter of the game.
Environmentally: Similar to the Sahara Desert, but with much more hills and valleys that allow for more platforming. There are also sand “holes” akin to something like quicksand which would help direct and control the player’s path. There are also sand mountains which the player will platform in order to access the next area - these mountains can be traversed by jumping/surfing on the walls from ledges that stand out of the mountain. Also, there will be multiple oasis-like places, which act as waypoints/quick save points.
It’d look similar to this:
Plant: Plant life is sparse, being a desert. However, faded-green grass-like plants, cactus-like plants are littered throughout. At the oasis-like places in the desert, there is one decently-sized tree (think like one’s in a park), which, due to the pool of water, creates a blooming area. However, where our trees and plant life are green, these planet’s plant life is blue. The trees have this sort of glimmer in the sunlight. It suggests not all hope is lost. In the village, trees and other plants are smaller-sized and scattered around.
Animal: We talked about sandworms before. Also, perhaps scaled leopards of a sort - leopard-like creatures taking snake skin in order to acclimate to the temperature better.
It was a time of prosperity. Civilization had reached a technological zenith, wherein every being was happy. However, researchers had discovered that the planet they were living on was in actuality an hourglass. Eventually, the hourglass would reset, and with it, their world would be gone. Destroyed. Erased. So an invention was made: a gravitational tether that would prevent the hourglass planet from resetting. It was a good stopgap. However, because the planet could not reset itself, resources eventually stopped producing and what was once a utopia had become a dystopia. Civilization went to ruin without the resources that had brought it to where it was. Further, the world was wrecked with chaos. Because the planet could not be reset, disasters started. Earthquakes. Tsunamis. But worst of all - sandstorms. Eventually the world became nothing more than a desert, with a population of what was once billions turning into scant thousands. Now, people simply try to survive.
This is where the Player’s story begins.
Themes: The idea of greed in which the researchers and engineers bit off more than they could chew. The idea of doing better for the world at the cost of yourself (while physically in this case, it could also be a metaphorical statement) when you can reset the world but lose everything. (Possibly) religion and beliefs of gods when the world is wrecked as it is.
How this could become infused with the gameplay: the Player could visit the various ruins of what used to be this utopia. As they platform from place to place perhaps they could enter the collapsed institutions which are available for platforming. Possible obstacles could be security droids or systems that still function, somehow (or are malfunctioning). Certain rooms exist with holographic projectors and recordings the show this backstory - scientists testing out the gravitational tether, the costs of not resetting the planet and why the people shouldn’t be afraid (a contrast to the world as it is now), and the world’s collapse as a result, and why no one shut down the tether if it was ruining the world (short answer - people didn’t want to die).
