I haven't really made any progress on this project over the past 2 months (DMing has eaten into my creative time a lot), but I've still been thinking about it quite a bit. As usual, after some analysis I realized that there were still some serious issues with the initial concept.

I had originally been planning to have the game take place over a relatively large environment composed of multiple separate areas for the player to explore, which would comprise several hours of playtime in total. It's clear now that this was still a little too ambitious in scope. Even starting the iteration process with a short and sweet demo, this project would be a rather large undertaking compared to my prior development experience (which is to say, practically nothing). So I'm taking things down a peg and trying to fit the whole game into an hour-long experience, tops. Making arbitrary decisions like this won't be enough by itself to get me making regular progress, but it definitely makes for a more manageable goal in the abstract.

Helpful or no, I've also decided to finally give the game a working title: Anomaly. With the Giger Counter (a weirdness detector of sorts) at the player's fingertips from the get-go, this name seems like the perfect fit for a small, quirky adventure in which the protagonist is attempting to uncover a bizarre mystery.

On the positive side, though, I've been feeling very inspired lately where it comes to the background for this game. I've been throwing around ideas in my head for characters, stories, etc. set in this world for a couple years now, but haven't committed most of it to paper, much less in a released form. So I'd like to use this blog as an outlet for writing these concepts down and doing a little light brainstorming, for posterity if nothing else. For now, here's a list of vignettes describing some of the characters inhabiting this world. Not all will be relevant or even make an appearance in Anomaly, but I think all of them are interesting in some way and have potential to appear in a future game or story.

Sybil "Syb" Ganesh

While struggling to complete her PhD in physics at the University of Chicago, Syb stumbles on a means of travel between parallel universes in the course of her research on gravitation waves. Armed with a passion for exploration, scientific ingenuity, and an understanding of the magnitude of this discovery, she quickly delves into its mysteries as part of a secret government research project. This wasn't quite the independent investigation she dreamed of as a child, but she pursues it with her trademark enthusiasm nonetheless. In college, Syb was friends with Nic and roommates with Emily, but she's lost touch with both of them since finishing grad school.

Nicodemus "Nic" Gutiérrez

Nic is an electrical engineer by profession, and a talented one at that, but he doesn't care for formal designations; pulling pranks, making sarcastic remarks, and finding ways to get out of doing work are more his drift. If you can get him excited about a project, though, he'll gladly stay up all night to get it working, even if it has to be hacked together at the last minute. It's getting him motivated that's the hard part. He's currently trying to deal with the fact that not only might government conspiracies be real, but his close friends Sybil and Emily might have been hiding the truth from him for years.

Emily Mason

Emily is an expert on organic chemistry, statistics, philosophy, mathematics, evolutionary psychology, and economics, and she won't let anyone forget it. For this reason she usually declines to comment on most people's everyday affairs, but when she does deign to speak you can be sure it will be a deep, enlightening piece of advice about how you're utterly failing to meet her standards of quality. Other than that she mostly keeps her thoughts, goals, and occupation to herself. Emily used to live with Sybil, but nobody's heard from her in a long time.

Jeremy Eckbert

A freelance investigative journalist who tracks down stories no one else is willing to cover, Jeremy is relentless in his drive to dig up the truth even if it's not strictly legal to acquire it. This brings risks and complications in disseminating that information, especially when the job amounts to spying on the government, but it also brings buyers willing to pay well for someone else to get their hands dirty. The vagrant nature of his line of work has totally tanked his social life, though. His only frequent contact is Ava, who he collaborates with in order to gather data digitally.

Ava Thompson

While trying and failing to give a shit about high school, Ava discovered that she was already good at educating herself about something: hacking. After seeing that she could make money off of her talent for computing, she dropped out and started doing odd jobs on the web full time. Her analytical acuity and disrespect for authority often risked getting her into trouble, but it also connected her with a number of like-minded individuals also feeling oppressed by the intrusive, murky identity of the US government as of late. She often works with Jeremy and is currently dating Odette.

Odette Asadi

As stubborn as she is elegant, Odette is a firm believer in the power of governance and diplomacy to effect change. With her fierce, charismatic demeanor, well-educated background, and no-nonsense attitude, she's a natural fit for leadership roles. While originally from France, she's currently studying international relations and political science at Columbia University in hopes of working for the EU or UN in the future. Despite their many differences, she and Ava have had a steady relationship for nearly three years.