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Description
Game title: DEV
Game genre: Multiple(action-RPG centric)
Target Audience: Geeks.
Prospective platform: Generation 7 Consoles.
Estimated cost: Half a cheese sandwiche
Time to create: more then 5 minutes, less then 5 decades.

Synopsis: Play as a group of teens who has been immersed into a game world build within their dreams by Chet, a friend working at a local Video game company. Struggle to survive every night as you face greater and stranger challenges, interacting with Chet and his friends/associates during the day to try and influence what game design implements are added. What type of game world will you end up in each night? A cartoony fantasy RPG? a gritty FPS? Survival Horror? or possibly some combination of each...

Set up Events:

The story starts out with the players main Character(MC) hanging out with his friends. He recieves a call from Chet, an old classmate that dropped out of school to work for the local "AB+" Software company. The conversation starts light, but the mc realized Chet is in a bit of trouble and needs to ask you and a few of your gamer friends to try out a beta game he's working on.

You all agree and meet him at the AB+ building later that night when it looks like no one is around. Chet brings you in and explains the game he is working on is still subject to a NDA, but in order for him to procceed he needs help with some testing. It is then that the MC and his friends are told the game is a type of virtual reality engine that is platform free, i.e. it requires little to no consumer hardware, as it is played in the gamers mind while they sleep.

Of course the MC doesn't believe this and, ready to walk out, is stopped by a video recording of the game demo on a nearby pc monitor. Stunned, the group agree's to be part of cutting edge game technology.

from here they begin a "tutorial" into a fairly finished game realm that looks sounds and seems fairly polished and realistic. But after playing in this realm for a while, and reaching the end of the first level, the system shuts down. No game over screen, just black. The MC wakes up to see he is in a black building and there is no power(likely a blackout, no worries right?) but sense's something is horribly wrong. Turning on his cell phone for light, he then realizes Chet is gone and his other friends are still laying on the beds, motionless. One of the three is still alive and jump-scares awake. the other 2 look dead or comatose... and the MC and his friend freak out and upon hearing a noise, run out of the building, scared.

move to 2 years later, the MC's friend starts seeming a bit cagey and distant, then confides in him that he has been having strange dreams, sort of like playing video games all night long. Nothing like the game they played 2 years prior.. far more primitive, but the dreams feel as vivid and lucid as those. Shortly after the MC goes home, recieves a piece of mail that is just a simple sheet of paper with a stereogram in it. Staring at it, he shakes his head and casts it aside, unsure what to make of it.

That night upon falling asleep the MC steps back into the dream-game realm. This first foray places him in a maze field similar to pac man with large high blue-glass walls and strange ghostly shapes stalking him.

After waking from this, the MC meets his friend at the local gaming store after school to pick up their pre-order of Super-Machiso-Tactics 4 and discuss the dream. Before leaving the store, the sales person offers them each a copy of their choice of either Elven Princess Myu (a manga/fantasy comic), Thoraxx Battle Fortress(an action packed military/espionage comic) or Bloodsucking Traitors from Space(a horror comic). There is only 1 left of each, so the MC chooses one, their friend chooses the other and the third is left behind.

Upon leaving and walking home the 2 get accosted by some local ruffians and end up losing their comics in the brawl, snatched up by one of the cretins who quickly runs off. The games they picked up are either stolen(if they lose the fight) or saved(if they beat the attackers off). Confused hurt and tired, the MC and friend decide to call it a day and just head home.

Thus begins the steps of the rest of the game. Which ever comics were chosen by the player and friend at the store set up the basic game world they will return to every night as they try to go about their lives. Early on the MC realizes a cut he recieves in his dream becomes a scar in real life. The deadly nature of these dream-games become apparent.

The game progresses as a day to day calendar sim wherein the player can choose to attend school, hang with friends, explore his town, or go home to perform activities until his energy or time turns to 0. Certain activities and actions done IRL have a direct effect on the MC's abilities in the dream-realm.

When the mc must go to sleep and steps into the dream-game, they can pull in friends they are close enough with who are also sleeping, spend concentration points to summon or modify items/weapons/armor they have retained, or level up their abilities from previous sessions.

Over time the player will interact with friends and cohorts of Chet that will indirectly effect the dream-games details, until finally the MC discovers the location of Chet and his game lab and begins trying to reach him before the dream-game gets too deadly. Along the way the MC can recruit more teamates at one time(initially the mc is alone, then with his best friend, then as they progress 1-2 more can join) who are close enough friends to want to help. The player can then plot together a team to better survive the nightly encounters. Along the way additional plots will pop up, other side characters, and even some possible romantic interests.

Possibilities: Spoofing or camping up a lot of video game conventions used today in most games. Possible cameo's by licensed game characters from atlus productions. An almost endless(depending on actual implemented content) combination of elements to "build" the dream-game world. Will you be able to make the game world into a cutesy tactical combat? A survival horror fps? Will you be shooting cartoon slimes with a scoped sniper rifle or gutting undead zombie soldiers on your way to recovering the golden prism? DLC addons and expansion packs can add even more swappable options for monsters, weapons, armor, and abilities.

Core mechanics: Using a random dungeon generator, each nights' foray will be built based on the previous events and most recent influences on Chet. By learning ways to suggest to him, the MC can try to steer the gameplay style and flavor the way they would like, or to experiment with it and see what strange combinations they can devise. as the game progresses the "dream" graphics and style can even change, from stylized to cell shaded to pixilated 2d creatures. As well the game could be released in "episodes" to allow further dev time for newer content.

With the player having a bit of developmental control over game play/style, despite always needing to accomplish the same task per-board(for example, for lvl 5 the player will need to rescue x number of captives, get through the board finding at least 2 secrets, and kill the boss), the layout, enemies, and game play style will change as they see fit. Players looking for more of an rpg style can build their characters in a typical sword and sorcery fashion, using magic to engage stealth and attacking with combinations of each. Action/FPS players will work on firearm utilization and focus on combat armor, stealth goggles, and advanced nano-tech enhancements. Survival horror fans get a more robust range of weapons(i.e. anything can be used) as well as natural health regeneration, stealth, enemy detection and attuned senses(enemy/movement detection) but cannot wear anything but regular clothing. Each NPC in the group has their favorite genre's and will only be able to utilize related abilities.

of course additional genre's, classes, and concepts could be added to roun dout and balance gameplay so the experience as an fps, rpg or action game is satisfying.

Note: to anyone psychotic enough to read all this: additional input or ideas always welcome. Since this is just a pipedream, the fun is in the speculation. hehe. You'll see there is a nice hefty influence in some of the elements to Persona, but not a total reliance on it. That was intentional, as I think those games work well and bridge the gap enough to make non rpg pgamers actually play rpg's.

Description
Game title: DEV
Game genre: Multiple(action-RPG centric)
Target Audience: Geeks.
Prospective platform: Generation 7 Consoles.
Estimated cost: Half a cheese sandwiche
Time to create: more then 5 minutes, less then 5 decades.

Synopsis: Play as a group of teens who has been immersed into a game world build within their dreams by Chet, a friend working at a local Video game company. Struggle to survive every night as you face greater and stranger challenges, interacting with Chet and his friends/associates during the day to try and influence what game design implements are added. What type of game world will you end up in each night? A cartoony fantasy RPG? a gritty FPS? Survival Horror? or possibly some combination of each...

Set up Events:

The story starts out with the players main Character(MC) hanging out with his friends. He recieves a call from Chet, an old classmate that dropped out of school to work for the local "AB+" Software company. The conversation starts light, but the mc realized Chet is in a bit of trouble and needs to ask you and a few of your gamer friends to try out a beta game he's working on.

You all agree and meet him at the AB+ building later that night when it looks like no one is around. Chet brings you in and explains the game he is working on is still subject to a NDA, but in order for him to procceed he needs help with some testing. It is then that the MC and his friends are told the game is a type of virtual reality engine that is platform free, i.e. it requires little to no consumer hardware, as it is played in the gamers mind while they sleep.

Of course the MC doesn't believe this and, ready to walk out, is stopped by a video recording of the game demo on a nearby pc monitor. Stunned, the group agree's to be part of cutting edge game technology.

from here they begin a "tutorial" into a fairly finished game realm that looks sounds and seems fairly polished and realistic. But after playing in this realm for a while, and reaching the end of the first level, the system shuts down. No game over screen, just black. The MC wakes up to see he is in a black building and there is no power(likely a blackout, no worries right?) but sense's something is horribly wrong. Turning on his cell phone for light, he then realizes Chet is gone and his other friends are still laying on the beds, motionless. One of the three is still alive and jump-scares awake. the other 2 look dead or comatose... and the MC and his friend freak out and upon hearing a noise, run out of the building, scared.

move to 2 years later, the MC's friend starts seeming a bit cagey and distant, then confides in him that he has been having strange dreams, sort of like playing video games all night long. Nothing like the game they played 2 years prior.. far more primitive, but the dreams feel as vivid and lucid as those. Shortly after the MC goes home, recieves a piece of mail that is just a simple sheet of paper with a stereogram in it. Staring at it, he shakes his head and casts it aside, unsure what to make of it.

That night upon falling asleep the MC steps back into the dream-game realm. This first foray places him in a maze field similar to pac man with large high blue-glass walls and strange ghostly shapes stalking him.

After waking from this, the MC meets his friend at the local gaming store after school to pick up their pre-order of Super-Machiso-Tactics 4 and discuss the dream. Before leaving the store, the sales person offers them each a copy of their choice of either Elven Princess Myu (a manga/fantasy comic), Thoraxx Battle Fortress(an action packed military/espionage comic) or Bloodsucking Traitors from Space(a horror comic). There is only 1 left of each, so the MC chooses one, their friend chooses the other and the third is left behind.

Upon leaving and walking home the 2 get accosted by some local ruffians and end up losing their comics in the brawl, snatched up by one of the cretins who quickly runs off. The games they picked up are either stolen(if they lose the fight) or saved(if they beat the attackers off). Confused hurt and tired, the MC and friend decide to call it a day and just head home.

Thus begins the steps of the rest of the game. Which ever comics were chosen by the player and friend at the store set up the basic game world they will return to every night as they try to go about their lives. Early on the MC realizes a cut he recieves in his dream becomes a scar in real life. The deadly nature of these dream-games become apparent.

The game progresses as a day to day calendar sim wherein the player can choose to attend school, hang with friends, explore his town, or go home to perform activities until his energy or time turns to 0. Certain activities and actions done IRL have a direct effect on the MC's abilities in the dream-realm.

When the mc must go to sleep and steps into the dream-game, they can pull in friends they are close enough with who are also sleeping, spend concentration points to summon or modify items/weapons/armor they have retained, or level up their abilities from previous sessions.

Over time the player will interact with friends and cohorts of Chet that will indirectly effect the dream-games details, until finally the MC discovers the location of Chet and his game lab and begins trying to reach him before the dream-game gets too deadly. Along the way the MC can recruit more teamates at one time(initially the mc is alone, then with his best friend, then as they progress 1-2 more can join) who are close enough friends to want to help. The player can then plot together a team to better survive the nightly encounters. Along the way additional plots will pop up, other side characters, and even some possible romantic interests.

Possibilities: Spoofing or camping up a lot of video game conventions used today in most games. Possible cameo's by licensed game characters from atlus productions. An almost endless(depending on actual implemented content) combination of elements to "build" the dream-game world. Will you be able to make the game world into a cutesy tactical combat? A survival horror fps? Will you be shooting cartoon slimes with a scoped sniper rifle or gutting undead zombie soldiers on your way to recovering the golden prism? DLC addons and expansion packs can add even more swappable options for monsters, weapons, armor, and abilities.

Core mechanics: Using a random dungeon generator, each nights' foray will be built based on the previous events and most recent influences on Chet. By learning ways to suggest to him, the MC can try to steer the gameplay style and flavor the way they would like, or to experiment with it and see what strange combinations they can devise. as the game progresses the "dream" graphics and style can even change, from stylized to cell shaded to pixilated 2d creatures. As well the game could be released in "episodes" to allow further dev time for newer content.

With the player having a bit of developmental control over game play/style, despite always needing to accomplish the same task per-board(for example, for lvl 5 the player will need to rescue x number of captives, get through the board finding at least 2 secrets, and kill the boss), the layout, enemies, and game play style will change as they see fit. Players looking for more of an rpg style can build their characters in a typical sword and sorcery fashion, using magic to engage stealth and attacking with combinations of each. Action/FPS players will work on firearm utilization and focus on combat armor, stealth goggles, and advanced nano-tech enhancements. Survival horror fans get a more robust range of weapons(i.e. anything can be used) as well as natural health regeneration, stealth, enemy detection and attuned senses(enemy/movement detection) but cannot wear anything but regular clothing. Each NPC in the group has their favorite genre's and will only be able to utilize related abilities.

of course additional genre's, classes, and concepts could be added to roun dout and balance gameplay so the experience as an fps, rpg or action game is satisfying.

Note: to anyone psychotic enough to read all this: additional input or ideas always welcome. Since this is just a pipedream, the fun is in the speculation. hehe. You'll see there is a nice hefty influence in some of the elements to Persona, but not a total reliance on it. That was intentional, as I think those games work well and bridge the gap enough to make non rpg pgamers actually play rpg's.