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Post by FuriousMoo on Jan 19, 2015 12:42:52 GMT
So when it comes to involving community in writing a story there are some obvious difficulties. Mainly being of the ***SPOILERS*** variety. However there is some room for input. Obviously I'm not going to be able to provide much feedback to idea presented.
Can you think of any amusing anecdotes or situations that could occur as a result of a Godus god attempting to interact with it's followers or vice versa?
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Post by FuriousMoo on Jan 19, 2015 13:13:53 GMT
Quetesh quote---"Reminder to posters: This is a new DEV thread so let's keep it to one pitch per poster on this thread until FuriousMoo states otherwise, just as before, any OT and multiple posts will be moved or merged."
Actually I think in this case, so long as people stay on topic we can be a bit more free form. Feel free to come up with as many scenarios as you can.
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Post by Aynen on Jan 19, 2015 13:18:38 GMT
When people believe in a God, there will always be those among them who claim to be their messenger, and comically often, these people are believed.
I think it's those would-be-messiah where there is the most opportunity for story and humor. Think about Life of Brian and it's 'you're all individuals!' scene.
Focus of the story would be:
- What do these messiah think you are?
- What happens when their followers sheepishly believe them?
- What kind of rivalry could exist between several of these messiah?
- How do these messiah twist the player's actions into something that fits in what they have previously said about their God?
Here's a little example:
Let's say a messiah says that God is love, and then God hits his own people with a meteor. The messiah then concludes that God loved the victims of that meteor so much that he wanted them closer to him, so he took them back into heaven prematurely. His followers then conclude that dying is a good thing, and some of them go so far as to run off the nearest cliff claiming themselves to be favored by God. And whenever a follower of these messiah would die of anything, they'd go out with a phrase like 'He loves me!, he really loves me!' thinking that to the the reason of their untimely death.
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Post by Spiderweb on Jan 19, 2015 13:20:17 GMT
Some followers obviously trying to hide from you, might be fun. Or meeting at night to pray to another god. Crush occasional statues they build in the image of other gods. how about squashing followers playing a tune  death march? putting a soul back into a followers body as it escapes or squashing a ascending soul makes it disappear down a hole to hell. Turn followers into random mythical creature (Medusa, Minotaur etc) or even other creatures sheep etc. Destroying abodes makes the followers bash their hands on the floor and cry (animations). Followers try to build staircase to heaven or non-religious place in the sky. Sometimes I wish I could pick up followers like Black and White and put them somewhere fun. Make finger of god stroke followers when moving over them or let it pat them, or have the followers run away in terror when its used. Rubbing the ground with FoG burns the floor? Hero follower hits back a meteor making the screen go white for a few seconds or even catches it and tosses it away. Maybe you could have a prayer inbox/in game social media(godbook), where a follower asks for something and if you find that follower and grant his wish you get a big fat bonus! Follower newsfeed - what's happening in your world. Visit you world as a god (la a Zeus) create as many Demi-gods as possible  |
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Post by FuriousMoo on Jan 19, 2015 13:34:07 GMT
When people believe in a God, there will always be those among them who claim to be their messenger, and comically often, these people are believed. I think it's those would-be-messiah where there is the most opportunity for story and humor. Think about Life of Brian and it's 'you're all individuals!' scene. Focus of the story would be: - What do these messiah think you are? - What happens when their followers sheepishly believe them? - What kind of rivalry could exist between several of these messiah? - How do these messiah twist the player's actions into something that fits in what they have previously said about their God? Here's a little example: Let's say a messiah says that God is love, and then God hits his own people with a meteor. The messiah then concludes that God loved the victims of that meteor so much that he wanted them closer to him, so he took them back into heaven prematurely. His followers then conclude that dying is a good thing, and some of them go so far as to run off the nearest cliff claiming themselves to be favored by God. And whenever a follower of these messiah would die of anything, they'd go out with a phrase like 'He loves me!, he really loves me!' thinking that to the the reason of their untimely death. Don't worry about focus of the story, story arcs anything like that. Your example is more what I am talking about, but possibly more discrete scenarios. It can be as simple as, god discovers he can force followers to go where it wants to, decides it would be hilarious to get the to sit on anthills etc. Also avoid any scenarios that refer to any real world religions beliefs. Godus gods are non denominational. |
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Post by Aynen on Jan 19, 2015 13:39:07 GMT
So words like 'messiah' need to become 'messenger of God' or 'divine mouth' or some other term not currently in use in the real world.
I take it we also have to avoid story that enforces the creation of extra objects in the game?
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Post by FuriousMoo on Jan 19, 2015 13:55:04 GMT
So words like 'messiah' need to become 'messenger of God' or 'divine mouth' or some other term not currently in use in the real world. I take it we also have to avoid story that enforces the creation of extra objects in the game? Terminology is not important, but references to concepts like hell are. Not only does that link it to Christianity, but instantly forms and ties the scenario to a greater meta mythology. Not sure what you mean by 'extra objects', but if you are referring to things currently in the game; I wouldn't worry too much about that. For example there are no badgers in the game, but if you can think of an amusing scenario involving a god, a follower and a badger, go right ahead. |
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Post by Aynen on Jan 19, 2015 13:59:41 GMT
Alright, so here are a few things God can do to entertain himself:
- Get a follower to 'prove their faith' with a challenge:
- Go forth and insult the enemies of God
- Go forth and court every woman under God
- Go forth and steal everyone's forks
- Go forth and keep everyone awake at night.
- Paint a follower in some unnatural color, and see what other followers make of it.
- Make followers spontaneously burst into flames if they stand still.
- Make a follower act like superglue, getting stuck to anything they touch and getting others who touch them thus also stuck.
- Make 4 AM the hour of the really truly annoying sound.
- Make sewage come out the fountain and then start a celebration.
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Post by eddiemonsta on Jan 19, 2015 15:52:58 GMT
God pokes a badger with a spoon. Badger gets angry and attacks the nearest follower.
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Post by 13thGeneral on Jan 19, 2015 16:46:46 GMT
So words like 'messiah' need to become 'messenger of God' or 'divine mouth' or some other term not currently in use in the real world. I take it we also have to avoid story that enforces the creation of extra objects in the game? Perhaps Avatar, Icon, or even Fount would work fine - and prefix any of those with Holy, Sacred, Divine, etc. - and Deus or Diety could always work in place of "God". |
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Post by Qetesh on Jan 19, 2015 17:01:12 GMT
So words like 'messiah' need to become 'messenger of God' or 'divine mouth' or some other term not currently in use in the real world. I take it we also have to avoid story that enforces the creation of extra objects in the game? Terminology is not important, but references to concepts like hell are. Not only does that link it to Christianity, but instantly forms and ties the scenario to a greater meta mythology. Not sure what you mean by 'extra objects', but if you are referring to things currently in the game; I wouldn't worry too much about that. For example there are no badgers in the game, but if you can think of an amusing scenario involving a god, a follower and a badger, go right ahead. I think that is sad in a God game you can't have any religion. You cannot go the Supernatural route and instead of no religion just have them all? What I mean by them all btw, is pick a top ten through the ages and leave additions open for suggestion. How can you say "hell" is a problem but Valentines Day is not? You do realize that it is St. Valentines Day and St. Patricks Day just as December 25th is Christmas and Easter is also about Christ? If you are going to do lame ass watered down holidays like Winter Holidays, we all know what they really are, then please just do some truly made up internal ones like Follower Fetivus (Seinfeld anyone?), it least it would add some humor to it. It a such a loss not to use any religions and I speak of many. The lore from the Egyptian, Greek, Roman, Christian as well as many more are rich in complex stories, powers, abilities and downfalls. Isn't the term "God" already non PC for the atheists rights if you wish to go that line of thinking. I would assume a consumer might forms of religion to be included in something called Godus. |
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Post by 13thGeneral on Jan 19, 2015 17:40:08 GMT
Hmm, that's an interesting point about how the religious terminology and settings affects the overall game theme/story; essentially, you need to decide if it is truly going to be "religion neutral". You can't claim it's "non-religion specific" and yet include typically Christian Holiday themes, and not include other religious iconography and observational holidays - like Hanukkah or Kwanzaa. (well, you can because it's your game, but it might not be wise if you wish to attract an international community). You may have to decide to incorporate a wide variety of known belief symbology and terms, or forgo it completely and try utilizing more neutral, or even fictional, religious stigmatic themes and mythos. EDIT: I see FuriousMoo is already thinking about it, as per below. |
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Post by FuriousMoo on Jan 19, 2015 17:42:55 GMT
Terminology is not important, but references to concepts like hell are. Not only does that link it to Christianity, but instantly forms and ties the scenario to a greater meta mythology. Not sure what you mean by 'extra objects', but if you are referring to things currently in the game; I wouldn't worry too much about that. For example there are no badgers in the game, but if you can think of an amusing scenario involving a god, a follower and a badger, go right ahead. I think that is sad in a God game you can't have any religion. You cannot go the Supernatural route and instead of no religion just have them all? What I mean by them all btw, is pick a top ten through the ages and leave additions open for suggestion. How can you say "hell" is a problem but Valentines Day is not? You do realize that it is St. Valentines Day and St. Patricks Day just as December 25th is Christmas and Easter is also about Christ? If you are going to do lame ass watered down holidays like Winter Holidays, we all know what they really are, then please just do some truly made up internal ones like Follower Fetivus (Seinfeld anyone?), it least it would add some humor to it. It a such a loss not to use any religions and I speak of many. The lore from the Egyptian, Greek, Roman, Christian as well as many more are rich in complex stories, powers, abilities and downfalls. Isn't the term "God" already non PC for the atheists rights if you wish to go that line of thinking. I would assume a consumer might forms of religion to be included in something called Godus. Well seeing as how in a god game, the player takes on the role of a god and how many religions have very strong views about that sort of thing in particular. It would be somewhat ill advised to link current real religions to the game. It's not the only reason though, one of the strong motivators to go in this direction is that we would like to create our own mythology. And you may notice we never use the term 'God' in the game, only 'god'. And we will be Godusing up the theme content. |
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Post by 13thGeneral on Jan 19, 2015 17:57:17 GMT
I have often thought about having a game with a loose set of mythos, that provides a sort of sandbox style "choose your own path", wherein there are a number of choices that can can be selected in a sort of "skill tree" format (I suppose similar to Civilization's social policies) which dictate and denote the mythology and religious contexts. This could essentially be how the Commandment system would incorporate with the story and affect gameplay.
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Post by FuriousMoo on Jan 19, 2015 18:01:33 GMT
We are getting really off topic here.
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Post by Qetesh on Jan 19, 2015 18:40:55 GMT
Well, I was confused because mrdrpink made post about Godus and Valentines Day and how that contradicts what you said. Aside from this to get back OT, If you do have holidays you could have your god rain hearts on Vday, pumpkins on Halloween, Bunnies on Easter and trees on Christmas. You could then in turn have your followers react to them. They could pick up the hearts and find a mate and run to a church for a quickie wedding, perhaps a Vegas style hut, make a bakery hut and they can grab the pumpkins and make some pie, or with an evil twist roast some bunnies and burn some christmas trees. |
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Post by morsealworth on Jan 19, 2015 19:05:34 GMT
Terminology is not important, but references to concepts like hell are. Not only does that link it to Christianity, but instantly forms and ties the scenario to a greater meta mythology. Not sure what you mean by 'extra objects', but if you are referring to things currently in the game; I wouldn't worry too much about that. For example there are no badgers in the game, but if you can think of an amusing scenario involving a god, a follower and a badger, go right ahead. I think that is sad in a God game you can't have any religion. You cannot go the Supernatural route and instead of no religion just have them all? What I mean by them all btw, is pick a top ten through the ages and leave additions open for suggestion. How can you say "hell" is a problem but Valentines Day is not? You do realize that it is St. Valentines Day and St. Patricks Day just as December 25th is Christmas and Easter is also about Christ? If you are going to do lame ass watered down holidays like Winter Holidays, we all know what they really are, then please just do some truly made up internal ones like Follower Fetivus (Seinfeld anyone?), it least it would add some humor to it. It a such a loss not to use any religions and I speak of many. The lore from the Egyptian, Greek, Roman, Christian as well as many more are rich in complex stories, powers, abilities and downfalls. Isn't the term "God" already non PC for the atheists rights if you wish to go that line of thinking. I would assume a consumer might forms of religion to be included in something called Godus. I know I'm off-topic, but winter Holidays are way older than Zoroastrism, not to mention Judaism and christianity. It was later that the new year was moved there and christmas was moved there even later. And I'm all in for having more forms of the religion. Not even to mention that christianity isn't one, so to speak. If I wanted to use a real religion as a base of the game, I would use either ancient Japan or ancient Shumer as the base. Shumer would be preferable, as the castle of the city was not the place for warrior nobility. It was a huge temple - the world famous Ziggurat. And the king of the city was hte king since he was a high priest with their family serving gods for generations. Here's an example - one of the best pieces of poetry ever written. |
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Post by Gmr Leon on Jan 19, 2015 19:54:59 GMT
So when it comes to involving community in writing a story there are some obvious difficulties. Mainly being of the ***SPOILERS*** variety. However there is some room for input. Obviously I'm not going to be able to provide much feedback to idea presented. Can you think of any amusing anecdotes or situations that could occur as a result of a Godus god attempting to interact with it's followers or vice versa?Too bad sculpting can't mess with buildings as much anymore. Someone had an old piece of fanart that was up for forever on Steam about a dude relaxing in his house only to have you "accidentally" collapse it moving around the land. Possibilities: Follower-originating: -Followers climb up trees to get your attention, trees fall over sometimes/storm occurs and they get zapped/they fall out sometimes. -Followers gathering water from far away might tug at the coast and wave their fist at you/the sky to say bring it closer. -Followers might point at those relaxing on trees and point near to them to say make trees here. -Followers get into argument, wave you down to settle it by using some power of your choosing (Finger of God/Holy Forest/etc.). God-originating: -Rain to help fields accidentally floods them/makes followers slip. -Followers relaxing on a tree or climbing up to get something fall over/fall if you remove it. -When you leash a follower from home, their partner pops up in the window waving about distressed, as if to say, "Wait, come back!" -When selecting abodes, followers peek about thinking someone knocked on their door. -Holy Forest trees placed near followers can accidentally lift them into the air. -Beautification could make followers do a double-take/suddenly make them look "better" somehow. You could do some silly cheesy stuff with this. -When sculpting land too close to a house, you could have followers trying to shove the land away, as though they're afraid of it crashing into their home. -When placing fish, if close enough to followers, you could have them play with them and fall in/fish splash them/etc. -When selecting followers, you could have them look around feeling like someone's watching them, if walking somewhere maybe trip from the sudden sensation. -Followers try to move rocks/boulders out of the way more (as in the start), when you crush them they fall where it was then get up and build if they were trying to remove it. |
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Post by Deleted on Jan 20, 2015 9:35:53 GMT
Terminology is not important, but references to concepts like hell are. Not only does that link it to Christianity, but instantly forms and ties the scenario to a greater meta mythology. Not sure what you mean by 'extra objects', but if you are referring to things currently in the game; I wouldn't worry too much about that. For example there are no badgers in the game, but if you can think of an amusing scenario involving a god, a follower and a badger, go right ahead. I think that is sad in a God game you can't have any religion. You cannot go the Supernatural route and instead of no religion just have them all? What I mean by them all btw, is pick a top ten through the ages and leave additions open for suggestion. How can you say "hell" is a problem but Valentines Day is not? You do realize that it is St. Valentines Day and St. Patricks Day just as December 25th is Christmas and Easter is also about Christ? If you are going to do lame ass watered down holidays like Winter Holidays, we all know what they really are, then please just do some truly made up internal ones like Follower Fetivus (Seinfeld anyone?), it least it would add some humor to it. It a such a loss not to use any religions and I speak of many. The lore from the Egyptian, Greek, Roman, Christian as well as many more are rich in complex stories, powers, abilities and downfalls. Isn't the term "God" already non PC for the atheists rights if you wish to go that line of thinking. I would assume a consumer might forms of religion to be included in something called Godus. In my opinion things like Halloween, Valentines Day, Christmas should not be part of Godus. But i think it's part of the mobile orientation. Religion itself is part of Godus, but for me it doesn't have to be Religion from the real world. I thought (in Kickstarter) Players had to form their own Religion and cults. In fact we already had the Acornists and Beechnutters. Godus should have it's own mythology maybe with borrowings from real world mythology/religions but in a funny way - like the beechnut day where Followers wear costumes (mostly beechnut costumes), make gifts, a great event is the beechnut search (hidden gifts and colored beechnuts have to be searched, it is supposed that the beechnut-squirrel hides them in the night), EIGHT candles will be lit and a decorated beech will be positioned in the house. Maybe the acornists, hazelnuts, ... have similar traditions, don't know. It's a game about gods it won't be possible to do that without any ties to real world religions but it's a fun game and should not be bound to copy real world mythology for 100%.
This way you can even sell decorated beechnut trees on mobile.
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Post by Qetesh on Jan 20, 2015 9:49:50 GMT
I think that is sad in a God game you can't have any religion. You cannot go the Supernatural route and instead of no religion just have them all? What I mean by them all btw, is pick a top ten through the ages and leave additions open for suggestion. How can you say "hell" is a problem but Valentines Day is not? You do realize that it is St. Valentines Day and St. Patricks Day just as December 25th is Christmas and Easter is also about Christ? If you are going to do lame ass watered down holidays like Winter Holidays, we all know what they really are, then please just do some truly made up internal ones like Follower Fetivus (Seinfeld anyone?), it least it would add some humor to it. It a such a loss not to use any religions and I speak of many. The lore from the Egyptian, Greek, Roman, Christian as well as many more are rich in complex stories, powers, abilities and downfalls. Isn't the term "God" already non PC for the atheists rights if you wish to go that line of thinking. I would assume a consumer might forms of religion to be included in something called Godus. In my opinion things like Halloween, Valentines Day, Christmas should not be part of Godus. But i think it's part of the mobile orientation. Religion itself is part of Godus, but for me it doesn't have to be Religion from the real world. I thought (in Kickstarter) Players had to form their own Religion and cults. In fact we already had the Acornists and Beechnutters. Godus should have it's own mythology maybe with borrowings from real world mythology/religions but in a funny way - like the beechnut day where Followers wear costumes (mostly beechnut costumes), make gifts, a great event is the beechnut search (hidden gifts and colored beechnuts have to be searched, it is supposed that the beechnut-squirrel hides them in the night), EIGHT candles will be lit and a decorated beech will be positioned in the house. Maybe the acornists, hazelnuts, ... have similar traditions, don't know. It's a game about gods it won't be possible to do that without any ties to real world religions but it's a fun game and should not be bound to copy real world mythology for 100%.
This way you can even sell decorated beechnut trees on mobile.
I don't know, I think some mythology is so well written already, Like Loki the jokester, I just feel it could really enrich the storyline and canon of Godus. The Greek and Roman ancient Gods were more like super heroes or X-Men but no trademark infringement fear for using their names or lore. |
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death march?
