This is the continuation of the Pilgrim of Progress storyline for the GMCG.  It will be created using Game Maker and GMOnline.

• Contributing
  • Game Design
  • Graphics
  • Programming
  • Current Contributors
• Storyline Overview
  • Backstory
  • Moguls
  • Finale

Contributing

Contributions to this project are always welcome.  Contact Scoz or myself via PM on the GMC or RoketGames to apply for graphics, modelling or programming.  Game designers can simply post their contributions at the GMC topic or in the comments section below.

» Game Design

Contributions can build on any part of the storyline or gameplay.  Pretty simple stuff here.  Just make sure you read the storyline before contributing.

» Graphics

Pilgrim of Progress is being written in Game Maker.  Remember that you can include images in comments, so just include your graphics designs and we'll pick the ones we like (since I can't figure out a way to explain what style we want :P)

» Programming

You'll need to know GML, since Game Maker Online only supports GML.  Send us examples of previous projects you've worked on to apply for a programming position.

» Current Contributors

A * in the game design section indicates that they contributed while the storyline was part of the GMCG, but have not yet indicated they want to continue suggestions for it as a "mini-community" project.  They will still get credit in the game.

• Game Design
  • Scoz
  • Hach-Que
  • Frostblade *
  • Greep
  • That Guy Behind You *
  • Ecstats *
  • True Valhalla *
  • MatrixQuare *
  • DarkSentinel *
  • Graham *
  • Acrturustic *
  • Meta Black Yoshi *
• Graphics
• Programming
  • Hach-Que
  • Scoz

Storyline Overview

The storyline has been taken from the GMC topic and sorted into backstory, mogul collection and the finale plan.

» Backstory

Summary

PoP takes place in a futuristic world where power resides in the hands of The Moguls, the elite minority who hold complete dominion over all facets of society. Their insatiable greed leads them to fight against one another, in a war that illuminates the already ravaged landscape with the flames of war. One of these Moguls, the inventor, creates a steel angel, and gives it the mission to eradicate his fellow privileged. The player plays as this robot, in boss focused, experience central gameplay which borrows from the likes of Metroid and Castlevania.

Context

In a time not too far detached from our own, the distribution of wealth and resources has split the world into polar opposites. The divide between the “haves” and the”have nots” has ballooned to the extent that the two classes are no longer comparable. Government and social order has collapsed, with power resting neatly in the hands of the few. Those with money now dictate the direction of the planet, no longer having to hide their insatiable greed behind thin veils of social conscience.

The ranks of the wealthy have rapidly declined, with under twenty people holding complete dominion over the world’s economy. This few, this elite minority, became known as “The Moguls”. The throbbing hordes of the proletariat live in wretched poverty, desperately reaching out for any charity thrown down from the ivory towers of the wealthy, any sense of outrage lost under a cover of disempowerment and crippling inevitability

The lingering remnants of civilised society have become privatised, completely controlled by The Moguls; the Media, Entertainment and Technology to name a few. Under the oppressive influence of these rich few, the course of technological research has been completely diverted, with the paradigms of the past discarded. Research no longer centres on making long term advancement, but rather new and ingenious ways to further bloat the rich with opulence.

As technology stagnates, the moguls turn on each other. Greed is never fulfilled, and inevitably the rich want what they don’t already possess; the power of the other Moguls. Hence, the already ravished planet is set alight by the flames of war.

Technology turns once again to the purpose of taking life. The Mogul’s elaborate killing machines speed across the dusty wastelands, clashing with one another in a cacophony of gnashing metal and grinding steel. The citizen’s scurry for cover as the Moguls’ power struggle spills over into the city streets.

Enter The Mogul of the South Coast, known only as The Inventor. Taking immense pride in his own machine of war, the Inventor personally oversees the whole construction process. Some say that is was an act of ultimate pride in his creation, or ultimate pride in himself, but The Inventor gave his creation the gift of intelligence, a recreation of the complex chemical system which is the human psyche. As his monster of metal awoke, he gave it a simple command: OBEY ().

Character / Game Notes

The Player plays as The Inventor’s creation, the titular Pilgrim of Progress. I am unsure of her name, but I was thinking of something like “Magnum Opus”, to reflect the seminal nature of the invention.

Some important notes on the character:
Because of the pride taken in it’s creation by the inventor, the creation is most certainly not a creature of function only. Hence, I was thinking of the image of a steel angel. The art style should probably be closer to steampunk rather than futurist to further show the stagnation of technology because of its short term self centred use. The wings, which I envisage will be central to the story, aren’t functional, because of the weight of the angel. This is reflective of the idea of opulence and function.

The angel has got cognitive facilities, but rather than this allowing a robotic character to have emotion as a plot mechanism, this feature would be used to create a tension between rationality and irrationality, and why the actions of the Moguls do not make sense. The extent of the “human programming” might just be that she can process stimuli that do not have a “hardwired” coding practice.

This character is left pretty much open with gameplay combat wise; she could utilise projectile weapons or melee combat only. Personally I think melee would be interesting, but seeing as this is a community project I have wanted to leave as much open as I can.

Personally I can see this plot taking two distinct paths to gameplay progression: Either a solid, non constructed linear plot could be created, or, my personal preference, each stage of the game revolves around the angel “hunting down” a mogul, in a blacklist structure which mirrors games such as Shadow of the Colossus and No More Heroes. Having a gameplay structure like this ahs several advantages for the Community structure of this project:

Each stage can encompass a new backdrop, and a new mogul. Community input would allow for some truly diverse experiences and levels.

This plotline still has a regimented, Modular structure. Whilst I foresee a characterization based plot, it’s pretty clear that each level will end with the death of a Mogul/their “beast of war”

When each of the Mogul’s Machines is destroyed, they can drop a new piece of technology, which allows for new skills being implemented. As an example, a boss which revolves around fast jumping drops the double jump tech. Also (this might be a tad tough to implement) the mismatched technology actually becomes represented on the angel’s sprite, a metaphor of the beauty of nature being ravished by the horrors of war.

» Moguls

The Defender (Frostblade)

Description:

This mogul has completely locked his district out from the outside world; most of the other moguls presume it's from paranoia or xenophobia. However, the truth is that he's trying to protect his people; he's seen the destructive path the other moguls have taken, and he's hoping to sit out the cataclysm while building a functioning society. To explain the fact that he's a rich overlord who is actually moral, he inherited the money and power from his father, and letting go of it too soon would remove his capability to help people.

Level Construct:

N/A

War Machine:

This mogul's war-machine is a subversion; once the player has invaded the Defender's base of operations, they eventually come face-to-face with the mogul himself. After some conversation, the mogul escapes (preferably through some local method, such as his chair disappearing through a trapdoor). The entire (large) room then becomes a defensive machine that tries to obliterate the player. The player's objective is to destroy the power core of the room, at which point it's deactivated. Once the player leaves, she sees the Defender escaping in a helicopter; she disapassionately uses a missile weapon to destroy it, ending the level.

The Machinist (Frostblade)

Description:

This mogul has developed (stolen?) a technology of great value, which has come to define his entire society. Cheap and efficient levitation, for instance; his society is no longer truly bound by gravity. Living space and transport are no longer problems, all of his military forces are capable and powerful, and his subjects are generally in a more favourable state than those in the rest of the world.

Level Construct:

When battling this mogul's forces, the player is at a great disadvatage (since at this point, she doesn't have flight). I'm seeing highly vertical levels, lots of elevators, and so on. The player's objective is to invade the villain's fortress, floating high above the centre of his country. The boss battle occurs on a floating platform, when the player is caught in a trap within the villain's fortress.

War Machine:

The mogul's war-machine is similar to The Inventor's- in fact, it was themed around early plans and prototypes of the player, stolen by a spy within the Inventor's organisation. However, this version has been given the power of flight; the player must prove that it is her skill and reasoning, not her raw power, that makes her superior.

The Biologist (Greep)

Description:

Basically because the serfs will do anything for even a little money, they've agreed to become the subject of horrifying scientific experiments, the enemies in this area being horrifying freaks of mutant nature, golems, etc. Heh, and marvel comics heroes no doubt.

Level Construct:

N/A

War Machine:

The Ag- experimentation on plants have yielded massively large, semi-intelligent plants, like giant trees, and such to swarm the character. Because vegetation is simply everywhere, the very ground will attack you and try to strangle you.

The Industrialist (Scoz)

Description:

During the congealing amalgamation of the wealthy bodies of the earth, the Industrialist ruthlessly rose to the top of the ranks of resource gathering and industrialization operations. Since the fallout between the mogul superpowers he has intensified his coal strip mining operations. The tendrils of his influence extend out from a central furnace in the form of coal transport trains. His method of war is a much more indirect one; by hoarding the natural resources he somewhat strangles the war effort of the other moguls, who have to pay exorbitant trade costs to power their machines of war.

Level Construct:

I foresee this level as being the archetypal train level: it is somewhat more linear than other levels (although there would be transitions between interior and exterior sections). A nice touch might be that some set pieces cause parts of the train to explode and fall away from the body proper.

War Machine:

The train pulls into the main furnace, and a large metal monstrosity that is used to unload the coal from the passing trains, piloted by the industrialist himself. There is a large central furnace in the background which illuminates the scene, with the train in the foreground and the coal digger in the mid background facing the camera head on. Attack cycles could include scooping coal from nearby carriages and showering the player, as well as some flamethrower attacks. Some brutish sweeps and slams could be included. When the machine is felled, it could topple backwards into the furnace.

The Eternal (Hach-Que)

Description:

This mogul is extremely old, keeping himself alive using life support and dedicating his civilians to construct new ways of keeping him alive for as long as possible. In the early days of the new world, his scientists constructed a device that would allow his war machine to remotely transfer the life force from large areas of civilians to himself. He fights the other moguls simply because killing their civilians allows him to keep himself alive.

Level Construct:

During the area before the boss, it drops to a cutscene where you see the scientists preparing The Eternal for some special treatment. The player doesn't know what this is until they reach the boss area (which takes place either on a rooftop [cliche] or in a mechanoid yard on a large center spire in the center of his area/city so that he can transfer the life force of his own civilians during the fight). The Eternal uploads his mind to his war machine to sustain his life forever, and then proceeds to kill the player.

War Machine:

This war machine is a giant mechanoid, with one arm very large (the life transfer device). It's very large (probably twice the size of the player), gray and very bulky (if you've seen the mech that the bad guy in Ironman has, that's what I'm talking about). A possible idea for making the boss increase in difficulty throughout the battle is that he uses the life transfer device on his own population area, where it then transfers energy back into the war machine, giving it more attacks. The life transfer then recharges back up to it's new maximum (because it now has more power, so the next time it fires it can reach a larger radius of people). I think a good gameplay component would be that you can't stop the war machine from using the life transfer device, and everytime he uses it, it makes his health regenerate (not completely). Only after all the civilians in his city/area have been killed by the machine can he use it no longer (cutscene).

The Regressor (Ecstats)

Description:

Using electronical warheads to glitch and weaken his enemies, The Regressor believes technology is the root of all evil. He forces his population to live without technological aid, only allowing it to be used to further his own power. It is rumoured that the Regressor is building an extremely powerful device capable of enveloping the Earth in an electromagnetic pulse, effectively reverting human technology to a more primitive state.

Level Construct:

The level starts just inside the moguls fortress, where his people are living under terrible conditions, with no advanced technology to help them. As you venture further into the fortress, it becomes more advanced and complicated. Some soldiers come equipped with EMP rifles - if you get hit by one of these you may experience movement getting glitchy, blurry vision, less accuracy etc. Finally, somewhere deep inside the fortress you encounter the core.

War Machine:

The core is a huge machine that makes up the entire background. In the centre there is a bluish electrical sphere inside a containment field, which you must destroy. At the start of the fight the core sends out an EMP burst, disabling all your special abilities (double/walljump, flying whatever). You find that the containment field you need to destroy is too high up to jump to, so you start blasting other parts of the machine. As you disable the various parts you regain your special abilities one by one, allowing you to progress further on the boss, until finally blowing out the containment field. The machine crumbles and the fortress loses power. You blast through a security door to find the Regressor waiting. He surrenders and begs you to kill him - over the years he has come to rely on his fortress and the luxury it has given him he cannot bear to live without modern technology anymore.

The Physicist (Frostblade)

Description:

This mogul recently discovered a technology of great power and value; the Fusion Source, a method to generate almost infinite amounts of free energy. However, when this technology emerged, his already-unstable country splintered into dozens of factions, all of whom want to be the single posessor of this unmatchable resource. In many ways, this mogul is an opposite to the Machinist; instead of a new technology uniting his society, it ignited a massive civil war.

Level Construct:

In this level, the player can make choices. As she progresses through the remnants of the society, she can choose which factions to help and which to eliminate, which weapons to destroy and which to use. These choices influence which route the player takes through the country, and how those routes will play out (what support the player will have, how dangerous the enemies will be, etc). Incidentally, this would be a convenient place to bring in a secret level or superboss.

Whatever happens, near the end of the level, a cannon emerges from the mogul's base of operations. In what is hopefully a ridiculously cinematic scene, it completely obliterates one of the factions. The mogul's voice rings out, amplified across the whole country: he claims that he's designed a superweapon using the fusion source, and unless his opponents begin to evacuate, he will destroy one every hour.

War Machine:

<This mogul requires a war machine>. The war machine uses the fusion source as a power source. Once it is defeated, the power core goes into overdrive; it eventually destroys the mogul and his base, in an explosion that the player barely escapes.

The Warmonger (Scoz)

Description:

An aggressor in the war of the moguls; rather than rely on well calculated military strikes the Warmonger still believes in the honor inherent in battles of times past, personally leading a large scale assault across the ravished deserts.

Level Construct:

Potentially the first mogul to be depicted taking any actual militaristic action against another mogul, the Warmonger’s stage does not actually take place in a base of ops, but rather on the great dusty wastelands between cities. This level aims to satiate more of the combat desires of the player, with the topography showing a largely flat landscape consisting of plateaus and ruined buildings. However, this section will be crawling with enemies, this conscripted militia of the Warmonger.

War Machine:

The Warmonger’s war machine is himself; to him the thrill of battle is not a joy that should be given to a metal beast of burden. A man of honor, he fights with a twin bladed sword of immense tactile strength, and is protected by a loose fitting titanium suit of armor fashioned on those of warriors of old. This boss would be slow and unwieldy, but his attacks are devastatingly powerful. Also, regardless of his mantras of honor and valor, the Warmonger is not above taking cheap shots in order to maintain the upper hand in battle; kicking up sand into the face of the angel should she approach whilst he is down. When he has been dealt with, he falls to the ground. The angel makes some contemplative observations about the irrationality of “honor”, and how such behavior is justified without functional rationalization. As she overlooks the battlefield she has just cut a swathe through, the Warmonger rises up behind her; having lulled her into a “sense of security”. The angel then notes, contrary to her prior thoughts, that honor is but an illusion, the first piece of moral baggage to be discarded when the human is confronted with the void. In a flash, the angel spins, pilfers the Warmonger’s sword and cuts him with a rising arc (and the accompanying ribbon of blood). The Warmonger's armor falls away, before he collapses dead.

The Chemist (Greep)

Description:

A logical next mogul considering our current trend.  Would be a most hazardous environment, with explosions and corrisive gas and floods of acid. It could even be a unique level without any sentient enemies. Except the champion, though, who I really cant think of at the moment. Could just be a giant blob, can't go wrong with that.

Level Construct:

N/A

War Machine:

N/A

The Stranded (Graham)

Description:

An old mogul of mismatched armor, sporting a sniper rifle and light figure. Does not take place in combat against the other moguls, he rather draws the moguls into his deadly lair.

Level Construct:

The Stranded has holed himself up in an old underground mine. The Stranded will not be encountered directly until the end of the level. The path to the bottom of the mine is covered with various tripwires, sensors, and traps, but no typical enemies. Occasionally the a door will block the path and the Stranded will attempt to pick the player off with his sniper rifle, a cat an mouse scenario where he will emerge from various points above the player and he/she will have to take cover accordingly. Once you reach the Stranded's home, a large cavern or open room of some sort, he will defend himself with traps (turrets, rocks fall from ceiling), occasionally popping up for an opportunity for the player to shoot.

War Machine:

The Stranded is weak and old by himself, but the elaborate traps he has set up act as his "War Machine". Like a spider, the Stranded draws his prey into his net.

» Finale Plan

Also, whilst it’s probably not the best way to pitch a plot, I had considered a potential ending. The angel, who is unable to understand the concept of allowing technology to stagnate in this holding pattern of unneeded opulence and abject poverty, confronts The Inventor on the top of his “ivory tower” (or, if you wan ted to add to the references you could call it the “celestial city” or “river of death”) (all the other Moguls have now been killed). As a potent metaphor, she questions why he would give her wings that do not work, that it was irrational. The Inventor responds simply with because he could, and that to be irrational is human. I don’t want to shoehorn anything, so I’ll leave the rest of this discussion to your imagination (for now), but regardless the final boss fight occurs against The Inventor. Afterwards, the two are battered on the roof of the tower. The inventor, somewhat bemused that his creation had the presence of mind to contemplate revolution, makes his way towards his minigun. He grabs it, and with a cathartic cry unleashes a hailstorm of bullets towards the Pilgrim. The bullets pepper he metal shell, as oil leaks from one of her ruptured gas lines. The camera moves into her vision, and as reams of code fly past, one simple function appears, dominating the view: FLY (). The pilgrim runs hastily at the inventor, as the bullets strip away her “skin”. The Inventor only realises how close the pilgrim is when it is too late, and suddenly she spear tackles him off the edge of the tower. Time appears to stand still for a second as both inventor and creation hang in the sky, before the fall from grace. Vision returns from black to see the twisted remains of both creator and creation lying broken in the street, with a trickle of oil and a trickle of blood dripping into the gutter. This could be seen as a metaphor that man will create his own opulent demise. Or not. I’m tired :P