01: Basic Plotting

Act II: Islands in the Dark

Inevitably, the bridge transitions. After defeating the mutant, the player arrives at the first "constructed" "island." It is a mostly abandoned city, almost empty/devoid of inhabitants. Remaining are some bedraggled stragglers taking advantage of the remains for shelter. Vermin and other monsters do the same.

This is an inflection point for the player. At first objectives were clear there was only one real direction to go: up. Here the player will now have to be forced to make decisions. At the edge of this abandoned city are the remains of a "port." 

Like the Wind Waker, or Sid Meier's Pirates, the player will be able to move from place to place in the world map sailing a "boat" of sorts to get from point A to point b.

The map is broken down into a set of grid points/islands.

In the port, the player finds the first indicator of the remnants of a map etched on a stone pointing out the size/immediate location of the island the player is currently on.

Islands in the game consist of small "natural" sites, inhabited by monsters, local flora and fauna, but primarily consisting of stone and rock formations – and "constructed" locations, clearly built from stones quarried at some far-off location and somehow built, established, floating on nothing.

There's some part of the magic/physics system of this world that "scientifically" should account for the nothing that suspends these constructs/islands existence. But should it be explained or detailed? For example, how does the player fall "down" into an abyss of stars? These details might be better left to "mystery" as they may be better as aesthetic and "rule-based" choices of a world not completely obeying the laws of physics as we know them. (Some amount of other dimensional thinking is warranted in an other-dimensional mythic abstraction.) 

For "land-based" travel, the player will at some point be able to capture/tame/acquire a goat-like/antelope creature to gallop across some of the long bridges like Yakul in Princess Mononoke. This will have an effect on the combat mechanics.

This first city is unlit, decayed. Perhaps the player finds remnants of the explorer's writings here. They detail his journey across the first expanse of bridge and project the next part of the course. (Sanderson's Mistborn, and the journal.)

"...my porter has remained silent. We are surrounded by silence and the dark. An occasional breeze masks the creeping of vermin around us. What ancient secrets have they ferreted away in their dark holes? We head north, as I went before. The bridge through this abyss must have an end."

The player should be conscious of the fact that the way they entered is now shut. There isn't a way back that way. Perhaps some interaction should occur that encourages the player to follow the explorer north.

Here, some narrative note should be made. The porter hired by the explorer is from the indigenous group the player's character was engaged in battle against in the opening of the game. The porter has no strong desire to help the explorer reach his destination. Much like the sherpas, he is not a "porter" by nature, but has been drafted into this practice by the explorer by virtue of the fact that he was available.

The conflict between the indigenous group and the player's character is consistent with what occurred in the Western United States. This culture however is pushing back, and disappears because they have retreated into the caves and another world. They disappear from history.

Perhaps their religious system maintains similarities to that of the ancient Mayans. For them, there is the "Underworld" with its "safety" from invading tribes or clans. Rather than some mystic entity it exists as a tangible, physical place, with a completely different set of laws, like the cenotes.

In this, their "underworld", their world between worlds, exist cities, ancient strong, empty. Their answer to where their advanced culture retreated before the Spanish or other explorers came upon them.

May be interesting to include some references to Hopi and other Indigenous myths here.

Some of the ancient cities will be inhabited, but it will be apparent those poepling them have lost much of their former state. This world has been ravaged by a plague, and has almost completely died.

Player Objectives

At this point the game should begin shifting the player toward a less linear style of gameplay. Ideally, one could transition the game into a proc-gen dungeon crawl beginning here.

The world map generated algorithmically, with islands, areas consisting of their own "builds/rulesets" (E.g. Undermine.)

Find Rope.

The player will need to retrieve a rope in this first abandoned city in order to cross broken portions of the bridge. (Grappling hook in old Zelda games.)

Find Map.

A rough stone map of the world appears near the old dock that perhaps may have been used by "ships" of this world. I'm still uncertain whether it would be great to make that functional or not.

At some point, some amount of backtracking and reexploring for certain objectives in the game may be useful. This first abandoned city should be more annoying than useful, encouraging the player to move on further and realize the size/expanse of this dungeon they will be crawling. Perhaps the bounds of it are teased... they don't actually exist.

Technically will be best to generate the world using a chunking system and make it seeded. Seeding allows for a more rules based set of priorities; it also may allow for some amount of multiplayer interaction.

Find a next objective.