'The Verse' - firefly pc game by AnonymousTheSpy

GENERAL DISCUSSIONS

'The Verse' - firefly pc game

POSTED BY: ANONYMOUSTHESPY
UPDATED: Wednesday, June 3, 2009 20:00
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VIEWED: 3459
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Wednesday, May 27, 2009 7:25 PM

Alright, I know I’m new to the firefly verse, some of you may already know this if you read my other post.

But I’m a Vancouver Film Student doing a Writing for Games course and I have to pitch a proposal based off a series/movie. Hence, I chose Firefly/Serenity.
Of course this is completely hypothetical, but to make this process as authentic as possible I am hoping for some fan input. And heck, if Firefly/Serenity has taught us anything, is that if you put enough effort into something, it might happen.

I am probably going to tread on some toes and offend some die-hard fans, but I’m basing all my knowledge off the Firefly series and Serenity movie for this pitch. The stuff the general public would know.

So here’s the premise:

After the crew of Serenity successfully broadcasted the message about the incident on Miranda, the populace began to distrust the Alliance.
You, a former soldier of the alliance, desert, immediately becoming an outlaw and traitor to the alliance.
You buy a crummy ship, band together a crew, and start you journey to carve yourself a new life in the outer planets.

Now, some might wonder, why we aren’t following the crew of Serenity. But frankly I feel that the crew and that story is best left in the hands of Joss and the imagination of the fans.
There might be moments, however, when you see a certain Firefly craft disembark as you dock to a space platform. And you might here a certain song in the taverns being played.

Initially, a fellow Alliance soldier helps you steal a transport and make it to one of the less patrolled planets. You trade in the ship and, for the little money you get for such a high profile craft, you have the option of a few measly craft.

The Ships:
The ships are all built, initially, for specific purposes from cargo freighters, transports, mining, scouts, companion ships, med ships, scavengers etc.
But all ships are fully customizable from the rooms, armor, engines, weapons, personal transports and communication arrays onbaord.
Each ship will have a specific number of rooms but it’s up to you to choose their purposes. Be it, cargo bays, crew and passenger quarters, smuggling rooms, sickbays, companion rooms, etc. This could lead to a cargo ship being used as nothing else than a refugee transport or a companion’s ship used to smuggle contraband from across the verse.
Certain quests and crew members will require specific rooms aboard your ship. Such as a doctor will perform better at healing the crew with a sickbay.

The Crew:
The crew you choose has as much variety as your ship. The NPCs you choose could fill various different roles: engineer, pilot, doctor, chef, companion, priest, bodyguard, spy, miner, etc.
But each character will have his own personality and background that could affect the game a bring light to new quests.
Also, you must take into account that certain personality types won’t get along with each other and new crew members you try to induct along your journey may simply refuse to join on the basis of your current crew.
But the longer you crew is together the higher the ship morale, leading to better quest efficiency, ship repair and medical recoveries. However, if a valued member of the crew dies, morale will plummet.

The Quests:
Once you have your ship and you crew (both can change during the game) you will enter the sandbox world of the verse and begin to find and complete quests on the outer planets.
Quests you have access to would all depend on your ship type, crew personalities and professions and your reputation. Depending on which quests you do, your reputation can waiver between many aspects; good, evil, legal, illegal, religious and economic.
The quest game play would vary between first/third person play for heists and thieving jobs and ship based flying for space missions. There is even the possibility of combining the two modes: train job anyone?
However, the verse is vast and the quests are varied, everything from heists to missionary work, from companionship to bartering. Which means you could go through the whole game without even getting into a fight

But that’s hard to do. Because, as you become more well known and travel further out, you will encounter Reavers. And as you travel to the centre planets, the Alliance presence will be greater.

But you realize you’re getting more Alliance patrols on your tail than the average deserter. Through following leads and rumors you find out that the soldier who helped you escape knew some valuable secrets the Alliance was keeping. It doesn’t matter if he’s part of your crew, gone his own way or dead by now, the Alliance believes you know this secret too. But this soldier had spoken of a place called Black Rock.

When you eventually find Black Rock, whatever Black Rock maybe, you uncover the Alliance’s dark secret; the coordinates of Earth-That-Was.
Supposedly these coordinates had been lost over the generations, but the Alliance has known and kept it secret for their own reasons.

It is your goal to acquire these coordinates by any means necessary. How you do that is up to you, but it will likely take you to the most dangerous corners of the verse.
You will have to do a multitude of quests both first person and flying in order to complete this task.
But when you find these coordinates you come to the last climatic act: what to do with this information.

Depending on how you are playing the game you will have multiple options. Some of which will be more difficult than others, especially if you go against your current reputation or crew personalities.
But here are some options:

- You could try and send this message out through the airwaves to the general public. You would have to find somewhere safe to broadcast from while the Alliance is on your tail, not an easy task.

- You could try and sell the information to the highest bidder, but trying to do this safely won’t be easy with so many cutthroat characters in the verse.

- But you could always have the option of outfitting your ship to make the distance between solar systems, get beyond the Reaver lines, with Alliance on your tail, and find Earth yourself.

Whichever way you choose, the result of this choice will be… unknown.
But all the quests and tasks you did along the way will affect the verse in ways you didn’t expect.

Comparison:
If I had to compare this game to anything I would have to use old school titles that I am a fan of. The quest elements would be much like Arcanum which has such a variety of sub-quests, character dynamics and prejudices, a unique action dependent alignment setup and such a vast world to travel that I would like to follow that setup. However, instead of customizing a character, you’re customizing a ship and the crew that goes with it.
First/Third person would be much like most fps games on the market today, but maybe add martial elements, like Oni or Counterstrike: Specialists.
The flight simulating play, I imagine would encompass some of the elements of Descent: Freespace and what more recent dog fighting games use.

Multiplayer:
The multiplayer version would not have a set of quests or storyline to follow. But there would be a multitude of quests to choose from.
Be it first/third person missions where players choose a side. Like defending or attacking a bank to get the money inside.
Or dog fighting missions where you battle each other in their ships in space.
There might even be a combination of the two in which a ship has to be boarded and the crew onboard defeated.

Basically this is my idea.
Like it.
Don’t like it.

But please give me feedback, opinions and any questions would be appreciated.
There is a lot I left out for the sake of clarity.

Cheers.

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Wednesday, May 27, 2009 11:25 PM

BRINGITBACK

Mate...
Not only am I playing this game...but Im probably lining up for days in the cold to get the first copy.

I know this is probably not what you pictured yourself, but I see a lot of Knights of the Old Republic in this synopsis.

I would keep fights simple and turn based and flight skirmishes simple.

An RPG set in the verse should be based on interacting with the different characters and as captain, bringing the right crew together to achieve the different goals the game

I'd set up special challenges (ie. little challanges like the 'death by sword' gig with Mal against Atherton)

When discussing earth that was, you have to be careful..
You have to create a story line in which there is still something valuable on the planet. The same planet humans happily departed when it could no longer sustain life.
I dont want to steal your thunder, but what I would suggest is that the Alliance has hidden the coordinates for Earth and lied to the public for centuries about the 'lifeless' planet unable to support life...while they have secretly funded a re-generation effort over the last 200 years that has restored the planet to its former beauty and unearthed unimaginable treasures...

Have you considered the independants? Perhaps a crew could take jobs for either the alliance or Independants and taking those jobs opens up different doors for the player..

Wow...could really keep going all night..sorry mate.

Someone really has to make this game... Greenlight something Joss!

Fantastic post and really good idea mate..

god luck, hope I helped

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Thursday, May 28, 2009 5:03 AM

GODSMACKSERENITY

if you made a game like this youd be a bajillionaire in no time :)

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Thursday, May 28, 2009 6:10 AM

ANONYMOUSTHESPY

Quote:
Originally posted by Bringitback:
Mate...
Not only am I playing this game...but Im probably lining up for days in the cold to get the first copy.

- ha ha, thanks man.

Quote:
...I see a lot of Knights of the Old Republic in this synopsis.

- to be honest, i'd never played KtOR, but that is exactly what I was picturing. I do see the fights as pretty simple: we don't want the crew dying every time you start a bar fight.
Perhaps turn based combat could be an option, depending on people's preferences and the situation.

Quote:
An RPG set in the verse should be based on interacting with the different characters and as captain, bringing the right crew together to achieve the different goals the game

- that's exactly what I was thinking. The game is about exploring all the different combinations of crew, ships and the many different results quests could have. I feel like sandbox rpgs are something we're missing at the moment and need to be revitalized.

Quote:
When discussing earth that was, you have to be careful..

- well, in my head had imagined that, perhaps, life was still sustainable on Earth. In fact, they say, at the beginning of Serenity, that 'Earth-That-Was could no longer sustain our numbers.'
They never said the planet was dead. Hmmmm...

- But the reason I didn't write that into the synopsis, is I want to keep it ambiguous. Why did the Alliance keep it a secret? What lies back there on Earth? Why did we really leave? Do people still live there? Etc.

Quote:
Have you considered the independents?

- I imagine you could get quests from old Independents, but I think it's like Mal said, 'We're all just folk now.' So there's now real Independent army anymore. But I believe civil unrest will begin to pop up.

-Thanks for the reply and feedback. Glad to know the idea would be recieved in good favour.
Anymore questions? Go ahead.

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Thursday, May 28, 2009 9:12 AM

BYTEMITE

Well... You can certainly pitch this game for a class. If you were going to make it, you'd have to worry just a little bit about Fox and Universal's share in the franchise, unless you were completely under the radar or something. And also getting together a team willing to work on this for a couple years, which is about how long a professional quality game like this would take to produce. Depending on the learning curve of your development team, it might take longer. >_> A lot longer. But, if after you do your class thing, and you wanted to try it... You know. Or there's other firefly computer games that fans are trying to make, and they're ALWAYS hurting for help.

You have a good over-all story arc, it sounds like it develops at an even pace and it would go somewhere exciting. I'm not too big on stories where people try to go back to Earth-That-Was because it would take multiple generations to get back to Earth and because my understanding was we polluted the holy bereavement outta it, the surface scoured in a chemical fire or human warfare. At least, that's what the shadow puppet play in HoG in the extended shooting script says, but maybe that's dramatic exaggeration. Anyway. To each their own.

And it's a good idea in general. Pitch this, by all means.

Although, I might suggest simplifying some of the customizability. I know, I know, making your own ship, your own crew, that sounds like a lot of fun. But my personal experience with games like this says that it takes a long enough time to create your OWN character, let alone designing a ship and selecting 5-8 other characters to accompany you, and most people probably would like to just jump into the game fast as possible. Besides, it might be hard for you to script interaction, tension, and story between the crew and for individual NPCs, both in the sense of working out bugs and the sheer scope of all that.

But I'll admit if you could put all that in, it really would be an impressive piece of code.

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Thursday, May 28, 2009 11:37 AM

BYTEMITE

Actually, as I think it over more, maybe that customizability wouldn't be so hard to produce. I mean, Neverwinter Nights is from what I hear very customizable, in that you can create your own campaigns.

...I almost wonder if you couldn't mod Neverwinter Nights for something like this...

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Thursday, May 28, 2009 8:22 PM

RCAT

Sounds like a great game to me, I'd def. give it a try, based on your synopsis alone, even if I wasn't a Browncoat (but then again I am a big fan of old-school rpgs). I like the sandbox angle, where you can play the 'verse a bit in your own style to upgrade to better ships, ballance a crew, get more cash, etc. and the storyline is always there for you to work on if you choose but you're not lead by the hand through it. Based on your idea I think you might want to limit it to single player, given there seems to be an endgame goal.

I like the ship customization aspect. You could always have standard ships that don't have to be tweaked for players who don't want to micro-manage.

You could also have several large-scale side quests that intertwine but aren't needed to finish the game like: discovering the sinister secret behind the blue-sun corp. or a plot w/ in the companions guild to manipulate core-world trade.

Good luck w/ your class...hopefully you'll ultimately find a VG exec. who's a browncoat to pitch the idea to.

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Friday, May 29, 2009 10:37 AM

ANONYMOUSTHESPY

Quote:
Originally posted by Bytemite:
Well... You can certainly pitch this game for a class. If you were going to make it, you'd have to worry just a little bit about Fox and Universal's share in the franchise...

- Well this is just a class exercise in which we are required to base the game off a movie or series. So we don't have to worry about that =P

Quote:
...I'm not too big on stories where people try to go back to Earth-That-Was because it would take multiple generations to get back to Earth and because my understanding was we polluted the holy bereavement outta it...

- Well, I believe that Earth is the narrative 'McGuffin'. I feel, in this 'Verse, Earth-That-Was is rather a mythical place, no one is too sure if it even exists.
The same way Earth was at the begining of Battlestar.
Or land in Waterworld.
Everyone has just passed down this story through generations, it isn't clear if anyone believes it anymore.

- But I understand what you are saying about the length of time it takes to get to Earth. But customizing the ship would involve preparing for this distant journey. But, essentially, I would like to leave the game at this point; the beginning of the journey. You're not sure if your ship and crew will even be able to make it.

Quote:
Although, I might suggest simplifying some of the customizability. ...it takes a long enough time to create your OWN character, let alone designing a ship and selecting 5-8 other characters...Besides, it might be hard for you to script interaction, tension, and story between the crew

- Well, how I imagined it, was that you ship is your CHARACTER. It's what you develop, customize and upgrade for the roles of specific quests. You might have the chance to buy and trade ships along the way, but it is essentially your character.
The crew are just an element of this ship, they fill certain roles you might require.
I understand what you say about keeping it simple. If you don't want to develop your ship and crew, the ship you buy will have a default setup which should be good enough to start off with. And that first docking area will have people who would crew your ship.

- As well as interaction between you and the crew I would still go back to my example of Arcanum, it's an old 2001 game. It never got good acclaim, thanks to poor graphics, but it's a cult hit (like firefly). the sandbox world is very intricate and all the npcs have their own pasts and prejudices towards other races, creeds, sexes, personalities etc.
I would like to implement this. Heck, if this got made, I want the guys at Troika Games to be there =P

- Basically, NPCs in 'the Verse' all hold their won prejudices, be it good, evil legal, illegal, religious, economic, morale, imorale etc. And will only join you under certain circumstances.

Well, I suppose I went on a bit long there.
But I am glad for the feedback.
Anymore points, go ahead.

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Friday, May 29, 2009 10:44 AM

ANONYMOUSTHESPY

Quote:
Originally posted by Rcat:
...Based on your idea I think you might want to limit it to single player, given there seems to be an endgame goal.

-well this would definitely be a single player game. it's how imagined it.
The multiplayer was only secondary as it helps to sell. But it would be only missions, not an overarching story.
Perhaps a nice multiplayer version, would be where people have to work together with their imported single player ships in a separate storyline altogether?
What do you think?

Quote:
I like the ship customization aspect. You could always have standard ships that don't have to be tweaked for players who don't want to micro-manage.

- that's exactly what I thought. thanks for the input

gladd to see there's approval.
please keep the comments coming

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Saturday, May 30, 2009 6:55 AM

CAPTAINAWESOME99

Wow. You obviously have put a lot though into this. I think you have some real promising ideas here. I'm not sure about the whole finding "the earth that was" plot but that could be interesting. I also think it sounds a little like KOTOR.

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Saturday, May 30, 2009 12:33 PM

SIGNO060

Great Idea and concept for a game. An RPG set in the Firefly verse. Set up sounds alot like Mass Effect and KOTR. Idk about turn-based combat for the game. Firefly and Serenity never were really about sword combat. It had that old west feel of gunslingers and what not. I would go with real time action. You could also have alot of fist fights with that too. As far as the story, it seems to mirror the Serenity movie quite closely. Why has the Alliance kept the coordinates to Earth-that-was secret? That seems a pretty important point to work out for the story of the game. Gamers would want to know what crazy cover-up conspiracies the Alliance is up to this time. You have a great Idea going I'd have that game on pre-order the first day I was able too.

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Saturday, May 30, 2009 2:55 PM

ANONYMOUSTHESPY

Quote:
Originally posted by signo060:
As far as the story, it seems to mirror the Serenity movie quite closely.

- do you think that's a problem? I'm thinking the Alliance has plenty of secrets they keep hidden.

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Sunday, May 31, 2009 6:13 AM

SIGNO060

Well I think if any one group of people had the chance to make a game like this they would owe it to fans to create a new adventure. We already saw Mal and his crew stick it to the alliance by finding out the secret on Miranda and broadcasting it to the rest of the Verse. If you are going to present a game with a new batch of characters they need new adventures not the same adventure just switched around a little.

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Sunday, May 31, 2009 6:40 AM

BEATLESFAN

I agree with basically everything that's been said here. The only thing I can think of is the similarity between this and Serenity. It's sorta close what with the secrets and all, but I think it's different enough that just a tweak or two could fix it. I love the idea of the coordinates for Earth That Was - it always gets brushed off in descriptions - "Too far" "couldn't sustain us" blah blah. It's good when you're on a time budget, but it would be nice to hear more about it.

Perhaps you find the coordinates or some other Alliance goody earlier in the game which would account for the alliance chasing you so much?

Either way, it may just be a project, but if this were doable for real I'd be in the snow with the rest of these folks waiting for a copy.

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Wednesday, June 3, 2009 8:00 PM

ANONYMOUSTHESPY

Quote:
Originally posted by Beatlesfan:
It's sorta close what with the secrets and all, but I think it's different enough that just a tweak or two could fix it.

- Well I feel that most people who play this game would be predispositioned to having something that involves negatively affecting the Alliance. I feel this what would be different from Serenity is that you have to actively infiltrate the Alliance in one way or another to uncover these secrets. I feel it will be active in that it is ultimately your decision to head straight into the midst of Alliance territory, amongst others, to uncover the truth.

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