Shards of the Past

Storyline
In the past when the concept of Global Warming was first introduced, you were a scientist among a secret team that constructed an immensely powerful drill specifically designed to drill through the Earth’s crust to get far enough underground to begin to build an underground city to protect people from the effects of global warming. The drill-head was made of specially developed and manipulated Diamond, a specialist team of chemical scientists worked endlessly for months on end on a special chemical to be implanted within the Diamond to create resistance so when the intense heat is forcing pressure on the Drill, it doesn’t shatter. However.......
During the drilling process, the team were extremely close to reaching the right depth, and the diamond began to overheat, this didn’t cause much worry within the team due to the chemical implanted within the diamond. Unfortunately, the heat caused from the intense pressure of the drill continued to rise, completely above the predictions made by the team. The diamond drill head began to malfunction and quickly began to break apart, eventually the heat became so great the diamond shattered. This happening caused the chemical to overload and resulted in a catastrophic seismic explosion, completely annihilating the drill, the surrounding area, nobody knew what happened to the team. The explosion so far underground caused massive ripples through the Earth’s Crust, forcing Volcano’s all over the world to erupt, large earthquakes to take place, ultimately causing complete destruction wiping out 90% of the world population. Due to the chaotic explosion, this caused strange “alien-like” activities to take place all over the world, the Earth was completely reformed in total devastation.
Many remaining life forms on Earth were affected by these activities, causing genetic mutation within them, thus giving birth to new life on Earth, adapted already to the current state of the Earth. Nobody knew what caused such horror to the world, all they could do was find a way to survive. Some humans were also affected by the activities on Earth, completely changing their human form and attributes. The world was now a completely new place, unknown to all and like nothing anyone had ever seen before....

All this will be an introductive cut-scene you watch after playing the game for around 5 minutes, you start the game in the new re-formed world, around 100 years after the world changing disaster. You don’t know what has happened or where you are, nor do you know that you have actually been teleported 100 years forward in time. Your character is shown being washed up in a shore, one of the few shores remaining above sea level, you stand and look out to the sea, to see a massive abyss in the middle of the ocean. You feel something warm against your arm, and you soon realise the warmth is a small, glowing blue diamond shard underneath the skin in your left arm. You begin to explore the beach you are on, picking up bits of wreckage, this will be the tutorial part of the game to show the player the basic controls of the game to get them used to the control system. You will pick up pieces of a small handgun along the way exploring the beach, once you have all the pieces of the gun, you will be asked to “Fuse Weapon”. When you do this, you will see the shard in your arm light up more and the pieces of the gun will be taken from your hand and fused together in front of your eyes, all this is caused by the chemical in the shard. You take hold of the gun, this is where you are shown the combat controls etc. When you “Fuse Weapon” with the shard in your arm, it gives the weapon a certain special ability, making the weapon more advanced, but magically. When you fire the gun it will not be normal bullets, it will be energy projectiles. You are then given a couple of minutes to roam around, and get used the combat system, after a short period of time, a short cut-scene is engaged and you see a group of what you can only guess is pirates coming towards you.......
This is the first part in the game where you are submerged into a battle, this is not an intense, long fight, but only a very short fight to get you remotely used to the basic combat system and controls. The pirates coming towards you initially attack you, once you have killed two of the pirates another cut-scene is initiated where one of the pirates notice the shining blue glow coming from your arm. During the cut-scene you tell the pirates about the devastating explosion and also about the diamonds that have been scattered everywhere. You eventually persuade the pirates to help you find the shards of the diamond so you can go back in time to your life and stop the explosion before it happens, in return for your help, you offer to give the pirates the diamonds once you have used them.
This starts off the main storyline of the game, your main objective is to use your knowledge and the brutal survival and exploration methods of the pirates to discover the shards of the diamond scattered everywhere. Throughout the levels, there will be 3 main shards that you HAVE to collect to progress through the game to new areas, once these are collected, you are given the option to either leave, and carry on with the storyline, or for the exploration lovers, you can stay in the same area and explore the rest of the area you’re in. This does not go without reward, exploring every part of the area’s you’re in, rewards you in finding extra shards called “Upgradeable Shards”, these are optional shards that you do not necessarily have to collect, but collecting them does boost the power and abilities of your character. However, collecting these shards will not be an easy task, there will be hard battles, complex puzzles and many other obstacles in your way before you can collect these shards. There will be Achievements made for the Xbox 360 for doing things such as completing the game without collecting any of the Upgradeable Shards on different difficulty levels. Depending on the size of the area’s you have to search through, this will determine how many Upgradeable Shards there are throughout the level, for example. If you are only in a small area, there may be only 1 or 2 Upgradeable Shards, but if you’re exploring a massive area there could be up to 5 Upgradeable Shards to collect.

As you go through the game, you begin to realise that different people have discovered the shards before you and have moved them which is why you’re having to go to a lot of different places to discover all these shards. You also begin to see glimpses of a face which you recognize but can’t remember where from, as you collect more and more shards, you discover more about this person and eventually realise that this person was a scientist who was part of the team during the explosion. After you have collected a certain amount of shards, you are confronted by the main “boss” of the game, the scientist who was on the team who you kept seeing. A cut-scene now kicks in and you are told exactly who this man is and you realise that he was your best friend on the team and you both worked extensively hard on mastering this diamond head, however behind your back this man put more of the chemical than should of been put into the diamond which ultimately causes the explosion. You find out that he did this because he knew exactly what would happen if the explosion occurred. You eventually fight this man in the cut-scene and you’re beaten very quickly, when you wake up, he is gone.
This sets the main goal of the game, to stop your previous friend, collect all the shards and get back in time to stop the explosion from happening. The final boss of the game is of course your old friend, this is the ultimate battle of the entire game, you literally will have to use every single skill and ability you have learnt and obtained during the game to beat him, the main boss battle at the end will be in different phases, making you have full use of your entire arsenal of weapons and abilities.

You’re a scientist that drilled into the earth, using a diamond that accidentally drained the life out of the earth causing an explosion that turns the planet into a pretty destroyed planet. The blast sends you 100 years into the future. When you get there, you are captured by pirates, since you have a piece of the shattered diamond with you. You discover the diamond has mystic properties that can pretty much make you uber powered. You decide to collect the pieces of the diamond in hopes that its power will be great enough to save the world from the hell hole it has become.

Note: the pirates decided to take you (go with you) saying they are good guys, but they just want the diamond pieces, because of this you promise to give them the pieces once you have collected them all.

Objectives
The objective of the game is to collect as many diamond shards as possible to try and get back to your time using their power. As the story progresses and you meet the villain, your objective becomes to defeat him, and get all the shards he has, as well as trying to collect the shards.

High concept
To save the world from near destruction.

Skill Tree

weapon skills get on the person
main character has every skill tree
other characters must be a specific tree
Shards can upgrade weapons, plus give that weapon a special skill
(Note: the Shards go on the people and upgrade the weapon they are useing)
Long range weapons get big chaotic blasts at long range or take out everything around you at close range
Assault rifles, smg and other mid to short distance weapons get attacks that take out single or groups of enemies by riddling them with bullets.
Pistols get high powered shots that, on contact, cause a miniature ball of extreme condensed gravity that causes a black hole like ball to appear and suck anything around in.

Game Difficulty

Easy

Easy mode will be for the casual gamer who isn’t really experienced with this type of game. The enemies you fight will not be difficult to beat whatsoever, it will only take a few attacks to defeat any normal enemy during the game, and the damage caused by these enemies will be far less than on hard/insane mode. Boss fights will still be more challenging than normal enemies, but will take far less time to defeat, some of the phases during hard/insane mode will not be included in Easy mode. This gives the gamer a different experience each time they play through the game, making the gamer think strategically and make good use of the abilities you have in-game. There will be a substantial amount of “weapon caches” and item drops during Easy mode as compared to Hard/Insane. This gives an extra boost to the gamer on Easy mode, also helping the casual gamer complete it with more ease.

Normal

This difficulty will cause more problems for the gamer, it is still doable for the casual gamer, but they will have to think and work a lot more to defeat the enemies and bosses which as well as taking more damage and time to kill, will also deal you more damage and kill you quicker if you’re not careful whilst fighting them. Bosses will show a lot more aggressiveness and strength during fights, and you will have to be extra careful when special attacks are dished out to you and your team. You will notice a slightly considerable difference in the amount of weapon cache’s and item drops on Normal mode compared to Easy mode, this challenges the gamer that little bit more to use what they have on them, and use it wisely.

Hard

In hard mode, this is where the real test begins to happen for the gamer. Nothing you fight or try to do in this game will be easy at all to do. You will be constantly challenged during every part of the game, enemies work strategically to take out the minor threats of your team before aiming their attacks onto you, they will also use tactics so you will always have to watch your back. (Attacks from behind deal more damage than from the front). Weapon cache’s will be far and few between, but there will be sufficient amount of cache’s to keep your weapons full through the levels. Item drops are rarer than on Normal mode, however, there is an upside to this, when items do drop, they will be a lot more powerful and useful than on Normal/Easy mode. Bosses on Hard mode will show different phases than on Normal mode, these phases will include different attacks used, and will create a completely different fight, this gives the gamer a different experience for the different difficulties. For example, weapons that drop will be a lot more powerful than on the two other difficulties, they will deal a lot more damage, and will all have different ways of upgrading them. This difficulty really starts to make the gamer work for his survival and will require a lot of skill and ability to complete the game.

Insane

Insane Difficulty is the ultimate challenge. All enemies will deal serious amounts of damage to you and quickly, so you MUST be careful. You will have to use all your abilities and tactics learned from playing the previous difficulties (Insane difficulty will only be unlocked after Hard difficulty has been completed). The bosses on Insane mode will include their most powerful attacks in the game, these attacks will completely destroy you in 1 hit if not blocked, dodged or however else avoided. There will only be between 1 and 3 weapon caches per level, depending on the size of the level you’re on. This will give the gamer yet more difficulty, ultimately resulting in the gamer having to use extra skill to use as less bullets/ammunition as possible to despatch enemies. Item Drops will be extremely powerful which will seriously help you to complete the game, however even with these powerful weapons and items that will drop, the game will still be very difficult to complete on this difficulty.

Here are some designs for weapons that will be used. This post will be updated with renders of weapons when they are made.

Jake I really like cinema work you've done

I also think the detail in game modes is good

Since jake made shotgun, you should make skill tree fot that.

Setting sounds interesting, maybe some sketches to give ideas how it could vary acorss the planet.

jake the modelin is superb m8 would like to c some more sketchwork myself of the world and stuff. really like the pillaged and looted look of the weapons tho good work.

i really like your guns jake they are modelled really well. would like to see some more weapons.

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Just a couple of sketches of one of the main used guns in the game aswell as the the main melee weapon for the hero

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A quick sketch of hilt on the main enemy's sword!

Drawings look good, story sounds interesting as well.
Nice models Jake, they look pretty awesome.

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Another quick sketch of one of the main high ranked pirates who will join your fantastic journey at the start of the game. : )

really interesting pirate calum cant wait to c more..

Good weapon modeling Jake and the character concept sketch is awesome too. The notes you've given on it help us understand it too.

I like the sketches, they really show off the possible items and equipment.

The models are awesome Jake. You need to spend less time in Cinema though, really, 'cause I mean you're beginning to make me look bad D:

I like the story, I think it could be really interesting with a few alterations. Maybe throw in a couple more plot twists, like the pirate is a bad guy, because he is swayed easily by money, and he was workin' for the baddies all along. Really good work though.

I like the concept of your skill tree. Having a main character that has access to most skills will help to make unique characters each time. The only thing that could cause a problem is giving the character too many points to spend and so making him too powerful.

You say the main hero has access to all skill trees. Specify a couple of different skills that would belong here. Also, state whether or not the hero is able to unlcok every power at one point, making him the ultimate badass. It sounds cool but I actually don't think this would be a good idea. Maybe incorperate a skill system not unlike that in Mass Effect where you use points to update skills but there are nowhere near enough skill points available in game. Still, sounds like win.

Here is a render of one of the science labs.

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And another weapon, a sniper rifle.

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This is a quick sketch of the main character of the game, the rips in the jacket show the damage from the blast. However the left arm will be glowing blue due to the embedded Shards : ) (the larger of the two sketches was the final quick draw)

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This was a detailed-ish drawing of the main enemy of the game, the long hair and beard is to show that he has been in the new world longer than your character has been. Also, both of his arms have been wounded with Shards, however tainted with evil, making them glow a different colour to the ones your character will be hunting. (kinda messed up on the arms!)

Liking those character concepts. The idea of the shards in the arm providing different coloured glows based on moral alignment is a good idea.