Eternal Dream - Further Details
As part of my game idea a week project, a story called Eternal Dream was used as the basis for a game, see game idea 7 for details. The story has been developed further by creating a character profile for a key character, Bolingo, and developing a plan for the starting acts of the game story.
In the story, the Bliss corporation aims to capture dreams and use them to manipulate other people's happiness. The goal of Bliss is to bring about world peace by eliminating violent tendencies in everyone. Unfortunately, this means that some people must remain in a clinic in order to research how to implement their plan and provide the dreams that are used. The player sees the world through the eyes of 3 people: Jane who is trapped in the clinic where her dreams are taken, watched and used; Margaret who is the head of the clinic; and Bolingo who is a worker within the clinic and a member of the group trying to liberate the patients.
Bolingo Character Profile
Bolingo is first met through the eyes of Jane, where Bolingo says he is trying to help Jane escape. Jane only meets Bolingo's avatar in the dream world, a blue monster (seen pictured on the right). To have an avatar in the dream world, Bolingo was forced to use a character from someone's dream. In the real world, Bolingo is a man just entering middle age. He has a receding hairline, is slightly overweight and very tall. Bolingo hunches over slightly to hide his height and would probably be good looking if he wasn't so scruffy and unkempt. His academic background as a biological chemist led to him perfecting a drug that allowed other people's dreams to be recorded. This resulted in him being hired by Bliss corporation. Since then, Bolingo has found out what the company is doing, and he wants to stop it. Bolingo plans to work from the inside to help the "patients" in the clinic escape.
Bolingo's strengths include his research skills, an ability to work on his own, articulate manner and a passion to help people dream - not have nightmares. He loves watching movies and walking his dog. He used to skateboard a lot, but can't find the time at the moment and misses it. His prize possession is his leather jacket. Bolingo's weaknesses include a slight awkwardness around women (mostly due to a recent break up where his girlfriend claimed he worked too much), a sometimes condescending tone and a tendancy to become introverted if left to his own devices. Many women fall in love with Bolingo, he just hasn't found someone yet.
Initial Acts
In the game, the player is shown the world through the eyes of the 3 main characters. The beginning story is linear so that the player can see what all the components are in this fantasy world. After the initial acts, the player can choose who they want to control most frequently, and also can change the story to fit their own wishes. The following are some possible acts that could occur in the beginning of the game.
Act 1: This is the starting act, which is the same as the short story, Eternal Dream. In this, the player is Jane who is pushed from her own dream into someone else's. She meets Bolingo and then wakes up in the clinic, a reality she doesn't remember.
Act 2: In this act, the player is Margaret, the head of the Bliss Corporation. We find out that the aim of the corporation is to bring world peace. She speaks to her employee, Bolingo, about the volunteers in the clinic and the work they are doing.
Act 3: The player finally gets to see the world from Bolingo's eyes. The player must avoid detection in the real world and also work out how to enter the dreams to talk to Jane.
Act 4: The player returns to Jane's world and discovers she can control which dream she is in more. She also discovers she can influence the person who is dreaming through her actions in their dream. Jane meets Bolingo and finds out more about his position and more about where she is in the real world.
Act 5: The player returns to Margaret's world where she is negotiating with business men for funding. Margaret finds out that Jane is a special volunteer, because she can enter other dreams and manipulate them.
Later Acts: After this the player can choose who to follow more frequently. The player negotiates through dream worlds or must continue to manage the corporation and be vigilant for break outs of the patients. Possible endings include the clinic being destroyed, all of the patients escaping, only Jane escaping, Bolingo being fired so the corporation can continue and so on.