As we approach the one month mark of our project some things have become evident:
We have a lot of work to do if we want to make a game that can both scare and intrigue people.
Inspiration
We wanted the setting to have a huge inpact on both the experience and gameplay for Medusa's labyrith, and for that reason we have taken the time to research and explore the world of ancient Greece, sometime around 400-300 B.C. We use a lot of real world sites and structures as inspirations, such as the minoan culture's palace, Knossos, on Crete. It predates our setting by some thousand years, but fits perfect for the areas were we want old ruins and temples.
We are also looking into sculptures and ceramics from the period, and use those as a basis from creating a setting that feels both authentic and mysterious.
But the setting is not everything, we also wish to achieve a ressonance with the drama and griping emotions of ancient greek theatre. I have spent some of my time reading manuscrips of Oedipus Rex and Medea. Reading the lines of Sophokles and Euripides got me thinking on how special it is that their writing, more than 2,000 years later still hold power, still can effect the readers emotions despite the difference in social context and world view. Can games achiece the same kind of timelessness? Can digital entertainment have a lifespan that long?
I doubt it, but the possibility exites me. Below are some of the original lines from each play, and as a contrast some very preliminary lines i have written as voiceover concepts.
“Alas, how terrible is wisdom
when it brings no profit to the man that's wise!
This I knew well, but had forgotten it,
else I would not have come here.”
-Oedipus Rex
"Truth is pain. A blindind, searing pain. Lies and shadows, all that shields your eyes from that awfull brightness are a blessing, a balm for the soul. Do not seek to solve the mysteries that surround you. If you succeed you might wish you had not, and wish it could be undone. It can't. You cannot unsee what you have seen. Even for those of us who choose eternal darkness., there is no respite from the pain."
-Oedipus, as a disembodied voice in the game
"And when I have ruined the whole of Jason's house,
I shall leave the land and flee from the murder of my
Dear children, and I shall have done a dreadful deed.
For it is not bearable to be mocked by enemies.
So it must happen. What profit have I in life?
I have no land, no home, no refuge from my pain."
- Euripides, Medea
"His taint in their veins, his hair on their heads. The sins of the father lives on in the blood of his sons, they will grow to be like him. Only my hand can save others from suffering at their pleasure. A viel they shall carry to the bride, and her burial gown with it."
-Medea, also a disembodied voice.
The though behind re-using these known characters and having refecences to lives according to legend is two-fold: It is part tangential learning and part a hint of what's to come.
The idea is that the voices will stem from theater masks that the player can pick up and put on, and if a player puts on the mask of Oedipus he/she will hear the voice of said character whisper things to her/him, and perhaps get a few flashes and images from their lives.
The goal here is to create a bridge that spans the gap of 2,000 years of storytelling, from one medium to another. What do you think people? Can it be done?
let us know in the comment section below.
