Script
In 3044, on a distant dystopian planet, a little girl has terrible dreams about what she calls doomsday, the end of the world, a slow process of unfortunate things that spawns over months, maybe years, until the planet is ultimately destroyed in an explosion. She sees a strange artifact in her dreams, which whispers its location in ciphered coordinates. The girl believes it’s the key to save the planet. She told her parents about her dreams and they didn’t believe her at first, but as the events she dreamt about slowly become reality, they seek professional help.
Scientists start experiments on her, wondering why and how she can see the future, but most importantly, how they can prevent doomsday. They soon learn that the artifact the girl sees is a life wheel, meant to keep planets alive and healthy. They try to decrypt the coordinates, but with no success.
Due to the harsh experiments, the little girl soon dies. In a desperate attempt to give the planet a second chance, the scientists create a very advanced android, meant to find the artifact and keep the girl’s brain alive, figuring that’s their key to finding salvation.
The android is given a ship and takes off to distant solar systems. As she’s gathering information about the artifact, she learns that it will be impossible to find it without the help of someone who knows the galaxy’s treasures and artifacts better than the back of their palm. She visited a lot of planets until she found the perfect person: a treasure thief. In order to convince him to join her on her quest, she threatened to announce the galactic authorities about all the crimes he has committed. Knowing that he’d be given a death penalty unless he joined her, he accepted.
Together, they manage to decipher the coordinates and soon learn that the artifact can be found in a temple on a strange planet. The planet is made out of multiple floating islands, the artifact being the only thing that keeps the planet together. As they make their way through the planet, they notice how everything looks dead and abandoned, seeing some messages left behind by the people who used to live there. The cities where in ruins. As they make their way through the ruins, they learn that hundreds of year ago, someone tried to enter the temple which guards the artifact, causing the destruction of their home planet. Only “The Chosen One” could enter the temple. As she suddenly relieves everything the little girl has been through, the dreams and the experiments, the android figures it out that the brain she has once belonged to The Chosen One. She decides to enter the temple by herself and retrieve the artifact.
Once she enters, she has a couple of puzzles she has to finish before reaching the artifact. The thief guides her through a private transmission. Once the artifact is lifted from the table it was sitting on, the temple starts to collapse. The android and the thief make a last minute escape as the planet explodes.
Once back to the original planet, they notice how it’s slowly bur surely dying. One last thing they had to do was figure out where to place the artifact. The thief has some manuscripts he stole from the city ruins. As he studies them, he learns that the planets were once one, until the inhabitants decied to separate themselves and the planet based on social class. While the rich thought they’d be better off without the lower classes, they soon found their extinction caused by their own greed. Meanwhile, the other classes prospered and evolved. Their planet had a temple as well, and that was where the artifact was meant to be. They saved the planet at the very last minute.
This entire experience turned the android into a human. She now enjoys everything the little girl once did. She often goes to see the parents, also she keeps her distance as she doesn’t have the courage to tell them what happened to their daughter. She also keeps in contact with the thief, now trying to help him earn an honest life for himself.
Moodboards
This character is a Nathan Drake-like artifact thief, of non-human origins. He is driven mostly by self-interest, including his decision to join the quest of saving a planet and innocent people.
He is able to decipher most ancient encoded messages and has knowledge of many civilizations.
The main character is a cyborg created to shelter a child's human brain and seek an artifact believed to be the key to saving the world. She is meant to look like a real, live human. She wishes she could be a real human, but the story develops, she starts accepting herself and her uniqueness.
The world of this game is very diverse, the player having to explore a multitude of planets and environments.
The child is not that present in the game, yet she is a key character. Her personality influences the protagonist's thoughts and actions.
Early character concepts
Vision document
Operation: D.R.E.A.M (Direct Reconnaissance Encounter Against Mishap) is a sci-fi/fantasy, 3rd person game of short lenght, roughly about 9-10 hours, featuring a single-player narrative, targeted to a broad audience, ages between 14 to mid 30s and is suitable for all genders. Firstly, the game will be released for computers, with the possibility to be released for PlayStation, XBox and Nintendo later on.
Aided by an infamous thief, you must find the key to saving the world from its end. You play as a special android build for the sole purpose of shielding a human child’s brain, without which the world is doomed. Travel across the universe in search of an ancient artifact left behind mysterious people. Explore who you are, your past, your hopes and dreams for the future.
This game is focused on HOPe, an android created to bring salvation to a planet on the edge of destruction. The story starts in year 3044, on a distant dystopian planet, when a little girl has terrible dreams of doomsday, the end of the world, a slow process of unfortunate things that spawns over months, maybe years, until the planet is ultimately destroyed in an explosion. She sees a strange artifact in her dreams, which whispers its location in ciphered coordinates. The girl believes it’s the key to save the planet, although nothing seems wrong just yet. She told her parents about her dreams and they didn’t believe her at first, but as the events she dreamt about slowly become reality, they seek professional help. As scientists studied her and her visions and as her health got worse and worse, they decided to create an android meant to keep the girl’s brain alive, as it is very important in saving the planet, and send her on a mission to find all the means necessary to save them.
As HOPe journeys through numerous galaxies, she starts to learn more about herself, how she came to life and how to cope with her newly found feelings, as long as forming her own opinions about humankind, and especially, those who brought her to life. This part of the game has a similar approach like Detroit Become Human, but without the "trying to earn your rights as an android" vibes.
The game presents various unique environments and characters, an abridged, but rattling good story nevertheless, with immersive gameplay and mechanics. Movement and graphics are similar to Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order. HOPe has a journal much like Nathan Drake's, where she notes and doodles personal notes regarding multiple situations and discoveries. The game UI and inventory system will be similar to Destiny 2's. The puzzles are much like a combination of Uncharted 4, The Last Guardian and Star Wars: Jedi Fallen Oder.
The player will have to solve puzzles ranging from easy to complex, but not unsolvable. Although not focused on survival, but puzzle-solving and exploration, there are 5 weapons to use. In certain areas, the player will be attacked by enemies or will have to destroy objects in order to complete the level. There is also a "flashback" section where HOPe re-experiences what the child went through and the player gets a better grasp of the story. This is a turning point of the game. From that point on, the player's choices will start affecting the gameplay.
When it comes to approaching enemies, depending on the type and the player’s choices, it is possible to either befriend them, or eliminate them. The ending will also vary, based on previously made choices. Enemies vary from planet to planet, they can be either local creatures, humans or aliens. Much like in Undertale, the game will progress differently depending on the player's choices, like pacifist, neutral or genocide. The last section of the game consists of a last-minute escape scene. If the player spares the enemies, they will get the ”true” ending, being able to retrieve the artifact, escape the planet and complete their mission. Otherwise, if the player kills all the enemies, they won’t be able to escape and will be blown to bits in the explosion, therefore the mission has failed. In that case, HOPe will be the only one to survive the explosion, will be retrieved by the scientists that created her and shut down. The world will have lost hope and it will soon have been destroyed. The more you play the game, the more HOPe will remember your past run, sometimes noting out-loud that certain situations feel similar, sometimes also breaking the 4th wall.
Site visit photographs
As the game is centered around space exploration, I visited the Science Museum in London to look for inspiration for possible designs and concepts.
Color variations
Toned designs
Assets
The first asset is a mirror that displays holographs. It can be used for communications, just like the holo-devices in Star Wars, but also to display maps, targets, objectives and to display HOPe's journal.
This represents the temple where the artifact can be found. It's a dark room, illuminated mostly by the glowing artifact at the end of the chamber. The 2 statues are meant to be guards, deciding who is worthy of knowing where the object is.
Below you can see the artifact.
This spaceship is the main vehicle present in the game. It also works as an "operational base" for the characters. Fast travelling in between planets can also be unlocked from here, using the smaller shuttle situated on top of the ship for when you need to travel faster than the speed of light.
Final character designs
Work schedule
