Announcing: Eve
I am pleased (albeit scared) to finally be able to announce this project. Eve is a game concept that has been lurking in the back of my mind for a couple of years, and I’m incredibly excited to finally see it take shape.
What is it about?
Eve takes place after the end of the world. The Creator of All Things is bound by covenant not to directly intervene in human affairs, so He must create an agent to go to the afterlife and collect the lost and angry souls that wander there. Eve is that agent. Some of them want to leave, some don’t, and some are too wrapped up in their own beliefs to even really understand what’s going on. At the same time, the press of souls behind the gates of the afterlife has begun to take its toll, this tiny transitory other-world begins to shake apart, and predators wait beyond the gates…
What kind of game is it?
Eve is an action platformer spread throughout three large main areas, as well as a few smaller optional or plot-relevant areas. Each major area will take an hour or so to complete, so the total estimated length of the game is three to five hours. The areas must be progressed through linearly, but each area is full of secrets, wonders, and curiosities to discover. Eve will grow stronger as the souls she collects augment her power.
What does it look like?
The graphical style used in the wallpaper at the top is indicative of the style I will be using for the project. I will hand draw every game element and color them digitally, then use filters and other effects to emphasize the game’s illustrational style.
When will it be done?
All I can say right now is sometime in 2013– I will provide a more specific date as I get closer to completing the project, and I will post progress updates on Eve’s development every Wednesday until the project is complete.
A snapshot of where Eve is in its development:
Programming: 20%
- The basic gameplay framework is functional
- The level editor is complete
- The map editor is 50% complete
Art: 1%
- Style guide / promotional piece
Level Design: 0%
- Dependency on map editor
Music/Sound: 25%
- 15 minutes of style-appropriate music complete
Test of prototype gameplay engine at low res
“You had worshipers, you know. No one ever told them about you, but they knew you must be out there somewhere. Something in them cried out for you. They worshiped me, too– they worshiped me through stories, tales of how clever I was, or maybe about how gullible everyone else was. I’ve never been able to understand the difference. The day came, though, that other humans with better stories came and killed all of our little flock, killed them with bigger louder angrier stories where they could worship themselves instead. They kept telling my stories, though, right up until the end. My stories were just that good.”
Problem Machine 
Awesome! I would so love to play this. I’m at a LAN party right now, and it’d be fun to bust this out at a future LAN. –Wendy Wiseman Fisher
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Hey there man!
Allow me to give you my two cents:
-The name is already trademarked: http://www.eveonline.com/, so you should look into that.
-You should check out the game Bastion on Steam – your idea reminds me quite about about it.
Don’t be too scared to announce your idea, it’s noting ground breaking.
The story sounds cool – keep us updated!
Best Regards,
Sipty
I’m aware of EVE online, and I intend to contact CCP at some point to discuss the issue. I’m hoping that perhaps appending a subtitle will be enough to appease them– it will depend on what we can negotiate. I’ve actually thought about this a lot, and this is the most appropriate name for the game I’ve come up with. Even if I end up having to rename it, I think I may always think of this game as Eve.
I’m a huge fan of Bastion. It’s a beautiful game, and I got a lot out of playing it, though this concept actually pre-dates it. I can kind of see the tonal comparison, both sort of surreal ‘after the end’ adventures, and yeah I suspect that this game would appeal to a lot of the same people Bastion does.
Regarding being scared to share the idea, it’s not because I’m worried people will steal it or anything (even if it were, the premise I mention here is only the most superficial layer of the story I have planned). I’m scared to share the idea because I’m committed to something big and difficult now in an extremely public way, which is something I’ve avoided doing for much of my life.
Thanks for checking out my project and blog!
Everything sounds good, my friend! All I can say now is – welcome to being an adult and may all the luck in the world be with you! : )
Heh, am I an adult now? I don’t think we grow up only once, we just shed our lives like old shells over and over, crawl into new lives, and eventually grow into those. Or, sometimes, maybe, we shrink. Just another step in being a person, I think– not forwards, not backwards, just in a direction, any direction.
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