Hi,
I'm a writer with programming skills, looking for an artist(s) and a musician to collaborate with on making a strong narrative platformer game about a scientist and nanomachine swarm hybrid. I have written a decent amount of it already, some core mechanics, some great characters, I'm also working on a game design document, but I realized I wanted to collaborate on game design choices with the other people building it. I love pixel art, and all genres of music, and emotion dialogue portraits like in Crosscode, but I'll leave some of the aesthetic decisions up to the discretion of the people who want to participate.
A little about me:
I'm originally a UC Berkeley English major which I went to so I could one day write well for games. Since then I've learned programming and worked as a software developer and also in robotics, but often write in my spare time. I've made a few prototypes in Unity to practice with, but they've kind of got shady business practices so I'd rather develop in Godot if possible. I've got a couple of months off work to fully flesh out this story and program, but I'd prefer to work on the game full time if it gets to that point.
Some games I'm inspired by: Crosscode, The Messenger, Katana Zero, Dave the Diver, Darkest Dungeon, Anything by Supergiant games and Team Cherry.
Here's some samples of my fiction if you're interested:
Sex Robot QA. Sexy and Dangerous: https://docs.google.com/document/d/10KmOAYj1zVtA6aMeYWb2OyGpG6HxU98Pk-OTfSvesVU/...
Ever-Life: https://www.shortstorylovers.com/story/everlife-30960
Opening scene starter concept. Keep in mind this is more just a scene setup and direction rather than how I would write fiction typically:
3 Scientists in a room are working on their nanoswarm technology. The swarm breaks free and envelops one of the scientists deconstructing them and reconstructing them over and over. The other two scientists freak out and run out of the room, slamming the emergency pressurization button. The swarm deconstructs and first tries to go through cracks in the walls and door and then starts slamming against the glass as a concentrated mass. After it can’t break free it moves to the center of the room it starts thrumming and shifting to different shapes, then forms back into the scientist. The scientist starts pleading and beating against the door for them to let them out. The scientists can’t hear through the walls but they are clearly distraught over this sight. The person/swarm calms down and locks eyes with the scientists… You see a zoom in where swarm bits start reconfiguring cells… DNA reconfigured and scanned… Zooms in on neurons and you see little electrodes branching with the cells at the end of dendrites, adding another connection all over… It zooms out and it walks over to the computer and scans their biometric print and the door opens. The scientists scramble backwards but the person becomes a swarm and starts to fly towards them as the scientists barely escape and slam the next door. One shouts to the other to revoke access to the scientist and the other screams neither of them have the admin privileges to do that. The person/swarm finds themself trapped in a pressurized airway, no computer but they notice the camera and the swarm starts floating up to it. The scientists scramble and run away in time as the swarm starts to hack the network through the camera. The airlock/pressure-lock opens and the person/swarm desolidifies and starts making its way into the walls and seeping out through the building into the night sky. Then a helicopter overhead flies up to the building and fires a blast at it, an emp, and the swarm scatters in indistinguishable bits all over.
You hear on the coms, “target neutralized, emp worked.” On the other end of the coms you hear, “back up the data and then cut the power to the facility.”
You see people running out the building and then the two scientists follow and see all the power’s been cut. “Oh god. They’re dead” One said. “We couldn’t do anything to help them...” Two says. On a loud speaker you hear it say, “Everyone get in your cars and leave the facilities grounds. There will be a clean up and investigation crew on their way.” A man in a business suit walks up to them and asks them to please come with him. The two scientists look at each other for a moment and nod at the man and begin to follow him sheepishly.
You again see it zoom in on the neurons and see the ions continue to flow through the axon, sending neurotransmitters to the synaptic vesicles, across the synaptic cleft, and ions flow into the ion channels and you see a bit of a spark at the end of the dendrites jumpstarting the biomechanical hybrid attached cells to the nanobots start to vibrate.
It zooms out again and you see little dots rolling flowing away in the wind, unbeknownst to all the scientists and cleanup crew who are walking up and begin using vacuums, but too late.
After a period of time they say, “the sensors show we got nothing. We don’t know where all of it is.”
Overall the story is set in the near future, 10-15 years, so far has a mix of company conspiracy, some serious plot, and cute and funny dialogue moments with characters. I'm mostly trying for a character driven narrative.
You can message me on discord at terrainthesky if you're interested! Thanks!