A few months ago, the director of Inception, Christopher Nolan, told about his plans to develop a game based on the movie. Of course, it’s only on the stage of talking and discussing ideas at the moment, we won’t hear anything about this game in a few years I guess. But still, it has been always fun to fantasize and speculate about some things, so I decided to think what a game based on Inception could look like. (There really aren't any spoilers, but you may want to watch the movie first before reading this).
Idea #1. Dream Edtior
Dream worlds are a wonderful way for Game and Level Designers to have lots of fun. But you already know what I think about Level Editors, and I still think that if you give a good editor to gamers – they will make some awesome stuff. Give an editor with lots of possibilities – MORE awesome stuff. Anyway, regardless if the game will be linear or sandbox-style, many players would like to act not only as the dream participants, but also as the dream architects. This would also keep a steady interest in the game and would create a good community. Plus, let’s not forget that the success of a mission may depend on how well a dream is made.
Question #1. Dream Manipulation
In the movie, the one who creates the dream can also manipulate it. How do you think it’s better to transfer this to a game? Pause, in-game editor, make changes? And then after getting out of pause the changes happen in real-time? Well, this particular idea will greatly slow down the gaming pace. If there is no way to realize this aspect comfortably for the player, it would be wise to get rid of it. Anyway, what are your thoughts?
Idea #2. Variety of Settings
When it comes to dream worlds, realistic settings are not necessary. Where is it set in stone that one can’t extract an idea from a medieval dream? I think one can, especially if the target is into this period of history. It could even make the extraction easier. The movie has already played enough with different types of modern architecture; I think it’s a safe bet to make the range of settings and historical/fictional periods wider. It also can go well with the next idea…
Idea #3. Target Examination, Scouting
The idea to examine the target, its character, preferences, relationships with other people, appeals to me greatly. It would be fun to decide in what setting to put the target, which person to forge and so on. I think it would be foolish to just give a goal to the player saying ‘Do this, this, this and this.’ We’re depicting a game about imagination, so why the player shouldn’t use it? There’s one old game called The Sting! There’s always a stage of planning the heist (let’s not forget that extraction is basically a heist) in that game, and is one of the most important and interesting aspects of the game. In The Sting, the success of the mission depends on how well it’s planned. We’ve got a goal – get the idea, now how to get to that goal is for the player to decide.
Idea #4. No Save Games and Checkpoints
At least in the dream worlds, reality can have saves I suppose. As a PC player, I know that if there’s a possibility to save, the player will most likely do it every five seconds. So if something goes not according to plan – it’s easy to trace your steps back. Checkpoints are not welcome too, I think. There’s little danger in just making a few steps backwards (well, that depends on how often the checkpoints are spread throughout the game, actually). But it’s one of those cool quirks in Inception and many other heist movies – the so called ‘Oh, Shit!’ moment, when the plan is blasted into oblivion and the participants have to crawl their way out of this and emerge victorious.
Question #2. Doubting Your Reality
Since we’ve mentioned the real world now… One of the other important things in Inception is the doubt of your own reality. How to bring this feeling of doubt to the player? Should it be brought? What will happen if he dies in the real world? Should we take away the ability to die in the real world for storyline reasons? If the player dies in the real world, does he get one level higher, realizing this was all the dream? If he will die again on that very same place on a new playthrough, will he see a Game Over sign instead? How to constantly keep this sense of doubt while bringing in interactivity?
Idea #5. Multiplayer Game
Of course, for the comfortable gameplay we’ll have to sacrifice the different time flow on different dream levels (I so far can’t imagine how to do this without frustrating the players). This can be justified by some special compound of a sedative. The teamwork in the extraction process is very important, so I think the player should experience it too. Kicks/synchronized kicks, different distractions, parallel gameplay on different dream levels and how the dreamers on higher levels can influence those on lower levels (could be used for some puzzles or tricks). The multiplayer game can give a different experience to the player. Singleplayer and Multiplayer modes can organically supplement each other.
Extraction
You may have noticed that I’ve mentioned extraction and heist several times, but never did I mention the process of inception. I think it would be better for the game to focus on extraction – something the movie told about very fast. And, well, call the game exactly this: Extraction.
When I started writing this post I thought it would become far grander. But some thoughts and ideas are not yet fully formed in my head so I could at least write about them quickly. Plus I don’t have absolutely any seeds of ideas regarding the storyline, just the gameplay. Some other time.
But nevertheless, I think that Extraction (he-he) deserves to be something more than an interactive movie (but it doesn’t have to become some mega-super non-linear action/adventure RPG with unlimited capabilites; it’s important to clearly define the goal and plan it thoroughly). Besides, we already have a movie – Inception. Which I’ve already watched a lot of times. And will watch many more. Until I wake up.
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