Hello Spasmers, Gideon here.
A few weeks ago I mentioned I had the honor of presenting Night Spasm at my college, Central Washington University. I presented the practical applications of being a video game creator and explained how I used psychology studies to enhance the player's storyline experience of my game. After giving my 10-minute presentation to all of the judges, I was told
over 862 business, computer science, IT, and psychology majors used my presentation data and advice as sources for their own projects and as materials for assignments! Furthermore, I've been given the honor of explaining the leadership and marketing aspects of Night Spasm's development in a class this coming Fall. I'm very honored and excited to share more of my journey in game development, and I am eternally grateful for all of the online and local support I've received over the past few months!
In honor of this milestone, I'd like to share with all of you the script and slides I used to explain Night Spasm's overall concept to the judges! It explains the general guidelines/rules I use when developing Night Spasm and defines my perspectives on video games, storytelling, leadership, and the future of our world as people. I intended to upload this presentation much sooner, but I had some trouble with Night Spasm's event page regarding uploaded images (I even had to contact Steam support to resolve it all)...
You may notice that a lot of the images and lines presented below are currently a part of the Night Spasm store page. I figured the contents of the presentation were perfectly suited for new players ready to immerse themselves into the Night Spasm world. That was the purpose of these slides after all!
Without further ado, I present to you:
The Benefits of Being an Entertainer!
Today I’ve been given the honor of presenting to you the very project that changed my life, a video game project that introduced me to the wonderful worlds of business, leadership, programming, writing, psychology, music, art, and more.
This is
Night Spasm, a single-player philosophical role-playing video game that prompts you to make in-game decisions based on your real-life philosophies and worldviews.
(NIGHT SPASM: “An English rendition of a Greek Mythology term “anexélenkto skotádi” (an-ex-eh-linkto sko-dav-ee) which roughly translates to “uncontrollable darkness”. Also the term the characters use to describe the villain’s actions”).Designed for casual and non-casual players, Night Spasm is both an entertaining adventure of quests and combat but also a personal learning experience that tells a lore-rich story you can study, question, and interpret limitlessly.
The story follows the lives of three main characters, Theodore, Vander, and Evana, three air pilots who have found themselves in a mysterious world after seemingly dying from a plane crash.
Saved from death by a wise and friendly mage known as MOG, the pilots find themselves in “The Island”, a once beautiful world designed to save the lives of those meeting an unfortunate end, now locked in war by an ambitious and terrifying enemy.
Inevit, a phantom of unknown motivations, has captured a mystical entity called “The Rechance”, the source of magic power responsible for saving the lives of countless creatures, including the pilots.
As the player, you are responsible for guiding the pilots in forming a colony to take down the phantom and restore The Island to its former glory.
Or perhaps, you may even have a different plan in mind for these characters…
The gameplay is fairly simple but can become more complicated depending on the answers you seek. Exploring allows you to expand your colony via your base which you can use to interact with recruits, craft items, cook food, receive daily rewards, and more.
The game features turn-based yet hectic battles which often present chances to greatly alter the storyline. Strategy and resourcefulness are the keys to defeating your enemies, whoever they may be, as you teach your colony members new skills, give them equipment, and bring them through all kinds of strange locations and societies.
There are many opportunities to befriend, kill, or even betray a colorful cast of characters through the battle system, each outcome significantly altering your playthrough one way or another.
The game is open-world too, meaning most of the story alterations, big or small, are optional and can be done in the order of your desire, opening even more outcome possibilities.
Music plays an important role in Night Spasm. Individually composed by me and many contributing artists, the soundtrack uses leitmotifs and recurring melodies to establish connections between certain in-game stories.
Some connections are harder to identify than others, but by analyzing the soundtrack, you can find more discoveries than meets the eye.
Night Spasm is an extremely choice-based game that emphasizes how even the smallest of choices can make big impacts on the world. However, the unique part about Night Spasm is that you, the player, are not directly in control of anything within The Island, but instead nothing more than an influence. Just like in real life, we aren’t in control of everything that happens around us, as nice as it would be. The same rules apply to Night Spasm.
Your only way to change the course of time is to manipulate what the characters think rather than manipulate what the characters do, meaning it’s up to the characters to decide how they react to your influence.
Sometimes you’re given the option to choose what a character says but not how they say it. Sometimes you’re given the option to choose what a character talks about but not directly what they say… or even who says it sometimes.
Most characters have a special attribute that either helps or hinders your ability to make influences, meaning the more people associated with your adventure, the harder it is to control your playthrough.
Now, besides being a fun game to mess around with, Night Spasm is also a major personal experience.
Through the game’s characters, lore, world, and intractability, Night Spasm deals with deep and sensitive topics and concepts seen in our modern society and in history.
Much like real life, there are times our worldviews are challenged, and we must choose to either defend our beliefs or turn to the other side. Night Spasm prepares you for those times and accurately applies your beliefs to turn the tide of your playthrough, sometimes subtlety and other times very clearly.
It’s up to you how you let your beliefs affect the storyline, but no matter what you choose, there will always be characters supporting your beliefs or fighting against them, and that’s exactly what makes Night Spasm a game worth playing.
As I conclude this presentation, I’d like to emphasize that, by building this project from the ground up, I’ve learned countless skills that have made me a harder worker and a better person. Social skills, business, programming, music, marketing, storytelling, leadership… ever since I began this project, I’ve learned that entertainment isn’t just some distraction from reality, but a chance to learn and gain new perspectives through someone else’s hard work.
I made this game with perspective in mind, almost as a tribute to all the games, movies, and books that made me into who I am today. I created Night Spasm so others could feel the same enlightening experiences I did throughout my life, hopefully inspiring generations to not only study the magical worlds made from the minds of others but to also tell their own stories in a way other people can enjoy.
As most of you here are probably studying a technological or business field, I would greatly encourage you to pursue the entertainment industry, as it is both a lucrative job in a limitless industry and a chance to reshape the future in your own hands.
(End of presnetation)
I hope this little slide show inspired you to tell your own story in some way. As the students learned, it's important to share the good and the bad of your life so others can look to you for guidance. Whether you have a wonderful movie idea or a diary you've been writing since you were a kid, put all you've got into turning your experiences into an extraordinary work of art. It will do wonders for your life. Trust me, it's easier than it seems!
And hey, if you don't know where to start, send me a friend request through Steam. Let's talk! One day, if you work past the hardships, you could end up in your school's local paper! (;
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