LO4: Legal and Ethical

• Legal Constraint - Anything bound in law is on this particular side.
• Ethical Constraint - The morals and actions of the situations or the characters within the game; are there any questions raised?

Legal

I can't really think of anything within our game that would go against any legal constraints, hopefully all of the content would abide by them. I wouldn't want to get into any trouble by them.

Ethical

Bad language, maybe? I don't really think there's any ethical issues within our game right about now, nothing seems to stick out as being something that could raise questions. It is rather dark in nature, I'll grant you that, but there's nothing outright there to disturb you. The majority of the game you're fighting gigantic robot monsters and even when you do get to fight people they're not organic anyway, but I guess some people could raise this and say that even though they're not biological beings, the depiction of killing them is the same. Gore has become common-place in games and media now anyway, so it's not exactly a massive issue, but I guess it can cause some concern with people who don't really enjoy or like seeing that sort of thing. The only other thing I can potentially think of is our main villain, whose backstory in a nutshell is that his mind has been affected so much by a parasite in his body that he's essentially been brainwashed into eradicating what's left of the 'human' race. I'm skeptical on whether or not to call it a mental health issue, the situation isn't something commonplace in this world and the proportions of his torment have been stretched to exaggerated length due to the world and setting around him being one of fantasy, of things that don't exist in our world. If it is seen as similar to a certain mental health issue, however, we're gonna have to take our time to represent it in a realistic light.

• Copyright Constraints - Anything owned by something else that restricts you from using their content in your products.

Copyright

I did want to base one of the potential boss ideas on or around the concept of the Mad Hatter from Alice in Wonderland, so I'd have to get permission to even do that, I suppose. Perhaps music if it's decided that we want to add in licensed music either to replace or put in alongside our own original music, and then we have easter eggs, too, which are very common in games now and are a really nifty little ideas. Mainly they're always referencing something else, but it's best if you don't outright copy what you're referencing and paste it into game. Subtlety is key.

• Obscene Publications Act

Obscene Publications

No.

• Liable and Slander - Saying, writing or creating an image about something about someone, no matter what, that may cause emotional damage in the eyes of the general public.

Liable and Slander
None of the characters within our game are based on anyone in real life, and I doubt that we'd have anything to say about them, either. It's based in an entirely fictional world, and the only reference to our world that I could possibly think of including would be things like easter eggs, but they're generally light-hearted, not at all trying to mock or harm anyone by creating such an image.

LO4: A Developed Idea

DUST

(WE'RE JUST ROLLING WITH IT)

"In a world riddled with dust and decay very little life is left on this earth, the ground cracked and scarred, the sky cold and dark. The last remaining population of humans have gradually replaced their biological limbs with mechanical apparatus over the years they have been left to suffer, and congregate only in the small, rickety outposts that mark the null, endless desert. Resilient at best, the poor bastards hold out for even the slightest hint at a better life, until one day, one fateful day, it seemed their prayers were answered. Dancing, prancing and singing with joy, a curious show rolls into town, chanting to all those who would lend them their ears to join them in their delight. There's just one problem though. 

Roses.

Though once they were harmless, beautiful and forbidden, the plants seem to have taken a more sinister toll.  Their parasitic nature has lead them to become an icon ready to be feared, and the sudden appearance of this fools parade alongside the increasing growth of the thorned leeches has more than a few people suspicious..."

In a nutshell the concept of our game is the typical standard affair of taking control of a protagonist in order to stop an antagonist from doing something typically insane that'll surely bring around the end of the world as we know it. Whilst the characters themselves are in development at the time of writing the story centres around this potential hero going against a band of villains that plan to spread this potential parasite around the world to make it 'beautiful' again, unaware that they're practically turning everything around it into a potential hive-mind for an enemy even greater than themselves.

I am going into go into detail about certain major characters on separate posts, don't worry, but for a quick overview we've got the main character, a set character, who can be accompanied by lesser, more so secondary characters should the player choose to have them accompany them during their adventures (careful though, they may die!). There's the main villain, too, as well as a few lesser minions of his which you will encounter through the game. Giant robotic creatures which act as bosses are found within the game, too, and there are countless NPC's to interact with. We sort of thought that maybe depending on how you react and respond to certain events during the game it could shape what NPC's think of you, like a sort of disposition gauge, and in turn it'll have either consequences or benefits on what happens in the story.

We also came up with the idea that because people need to replace their limbs with robotic ones to survive in this potentially volatile land, there's a big divide between those who are willing to give up their humanity and those that aren't. People who are fully flesh and bone consider themselves to be pure and are willing to die to stay this way, whilst those who are converted fully into robots will label these human elitists as insane and childish. People who are halfway there to being fully converted, bio-mechanoids, are stuck in the middle of this clash. Concerning our main protagonist we considered making him a bio-mechanoid so they wouldn't be biased when it came to the whole divide between those human and those not. Their appendages are robotic whilst their head and torso are organic. Taking into account there are no bones in their legs or arms, what's left of their skeletal structure is the original bone, although there is a slight spinal brace to it to steady his body with the sudden weight and power of these mechanical limbs. I had the idea of his internal organs being mechanical yet his brain, eyes and heart are organic, but it's not decided for.

The world we created for this game is a desolate wasteland (sort of the inspiration for the name) where little to no life lives. I came up with the idea of calling it Eden to contrast the popular belief that the garden of Eden is a beautiful place, creating a lovely contrasts of sorts. At this moment in time the various settlements in this world are unnamed, but they are all different from one another in some way. The actual environment of Eden is extremely hazardous and all sorts of obstacles make sure that travelling in the desert is always a struggle to survive, things like gorges, tar pits, extreme temperatures - both hot and cold - make it a chore. Most of the time though it's an endless expanse of dirt for as far as the eye can see, and the mild wind mixed with little to no colour and life leads to a very numb existence.