James, the hero, is pulling an all nighter trying to study for his maths test tomorrow. He’s been going at it for hours – past papers, learning equations, numbers, numbers, numbers !!! that’s all he can think about. James gets hungry and decides there no time to cook, so he’s going to quickly walk to the McDonalds down the road. He orders his standard – McChicken, large chips and a Coke and starts demolishing his meal. After finishing his burger he starts to walks home, but he’s not even half-way home before things start getting distorted and James notices something is wrong. His Coke has been spiked with LSD (acid) and it has already started to kick in.
Next minute James starts ‘floating up’ into the sky. He feels weightless, happy but confused at what’s going on; since James has never done drugs or any hallucinogenic substance before. James doesn’t even drink.
James lands on a platform in this weird, unworldly, surreal world. Initially it’s very cool but so, so strange. James is taking some time to adjust to this surreal setting when suddenly he notices that the world is melting and there are numbers everywhere. These aren’t just ordinary numbers though, they’re alive! James feels as if he’s in the matrix of some sort. He’s gone beyond his usual comprehension of the world and he is seeing a deeper, more in-depth view of the universe, constructed by numbers, colours and fractals.
He’s surrounded by numbers, code, fractals, semicolons, glyphs and parentheses. All of these are alive and moving, and James realises he’s the only one who can save the world at this point.
James sees that all the semi-colons have escaped the code that builds up the basis of the universe and, as a result, the code is broken and the world is falling apart. The parentheses ‘ ( { [ < > ] } ) ‘ are evil and trying to stop him from collecting them. The problem is that these brackets come in different forms and disguises- hamburgers, worms, boxes, snakes etc… James needs to collect the semi-colons in order to fix the code and save the universe. He feels he has finally seen the true reality, and that he needs to save it from falling apart.
Objectives
James’ objectives are to collect as many semi-colons (;) as possible and save the world before the code is unfixable and the parentheses win; and before the LSD wears off.
Enemies
James’ enemies are the brackets and parentheses ( [ { < – but these come in disguises and often go unnoticed as they blend into the code easily.
Gameplay
I want to create glitches throughout the game (since James is tripping on acid). I am thinking of doing something along the lines of randomly inverting the controls. So you are playing and then suddenly the back arrow is forward and down is jump etc… I also want the colours to invert. So when the controls invert and switch, so do the colours. I want the player to feel as if they’re not sure what’s going on – like when you take drugs, your mind is distorted, you struggle to follow what’s going on. I also might make the character stumble randomly. So you can be running and then suddenly he falls over, or he stumbles backwards when standing still. I want to incorporate these things because when you take LSD, the “thalamus winds down” – “The thalamus is the area of the brain that plays a key role in controlling the motor systems which dictate voluntary bodily movement and coordination. It’s located right in the middle of the brain on top of the brain stem and acts as a gatekeeper that sends off signals for most sensory impressions.” – http://thescienceexplorer.com/brain-and-body/9-things-happen-brain-and-body-during-lsd-trip
I am going to use very bright colours in the background because when people take LSD, “Colours become brighter, people see things they never noticed before and make associations that they never made before” –http://thescienceexplorer.com/brain-and-body/9-things-happen-brain-and-body-during-lsd-trip
Your neutrons also fall out of synchrony “Researchers at Imperial College London used fMRI to scan the brains of people on LSD, and they observed that the neurons that are supposed to fire together within a network fell out of synchrony. This is why LSD users can experience confused or distorted thoughts at times.”
Below are some screenshots from websites I’ve been looking at to find more information on the topic and create a better understanding of the drug. I hope I don’t get arrested cause all my search history is about LSD, how to take it, how long it lasts, what it feels like. Literally everything about it. There aren’t that many ‘official’ studies on the drug and most of the information is through online forums and people typing what they feel. But I think they’re actually better because these people will be honest and not have an agenda. If it was official I think the government would intervene and portray the drug as much harmful and dangerous.
Here are some screenshots of the images when you google LSD games. All of them are very strange and look horrible. I don’t think i’ll be using any of them as inspiration.
JWL 2020 