The speed of progress in the gamesblog's WikiGame camp may have slowed down as the sunshine has tempted us out of our darkened offices and into the real world, but the milestones continue to be significant. Above and beyond coping with the odd spam-attack, the coders are busy learning their chosen language, Inform 6, and the storytellers have settled on a backstory. A frenzied coin toss was the decider, and Edible Vision's Contamination plot took the gong:
Skip forward 10 years and the world has changed. Due to Global Warming, Depleted Fossil Fuels and increased natural disasters, the economic climate has shifted. The major powers, like USA, Russia and China, reliant on fossil fuels and prone to extremes of weather, have crashed economically. Civil wars breakout which lead to international wars. Immigration becomes frenzied, with large landmasses impossible to border control. The world is in ruin.
The UK however stands tall. As a self contained Isle, they have ceased all immigration. The weather is more extreme than 10 years ago, but 10 years ago it was moderate and never extreme, so life could continue. The reason UK survived is because they were prepared. The government was secretly run by 12 of the best individuals of various fields necessary for economic survival. You, our character for this story was one of them. You were the youngest.
Cunning Stunt has called for the storytellers and designers to work towards a Chapter One by the end of the week. Hidden Away has set an Inform 6 deadline by 18 August. Deadlines, it seems, have a real way of rallying the troops.
There have been some extraordinarily creative approaches to developing this project, and everyone's hard work will undoubtedly pay off. The key at the moment is to ensure that this is an iterative process; everyone wants something playable, so even if the game doesn't come together, we have an interactive plaything. It's easy to get stalled on the details, but, as Bambino Toastare says, this experiment is as much about the process as it is about the final product.
People, we have go.
