#piper's brainstorming

[doodlezdoesawrite]

Every time I look at a good Unfiction/ARG project I start daydreaming about my own. About what I could make. So here I am, brainstorming again.

I Love args that interact with the playerbase. I love when they give you an email to interact with! Crow 64 did that, Shipwrecked 64 did that. I think I'd like to do something similar, but to explain the mechanic I'd have to explain the entity.

I think... i want the entity to be some sort of amalgamation of ideas. Some sort of spirit that was created from people's love and creativity. And I think this would tie in really well with my other ideas, especially with the protagonist already being a fan of args. Again, a love letter to the whole community and stuff and the collective ideas of everyone.

The direct player interaction with this entity would be it asking the players what they want it to be. It's looking for a new form to take, and there's already so many ideas out there, it just can't pick! Should it be a king? Perhaps a guardian? Maybe a ghost, but what sort of ghost should it be? A vengeful killer, or a vengeful spirit? Perhaps a rejected entity? The list goes on and on. So it opens it up to the players to decide. And depending on what they send in, the entity will take that form and shape. It'll like, take all the entries in a blender, blitz it, and then become whatever the outcome is. But the kicker is you can't submit ideas indefinately. There will be a limit of submissions it accepts, as well as a time limit in case the submission limit isn't hit (It'll fill in the spaces itself, if it has to.)

And then that entity will go on to interact with our protagonist. Our entity is contained in this hard drive, right. And it was put in there alongside the protective program to make sure it doesn't go crazy. Sure, as it stands right now, it just wants a bit of mischief. Just wants to cause a little trouble disguising itself as these different entities. But the thing is, who's to say it won't snowball? A scare here or there is ultimately harmless, but how long until it actually starts killing people, all for the fun of it?

...And of course, this escalation could be stalled or accelerated by the audience, depending on what they send in.

Only problem with this is like, the later half of the arg would be on standstill until I get those submissions. Maybe it could be during the waiting of the second part or something.

man, I really need to start getting the concrete ideas for this down

[doodlezdoesawrite]

Now, you and I both thought that I wrung all the angst I coulda outta the church scene. A retelling of canon and a bad end AU stemming from it.

But little did you know, there was a secret third option.

It's not even in the oven yet, I'm still getting the ingredients together. But... It has the potential to be just as gut punching as Twelve Hours into Forever.

Stay tuned :3

[doodlezdoesawrite]

Hmmm. Might write something expanding on the aftermath of Twelve Hours Into Forever... I can finally let the inspiration from the "My Lord Hastur" video shine through... Yeah, that sounds like a good idea

[doodlezdoesawrite]

I've recently been re-watching/reading/playing stuff relating to Catastrophe Crow, a really fun Unfiction ARG project that I really enjoy. And because of my rewatching of the videos, Night Mind came onto my reccommended page with a new unfiction... arg... whatever project called Teeny Toys. I was a bit skeptical at the beginning but it's finally gotten to the story rich parts and I'm really enjoying it.

Anyway, I'm watching it and I just keep thinking about this bundle of ideas I have for my own unfiction/arg/horror/whatever project. It's nothing concrete, really, it really is just a lot of unorganized ideas.

The protagonist of the game is a huge ARG fan. Crow 64, Petscop, Inscryption, etc etc. Loves that shit. To set up for the whole thing I'd probably have a few normal videos on the channel. The first one I thought of was a Skullstorm Attempt for Inscryption. Another would be a speedrun attempt for the playable version of Crow 64, a speedrun to get all the lines and then type it into the computer. Stuff like that which showcases how passionate this character is about their ARG/Horror media.

But then The Video happens. The one that kicks off everything. Still not sure what it is exactly, in the past it was just your standard "Ooh weird game I found" (Specifically found in a thrift store.) But i had another concept that I thought would be good to incorporate here that changes it slightly.

I think the "Weird Thing I Found" would be a computer program. Something on a flashdrive that they ordered bc they wanted a place to store their art and whatnot, and a strange file was on it. They did get it second-hand (cheaper that way), so it makes sense that it wasn't cleared completely. Here's the catch though: The program itself isn't the harmful thing, it's what's trapped inside it.

"But, Piper, isn't that just your standard Evil Digital Thing?" Not when the crashes of this program are it trying to protect you. Every crash or glitch of this game/program is the program itself trying to contain the Evil Thing and protect the protagonist. I had this idea when watching Trinity Encore, actually. You know the part where it throws you the fake crash screen? I thought "Man, this is a cool trope, but everyone's used to it now... I wonder what kind of spin you could put on it to make it more interesting." And that's what I thought up of.

Kinda want the Protection Program and the Protag to have a conversation that goes like "You don't want to know what's in here. Curiousity killed the cat, you know." "Yeah, and satisfaction brought it back." "Satisfaction won't be enough to save you."

Another theme I'd like to encorporate would be the theme of "Once is random, twice is a coincidence, thrice is a pattern." In the OG idea, before the program, I imagined the protag obsessively muttering to this to themselves as they dug deeper and deeper into the game. Maybe it has something to do with the crashes? The Protag makes sure to keep note of them when trying to do a specific action to confirm it's not normal, or something.

I'd also like there to be little references to ARGS i like. One that immediately comes to mind is a puzzle using Crow Language, and the Protag immediately picks it up bc of "The" being "Cro" in crow language (Bc Crow is Nils is Thea is Crow [which is SUCH a cool idea to base a cipher around, by the way] ). So they bring up their web browser and get the online converter and go "Hah! I knew it! It's crow language! That's so weird."

I wanna sprinkle little refences like that around. But I also gotta keep in mind not to make it a reference-fest, you know? I just want it to be a love letter to all the ARGs i love and are passionate about. Take what I'd want to see in an ARG and make it real.

One of those concepts is the protagonist actually responding to comments, also. I want them to be interactive. If you notice something in the video, but they don't, Timestamp it, comment it, let them know, and they'll say in the next video "Hey! So, I missed something, and thanks to you guys pointing it out, I was able to investigate it and...." etc etc. In their editing software even!!!!

Talking to my brother now. What if the program knew the protag was an ARG fan, and so they gave the protag all these puzzles that lead you on this trail away from digging deeper and potentially letting the Evil Thing free. And they have this conspiracy board and notes but then they realize "Wait... this doesn't connect, this doesn't connect..." and they finally realize it's all a red herring. The program gives them another piece to a meaningless puzzle and they start digging into it but then realize "Wait... this is just another red herring, isn't it?" and they close the window.

More ideas from my brother, recording the protag muttering the "Thrice is a pattern" stchick and plays it back and says "Do you hear yourself? You sound insane!" etc etc. Goddddd this is such a fun idea.

They go to skim their video for the timestamp of the odd stuff, but it's gone. The Program deleted it in a further attempt to hold off the entity.

And in the Program's attempt to stop the Protag from digging deeper, they lose sight of their original goal of holding back the Evil, and it ends up getting stronger because of this.

I don't really have the means to make this real, but I can always brainstorm and write about it. Who knows, maybe I'll do something about it in the future.