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Alright! I don't usually share things like this here, but I was curious, how many people on Tumblr are interested in Turing? Oh, and since it's Pride Month, we, as the Dev Community, thought we'd mention that a bit too. Ehm, yeah, I'll leave it here for now, hehe.
Terminal is a creepy first person horror game where you search for the perfect match on a glitchy old computer.
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Terminal, The Matrix and Inspirations
I'm in a weird mood (like high energy but also a bit moody but not actually sad, I think I had two much caffeine after accidentally missing my meds yesterday) so I'm gonna try and write a post I was meaning to do during the Terminal kickstarter but didn't get around to: discussing the explicit influence of The Matrix on Terminal.
Terminal is a Matrix game, like obviously. The central premise; the world as you know it is a lie, a simulation operated by machines, is the exact same. In diverges in other elements of the setting (the pirates of Libertatia are very different from the rebels of Zion for instance) as well as in semiotics (the Robot Authority as written are shaded with themes around coercive control, that's something I'm bringing to this story rather than adapting from the Matrix).
The starting point for writing Terminal was "hey I bet this Inevitable system could be used to make a game like The Matrix films" but I quickly decided I didn't want the setting to just be The Matrix with the serial numbers filed off. I don't think that approach is like "wrong" but it didn't feel right to the kind of game I wanted to make.
(An interesting quirk is the characters who feel like closer analogues were definitely the ones I wrote earlier in the books development, whereas characters developed later don't cleanly map in the same way.)
I think of Terminal more as pastiche than fanfic (those distinctions aren't being expressed as a value judgement, just a difference). In some cases it's using that pastiche as a vehicle for new stories and some elements of the pastiche are in part commentary (the inner workings of the pirates are partly a reaction to finding it interesting how Zion has such a heirachal structure for a civilization founded by people who rejected conformity or for a more critical example I avoided the slavery metaphors that the original Matrix uses because I found those shallow and poorly conceived). I see the relationship between Terminal and The Matrix as like the relationship between Superman and the various characters inspired by or otherwise riffing in him.
Anyway that's a lot of preamble and naval gazing. I was planning to just run down some characters and who they ended up inspiring. Let's do that now.
Let's do Neo first. Neo's in the game in a few senses. One is the character of Atalanta in the startup operation (the scenario for you first session of play that kicks off the campaign. Atalanta is someone you're trying to free from the Terminal. She's channelling a similar mood to Neo in the first film before he meets Trinity. Basically the scenario is you getting to be Atalanta's Trinity. Atalanta isn't a programmer, partly that's differentiating the character from her inspiration but partly it's as I don't know enough about coding to make it a meaningful character trait. She furthers differs in that she's not fated (at least by the text) to become the Omen, instead the crew drop her off in Libertatia and she starts to make a life for herself from there. The crew can check in on her and perhaps I fluence whether she returns as a major character (this beat maybe brings in some of The Kid from 2/3 but I don't know if that was a conscious influence). Oh also Atalanta is trans, like so's Neo but I mean textually, cause I liked the idea of doing a trans metaphor narrative with a canonically trans character.
Speaking of the Omen that element is obviously an analogue to the Path of the One. This is an interesting case study in small changes in a pastiche having far reaching impact. In early development I wondered whether my equivalent to this would have been a major NPC I didn't love that idea but I also didn't like the idea of one player getting to be the Most Important Character. This eventually led to the idea of the Omen code being shared amongst people throughout a campaign as significant connections are formed. I liked the emotional through line this can create; this a game about breaking away from manipulative controlling forces by forming healthy meaningful connections. It's Neo choosing the door that leads back to Trinity.
The other major change was that the pirates of Libertatia are aware of the reboots the cycle of reincarnation has contributed. This was firstly a practical change; if I'm making a game inspired by the Matrix I assume a decent chunk of people who will play it will be familiar with the plot of the Matrix so trying to house the same plot point as a twist wouldn't work. But it had a transformative knock on effect. The Omen's arrival is significant but it isn't heralded as a possible victory. It's the sign of being close to failure again. The cycle has always ended in failure and everyone knows that but everyone keeps trying in hope this time might turn out different. There's a melancholy to it.
These two decisions ended up influencing the creation of Transmit, the last Omen. They did something to the code that's changed reincarnation, they've created a deviation in the cycle, a chance. They're also kinda Neo, or at least how people might feel about Neo after the original trilogy. They're also kinda Chris Pine Spider-Verse Spider-Man, someone perfect you not only have to love up to but also hope to succeed where they failed. They're also kinda Akira; one of the most significant characters but their involvement as an active player in this story was finished long ago.
God that was just one character. May e the reason I put this off for so long was I knew I would ramble.
Let's talk Smith. The major story arcs in Terminal are called Crashes, and each could serve as the game's eventual dramatic finale. One Crash concerns 0, formerly a special agent, an enforcer of the systems will, now turned living virus whose hatred will eat the world. So yeah 0 is Smith. Well a Smith. (Remember the thing I said about the closer analogues being the earlier written ones? 0 was maybe the 5th or 6th character written). But they're interesting for that knockon changes stuff. In this case both from other elements that are different between the two texts but also the medium. 0 doesn't have a built in relationships with the protagonistsnand as such their origins are more mysterious. The arc focuses much more on the specifics of people who know who are assimilated into 0. I think playing this part of the story will be a very different experience from how The Matrix sequels play out.
0 isn't really the only Smith though. Thinking about Smith got me thinking about the agents overall (additionally I was also thinking on the Smith/Morpheus composite from Resurrections and the idea of freeing agents). What does it mean for someone whose only purpose is enforcing a systems will to reject that same system? This lead to Special Agent 5, an agent with the urge, but not the tools, to rebel after their corrupted partner was corrupted. This thought process also influenced, in a more subtle way, another, more secretive character.
The Oracle is a character who honestly influenced the whole creation of the game. Inevitable is based heavily around prophecy and certainty. That's what linked it to the Matrix in my mind. The Seer is a characters whose role in the story is very similar to their influence but their execution and styling is different. A butch mechanic rather than a kindly aunt. Liminal stops on a lost highway rather than a routine apartment. Similarly she kinda probes the question of how the pirates feel about having an ally they are aware is a program. That fact seemed likely but unexplored for their analogues and was something that is brought to the forefront of the Seer, as well as the linked question of how her conflicting loyalties might endanger her.
The Director is the core shaper program of the Terminal. Their role is analogous to The Architect and this did make them harder to distinction. One way of drawing in difference was placing The Director more within the Terminal itself, more focused on its minute perfections. (This was kinda influences by the scene in the first film talking about chicken and Cipher talking about stake, influence isn't always the straight lines between characters.) Another new focus was on the inner workings and power struggle within the Terminal's maintenance. There's focus on why programs are rendered obsolete, and the desperate positions that pushes some of them two. They have a usurgent rival, The Puppetter, whose focus on psychological torture is influenced by the Analyst from Ressurections but whose execution plays more like villainous sorcerors in fantasy stories.
I wouldn't consider their to be a direct analogue to The Merovingian, though aspects of their character and the wider world of the exiles influenced two major figures. The first is The Hedonist, the principal obsolete programs in Terminal who operates a night club. This is influenced partly by Club Hel, and a detail about abilities they had taken from them was probably lightly cribbed from the mention how the Merovingian used to be powerful. They focused more on questions around how programs might deal with breaking from the system, being hunted by it, but being stuck inside it all the same. She, as well as some of the characters in her club like the Carver, also bring up stuff about programs self images within the Terminal and their conceptions around gender. None of this is really about the Merovingian, it's just where the character developed.
Similarly the Archivist and their associated Crash were intially drawing in the Merovingians scene in Reloaded. The Archivist was once responsible for cataloging all that held value in the Terminal. Now rendered obsolete they've grown bitter and want to posses every program and person of "value". This character developed of thinking first how this story arc could, in a possible campaign, evolve into a worlds ending stakes finale. It also developed from what would motivate the characters and those motivations became something very different from their original kernel.
Programs with clear analogues are significantly greater than humans. I think that's probably because the wider changes to the setting and the core beliefs of the pirates meant analogues didn't serve a purpose. There's no clear Morpheus. Instead there's character who came from answering questions the setting asked. Characters who doubt the Omen are coming from a different perspective than character in the Matrix who doubt Neo as the One so they don't feel like pastiches in the same way. The greater time you'd spend in a setting in a TTRPG verses the comparitively smaller scenes you get on Zion in a film means there's more nooks and crannies shaded in so characters can spend time their.
There are other ways certain things influenced parts of the book less directly. The scene in Revolutions of Rama-Kandra talking with Neo about love influenced a lot of the themes for program characters.
I'm gonna try and wrap this up now. But yeah that's Terminal and The Matrix. It's also not just The Matrix. One character is a Wizard of Oz reference. The Hedonist is also kinda Carrie Ann Moss's character from Mass Effect 2. The Crash arc The Dying Dream is me doing Paprika. Two characters are a Twin Peaks homage and there's over influence there in aesthetics of certain domains as well as in characters like the Puppeteer and the doppelganger element. I'm pretty sure I probably was took the double meaning of wake for waking up and also a funeral afterparty in naming the real world the Wake from Sandman and I didn't realise until I finished writing the book and was packing up to move flat and found Sandman volume 10: The Wake. The Hedonist is also a friend of mine. Atlanta is me, aged 19. The Stranger is me, aged 28 (sorry that's a secret bit, you'll have to read the game). Making art is a conversation.
=Pax West 2016: Hacknet - Labyrinths
=Pax West 2016: Hacknet – Labyrinths
Pax had an incredible Indie scene this year at Pax West 2016. One such Indie game I had the chance to check out was Hacknet: Labyrinths. Take a listen to my Interview. http://www.game-refraction.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/Hacknet-Labyrinths.mp3 Hacknet: Labyrinths is an expansion pack to Hacknet, but what is Hacknet? Hacknet is a modern, super immersive terminal-driven hacking game with a…
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Just popping in to say that I’m still working on the game. The demands of a full-time job have made the progress pretty slow, but it’s still going. Here’s a list of the features I’ve programmed so far. All the above stuff has been programmed, but I have a *lot* of debugging to do. And then I’ll need to do simulations to see if any roles are over- or under-powered, and make any necessary calibrations. It’ll take a while, since there are more than twice as many roles than in the old edition (still available here btw) Anyways, I’m 1. still at it 2. still open to suggestions for more roles to add 3. still open to weird character descriptions or other junk to add to the flavour of the game
Role description: The Doctor can select a player at night. That player will survive the night.
The Doctor is a Villager with a special ability to preserve the life of a chosen player. A selfless individual, they cannot preserve themselves.
The Doctor's ability works even if the Doctor is selected to be the victim of the Werewolves or otherwise killed. This is an important principle of the game: though all night actions are made independently and separately, they are considered to occur instantaneously at the same moment. Like an n-directional Mexican standoff. The exceptions to this rule are the role-blocking players, such as the Dentist, who go first in order to disable other players.
