Warning: The Ident system is intended for use in chronoconditional emergencies only.
Excessive connection time may result in partial or terminal identity corruption.
To minimise self contamination, please refrain from attempting to access present-day memories outside of insulated initial transfer packets.
Stay safe, and good luck.
We are counting on you.
Excessive connection time may result in partial or terminal identity corruption.
To minimise self contamination, please refrain from attempting to access present-day memories outside of insulated initial transfer packets.
Stay safe, and good luck.
We are counting on you.
STORY
The Ident system is a timeline editing device that injects 'causally neutral' individuals into a timeline, artificial identities who will have no inpact on the future except for a specific task they are instructed to perform. Insulated from paradoxes and timeline changes, these 'Idents' are controlled like puppets in order to fix chronological issues, patch up paradoxes, observe past events... or change the cause of history. Well played Idents live out unremarkable lives until they are 'activated', and slip away alone into obscurity when their task is done. But accessing a secondary identity is dangerous, and operators can only bring some of their memories along without risking corrupting them.Your reality is destabilising, and you are the operator chosen to fix the paradox before your timeline crumbles entirely. Taking control of an Ident called Acacia Rose (or Cassie for short), you've made progress in getting to the bottom of the fault, and narrowed the window of influence down to one 24 hour stretch of time.
Someone is dying who shouldn't be.
Someone is living who shouldn't be.
And you are not the only one with a stake in this game.
CHARACTERS
Acacia Rose (aka Cassie)
Acacia Rose (aka Cassie)
The player. The Ident Acasia Rose is a quiet student who enjoys alternative music, and has just woken up with the knowledge that she must protect her classmate Robbie Groves at all costs. She's aware she's linked to someone with a family and friends who's survival depends on her keeping Robbie alive, and that she shouldn't be letting herself get too close to anyone. But that might be easier said than done...
Robbie Groves
A english student who wants to be a teacher. Robbie is a warm and loyal individual who cares deeply about those around him. He is friendly and easy going but tries to hide his troubles from others. He maybe has a bit of a crush on one of the girls who frequents the same rock night as he does.His survival is essential to Cassie's operator's timeline.
Nola Jackson
A med student. Sweet and on the shy side, a bit of a goth and maybe has a bit of a thing for Robbie. Nola is eternally surprised when people take an interest in her and goes from 0 to awkward on a dime. Despite that she enjoys teasing Robbie, who seems to be the only person easier to wind up than she is.Her survival is not part of Cassie's operator's timeline.
Leann Collingwood
Nola's best friend. A firecracker trying to be an ice queen. Leann tries to be cool and above it all but has a real short fuse and it takes very little for her to decide you're an asshole or a precious cinnamon roll that needs protecting (most people are filed under the former). A bit of an oddball even in the crowd she hangs out with, and a little on the scary side. Real protective of her friends, straight-laced and serious.Marissa Patton
Robbie's Ex, and with good reason. Marissa is beautiful and bubbly on the surface but controlling and almost vicious when she feels like it.... and she's never quite gotten over Robbie dumping her. She hides her issues behind sweet words and cute smiles but even though she has a new boyfriend she's not moved on as much as she claims she has. Elliot MacNamara
A friend of Robbie and Nola, and Marissa's current boyfriend. There's something sad about Elliot that's hard to pin down, and Marissa has no trouble pushing him around. Anxious but friendly, Elliot worries for those around him and is very close to Robbie despite the awkwardness his relationship with Marissa causes. He's self depreciating but has a spark of wit and charm despite that. He really needs to be going out with someone else.FORMAT
A modern-day scifi murder mystery mess with light romance/friendship elements. It follows Uni students between terms in a miscellaneous western town.Ident is a bit of an experiment structure wise, taking place over a time loop but with certain actions letting you break it to progress the story. There's never time to do absolutely everything each loop so a bigger picture is built as you run through the loops trying to change the outcome in a way that'll stick. I've planned it to be kind of modular so there's a very simple version where the ending pretty just depends on a single choice at the end of the final loop but if I have time there'll be more scenes and conditions, letting you learn more about the characters as Cassie redoes the day to get the outcome she's after.
Because I'm solo-ing it, and accidentally have ended up away for half this month, the NaNo version of the story will probably be a demo or a light version with more limited music and fewer CGs, that I'll expand in April to the full thing. I'm planning on keeping the UI as simple as possible and using a mono-colour colouring style on the sprites. Cassie probably won't get a sprite unless I have time at the end.
Ending wise, there's one that's more positive for everyone than others, but when you're dealing in the continued existence of alternate timelines, someone is always going to have to lose big...
QUESTIONS
General impressions?Would you like Cassie to be namable instead of pre-named?
Would you prefer the campus the game is set in to be an inner-city urban one one, or in a more picturesque seaside town?
