Sunday, September 18, 2011

Only a few more days

Okay. Not much longer until Adrift finally releases. I guess I should start explaining what Adrift actually is, right?

Adrift is a science-fiction visual novel. For those unfamiliar with the term "visual novel", it's a multi-ending piece of narrative fiction you read on your computer. It's called "visual" because, you see, along with the text you read, you also get pictures. Pictures like that one:

These four lovely young women are the main characters of the story, though they are not the protagonist. But I'll get to that in a minute.

Adrift takes place in the far future, a few hundred years from now. Earth is so overpopulated that a large path of humanity now lives in huge cities on the bottom of the sea. One of these communities is Bluetide, currently housing over seven million people. The cities are entirely self-dependent; they create their own energy with tidal power plants, they grow their own food, they recycle everything they cannot produce themselves perfectly.

Very elaborate artificial intelligences take care of the cities, controlling life support, production, safety, even education. The residents of the cities do not have to work for a living; everything is provided for them, and they are free to spend their time however they want. Many are artists and writers, and the AIs encourage them to find their hidden talents.

Of course, any malfunction with the AIs could be devastating to the citizens. This is why there is one safeguard: Each underwater city has a Supervisor, a single human whose only task is to oversee the work of the AIs. In order to keep up with the speed at which the AIs are working, this Supervisor is kept in a constant state of sleep, his subconscious wired into the positronic network that links the AIs.

Adrift is about the question what happens when that Supervisor suddenly loses control.

You, the player, are the Supervisor.

Interested? Thought so.

4 comments:

  1. Feeling a bit stalky... :/

    How's progress going? Almost there? :3 Not to hurry you or anything, just wondering!

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  2. I'm still waiting for my team to complete the final assets for the game. I'm only a writer/programmer who can't draw or compose, so I have to rely on others to work with me. And in a non-commercial project, everybody works at a pace they are comfortable with. There's little I can do to rush things, though I wish I could sometimes.

    I hope for a release before Christmas, though.

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  3. Fair enough, it's good to see you're alive and kicking all the same. I wish I had the talent to write - I actually find it quite daunting... drawing is easier for me.

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