Was having posting problems, just got this up now.
Debrisphere
Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.
You float high above the last wisps of Earth’s atmosphere, ready to receive signals from mission control. As a satellite, you have joined your fellow machines beyond the sky, given a vital task to perform. Around you floats the debris of thousands of satellites whose functions have already ceased.
You, the protagonist, starting up for the first time after your delivery into space, must remember your purpose. Are you meant for communications? Spying? Destroying other satellites? Once you have fully awoken, will you be able to carry out your task? You must choose to properly interpret and act on whatever data you gather. The ramifications of a malfunction could reshape the face of the world, or simply result in you joining the dead hunks of metal that surround you. The same could happen if you do your job well.
And while it happens, the only people who will truly understand what is going on will be mission control.
REM
Out of random eye movement, you are born, a subconscious construct formed during a dream. What form you take, and the ultimate resolution of the dream, depends on how you react to the dreamer’s presence. In turn, the dreamer reacts to you. Ultimately, the contents of the dream are revealed to be based off of the dreamer’s most recent waking experiences, and what lesson or conclusion the dreamer draws from this will be based on your choices.
In seeing the dreamer, you may choose not to react at all. You may choose to take the form of someone from the dreamer’s life, or perhaps an object or environment. Through a certain combination of choices (appeals to the dreamer’s logic) you can choose to make the dreamer lucid, or end the dream prematurely.
What you are affecting is the consolidation of the dreamer’s memory, the way they reflect on their experiences. There is no real goal, only cause and effect.
NEATO!I like both of these. They have a lot of potential. The second one sounds like it would be more fun to write and could lend itself to non-linear elements. It very much lends itself to this format. It’s a more interesting take on omnipotence than the satellite one because you can be influenced by them as much as they are by you. The only issue I see with both of these is that you will probably not have enough time to really develop choices, so it will seem pretty contrived because of limited options. If you keep the actual length of the dream or satellite lifespan very short, however, it could be really neat to branch horizontally so that it feels like you really can do anything, even if the dream or world scenario is short.
The psychological aspect of Deprisphere are what interest me most about it. How will you communicate that every one of your choices has incredible significance to the player? I’d like to see an example of a prompt/choices. I also like the idea choosing your purpose by ‘remembering’ it. Will mission control be a major player, or more of an aloof entity?
REM seems very open-ended with tons of variety. I like the idea of playing it over various times, always with a different result. That will all depend on the quality of the writing and the variety of choices you give the player. I’d like to see it executed as your idea describes it. I like that the focus is not on the explicit content of the dream, but the interplay between the dream and dreamer, and the resulting interpretation.
I like the idea of learning more about your situation as you progress. The fact that you play as a sentient satellite raises some questions. Do you experience emotions? Do you always comply with mission control, or do you have a reason to subvert them? Do you have morals, and do they conflict with mission control? An interesting scenario might be where you have to decide between your life and the lives of mission control’s enemies.
I really like both and I even think you could do either one but I personally am more excited for the second one because of the visual element that I am a sucker for.
The first one I feel like you could get lost pretty easily so you really have to map it out to make it better for the reader.
I definitely like debrisphere better. This is very similar to another students idea for a security camera if you’d like more advice check their comments. I like that your fate lies solely on your ability to perform your task, and I like even better that that task starts out as a mystery. Very intriguing!