Thinking Up a DX1 Mod Equivalent of The Stanley Parable

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Brad Denton
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Thinking Up a DX1 Mod Equivalent of The Stanley Parable

Post by Brad Denton »

I've been playing some of the latest experimental first person games, such as Thirty Flights of Loving, Jazzpunk, and, a most impressive of all, The Stanley Parable. TFoL is mainly a first person short story with a fixed narrative and no other gameplay (though I have played Brendon Chung's other Citizen Abel games, such as the mods for Quake II and Half-Life, and he does know his gameplay). Jazzpunk has a fixed narrative too, and the character can't die, but there are so many things to do in it just for distraction (and it's a clever retro-cyberpunk game as well). I admire the idea behind The Stanley Parable very much, in that it encourages the player to break away from the fixed narrative and find multiple ways to wreck the fixed narrative in which the narrator wants you to fulfill. It just makes me think about how Deus Ex and The Nameless Mod (and multiple other games) did away with the idea of fixed parameters in gameplay and level direction long before current game designers are just considering it. Deus Ex still has a fixed narrative, no matter how much JC tries to deviate from it or cause havoc, yet I still love how it allows me to do so much in order for me to beat the game. I still think that The Nameless Mod has gone further than perhaps many present day games would have dreamed to go, and it's my favorite example of a Deus Ex-successor done right.

So after playing The Stanley Parable, it got me thinking. What if one could do a Stanley Parable-styled mod for Deus Ex, but which aims to satirize the direction which linear RPGs and FPSs have gone? I was playing Vampire: The Masquerade--Redemption recently, and it turned out the game remains on one path no matter what the character does (like JC in DX1). Here's the idea: the story would be a super contrived and conventional vampire RPG story, and the main character is tasked by the narrator to experience the game according to strict rules. However, by exploring parts of the game that you're told not to explore, in end up reshaping the game you're playing, and expanding tremendously the game's limited RPG skill system and parameters of choice. The game would be extremely simple at first, and would be very cliched, and have a very fixed path despite the player's choices and very uninspired endings, but once the player explores other possibilities in the gameplay, story, characterization, setting, and tone, the game becomes closer to what Deus Ex and TNM are. I was think that the mod could be called The Allegory of the Rogue Vampire.

What say you, agents?
Cybernetic pig
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Re: Thinking Up a DX1 Mod Equivalent of The Stanley Parable

Post by Cybernetic pig »

If you are dedicated enough to pull it off. For every choice you give the player becomes a branch. For every branch there is writing, dialogue, programming, characters and future consequences to consider. Sometimes even additional whole levels/maps and all their various contents if you want to take it that far. And if you want to account for every choice, plus offer loads of choices, a single branch can grow into many and down that route insanity may lie, you will probably lose your mind if you try to take DX/TNM to the next level in this regard, unless you do away with gameplay and all that interesting stuff and focus on story only. I for one wouldn't play if so 'cause I love my gameplay :)
Brad Denton
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Re: Thinking Up a DX1 Mod Equivalent of The Stanley Parable

Post by Brad Denton »

Cybernetic pig wrote:If you are dedicated enough to pull it off. For every choice you give the player becomes a branch. For every branch there is writing, dialogue, programming, characters and future consequences to consider. Sometimes even additional whole levels/maps and all their various contents if you want to take it that far. And if you want to account for every choice, plus offer loads of choices, a single branch can grow into many and down that route insanity may lie, you will probably lose your mind if you try to take DX/TNM to the next level in this regard, unless you do away with gameplay and all that interesting stuff and focus on story only. I for one wouldn't play if so 'cause I love my gameplay :)
I like your way of thinking, Cybernetic pig. Don't get me wrong, I don't want to do away with gameplay. I think I would first make the gameplay very uninspired and limited, and perhaps taking some inspiration for the clunky gameplay mechanics of Blood Omen 2. Then, gradually, depending on player choice, the gameplay would become Deus Ex-like.... Now that I think about it, this mod idea feels like it's taking a little inspiration from that clever indie online platformer, This Is Not a Minimalist Game.
Cybernetic pig
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Re: Thinking Up a DX1 Mod Equivalent of The Stanley Parable

Post by Cybernetic pig »

Since this is a theoretical DX mod, why not just use DX's gameplay??? Save having to mess around with the code that way, such as removing the HUD. Plus it would just be better as DX uses the gameplay to tell it's story and offer choices anyway, such as blowing up Anna on the 747, or killing/KO'ing the Mechanic Pierre.

...And because DX's gameplay is boss :)

Don't listen to me, but I think a DX mod should undoubtedly take after DX, preferably attempt to improve aspects of it. All the assets are already there, so there is little excuse :)
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