Memories in Telsin video game

Logline:

My game is based on my self-published kid’s fantasy novel, Memories in Telsin. The game

follows Sarah, a teenager living in a futuristic city who feels out of place due to the fact that she

appeared seemingly out of nowhere when she was a toddler, with no record of her parents or family in

the city. Strange events begin to occur involving Sarah and her friends, motivating Sarah to go on a

journey in order to find her family. The journey is filled with magic, monsters, and creatures with

mystical powers, and the friends she makes aid her in her quest to discover her origins.

Synopsis:

Overview

The game utilizes a third-person, action RPG format, and has a linear narrative structure. The

player has either an overhead or over-the-shoulder view of Sarah or other playable main characters

from the novel, those being Sarah’s close friends. Most parts of the game allow the player to freely

switch control from one member of Sarah’s party to another, though character control will be heavily

influenced by which character’s narrative is the current focal point. Each character has his or her own

unique talents or abilities, which all have different applications in different scenarios, and these talents

and abilities are acquired over the course of the game as the player progresses through the story and

learns more about the characters. For example, Sarah is initially a regular human without any special

powers, but she eventually gains the ability to conjure magical energy blasts and fly for offensive

purposes during battles against enemy NPCs. Her best friend, Wally, is initially able to read minds; this

ability is available to use on other human NPCs or enemies at the beginning of the game, where Wally is

playable in addition to Sarah and their two other close friends.

The game is divided into parts and chapters from the novel; different parts of the game focus on

each of the characters’ backgrounds and how they’re related to one another, as well as the main plot.

Gameplay occurs in various environments seen in the novel, such as a cityscape, residential district,

forest, mountains, wastelands, and in the skies; the game would implement a heavy sense of realism

and three-dimensionality, with both fantastical and technological themes mixed together, depending on

the scene or chapter involved. Overall gameplay includes having conversations (with or without

cutscenes), learning new abilities, traveling, battling mobs of enemies or bosses, solving puzzles, and

QTCs (Quick Time Events).

Plot

Sarah lives in Vitalis (SiunCity in the novel), a massive city/megalopolis that sprawls across a

great landscape bordered by a number of varying environments including a forest, desert, mountain

range, canyon, and ocean. Sarah has been living in the city for most of her life, without a surname or any

indication that she was born or existed in Vitalis; her unique circumstances led to her current life as a

student alongside her closest friends, Tony, Crystal, and Wally. They live on the same street near the

edge of Vitalis closest to the forest, where unbeknownst to them, a mysterious enemy has been plotting

vengeance against Sarah for years.

Despite Vitalis’s size, the city is keen on technology that keeps the majority of the population

extremely safe. This changes for Sarah, however, when one day, they read about a strange appearance

of an unknown creature in their neighborhood. Believing the creature to involve magic, something that

is mostly unseen in Vitalis, the kids’ curiosity leads to them encountering the creature, which attacks

them with lethal fury. They narrowly escape and defeat the creature, thanks to quick thinking by Wally.

Their encounter with the monster is followed the next day by news of another strange

occurrence – creatures of an ancient past, brought back to life by the city’s technology, become infected

with some kind of virus that transforms them into rampaging beasts, escaping from their enclosures and

flooding the city. Before they have any time to get to safety, the children are attacked by one of the

creatures, which kidnaps Sarah and flies her to the creatures’ nest, where it badly injures her before

attempting to execute her. She is saved once again by Wally, who arrives with help from an uninfected

creature he previously befriended, and the befriended creature kills Sarah’s attacker. Tony and Crystal,

who were separated from Sarah and Wally, are able to get to safety, but in the process, they discover a

glowing object pulsing with life.

After getting medical attention, the kids regroup, and the object blossoms into a fairy-like being

named Breelie. Breelie explains that several years ago, he and many of his friends – humans, demons,

and half-human beings alike – encountered a family of demonic entities whose inherent rage led to their

demise; the demons’ human heir sought revenge, forcing Breelie and several others into hiding. A stone

containing the power of one of Breelie’s friends is used by Wally, who gains the ability to transform into

a highly-skilled, insect-like warrior with memories of Breelie’s friend. They deduce that the events

occurring in the city are centered around Sarah, prompting them to leave Vitalis and travel into the

woods in order to find Sarah’s family, as well as potentially draw attention toward themselves and away

from the city.

They travel toward a location where a portal to Breelie’s homeland exists; along the way, they

meet several others whose families were separated and lives were ruined by the actions of demonic

monsters at some point during their childhoods, and a mysterious, virus-like being who thinks nothing

but of murdering Sarah. They are repeated attacked by said being and its minions during their travels,

but manage to fend them off and defeat them with Wally’s power and magic used by Breelie and Eva,

one of their new companions.

After crossing the forest and a sprawling, empty wasteland, they reach the location of the portal

and enter it, narrowly avoiding being killed by the virus-like being, and arrive at the land of Telsin,

Breelie’s homeland. With help from Sarah and her friends, Eva and Loorn, another new companion, are

able to undo some of the damage done to their lives, reuniting with friends and family, as well as

rebuilding an old temple of worship with great meaning to the people of Telsin. The virus-like being

catches up to them and reveals itself as the human heir to the demons, having lost his only family after

Sarah’s father slew them both; he tells Sarah that the death of his parents resulted in him attempting to

kill Sarah as a toddler, only for her to unintentionally kill him instead by touching a stone connected to

his life force. The opposition of forces in Sarah and the stone caused the stone to shatter, and his

insurmountable thirst for vengeance allowed him to live at the cost of his humanity. The enemy admits

fault for causing pain to everyone present through his attempted murders, then disappears.

Sarah is led to her family, learning that her father died protecting innocent people from the

virus-being’s parents. She convinces her mother and elder brother to return with her to Vitalis, but upon

leaving Telsin and returning to the forest, they fall into a trap and are ambushed, forcing Sarah and

Wally to fight the virus-being alone. After an extended battle, they seemingly defeat him, but it is

another ruse, and they are both struck down and impaled by his blade. Their spirits are drawn into a

void, forcing one of them to die for the other to live; Wally regrets being unable to keep a promise he

made to her to stay with her, and allows himself to die.

Sarah’s friends drive away the virus-being, but Wally’s body and soul are lost, and Sarah falls

into a heartbroken malaise, growing very weak; not wanting her friends to suffer, she sneaks out of

confinement alone, going back to the place where Wally died. The virus-being attacks her one final time,

drawing much of her blood, but before he can deliver the killing blow, he is slain himself by Wally, who

escapes the void he was sent to via a magical object that allows any object or concept to manifest. As a

last effort, before dying, the being leaves behind a massive flying demon that attacks the city; with help

from her friends, Sarah musters the strength, and she strikes it down, ending her plight.

Target Audience:

The game’s potential market would most likely fit into the general action-based RPG genre.

While the game would be heavily story-oriented, it would also have plenty of combat with varying

intensities, depending on which scene or chapter of the novel is being played, as well as many chances

to explore and learn about the world Sarah lives in. The game’s overall design would be similar to many

recent RPG games such as Tomb Raider, Uncharted, Dark Souls, Deux Ex Machina, or Final Fantasy XV.

Reference material:

Images below that I used as references in the previous Coursera game development classes. These

include my own digital sketches and images pulled from the Internet. I do not own any image that I did

not create myself.

Drawing of Sarah. This is a drawing of her as an adult, but she more or less looks the same as a

teenager. In Memories in Telsin, she is about fourteen years old, and has a reserved, but friendly

personality. In the novel, she often feels vulnerable due to the main villain targeting her for unknown

reasons, and as a result, she feels irresolute for the majority of the story. She does make efforts to be

able to defend herself, however, and grows in strength and confidence over the course of the novel. In

the game, she takes a more active role in battles than she does in most of the battles that occur in the

novel; her friends will make note of this during battles, encouraging her to try harder and making sure to

aid her when battling enemies.

Sketch of Sarah and Wally in battle

Sketch of Sarah in battle in the skies over the city where she lives

Below: Images found online that best represent some of the environments that are explored during the

course of the game.

Forest/Mountains

These areas are the locations of many events and battles that occur in Memories in Telsin, such

as meeting Eva, Koenir, Uni, Loorn, Dragon, and the main antagonist. Battles occur both in the forests

and in the skies above the trees, depending on the scene/type of battle being introduced or the type of

character being played.

City

The city of Vitalis is also a key location in the novel/game, and makes use of technology that

doesn’t exist in real life. The images below portray that tech in some of its forms.

Below: Flowchart showing the chapter progression of the game. The bars represent overall gameplay

length of each chapter/part in relation to one another. Back-and-forth arrows mean that a player will

enter the attached chapter/battle, and then return to the primary narrative location after completion.