We did some brainstorming and got a little ways with plot ideas- as it stands it goes like this (I'm going to be repeating some ground here, but bare with me)
So to start with, a way, way back, there was a technological illumination. Humans cracked A.I. It revolutionalised a lot of things, and in a couple of years, robots went from being your everyday toaster to your co-worker. It didn't take long for robots to feel like, in fairness- if they didn't get a say in how we made babies, we shouldn't get a hand in how they create new AI. And so it was that robots took the monopoly on robotics micro-engineering. And then overall engineering. And then cybernetics.
Fast forward hundreds of years later, and our city is on the roads to recovering from a long, arduous war. It's only been a couple of years since martial law was phased out, there's still a bit of rationing (enough for a black market), and it's not entirely unusual to see poverty riots/ghost streets from bomb destruction. There's a lot of general languishing for both robots and humans, though it affects them differently. The need for fancy robots is getting pretty thin; they don't need diplomatbots anymore, it's a lot more practical to get car upgrades. And the regulation over cybernetics is harsh for humans, despite the levels of injuries there are both civilian and war related, because of the costs, the resources needed, and the apparently difficult procedures/health risks there are. There's a waiting list for treatment, but unless you are rich, powerful, famous, a war hero or the occasional adorable PR child, there's no chance.
Right, then.
- We have Officer Robot and Officer Buddy who are pals
- They are beat cops, basically
- They do beat cop things, small time puzzles, get-to-know-the-world type exploration
- It's nice
- Only thing is Officer Buddy's got a war wound that's stopping him from being a full detective (Officer Robot is also a couple of upgrades away from qualifying)
- Officer Buddy doesn't turn up for his shift one day
- His house is empty
- You have to find your buddy
- Your search takes you into a what's basically a chop-shop where Buddy is messed up
- Something something about investigation, going undercover as a human so the chopshop doctors don't think you are a robot snoop
- This is where both of us started to get a little distracted
- Where was I
- Robot discovers that things are not what they seem at all- humans could very, very easily get cybernetic implants. Robots are worried that if humans can be robots, what will robots do?
- You can't take your pal to a regular doctor because then he'll be in trouble for doing illegal things.
Subplots/Design Considerations
- multi-path endings/early game enders mean no idea is too dumb, melodramatic or cheery. Go nuts with that. If you want to see an ending where if you pick up a flower in a 5 minute window at the beginning of a game and keep it for 6 hours straight then give it to Officer Buddy at just the right moment and he doesn't go off and the game ends with everyone just being pals forever the end then I think we should go for it. Let's make Dan's life difficult and give him lots of things to program and it'll be great.
- There's animosity in a lot of groups that could be played on - the military vs. the police, the... well, I have it down as the League of Misopolemiacs, but the guys aggressively peaceful chaps, that are non-plot vital
- Officer Robot and Officer Buddy are tight at the beginning of the game, since they've been partners for a while. But at first Robot was trepiditious since he got the feeling that they were only partnered because they were the oddballs of the station and he'd worked hard to become a cop and be accepted. I like to think that Officer Buddy was the sheep to Robot's baby elephant, though, and just refused to be pushed away. Maybe it was Officer Robot's.. creation day? chip activation remembrance day? and Buddy brought him a little flower in a pot, and Robot thought he was making fun of his background but Buddy had no idea, he just thought Robot would just like it. Robot was taken aback, because did like and they were friends forever.
- There are some robots who think it's unfair that humans get to be robots but robots don't get to be humans. There have been a couple of serial killers. One of them jammed some dude's eyeballs into his headpiece and just sobbed until the cops showed up.
- But seriously I think this is a valid thing, I bet in the future from this game we'll see robots that have squishy human organs or something. I mean, we have some pretty rad stuff. I bet they could find a reason for jamming a kidney or 2 in a robot.
- If you do enough little side bits/exploration I think you should get promoted. NOT YOUR BUDDY THOUGH HE'S A LOOSE CANON
Things to consider
- It's at risk of going a little Deus Ex
- By which I mean I'm pretty sure this is just Deus Ex
- How do we end this
- Help
Danny, I have the full conversation transcipt you can have, but it's pretty much just this but spread out with a lot of 'no wait, what's and 'what about if not that thing but this thing' scattered in between.
That was long and boring to type up. I HOPE IT WAS WORTH IT.
