Framework, Legal and Ethical considerations

Legal and Ethical Considerations

Game Framework/Genre

 The game reboot of the forbidden planet movie is a third person Sci-Fi action/RPG that will take place on an uncharted planet. The player will be able to freely explore several massive areas of the planet and will use their ship to travel between areas. At the beginning of the game players are able to create either a male or female human character and edit various parts such as build, race etc. and there are several default male and female voices  for each character so that the player's avatar can still partake in game cinematics without being a silent protagonist.

The game will feature third person combat with an over the shoulder view, the lights on the player's armour will change colour depending on their health. The player can swap and upgrade their gear such as armour and weapons to help when progressing through the game.

Game platforms

After considering the scope of the game I think from a hardware perspective it is best that the game be on next-gen systems such as PC, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One as they possess the ability to support much larger, denser environments which will help to create a truly rich planet for players to explore.

Production on the game would take roughly 3 to 4 years to complete if using a custom engine which means the install base for next-gen systems will be much larger than it is now.

The specifications for these systems would allow the game to take advantage of many more hardware features and allow the game to be as intended rather than working within the incredibly tight restraints of platforms such as the Xbox 360, PS3 and the Wii U.

Legal Issues

The main issue with video games and reboots is copyright. There are obviously many Sci-Fi games that are available so it is important not to copy or imitate existing works. A primary issue for The Forbidden Planet game is that the story is quite similar to Halo which would mean I would have to make sure that my story and aesthetics do something new and original. I may have to alter some aspects of the game such as the alien architecture as I feel it is similar to that of Halo. I would also obviously need suitable permissions from the current owners of the rights which as of 2008 were Warner Brothers.

There could also be legal issue with any music or sound effects used as I may need to pay royalties, and request special permission in order to use them in the game.

Ethical Issues

In terms of ethical issues not many are brought up in the game as there is no mention of religion, that’s not to say that religion is non-existent in the lore but it is not a topic that gets brought up. I quite like the idea of having more, newer religions in the game as this is hundreds, possibly thousands of years in the future so there would be more religions but it is a tricky thing to tackle as things like alien races etc. would go against certain religions in the game so I can see why similar games such as Mass Effect ignored it.

I think that gender and racial equality is important in games so that is why I chose to allow players to fully customise their hero’s race and appearance, it is also good for players to create whatever character they want so that it can help in terms of immersion within the game.

A possible issue that may occur is the war ethics in the game, how the villain wants to take over other planets including Earth and to effectively commit genocide on the human race. War ethics are common in movies and games now but there may be some who are sensitive to it. If this issue was to arise there is not much that could be done as it would require the game to be changed significantly as the villain is the main threat to the player and Earth.

Localisation

My game’s primary language would be English and all characters would speak it, even the alien but it will sound significantly different to the humans due to voice and accent differences. The games voice can be re-recorded in different languages for localisation. Although my story and content is not fully finished and fleshed out it does not seem to have any issues that would require any changes, an example of this would be with Bethesda’s game Fallout 3 that never released in India due to the cow like mutants as cows are considered to be sacred.

Rough story

I have many ideas for how I want the story to end but this is my current draft so far

(THIS IS A ROUGH/INCOMPLETE STORY SUMMARY)

Story Summary

The story follows the captain of the C57-D which is a small 5 man crew ship sent to investigate an unrecognized signal being emitted from a mysterious planet. The planet appeared to have been hit by a large asteroid hundreds of years ago as there a craters scattered throughout.

The crew touch down and the planet has a very tropical atmosphere with mountains and strange structures. There are also strange structures built into the ground that appear to go down for miles.

After exiting the ship the player begins their journey to track down the source of the signal that appears to be coming from the centre of the planet. After a short while a silvery gold figure materialises out of the air and greets the visitors to the planet and enquires about their visit. After assuring the captain that there is no signal being emitted and that it strongly advises the crew leave the planet the figure disappears.

Ignoring the warning the crew proceed on their way to the centre of the planet but on the way they encounter many strange enemies that appear to be organic/bionic hybrids, creatures of a twisted imagination.

·         After about an hour and a half of gameplay the crew reach the signal, coming from a strange device

·         Device is opened and releases one of the before, a survivor from before the asteroid hit who locked themselves away in hibernation for a whole universe cycle.

·         The before have no known name as it is never given to the player and they have not been encountered before

·         The before is very powerful and can create almost anything from sheer willpower, which explains the strange creatures, the result of the before’s dreams of his people during his hibernation.

·         Upon awakening the planet comes to life, the structures begin to float and glow and begin to unfold, from objects like a cube temples are formed

After awakening the before is furious for being interrupted in hibernation and is soon devastated by the realisation that he is the last of his kind.

With only the planet’s guardian left on his side (The gold figure A.K.A Robby the robot) the before begins to plan the expansion of his race by resurrecting his people.

The player must stop the before from returning as they plan to take over the universe and eradicate other worlds so they can avoid losing everything again.

Render of the main character

Main character

Development for human character armour

Environment

An environment design for the alien planet.

Story Plot and more drawings

The film plot

Forbidden planet starts off with the crew of a small space cruiser that are sent to investigate the disappearance of another ship which were on an unknown planet. The crew lands and are greeted by a robot called Robby who takes them back to his creator, Morbius. Morbius explains that the rest of his crew were wiped out by an unknown creature and he also shows them around his home which contains alien technology which possesses the power to bring any thoughts to reality. The crew are attacked multiple times by the creature throughout the film and it is later revealed that the creature is in fact an object of Morbius' imagination as a result of him using the alien device.

The game plot

The game's plot follows similarly to that of the film but the characters will be updated and the role of Morbius will be replaced with Robby as he will guide the crew through the remains of the lost civilization. The villain in the plot would be a final survivor of the alien race who has the ability to create things with his imagination. Due to this ability their technology is pretty much perfect. The player can customise their soldier and they can be either male or female.who is a member of the second ship sent to investigate the disappearance of the first ship. At the end of the game in the final battle the player has to use a type of counter device to prevent the villain's ability to create objects at will.

The game will be a third person action adventure game that would feature some platforming and slight exploration elements. The game would have some rpg elements such as upgrading weapons and armor which will help them when fighting enemies. The enemies in the game are mostly hybrids of organic and mechanic materials created by the surviving alien in an attempt to revive his people.

This image was an initial design for the device, it was going to be a seat that the creature would sit in and the helmet would cover his head. I later decided to have the helmet as an actual object the villain could wear all the time.

Images for what I associate with my idea.

Experimenting with shapes for the alien race.

Silhouettes of the enemies.

Example of how objects materialise.

Image association

Idea for alien design.

Word association.

More word association.