FWT Time!!!

By Wesley Sappington

Conundrum is making great leaps forward as we hurtle toward the finish line. But since my last post was Conundrum focused, I thought we'd show FWT some love!

If you follow the Eyesight socials (You better!) you'd know that it was an FWT-heavy week. We were posting all kinds of FWT art, to bring some vibrant colors to the grays and browns of our Labyrinth-filled-Instagram-page.

There have been a number of cuts to FWT, as we downsize a sprawling product to something more comprehensive. This isn't a bad thing at all - it's a vital step in the latter phases of the game development process.

Our efforts to slim-down are most evident in the massive, incredibly complex nature of FWT's story. The Fallen World of Fallen World's Traveler is huge, with multiple kingdoms and creatures to explore. The stories the player creates within that world are just as deep and intricate. That said, we're removing some of the bulky dead weight, while still keeping true to what we boldly set out to make: an open world story-game that breaks free from the restrictiveness of conventional storytelling.

To that end, we're working on recruiting new writers to aide in our innovation. ​If you know anyone who might be interested in a totally new way of writing stories, contact us!​

Writing in such an unconventional format has challenged us with many moral and ethical quandaries. For example: if the player is truly free to do anything, go anywhere, join any faction, or pledge allegiance to any flag, how do you write a villainous society? In the original plan for the game, the Orasul Empire was going to be a Nazist regime. But, if the player is allowed to join or ally with the Orasul, what kind of message does that broadcast? This is why there are no real "good guys or bad guys" in FWT - the player chooses what's good and what's bad.

A soldier of the Orasul Empire, by Glynnis Goff

A not-so-friendly human villager by Sky Garcia

​Our latest ethical discussion has revolved around writing romance into the story. The main "character" that the player plays as is meant to simply be a vessel for the player. We go to great lengths to not give the player character any identity - a name, an age, or even a gender. The player character wears a cloak, and is thus never seen. A blank slate so that anyone can immerse themselves into the story.

​But that's exactly the question: how do you write a romance without any sense of identity for the player character?

We'll leave it to Olivia (and possibly the new writers!) to figure that one out...

​Until then, thanks for reading!
-W