Enter The Story: the stories

Spring 2010: A Tale of Two Cities
Based on Charles' Dickens' Classic, set in London and Paris during the French Revolution - just before the start of Les Misérables

Later: Treasure Island
The world's greatest adventure story. Need I say more?

Shakespeare's Julius Caesar
This is the start of the great project: the complete works of Shakespeare in adventure game format! Over the next twenty years I'll alternate Shakespeare and another story, until all 37 plays have been released. And of course all games join up.

Why start with Caesar? We've had a melodrama, a religious classic, and a cosmic epic. Now it's time for a history play. Caesar was an incredibly important historical figure, Rome is important to a Laris like Peri, and the supernatural elements fit well with the previous three stories.

Fairy Tales
Time for something lighter and a change of pace. This is the first story I ever began, back in 2000 when the game was first being planned. The working title is 'kids' world' because it uses background drawn by my kids when they were young. This will be a lot of fun to create, as I plan to add in anything and everything that seems fun. It will be alight hearted antidote to all the heavy stuff in the other stories.

Rather than list all of Shakespeare's plays, I'll mention some of the other stories I have planned.

Journey to the Center of the Earth
This is my favorite novel, so it's definitely going to be in the game. I've always been fascinated by underground worlds, so expect miles and miles of tunnels to explore. Note that this one should be complete in five months, not six. As the game expands I plan to increase the frequency of new stories.

1001 Arabian nights
Time for real fun with the greatest yarns ever told! Once again, I'll be taking common themes that are often used in games (fantasy adventure) and going right to the source, the original unwatered down versions. And if the characters remind you of famous movies and video games, well that's just coincidence. :)

Wuthering Heights
The game at this point is looking a bit to male oriented (with all that sci fi and heavy epic stuff) so I think a classic romance would be a refreshing change.

Plato's Atlantis
My personal favorite game is Zak McKracken - I love how it delves into New Age ideas. This game goes back to the original sources - and beyond!

The Apocalypse of Enoch
One of the advantages of being a one-man developer is real freedom. I can afford to explore topics that bigger games developers would never dare touch. I used to be very religious, and I still have an interest in eschatology and apocalyptic literature, so I'd love to do a faithful adaptation of some of the genuine texts. I won't touch the modern western Bible at first, as I don't want to offend anyone. But Enoch was in the older Ethiopian canon, and is quoted heavily in the New Testament, so it deserves a look.

Other stories already linked:

When you play Enter The Story you'll sometimes see links to games that haven't been made yet. The game looks for the following stories, so I'll have to add them!

Around the World in Eighty Days
The game world will eventually include the entire real world (or at least representative parts!) so it's only natural to link it together with Around the World in Eighty Days. A good old fashioned adventure, to balance the heavy stuff and the silly stuff.

The Descent of Man
This is non-fiction, but it can be adapted into a clear narrative. It's here to illustrate the core concept behind Enter The Story: ideas. I want all the most amazing ideas to be in this game, whether from fiction or non-fiction. And I always want to go to the source, to the original documents. If I can find an excuse to include the Neanderthals, the flooding of the Black Sea, and deluge myths then I will.

Henry V
The first story is Les Miserables, so I had to plan ahead for which other stories would take in France. I'm using Shakespeare anyway, so Henry V was an obvious choice.

War and Peace
Until recently, War and Peace was going to be the second release. But that was a tiny bit too ambitious for the early days. I'll leave it a couple of years then do the job properly. Along with 'The Complete Works of Shakespeare' this is one of those titles that says 'this is not just an ordinary game!'

The Goddess of Atvatabar by William Richard Bradshaw
Dante's Inferno means I need to plan ahead for which stories will take place underground. I've always liked the idea of underground worlds, and wanted to use Edgar Rice Burroughs' "At The Earth's Core." However, it's still in copyright in the UK, and copyright laws keep getting extended (don't get me started on copyright laws! I've stated in my license agreement that I consider any work I create to be public domain after twenty years - anything more than that is theft from the society that gives a creator his ideas, education, and market). So instead I'm using two earlier books: "The Goddess of Atvatabar" and "Etidorhpa." They cover the same territory as "At The Earth's Core," but with more interesting ideas.

Einstein's General Relativity
Einstein's theory of relativity isn't a story... or is it? It started when Einstein asked 'what would it be like if you were a beam of light?' It's the story of the greatest journey ever made. It takes us from the origin of time to the end of the universe, and asks, 'what next?'

Frankenstein
Too important to miss.

The Aeneid
Virgil is a major figure in the game, and I've always wanted a story that featured Carthage,. Enter The Story is about clasics, and the Aeneid is more interesting than the Iliad (in my opinion) so this was a no-brainer.

Celtic Myths
I love stories about the pre-history of Britain and Ireland, the ancient giants and about the underground world, so Celtic Myths have to be there somewhere. If I can squeeze in the Holy Grail and Celtic Christianity, so much the better.

Deeper themes:

Every story covers a major theme. It might not be obvious - you can ignore it if you like. But if you want to dig deeper there are people in the story who love to talk about deep topics and answer questions They show how the ideas behind the stories all fit together.

Les Miserables: the theme is justice

The Divine Comedy: the theme is faith

The Nature of the Universe: the theme is the nature of reality

Julius Caesar: the theme is government

And so on. Don't worry if this sounds boring. you can ignore those parts. But if you hunger for a story with a little more substance, a little more ambition, this game will deliver.

Other stories in planning stages:

The Time Machine
This might be one of the earliest stories, as I'm looking forward to it. It's another one of my favorite stories, it's relatively short, and it gives me an excuse to expand the game world into new directions. The plan is to have a game world that includes all of time and space, so this story is one hundred percent certain.

The First Men in the Moon
She
Dr Nikolai
These stories will be released back to back, and closely linked. Why? It's no secret that I'm a fan of the early Fantastic Four comics. Obviously I can't create my own Fantastic Four comic for legal reasons, but I can go back to the kinds of stories that inspired them. This will be my tribute to 'The World's Greatest Comics Magazine,' then going further...

Crime and Punishment
This isn't one of my favorite ever novels, it's not something I'd want to make into a major blockbuster, but it's the kind of thing I'd like to cover in a short game. I'd like 'Enter The Story' to act a gateway into the world's greatest stories. So anyone who was mildly interested in some classic story could play the game version in a couple of hours, just to see what it is like.

Monster World
This is another 'fun' story, a tribute to (and expansion of) the best comics I read as a child. Most of those comics were frankly mediocre (most of EVERYTHING is mediocre, that's kind of what mediocre means), but there were a few stories that were genuinely new and inspiring ideas. I can't allow those things to just die and be forgotten. Once again for legal reasons I won't be able to use the actual characters, but I can go back to the stories that inspired them, and take them forwards...

The Count of Monte Cristo
This is just such a great book. I remember the thrill I got when I read the line, "Bertuccio-- Jacopi-- Hear me! The world is MINE!" Just because I'm serious and boring doesn't mean I don't recognize a great story when I see one.

And more!

It will take twenty years to complete the Shakespeare adaptations and other books alternating. Will people still be playing 32 bit PC games then? Definitely. We still play games from the 1990s, and the installed base of 32 bit computers is bigger than ever. I'm not interested in "upgrading" the technology as time goes by. I'm only interested in the stories.

I hope that by that time other people will be helping with this project, so it can eventually take on a life of its own. My dream is for a single game packed with the greatest stories and the most amazing ideas ever, a vast universe that you can explore and constantly stumble across new and amazing stuff.

Well those are my plans as they stand right now. Watch this space for further developments :)

Add your own story

That's right, if Enter The Story does not include your favorite (out of copyright) novel, then you can make your own story and have it included in the next release of the game! That's because this game is created with Adventure Game Studio, the world's easiest adventure game development platform. If you want to add a story, let me know on the blog. You will retain complete ownership of the game you create. I'll just show you how your game can connect with the Enter The Story universe.

About Peri and her friends:

You play a guardian angel named Peri, who can't rest while anyone has problems. That's just the kind of person she is. And everywhere she goes she finds people with problems!

The first three stories in Enter The Story form a trilogy, showing Peri's origin and destiny. All the stories join together, making an ever larger world for Peri to explore.

In Les Misérables we see the world she came from, her beginning as an angel, and her goal: to end suffering and find ultimate answers. In the Divine Comedy we see her journey through the heavens. Genesis of the Gods shows the awful truth: what she finds when she gets there.

Peri just wants to be understood.
Peri is lost. Not physically lost - she can travel almost anywhere - but emotionally and spiritually lost, looking for somewhere she can call home.

Peri died as a child. As an angel, she saw so much suffering on Earth that it traumatized her. She wasn't able to fix everything, despite her angelic powers. She feels guilty. She can't let it go. She feels driven to act, to take the world' problems on her shoulders, to try to solve everything. Her parents love her, but they don't undertand her. They just want a quiet life.

She thought everything would come right when she got to heaven, but - as we see in Genesis of the Gods - that was not to be.

Peri wants to save the world. Everyone say it isn't possible. Sometimes she feels so lonely. Surely there are others out there who feel the same way?

About the name, Peri Laris

In Persian mythology, a Peri is a beautiful and benevolent supernatural being, descended from fallen angels and excluded from paradise until penance is done. (source) A Peri is usually shown carrying a bag.

Peri as a prefix also means "by, near, over, beyond, or to give an intensive sense" - just as our Peri is able to somehow always ben near where people need her, although they can't always see her. Peri is also short for peregrine, meaning a foreigner, alien, roving or wandering - a perfect description of Peri's journeys through time, space, and the world of ideas.

'Laris' comes from 'Lar' - a Roman house spirit. Peri has special connection to home and family, and to the empire of Rome (a focus on Rome is seen in the middle sections of the Divine Comedy and of course in the fourth story, Julius Caesar). Peri wants nothing more than to settle down, but cannot rest while people still need her help.

In later Roman times, Lars (or Lares) "represented the 'illustrious dead' of the city and empire of Rome, and the Emperor Alexander Severus venerated the Lares of such figures as Abraham, Orpheus, and Jesus Christ." (source: Wiipedia) In Enter The Story, reincarnation is a frequent theme, and Orphism features in Genesis of the Gods. Lares were typically worshipped as crossroads - an appropriate reminder that Peri Laris finds herself at the key decision points in history.

Finally, there's a more prosaic reason for the name Laris. Annie Larris is the real star of the game Zak McKracken, the game that inspired Enter The Story. And she's also a real person - there is more to Zak than meets the eye. Most of the stories in Enter The Story contain at least one nod to Zak. For example, Mars in the Divine Comedy, or the opening sequence to Genesis of the Gods.

Finally, he name Peri Laris suggests 'perilous' or even 'Polaris,' the pole star, the one almost fixed point in the heavens.