Hmm.
How do you define a paragraph?
> Is willing to give it a shot
> Unsure if she can whip out paragraphs for a meaningful post
> Enters Lurk mode
I'll be lenient on it. Provided you can make something interesting in a single paragraph, you can post. If not, you need 2-3 paragraphs to make it count.
This seems interesting enough. I might give it a shot, though could we know a little bit more on what you've planned for this RP to be? Sure, there's all that timeline switching stuff, but it might be too chaotic to control without some sort of plot skeleton.
I believe there will be some sort of inter-timeline antagonist? I'm not sure honestly, you'll have to wait until SimYouLater gets online. We may vote from a choice of 3-5 timelines to decide which ones we go to and what-not, but I'm not sure if it'll play out Doctor Who-esque, with a plot, or both.
Each timeline will have its own problems, which usually can only be solved by complete outsiders. I may also introduce a trans-timeline "evil" empire to defeat.
So, do I just to post a CS under the Character tab, or should I PM the GM with my CS first?
Edit: P.S. Would it be okay if the timeline I create is another offshoot of 5190 where there is magic involved?
PM him the Character Sheet first.
Yeah, that would be the best option. There's no problem with it, but I'd like to know what you have in mind for the timeline.
I'm interested. Just one question. Are the Timeline Numbers how many years, months, or days ago the timeline split?
Timeline numbers are random, sometimes symbolic. I cba to come up with a system, so I just fudged it.
The Gadgeteer
Home Timeline: 10810 (The "Gadget Heir" Timeline)
Biography:On October 10th, 2010 a set of high-tech armor was fused to a child inside a life support tank, a boy believed to be the son of Werner Scribe, the patriarch of the Scribe industrial empire. The head engineer, Martin Zehn, believed he had lost his own son in the incident which injured the child, and quietly thought "Happy birthday, son" as the armor was attached piece by piece. Then a lot of information was streamed from the quantum computer to the brain of the patient, creating 10 years worth of a false life.
The problem, or rather solution, was that Martin Zehn knew what life as part of the Scribe dynasty that employed him would do to a child's outlook, and instead had created a fictional family that was relatively well-off but humble to be the simulation environment.
The other, actual problem was that the quantum computer had analyzed the DNA of the patient and supposed parent, and determined that the person the suit had fused with was in fact Oliver Zehn, not Mr. Scribe's son.
The OTHER, other actual problem was that all the vast technological advancements that Scribe & Co. had distributed throughout their world over the past 10 years was derived from the same source as Oliver's armor, and they had not realized that the boy opening his eyes for the first time had permanent administrator access on the newly activated device, meaning that every electronic or quantum device on the planet was under his command. And when Oliver saw all the suffering and pain, much of which was caused by the Scribe dynasty's industrial empire...
Oliver made it clear that he knew he was not Werner Scribe's son, apologized to Mr. Zehn for doing the terrible act he was about to do... and riddled Werner Scribe with laser gatling fire. He then marched out of the laboratory, and once outside, sent a goodbye message to his father. Then he activated the temporal singularizer, a part of the project Mr. Scribe wanted kept secret but was left wide open to administrator access, and shifted to a timeline unknown.Travel Method:The cybernetic suit known simply as the Mk.II, despite its Victorian appearance, is extremely advanced, and contains a Singularizer for cross-timeline travel. The suit's quantum computer is wired directly to the Gadgeteer's brain, allowing him to understand languages never before encountered provided he can get enough samples of analog wireless transmissions or good ol' human speech. The suit is essentially part of his body and cannot be removed, having replaced skin that was originally heavily burnt and being wired directly into the cerebellum.
It recharges via a "backpack" built-in to the suit, powered by a pair of mysterious crystals. Dubbed the Symmetricite Crystals, they were impervious to all attempts to take samples of the material, and produce massive amounts of electricity when placed between four and five inches from each other, no more, no less. The crystals power the suit, but also simultaneously charge a set of carbon nanotube capacitors that are used to timeskip, and it takes between 24 and 25 hours for the capacitors to recharge.
A laser gatling system is built into each of the Gadgeteer's wrists, where it is normally retracted beneath protective panels.
The two pouches on his hips are only as big as they appear, but they are protected by locks that only open when he gives a neural command to the pouch he wants to open. He uses them to store any small objects such as a game console he picked up on his travels or his Psychic Wallet.
His face is always covered by a breathing apparatus which is powerful enough to let him breathe underwater or in toxic gasses, but useless if there is no atmosphere. It has a thermoacoustic outer membrane which acts as a speaker, and the speech synthesizer is good enough that his speech sounds entirely natural for his age yet will translate to other languages if required.
Finally, because the suit stands out so much in nearly any timeline, it has an active camouflage system. The camouflage can disguise him in the garments and ancestry (skin color, etc.) of a local human individual about the same age as himself. However, any sufficient impact such as from a melee weapon or a heavy or fast-traveling projectile will disrupt the system, leaving his true form plainly visible.Timeline 10810A "YeAST" (Yet Another Steampunk Timeline) to the end, Timeline 10810 was held back thanks to a prolonged Great War (World War I) that lasted until the 1960s. Europe was left picking up the pieces for far longer than anything seen in Timeline 1, and the United States entered a second civil war that left the country split into three vertical strips. By 1980 the world leaders in technology were, in order, the Japanese Empire, the Soviet Union, Canada, South Africa and Brazil, but this quickly changed when Japan and the Soviets entered a nuclear exchange which destroyed their major population centers and left both countries poor, without allies and suffering from severe epidemics of radiation poisoning.
Canada took the lead over the next several years, pushing the last few limits of steam-driven machinery by powering them using nuclear reactors. During this time the nation slipped into the same kind of dog-eat-dog attitude that befell the United Kingdom a century earlier.
In the year 2000, an explosion rocked a factory complex in Vancouver owned by the wealthy businessman Werner Scribe, who had been visiting the factory with his infant son. At the time, Oliver Zehn, son of the Scribe family business' head engineer, was in his mother's arms as she brought the baby's father a forgotten lunch, when the incident occurred.
Werner Scribe survived the event, but it took hours to clear the rubble and find the infant believed to be his son. However, the baby's body and face were so badly injured that he was put on life support. The body of Oliver Zehn was seemingly never found. Mr. Zehn, the head engineer, was devastated by the loss of his son and wife, but when he was asked to engage in a secret "company project" to save Werner's son he agreed to prevent the loss of another life.
The project turned out to be the reverse engineering of an advanced suit of high-tech armor that had been found in the rubble, its origin unknown. It had seemingly fused to the corpse of the person who was wearing it, but most of the technology was explainable by their scientific knowledge. The child was kept barely alive in a tank of nutrients, and they were going to save him by turning him into a cyborg. The project took ten years and became the sole focus of the Scribe family's wealth and industrial empire, and during that period the amount of technological advancement outpaced aesthetic design by so much that television and video games were commonplace by the end, and quantum computers, augmented reality, virtual reality and fast-breeder nuclear reactors became a cutting edge available only to governments, corporations and the mega-wealthy, yet all encased in brass, iron and hardwood.
The Noun
Home Timeline: 0
Biography:Aside from describing your character and their personality, this is where you can post your character's real name, and their native language. Note that unless your character has a quantum computer or powerful magic (if they do, please say so under "travel method"), there is no such thing as a universal translator, so your character will often be unable to speak the native languages of a timeline.Travel Method:How does your character travel? Magic portals? A TARDIS-like cardboard box? A souped-up Lambourghini that leaves flaming tire trails when it timeskips? Powered armor with built-in equipment? Regardless of how, it should have a recharge period of at least 24 hours (please explain this as in-depth as possible, the information will be critical). In addition, can they understand anything other than their native language? Do they have a quantum computer or a magic ability/artifact to translate the languages of alternate universes?Timeline 0This is where you describe the character's home timeline. The bad news is, you have to follow the golden rule: "The butterfly affects everything", so if their timeline diverges 500 years ago then there will be no World War II, no Sputnik, no 9/11 and no Oculus Rift. The good news is, the divergence point could be from our timeline (Timeline 1) yesterday if you can write a good character around it.
---
Please remember that the RP is supposed to have our characters be complete unknowns to the universes they arrive in, so they all have aliases of mysterious titles like "The Huntress" or "The Carpenter" or "The Walrus".
Used Timeline Numbers (So far)
Do not use!
1 (Real Life)
32
46
64
86 (Reserved for MisterEightySix)
89 (Reserved for DiamondBlizzard)
413
545
666
802
810 (Reserved for SimYouLater)
911
1984
1993
2582
3527
5190
6735
6777
8742
10810 (Reserved for SimYouLater)
12980 (Used by a player on the old RP we did elsewhere)
If you saw the TV show "Sliders" in the 90's or read/watched/played pretty much anything (Chronicles of Narnia/GURPS Infinite Worlds/His Dark Materials/Bioshock Infinite/superhero comics/etc.) with a multiverse consisting of multiple dimensions/universes/timelines, that's the most basic way to describe this RP.
HOWEVER, I should warn you it's not that simple. While most of the sci-fi is techno-babble and magic exists, the setting attempts to make realistic use of the "quantum multiverse" (read: every time something, anything, happens it causes the timeline to split into versions of itself where all possible outcomes have occured) and the butterfly effect will be extremely powerful.
How powerful? After their divergence point, timelines have nothing in common with history as we know it. If the divergence is early enough it's like visiting an alien planet, complete with languages you don't understand and technologies never invented in our timeline. Or even a world where life itself evolved differently and the continents have a different layout.
Aside from timelines constantly branching out on their own, the so-called Timeskippers (anyone who jumps "sideways" into another timestream) are a unique case. By leaving their home universe, they have removed themselves from that timeline, and unless they have that timeline "bookmarked" somehow they can never get back to it. The other effect is that they cause a "singular divergence" because their arrival in a timeline creates an entirely new timeline just for the fact that they popped into existence out of nowhere.
It should be noted that when a character leaves a timeline, they cause the timeline to be "locked" to their destination for about one month, allowing the characters to travel more-or-less in a group.
The plot will be timeline-oriented, with each timeline having a severe problem which our characters will try their best to fix out of the good of their hearts, or for other reasons. I'm also in the process of thinking up a long term story arc which will keep things interesting longer.
Anyway, this RP will require 2-3 paragraphs per post. No double-posting. Please place applications under the "Character" tab, and make sure to read the tips on making a good character!
---
How do we always end up in different spots on Earth?
The gravitational field of a planet affects timeskipping by "anchoring" it to within that gravitational field, but thanks to the differences in gravity between timelines it introduces a bit of chaos and we could end up anywhere on Earth. Note that due to the moon's effects on the tide, we can't end up on a part of the Earth's surface which is covered by large amounts of water or ice, including Antarctica. In addition, the gravitational field in the targeted timeline cannot deviate too far from the current one, so any version of Earth which has gone too far from the space it occupies in a standard timeline, collided with another celestial body, is feeling the effects of a moon that hit a celestial body or been flung away from Earth, or no longer has a sun is impossible to enter.
"Money" System
Instead of money, we have biotech microchips with brainwave transmitters called Psychic Coins (PsyCoins). They work as follows:
1. You ask to purchase an item(s) at a marketplace, stall, grocery store, department store, etc.
2. You give a psychic coin to a merchant, shopowner, etc.
3. The merchant, shopowner, etc. and anyone else around will be "tricked" by the PsyCoin into thinking you just payed them with an appropriate amount of coins/cash.
4. The PsyCoin will degrade into carbon and silicon within 15 minutes.
To keep PsyCoins from degrading while YOU have them, you also have a Psychic Wallet which links with the Coins to tell them "don't turn to dust".
Also, because one PsyCoin is used for EVERY purchase no matter how big or small, you could buy a sports car with one PsyCoin for one purchase, and the next day be forced to use one for a mere few bottles of water because you're dehydrated.
Everyone starts out with no PsyCoins and no Psychic Wallet, but will get one before we leave the first timeline. If you join later on, then you will get the Psychic Wallet before the characters leave the timeline they are currently in. Psychic Wallets can create PsyCoins out of a sufficient amount of gold and silver, either a gold ring or silver ring, a gold or silver coin, or an outdated microchip.
This way, you'll have "money" despite the fact that an american dollar from timeline X which diverged from timeline 1 in the 1970s would not be legal tender in timeline Y which diverged in the 1940s, and most certainly would not be legal tender in timeline Z which diverged 10,000 years ago and thus North America is ruled by 4 or 5 nations mostly inhabited by Native American descendants which use lead coins and leather strips with branded emblems as currency.
There is a secret organization that has had timeskip capablities for a while, and has been setting up "intertimeline black markets" whose customers will all be timeskippers. Expect to meet some weird faces if you come across one of these marketplaces, a few of which may be openly hostile to you. They use a "premium currency" called Aether which can only be gained from certain rare sources (no spoilers!), and sell equipment for "TARDIS-like" timeskip devices as well as many other interesting things.
Battle System
The Emote battle system goes as followed: Each RP-er will take turns (posts) to attack each other, the defender picks if the hit hits or not, he can parry, counter-attack, dodge, etc. The attacker however can find out twists and turns to use Logic against the opponent, making it undodgable, can't be parried, etc.
To KO someone, you must have 10 attack hit sucessfully OR 5 Mortal Wounds (Neck/Head & Heart and attacks that go through the body completely.)
-Breaking a limb will result in a NORMAL attack but incapacitate/disable that limb. Armor and cyborg limbs are MUCH harder to break. Magic may be capable of healing limbs in a single turn at the cost of attacking.
-If poison enters the body, expect extended incapacitation or an auto KO, unless you can get around it!
-Also, a major thing about the emote system! It also uses the honor system! Please try not to dodge EVERYTHING. (Let at least 1-3 attacks hit on purpose, etc)
If you saw the TV show "Sliders" in the 90's or read/watched/played pretty much anything (Chronicles of Narnia/GURPS Infinite Worlds/His Dark Materials/Bioshock Infinite/superhero comics/etc.) with a multiverse consisting of multiple dimensions/universes/timelines, that's the most basic way to describe this RP.
HOWEVER, I should warn you it's not that simple. While most of the sci-fi will be soft and magic will even exist, this RP will attempt to make realistic use of the "quantum multiverse" (read: every time something, anything, happens it causes the timeline to split into versions of itself where all possible outcomes have occured) and the butterfly effect will be extremely powerful.
How powerful? Here's some brief descriptions of timelines that I've come up with. After their divergence point, they have nothing in common with history as we know it.
(NOTE: None of these timelines are meant to discriminate against or for any race, nation or religious viewpoint. Furthermore, no accusations are being made, and any claims of affiliation of a historical figure with any other historical figure or historical social movement made without evidence to back said claims are not meant to be taken seriously, but rather as just another way of making the plot interesting. In other words: I try to make unfriendly organizations be from whatever race makes the most sense for the location and/or fictional timeline. I only give famous people fictional/unproven dark secrets if it affects the story in an interesting way, and in three different timelines a person might have a dark secret behind action(s), a different dark secret behind the same action(s), and no dark secret behind the action(s), respectively.)
1 - Real Life. Impossible to visit without creating a "singular divergence".
64 - Diverging as Timeline 64 in the 1970s, several corporations that don't exist in Timeline 1 came into existence. Goliath Entertainment, Draconic Studios (run by Xander Chaser, Alex Chaser's father), Phox Games, Video Gadgeteer... And in the wake of this shift in the history of video games was a shift in history as a whole. You wouldn't think that the Phoxole, Draco System or GamePlayer would have a major effect, but they did. By 2014, HTML+ v3 was the standard for a world wide web entirely incompatible with our own, virtual reality was already on the market for 2 years, not a single presidential candidate since Reagan was anyone recognizable to timeline 1, and augmented reality was well on its way to becoming an equal to the internet.
86 - Rome is not known in our universe for having a very good ending, but nobody truly knows the reason for its fall. Over 200 different theories have been devised, with little support for any of them. But what if Rome had never fallen? What if Romulus Augustulus had never been deposed in 476? What if the Germanic tribes had all been pushed aside or assimilated through their might? It may sound unlikely, but after Timeline 86 diverged, that is exactly what happened. Over the course of its 3,000-year reign, Rome remained strong, eventually growing to encompass most of the civilized world, with the exception of numerous smaller nations surrounding its borders and the majority of islands, particularly Japan, which only vaguely resembles the Japan we know, and Australia, still mainly inhabited by its Aboriginal peoples. Society progressed, technology advanced, language developed. In this world, traditional Roman ways are beginning to decline, in favor of a secular, egalitarian, constitutional monarchy headed by Januarius Griseus. But not everyone is happy living under Roman rule anymore, and Griseus' position of leadership is now in jeopardy as a result...
413 - Space is a big place, and not a particularly friendly one either. What happens when it attacks Earth? In this timeline, the world was well on its way to becoming a YeAST (Yet Another Steampunk Timeline) when a beam from a pulsar irradiated the entire planet some time in the early 20th century, killing all life. It also caused the water to boil off into space, leaving Earth with no oceans and thus no tide. And of course water is HEAVY, so gravity is significantly affected. And that's bad news to Timeskippers, because inter-timeline travel relies on the Earth's gravitational field to keep travelers from arriving on the other side in deep space...
666 - The Dark Ages are extended after the church institutes the burning alive of the entire families of any peasant who lets themselves live beyond a certain quality of life "designated by god". The European feudal system was also extended by threatening lenient lords and barons and dukes with the same fate. A campaign similar to the crusades occurred in the 1600s which annexed the Arab nation. Though a renaissance started in the 1800s, it was cut short by the ever-corrupt theology that barely resembled the teachings of Jesus anymore. By 2014, North America had only vaguely been charted by missionaries, and the system in Europe was cemented so thoroughly that it would take an event that would rock the hierarchy itself of the church to bring it down.
802 - Japan does not attack Pearl Harbor, which results in the US never using the atomic bomb. After the Japanese have solidified control of most of the eastern hemisphere by the 1960s, they hit Europe, Australia, Russia, and North America with surprise atomic bombings, causing the deaths of millions and paving the way for a Japanese empire whose control only fades in southern Africa and South America. Though paling in comparison to the Japan of timeline 1, they develop telecommunications up to 1970s levels by 2014 which holds their control over the world in ways the British only wish they could have done.
911 - A NAAT (Not An Average Timeline), this timeline diverged from timeline 1 on September 11, 2001, when a flock of birds destroys the engines of one of the to-be-hijacked planes on takeoff. The plane aborts successfully, but the angry terrorists take the plane hostage, demanding that they be given a plane to leave the country (which they actually were planning on using to carry out the plot). The second plane to leave the ground blows a tire while taxiing and is forced to abort, angering those terrorists too. Once two planes are simultaneously held hostage under suspiciously similar ransom conditions (a plane, no cash), the CIA quickly figures out what is going on and grounds every plane in the country before 9/11 can occur. This changes the history of the entire following decade, including exposing the Bush family's connections to Al Queda and shattering several international alliances.
1984 - This timeline diverged in the early 20th century. A YACHT (Yet Another Cyberpunk Hell Timeline) to the core, Timeline 1984 is ruled over by the enigmatic Machine, supposedly an AI that is perfect in its ruling over mankind. But then why are there massive slums and shining arcologies?
1993 - Australia is discovered 250 years later than in our timeline. By 2014, England and France's homelands have destroyed each other with chemical weapons, America is three countries (Cascadia, The Confederation and the Union), Quebec City is the new French capital, the Russians have absorbed Mongolia and declared war on China TWICE, and Spain is laughing all the way to the bank with an empire spanning from Mexico to the tip of South America to their name.
2582 - The automobile is not a certainty across the multiverse. In this world, Pennsylvania Railroad and B&O Railroad got wind of the Great American streetcar scandal in the 1930s from a whistleblower who was ignored by the government and the press. Realizing if it were to succeed the days of the railroad would be numbered, they sabotaged the conspiracy. As a result, mass transit flourished in North America and cars fell out of use woldwide. Though air travel displaced the railroads in the 20th century, there is no US Interstate Highway system. 2014 is the 50th Anniversary of the Los Angeles Monorail system and the opening of its station on the Global Maglev Network. Reportedly a terrorist group (actually acting on behalf of Big Air) is out to destroy the station however, but the authorities assure the public they have it under control. What could possibly go wrong?
5190 - For centuries the caucasian race has weilded most of the power throughout the world. What would a timeline where that was not true look like? What if the world was more equally distributed? Or barring that, what kind of world would exist without the white man? In this timeline, the Huns managed to annihilate the Roman Empire plus all the Roman-conquered peoples. Shortly afterwards the Huns underwent a civil war that destroyed them. Europe was left uninhabited for centuries, and China is unable to find suitable markets for silk and opium which forces them to do business with the middle east, which redirects the silk road to Egypt and eventually the rest of Africa. Events conspire to eliminate India and the Arabs from the equation, and the Afro-Egyptian and Chinese empires (the latter of which also annexed Japan) discover the horrors of the atomic bomb just before it was too late, paving the way for an "Afro-Asian Alliance" to prevent nuclear holocaust. Unfortunately, by 2014 the Afro-Asian Alliance is poised for nuclear war with the Aztecs.
6735 - What if Magic was real? Before this timeline diverged from 5190, the Huns managed to annihilate the Roman Empire plus all the Roman-conquered peoples. Shortly afterwards the Huns underwent a civil war that destroyed them. Europe was left uninhabited for centuries, and China is unable to find suitable markets for silk and opium which forces them to do business with the middle east, which redirects the silk road to Egypt and eventually the rest of Africa. However, a secret civilization grew from the 9th century onward through the magical understanding of the aboriginees of what we know of as Australia. From that point on, this timeline splintered off from Timeline 5190, and in the 16th century the powerful magics of the "Jadu Bhumi" as the Indian Navy dubbed them and their continent became known to Afro-Eurasia. After the Chinese and Indians get a hold of the magic by exchanging technological secrets for them, they formed the "Asian Federation". The Arabs joined shortly afterwards and the new force conquered Egypt. Meanwhile, the "Jadu Bhumi" sent colonial forces in newly-developed magitech ships to the east, discovering the Aztecs. The three groups race to conquer as much of the globe as they can. By 2014 there are three separate telegraph networks proprietary to the three mega-nations.
6777 - The Shinkansen trains, whose concept dates over 20 years before the trains began running, transformed the entire country of Japan, and cemented high-speed rail as a major component of transportation networks the world over. But if they never caught on? In this timeline, the Shinkansen idea was not revived after it was forgotten during WWII, causing Japan to become a country where the automobile is king. With space limited, the country soon became a massive city-island where underground highways criss-crossed beneath the buildings, and cars, trucks and busses are powered by an overhead grid like bumper cars to keep pollution from choking the tunnels and reduce the risk of fires. By 2015 the nation is a true cyberpunk nation where the cars drive themselves, as the only way to be passingly efficient with highways in Japan is to remove the driver from the equation.
8742 - After Tesla accidentally blows up Boston in the late 1800s using an experimental nuclear fusion reactor, fear of technology reaches a fever pitch that persists to 2014, and the Western World stagnates due to the slow onset of a new dark age. Which is bad news for a Timeskipper needing supplies.
Aside from timelines constantly branching out on their own, the so-called Timeskippers are a unique case. By leaving their home universe, they have removed themselves from that timeline, and unless they have that timeline "bookmarked" somehow they can never get back to it. The other effect is that they cause a "singular divergence" because their arrival in a timeline creates an entirely new timeline just for the fact that they popped into existence out of nowhere.
It should be noted that when a character leaves a timeline, they cause the timeline to be "locked" to their destination for about one month, allowing the characters to travel more-or-less in a group.
Anyway, this RP will require 2-3 paragraphs per post, unless you can come up with some really good material that is shorter. No double-posting. If you have to leave the RP for any reason or length of time, or want to jump in mid-RP, please PM me and we can work out a way to fit it into the story. Doesn't matter if it's permanent, indefinite or temporary.
Video Gadgeteer
Q1 Winter, 1991
HQs: Medicine Hat, Alberta (CA/US)
$26,677,500 (was $2,552,500)
---
"What do you mean it's gone off the market?! We had a deal! Fine, then we want our money back! You lost ALL of it?!" could be heard from Oliver Zehn's office at Video Gadgeteer's HQ, as he talked on the phone with the manufacturers of Titanium Titans. "Screw it! We'll port it to the Game Machine!"
---
Titanium Titans: Hometown Rumble announced for Game Machine!
After a major "mishap" with the Titanium Titan game cabinets, the long-awaited giant robot rampage game is being ported to the Game Machine.
Video Gadgeteer
Q1 Winter, 1991
HQs: Medicine Hat, Alberta (CA/US)
$2,552,500 (was $74,352,500)
(("Welcome to the 90's, Stace! Word is out, image is in." ~ Bradley, Stickin' Around))
---
EXECUTE delayed!
In an ironic twist, Video Gadgeteer's hollywood hacking simulator EXECUTE has been delayed due to the loss of several MB of data caused by a group of real hackers.
Video Gadgeteer had this to say: "No, the irony is not lost on us. In all honesty, gamers should take a lesson from this; real unauthorized hacking can hurt people, including the hacker."
---
Pzzl released!Video Gadgeteer presents...Pzzl
Topic: Abstract Shapes
Genre: Casual (Puzzle)
Price: $30
Platforms: Game Pocket
Audience: Rated E for Everyone
Languages: English, Spanish, French, Portuguese, German, Italian, Swedish, Icelandic, Japanese, Gaelic
Markets: North America, Japan, Europe, United Kingdom, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand
- Crisp black-and-green graphics
- Place the shapes on the playing field before time is up, but watch out or you'll run out of room!
- Perfect for wasting time at the doctor's office or recess!
- A unique soundtrack!
- Mono Sound
- Compete against your friends and co-workers using the Game Pocket's infrared link! Race to place your blocks faster, the slower player loses!
Plot: Pzzl doesn't actually have a plot, per-se, but it is a surprisingly fun time-waster and requires both coordination and a sharp mind.
(-$100,000 for developing and -$800,000 for publishing Pzzl)
---
Gadgeteer Kitten 2 and the Game Machine released!
The Game Machine is now available for $250, or $300 in a bundle with Gadgeteer Kitten 2. Gadgeteer Kitten 2 is also being sold separately for $50.
Notable Game Machine Features
- Infra-red cordless controllers
- Cartridge slot
- Controllers require two AA batteries each
- Devkit costs $1,000,000
Video Gadgeteer presents...Gadgeteer Kitten 2
Topic: Cartoon, Sci-Fi
Genre: Action (2D Puzzle-Platformer)
Price: $50
Platforms: Game Machine
Audience: Rated E for Everyone
Languages: English, Spanish, French, Portuguese, German, Italian, Swedish, Icelandic, Japanese, Gaelic
Markets: North America, Japan, Europe, United Kingdom, Oceania
- Amazing, cutting edge 16-bit graphics!
- Over 32 different gadgets to find and use!
- Two player mode! Explore split-screen with the second player! Choose between Gadgeteer Kitten's female mirror universe counterpart Widget Kitty, or the mechanical doppelganger Klokwerk Kat!
- Explore alternate dimensions, from chilly-yet-festive Dimension X-Mas to the magic-reliant fantasy universe of Manaworld to the world-sized suburban-esque building known as The Great House!
- Incredible stereo sound! 16-track OST!
- Return to completed stages to explore with friends!
- Transfer your old weapons from Gadgeteer Kitten 1.5 using infra-red!
Plot: Having graduated from apprenticeship, Galvin K. Windup has officially earned the title of Junior Gadgeteer, and tasked with the maintenance of a subsystem of the Perpetual Motion Power Generator. Unfortunately the job isn't very exciting...
A few weeks in, Galvin spills oil on a control panel, and the machine goes haywire, opening a portal to another dimension and sucking him into it! Now he'll have to find his way back home, but to do that he'll need a device that can open a portal to his universe on command...
(-$100,000 for developing and -$800,000 for publishing Gadgeteer Kitten 2)
(-$40,000,000 for developing Game Pocket console)
---
Highway Robbery marketed! Extreme controversy!
Video Gadgeteer's crime-focused action game Highway Robbery has been advertized in the United States and Canada, even sponsoring the yearly drag races held by the makers of trendy "glowing sweat" sports drink/carbonated beverage 3st Place ("Thirst Place").
Not all of the attention has been positive. Previews of the game unashamedly showed the player character shooting police, driving over civilians and jaywalking. Prominent political figures like Jake Stevenson are calling the game a "murder simulator" and demanding it be banned from releasing to market. The government is reluctant to step in, fearing Video Gadgeteer will attempt to solidify video games as a form of free speech if a court battle comes to fruition.
($10,000,000 for mega ad campaign)
---
Horsepower marketed!
Video Gadgeteer's street racing game has appeared on TV and billboards throughout Canada, the United States, Japan, the United Kingdom and various European nations. The ads are custom-tailored; ads in North America feature such vehicles as the Michigan Motor Corporation's Rumbler 4x4 truck and Scorpio sports car, while ads in the UK feature the classic Oncilla O-Type and X-CS grand tourers, ads in Japan feature a highly-modified Yamato Coral hatchback resembling a car from the anime "Racer D", and ads in Europe are more varied but include the AĆ¼tomobil Nova compact car and the Countess sports car.
Rumor has it that one lucky purchaser of Horsepower will win a real car of their choice from the models seen in the game!
($20,000,000 for 4 large ad campaigns)
---
A letter arrives at Draconic Studios...To whom it may concern,
It has come to our attention and to the attention of Video Gadgeteer that your game Ojada, the Monster Summoner is still being sold in several markets. In fact, it looks like you have not made any effort at all to comply with our cease-and-desist. We will see you in court this spring. (We already did a coin flip. Come Q2 Draconic Studios is in deep $#!t.)
~ Bright & Sunnay Law Offices
The RP is still scheduled for being unpaused tommorrow, but we may have a problem. My desktop PC is in the shop, and the refurbished laptop I'm using has been having video driver problems and just today restarted for no discernable reason while I was using it, so I might have to take it in. I wasn't able to let you all know of this further in advance because my account was borked by the database and I had to get DiamondBlizzard to contact the admin for me.
Thursday is still the aimed date, but it is no longer concrete. I might be a couple more days if both my computers end up needing to be fixed.