Theory of Everything : A philosophico-educative RPG

Hi !



Theory of Everything allows the player to travel through the history of science. Your mind will be split between four characters...


Characters


Isaac is a physicist. He wants to create a theory of everything, which would be able to explain any phenomenon in the universe. But he's just an amateur and still has a lot of things to learn. He is determined and will stay focused on his goal in any situation. He represents the core of the theory.


Leonhard is a mathematician. His main purpose is to support Isaac in his physical representation of the world. Convinced that mathematics are the purest form of science, he feels superior to his companions. He suffers from limited social skills.


Sophie is a philosopher. Her job is to understand what's not covered by experimental science. She's quite impulsive and won't easily admit when she's wrong.


Theodore is a theologian. When science and philosophy fail to explain something, there's still faith and religion. Theodore provides additional support on the most difficult questions.


Synopsis


You start with Isaac, a young physicist who begins to build a theory of everything. During his quest, he will meet three other characters and many famous philosophers, physicists or mathematicians to help him. As you chronologically progress through history, a lot of new questions will arise and you will have to answer them in order to maintain a sturdy theory. These questions are mainly philosophical decisions : Is global determinism true ? Does God exist ? Do we have free will ? And they will be asked by the relevant person whenever it's possible. These choices will influence the relations between the protagonists and they will obviously affect the evolution of the story.


From ancient Greece to the most recent discoveries in physics (quantum physics, gravitational waves...), you will meet more than 70 famous thinkers and you will hopefully learn a lot of things. Each character will try to explain his personal contribution to science, in an easy language in order to attain even the laymen.


There's not much more to say about the story, since I did not invent anything.


Battle system


Concretely, it's very basic stuff. But the interpretation of "fights" in the game makes the whole thing more interesting.


Fights are actually philosophical debates, where you try to convince your opponent. All skills are based on theories, theorems, philosophical principles or simply some facts. The statistics' names are therefore adapted : "Attack" becomes "rational power", representing the capacity of a character to rationally explain something. Rational defense determines the rigor of one character's work. Agility indicates how fast you can prove a statement. Etc.


In this context, weapons would clearly be useless. So the "weapons" are actually books, famous books from the people you meet. There are currently about 50 books in the game, but more will be added until the end of development. The books increase or decrease statistics according to their subject and to the writing style : if the author tends to write very long and obscure sentences, you will loose some agility while using this particular book; and a book where everything is rigorously proved will certainly increase your defense.

Synergy between characters is also an important point. For instance, Sophie, the philosopher, can increase Isaac's speed by using Occam's Razor and then Isaac will deal more damage with Newton's Laws, since this skill's power depends on his agility (F = m*a).


Knowledge


There are many puzzles distributed in the game. Almost every chest ask you to solve a problem and some of them may be really hard without prior knowledge in maths and physics. Since I obviously can't include whole maths or physics courses, other characters will often give you some advice, and playing the game with external help (i.e. friends, internet...) is completely fair. For some simple quizzes, you might even find all the correct answers by talking to people.


The game is mainly designed to arouse curiosity and force you to think about philosophical problems you usually ignore.


Graphics


I know many will be disappointed (knowing the importance people attach to graphics) but I decided to use the basic resources as much as possible. This game is not supposed to look beautiful nor visually innovative. Since it's all about learning and considering important questions in a fun way, graphics are secondary. (I'm also completely satisfied with this style.)






Professions






At some point, the main characters will be able to change their profession. These specializations will change statistics, give access to different skills or different books, etc.
- Isaac can become a Chemist or a Quantum Physicist


- Leonhard may specialize in Logic or Topology


- Sophie can be a Logician or an Epistemologist


- Theodore can focus on Mythology or become a Priest


Complete NPC list (spoiler)


Below is the list of all famous NPC's you can meet in the game, don't look if you want to avoid any spoil. More scientists and philosophers are mentioned through books and discussions, but you won't be able to directly interact with them, so they are not included in this list. The list may slightly change until the release.






If you're wondering how much time it takes to travel through 2'500 years of science :


The main quest should occupy an average player during at least 10 hours. Then there are endgame quests and mini-games to extend this duration.


I've been working alone on this project for more than a year, and it should be finished by the end of next summer. Since the game is almost done, I won't publish any demo. I just want to see how many people would be interested in this unique genre  :)


Thanks for reading, any thoughts or criticism are appreciated !



(Before correcting my awful grammar, please be aware that English is not my native language.)


Screenshots
 

Haven't played yet but just wanted to say this is a really neat, creative, and unique idea, well done!

This is a really unique and interesting idea

Awesome idea to use scientific facts in game. :thumbsup-left: Good job! :thumbsup-right:


(When i saw i couldn't resist and just had to do that chemical equation.   ^.^)

There's nothing to play yet ^^
 


Then a few chests will be easy to open for you :)


Thanks for the positive feedbacks, it really boosts my motivation !

Hello!


Your game sounds absolutely lovely. Though the game sounds like it will be geared toward older students, please think about some diversity in your characters. Especially in the STEM field, it is important for students to see characters 'like them' pursuing higher education.


Challenging people in this way is a fantastic idea to get interest in science and math. I saw a cute mashup of science and games here, and it seems like you are making it come true!

It sounds like a very interesting premise. I'll be waiting to play it, even if it'll probably make me feel like an ignorant. :p

I'm not sure I fully understand what you mean. Could you clarify ?




The game will never punish you for not knowing something. At worst you will lose some time ^^


I added the complete list of famous NPCs present in the game. Let me know if someone important is missing !

Ah, there were no sprites for the characters and there was one female name. I was hoping the cast would be quite varied, as you have an educational game. It is ultimately up to your own needs for creation, but a lot of the NPC scientists that people know are European and male. Having the playable characters more rounded is a great way to get kids to think "hey, I can be like them too".


Hope I didn't sound so soap-boxy -- it is just many girls have been discouraged from STEM because math or science 'is a boy thing'.

This is such a creative idea! It sounds like a great way to have fun while learning a lot of different things :)


I definitely want to play it once you're finished!

This is such a creative idea! It sounds like a great way to have fun while learning a lot of different things ;v;


I definitely want to play it once you're finished!


Oops I accidentally posted twice


Is there a way to delete this?

Oh wow, this is a very neat idea and judging by the looks of it, you have the abilities to make it work which is super duper cool!


This looks like a very easy and comfortable way to enter the world of scientific literature, at least more than normal school. I'm pretty excited.


Also, I suggest you change Agility to Words Per Minute or something.

Hey,

I just wanted to say that I'm not dead. However, my computer is, so I won't be able to work on the game as much as I wanted. I still think it should be possible to finish it by the end of September.




Thanks for your suggestion. I changed it :)