Introduction[]
Whenever I'm in the shower or going for a walk, I get tons of ideas for inspiration on verses to write. I pretty much have all the tools I need to make everything I've ever wanted: RPG Maker (2003, XP, VX Ace), a drawing tablet, graphics design software (Paint.NET, Clip Studio), other stuff (Windows Font Maker, a notebook where I can conceptualize stuff, etc.), you name it. But because of ADHD, depression, anxiety, etc., I really struggle with self-direction and once I get started on something I have a difficult time putting that project into motion. Just look at my blog posts on VSB and you'll get the idea.
Bottom line: I have great confidence in my creativity and intelligence, but I have very little motivation or energy to keep myself focused on a single project.
So whenever I get an idea for a game I want to make, or a story I want to write, I'm just going to put it here. Most of it is going to involve multiverses collapsing, collages of strange and disturbing fairy tales from German/Russian folklore, and general attempts to imitate John Clowder-level storytelling shenanigans.
The Unnamed Series[]
One of my biggest ideas to try and compensate for my lack of focus and self-direction was to make tons of smaller games over time that all exist in the same universe and have all of their stories intertwined (in fact if I ever do anything in the field of game design, I'll probably end up doing that). I'd make a really short game, intentionally leave myself room to improvise with a future project, and repeat the cycle until I have a massive verse that is worthy of being represented on VSB. Some names I've had in mind are "Introverted Short Stories", "Arbitrary's Short Stories", or "Tales of Arbitrary" (I just really love the word, "Requiem" thanks to JoJo).
Here are some different stories I've come up with that would appear in this verse:
The Appleman[]
This story would follow a silent amnesiac who wakes up in a forest with a giant anvil-sized apple for a head, which was given to him by a curse from an unknown source. His goal is to escape the forest and find out who he really was, but he soon finds out that the forest defies reality in many ways, and that escape wouldn't be all that simple. He'd probably have to defeat several higher entities that stabilize the space-distorting barrier around the forest and preventing his escape, or something like that.
The Golden Maze[]
One day a greedy woman was cursed by a benevolent ocelot so that everything she perceived became reality. This seems like a blessing at first; after all, all of the riches and jewels one could ask for would appear right at the tips of her fingers; but this life of bliss would be cut short when as she suddenly develops schizophrenia. Every day, demons start stalking her, and her increasing levels in anxiety drive her towards insanity, causing reality around her to collapse, banishing her out into space with her riches and creating a massive maze of gold surrounding her, rivaling the moon in size. As the years go by, none of the passing space treasure hunters would be able to escape the maze alive, until one (un)lucky alien looking for directions crash-lands their petite little saucer on the outermost fringe of the golden network.
Tic-Tacs of the Dirt[]
Deep in the woods there lived a married couple, introverted and happily secluded from the rest of the world by dozens of miles' worth of trees in every direction, a pond just behind their house, a modest little garden of colorful vegetables in front, and not a single road in sight. Together, they had one daughter, and their world would flip upside down on that fateful night where they lost her.
The little girl skipped around in the rain while the mother observed from a distance. When her mom looked down at her book for a brief second, red metallic pellets shot out of the ground, embedding themselves in her muscles and bones and magnetic forces dragged her down through the dirt. By the time her mother looked up, she was already gone.
Not one second later, an otherworldly immigrant from the stars split the rain in half, clearing the sky of all of its clouds as it crashed down into the dirt at Mach 20. This creature was known as the Dragon Pangolin, an anteater-like mammal clad with metallic rainbow-colored scales, plates, and spines. Another onslaught of red bullets was deflected by the Dragon Pangolin's armor, but the Pangolin still succumbed to the gravitational forces anyway.
Immediately the colorful Pangolin awoke to find itself in a cave. Using its ability to sense magnetic waves, it seeks to assess the source of the gravitational forces that pulled it under.
Roomlo[]
This would be the final game of the series.
You play as Roomlo, an indestructible walking mushroom with the ability to summon smaller duplicates of itself, trying to make the most of its situation in a dying world.
Events that took place across all of time and space have been scrambled like a rubix cube. Reality is walking on thin ice; Its external shell cracking as an extradimensional force sucks out the dying embryo of the universe. As it turns out, every known universe is contained within the internal organs of a cosmic 6-dimensional bumblebee that is taking its last breaths. All the while, a string of lives throughout the multiverse are being picked down to the bone by a nigh-omniscient serial killer taking advantage of the chaos.
This would be a massive open world game that contains countless areas bosses referencing past games, as well as new faces that were never seen before. In the true ending, your perspective of every single character you've come to know and love will change completely.
River[]
In this game, you play as a humble salmon with superhuman powers scrolling through a river in pursuit of an unknown destination. Along the way, you will attain many loyal allies, but things get stranger and stranger as you discover that this is no ordinary river.