I have put together elements to a story, but sadly can not imagine how any of it could possibly be used in a game.. Although its pretty scetchy, here are some snippits of it. -- The player is not human. The story starts before time was given meaning. All the world is water and sky. The character is born of the waters, the child of the ocean. All is well, until evil takes form and crashes into the world. Its poison spreads in all water, and the child is poisoned before evil has been destroyed. In order to save himself from this poison, he must pass into a deep sleep, until the poison has died. Millenia later, the boy wakes up, grown into a man. Although he is free from poison, he feels that evil still remains. In the time of today, he takes on form as one of us, to find this evil before it destroys the ocean again. -- Im not sure how I would go about doing this, and the story does leave a lot of loose ends. I''ll fill them in as people bring them up. Anyways, the story is not some attempt at being preachy, captain planet-esque stop the pollution type thing. When i came up with this much, I had started thinking about the culture of island tribes like hawaiians. I don''t want to step on anyone''s toes, but I don''t really know much about those kinds of cultures, so any info would be great. I want it to have an islandish feel to it. If it were a game, it would take place around an island like Hawaii, but in the present. Yeah, its kind of confusing. I could really use some help sorting this out- thanks.

whew. thanks, ICF. That was some major help.

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Ok, the character could be considered the personifactaion of the ocean. As land began to appear, he was crafted to serve as a liason between earth and sea. His appearance at this point, although amorphous , would draw upon imagery of any various island cultures.

His opponent, evil, too would appear in that manner. A shapeless cloud of darkness with tentacles and what not. You would definitly get the idea that you and he were gods. This is all from a time when there were no blurs between the lines of good and evil.

You, the player, fight evil and win. as the battle ends, in one last desparate move to avoid destruction, he shoots you with a barb of poison and flees into the abyss of the deep ocean.

This is all after land is created, man is now at a tribal culture stage, etc. In your pain, you accidentally cause a massive Tsunami that causes destruction world wide. During your thrashings you are overcome with weakness from the poison, and drift to sleep where the ocean heals you.

When you finally wake up, it is the year 2040 <thereabouts.> The poison is gone. but evil remains and has grown. Because polution is now spread throughout the oceans, you are naturally somewhat weak. Taking on your liason form again you emerge from the water and begin searching for the source of evil.

The island you are on has remained for the most part "tribal." the people still share the values and parts of their culture, but clothes, transportation, religeon, etc. has changed. In contrast of these still fairly simple people, a military base is stationed off to the side of the island.
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alright. as for the player''s attributes:
- since he has hibernated so long, and the ocean is poisoned, he no longer has the same touch he did with water. But still, the player can physically manipulate water. As he grows stronger, he grows more in tune with water and can do more things.
- he is also, just like an electric eel, capable of creating bursts of electrical energy. The same goes for SONAR and other abilities.
- although slightly taller, thinner, and stronger, he will look human. this changes if he is in water, when blue patches appear on his body and gills are visible on his face
- he will be able to recover from injury quicker than humans.
- more too come. any suggestions?

lastly, evil will have personified itself as well. they will be able to tell who each other is, but not at first.

ok, thats all I have thought of so far. does anyone think there''s a potential for a game out of this?

Well,I really don''t see anything that makes me think of this concept as something special,maybe you could make it a minor project with a team but nothing more at this level.
Don''t get frustrated though,there are plenty of things you can add and change,3 paragraphs mean nothing for a complete game(No I''m not absolute on that).
I would''ve made more comments but I haven''t slept this day so I''m quite tired.

ok then. i think I have a working idea, I''ll post some time if I can actualy do something with it.

Enix, in its old days of glory, loved to take something like the idea you have and develop it to nearly rediculous (sp) levels. If you''re morally into emulation, try finding an SNES emulator and play Terranigma, Soul Blazer, and Illusion of Gaia (maybe). These games are somewhat similar to the ideas you have, in that it is about the conflict between good and evil in the world (represented by Gaia and Dark Gaia respectively). Also there is Actraiser (also Enix) about a demi-God hero who has to rebuild the Earth after it is taken over by evil (in the form of some demon, or other). All these games featured relatively simple plots, however pulled them off with all the grace of a Final Fantasy game (Especially Terranigma). Keep working up your idea, you''ve got a start. If you keep your goal in heart, you will be able to do great things. Good luck,
Richard Veysey, RichardMV

For some reason, I got this impression that your guy could be one of the weresharks from Werewolf the Apocalypse...
in that RPG, your characters generally try to fight against the Wyrm and its efforts at corrupting the world in general.
I am not sure about the weresharks style, I just know that there is a book about them.

just my two cents

Sancte Isidore ora pro nobis !