Worldbuilding Stories - Main Concepts

The core idea of the game was given to me. It followed Nobody, a young woman sent into the divine Trials by the gods.

The game follows Nobody, a young woman sent into the divine Trials by the Unbelievers, a human group rebelling against the gods. They have developed a technology called The Ascension, which has hijacked the Gods’ selection process for the trials. The Unbelievers manipulates people into volunteering to join them and Ascend.

She arrives with no memory and must complete four Trials - Demeter, Poseidon, Ares, and Zeus - each one teaching a lesson about a human sin that is causing suffering on earth.

On Earth, Athens (Nobody’s hometown) is collapsing under hunger, pride, violence, and ambition (the sins being addressed), while Olympus remains a magical, ancient world untouched by mortal problems.

As Nobody explores each god’s realm, she discovers memory fragments and emotional messages left behind by past Unbeliever and regular Trials participants, revealing how they were manipulated and why they failed.

Through the Trials, she learns that Ares is secretly working with the Unbelievers to overthrow Olympus, and Zeus has allowed this in order to expose him once and for all.

After completing Zeus’ Trial, Nobody returns to the mortal world for a final confrontation and must choose who should hold the power she now wields: Zeus and the gods, the Unbelievers, or herself. The players choice shapes the fate of both worlds.

The gameplay loop was fairly simple, with variations built into it via the thematic and mechanics of the level.

• New level to explore is revealed to player

• Play in-game mini activities e.g. finding the missing hats for scarecrows

• Gather items, hidden weapons and memories through exploration

• Lore for both Athens and Olympus is revealed via environmental beats

• Player meets the God in charge of the level and is given the trial activity

• On completion, or failure, player decision is made which creates buffs and debuffs to the player going forwards.

• After leaving the level, player receives a cutscene about the situation in Athens as Nobody’s memories

Each level reveals more on the God’s narrative backgrounds and dynamics through their dialogue and the environmental beats. Each post-level cutscene reveals lore on Athens via Nobody’s memories returning. Both inform the players eventual decision.

The ending branches into three options depending on player ethical decision making, which results in a different end cutscene. I created a narrative ending which avoided the dissatisfaction of not achieving an in-game power if one picked the ‘good’ ending.