[Developer commentary] Game story and mechanics discussion

Hey, game developer here, i hope you guys are enjoying the story pieces ive written. Im working on this game and its story at the same time while im also making the engine. This post is a little bit different and i wanna dig into some mechanics of the game that ive thought about for some time. By the way - none of this is confirmed to be this way when the game releases, these are just my thoughts i wanna share with you guys. More game design posts will be coming here over time and the story posts will keep coming every day.

So here we go. The game is going to be a first person shooter in a post-apocalyptic world in a fictional east german city called Stuttwald. The game takes place in 1995, the stories are just an introduction to the world. The game demo releases in 2025 january our time and the protagonist enters the world some time in 1994 autumn, same time when the diary entries of the mysterious figure started. No - the diary wroter is not the protagonist, the writer is simply another figure living in the bunker with the protagonist.

The protagonist will have a choice to join either the Eight or the Verbannte, both of who want to reach the reactor but have their own reasons why they cant. The players choices lead the game story and the chosen faction towards the reactor, the protagonist is not a hero type, hes just trying to survive like the others, he is simply a bolt in the huge machine that is the world and the protagonists choices lead the faction towards their goal. You can free roam the world, you arent required to follow the storyline all the time. 

There are guns, armor and consumables the player can use. Enemies are humans, robots and mutants. Mutants are both humanoids and wildlife. The art style is between Morrowind and Fallout 3 quality, slightly sci fi but still with 90s european, german and soviet. Brutalist architecture is common, this is mixed with a cyberpunk style world but without all the crazy sci fi tech, there is some sci fi elements but its not common everywhere, its more aiming towards realism but with a touch of sci fi to make it fun and interesting. The game is gonna be hard, there will be survival elements and you will have to fight to survive. Ofcourse there will be a difficulty tweak, it affects the amount of enemy spawns, enemy ai difficulty and loot spawns, the player still has the same food, water and sleep requirements regardless of the chosen difficulty level. 

There will be rpg elements like leveling, inventory system and skills. Skills are not gonna be too complex, you gain a certain amount of skillpoints and you can put them into the skills like crafting, medicine, speech, strength and so on. Its not like bethesda games where you have 100 speech, instead its like a more classic rpgs like diablo where you have a skilltree and each chosen skill in the skilltree unlocks something new. For example the strength skilltree has skills for increasing carry weight, being able to use heavier weapons and being able to strong-arm someone in dialogue to do something your way.

NPCs can be bribed to join your squad or look the other way when you commit a crime. NPCs have dialogue, quests and stores. Some  sidequests, some dialogue and all stores are affected by your level and chosen difficulty. Monster drops and loot scattered around the world is also affected by your level and game difficulty. You can change the difficulty at any point in the game and you can undo chosen skills mid-playthrough if you choose to play another type of a character. All the world space, except important quest areas, is fully explorable, fully interactable and fully lootable. Ofcourse stealing from innocents or killing innocents has consequences. There is no law except shooting a traitor on sight. You choose your play style. Want to go barging in guns blazing? Go ahead. Want to be a sneaky little thief hiding in the shadows Skyrim sneak archer style? Go ahead. The world is your playground. Your actions have responsibilities. And yes, you can kill everyone in the game, even important characters. And yes, the game is still playable if you kill all the named NPCs. The world keeps going, you can do anything.