Rocketman: Narrative in Game Form

'Rocketman' is an Android game I'm working on in collaboration with an old friend and others. My role is background art, promo art, interface design, and generally anything arty that isn't related to being smart with computer programming or including sprite creation. 

I ain't too good with code. 

This is a fun project we're working on! It's allowed me to work further on how to let a story unravel to an observer in another format. Rocketman's on a one-way trip to deep space, exploring charted and uncharted territory in the name of adventure. The game itself will be a sidescrolling shooter-type game, pretty old school in design, as the player must shoot and dodge their way past obstacles. My art is merely backgrounds and interface in-game.

However, there is definitely more to Rocketman's adventure than meets the eye. While the backgrounds are - spoiler alert - in the background, designing them has become intertwined with RM's character, and how he reflects and rebels against his world. Questions arise in the ideas stage, for instance:

• Why is RM flying away from Earth?  
• What is out there for him, and furthermore, what is out there that he can't obtain on Earth?

RM isn't the first RM to try and explore space. Surrounding him are the failed RM's - those who have tried to make it and given up without any attempt of a retry. This idea was there before I came on board, as well as the idea that Earth has given up on Space Travel altogether. 

Enter my cynicism! From there, it made sense that if Earth has given up on Space Travel, then it would focus on itself, and humanity would try to create the most comfortable and easy living environment it can for itself. The cities are big and the adverts are looming. Any aspect of space travel is hidden in the hills, behind billboards and fenced off. The only man-made things beyond orbit are relics of a more curious culture. Nice and cheerful.

This is all stuff that you think up in the process of any storytelling, mind. This is how you prepare the foundations in the world you create, for a story and character motives that makes sense. So how do you expand upon these ideas in backgrounds, and how do you use them to answer questions like the ones above?

The backgrounds, in conjunction with the game play, act as narrative 'rewards'. The more the player progresses, the more of the world is revealed to them, the more they can understand why breaking away from Earth is important to RM. He doesn't want to save the world - he's one human.  He trespasses onto a RM platform to save himself from normality and conformity like many have tried, exploding away from the surface, past every obstacle and into the unknown. Never again will RM live in the shadow of buildings, satellites and secret wars, he's flying away from Earth to free himself. This is also why what he wants can't be obtained on Earth. He's not just escaping a planet of endless TV channels, but the universe reveals its beautiful secrets to RM and the player, for being the only one to appreciate the universe within the game's world. He can only achieve greater understanding of his place in the universe, as well as the universe itself, by removing himself from the comfort zone of Earth.

I'll give more updates once the game's actually finished, but it's looking great so far, and nothing bad can come from the experience of working on this kind of project.