Game Concept
Thesis: Play as The Mothman in an intriguing action adventure game! Mysterious spectre of misfortune and tragedy, under its nightmarish visage lies a mythical origin. What is The Mothman and why does it exist? What is the purpose of The Mothman and what is its fate? Is The Mothman here to help us or hurt us? Find out in {The Mothman}! The ultimate (and only) Mothman experience simulator.
Setting: Point Pleasant, West Virginia, USA. The year is 1967 and the Silver Bridge is collapsing. You are here. You are The Mothman. / 1900 Galveston, Texas, USA, a great hurricane lies on the horizon … 1944 Normandy, France, ships are landing … 1986 Pripyat, Ukraine, an explosion surfaces on the horizon … 2001 New York City … You are the Mothman and you are here, across time and space, to bear witness — and to intervene.
Character & Story: The Mothman is a mystery, even to itself. The Mothman has no memory of its own origin or where it came from. It only understands that its curse is to always be physically present in the face of disaster, death and despair. Over the course of the story, the player will discover more of The Mothman’s lore. A being borne of science, magic and madness at the dawn of time, and far too powerful to exist in our present world, it was cursed by whatever gods may be into an existence of transient blinks across time and space. For some rhyme or reason, The Mothman continuously arrives at the stead of Earth’s mass disasters. Of all kinds, natural and unnatural, The Mothman is doomed to observe them, bearing witness to the carnage of Man and God’s earthly machinations. The Mothman always suffers at their sight, given it was once a member of Mankind too…
The plight of The Mothman engenders thoughts of Icarus, the one who learned to fly, but in his hubristic ambitions, flew too close to the sun, burned up his wings made of wax, and crashed into the ocean and his doom. In its fate, The Mothman too seems punished. But for what? It is up to the player to find out by playing out the Mothman’s adventures.
But The Mothman is not helpless, it is powerful — you are. And the choices you choose to make during your appearances upon these disaster sites are up to you as the player. The Mothman is strong enough to make a difference.
Gameplay ~
- Take control of The Mothman as it attempts to try and take control of its ill-fated circumstances and unravel the mystery of its existence
- ~ 3rd person action game — free flowing movement and flight — possess supernatural speed, strength, and even darker powers that it must yet learn and wield …
- In the campaign story mode, arrive at contained open-world maps — a bridge in West Virginia, a beachfront before a hurricane hits or a battle begins, a city about to experience a terrorist attack, all of these places peopled with the doomed and damned members of humanity. The Mothman sees them just before their fates are to be cut. The Mothman dives in … Each campaign is in a random sequential order, the chaos of the given disaster has an essence of randomness as well.
- Approximately 20 different disasters to play through, each with unique problems to solve and ranges of people to try and save.
- In the midst of the disaster, control Mothman flying around to try to save the lives of humans, dodging destruction or quelling it, and avoiding attacks or debris or enemy agents present at that time … Agents sent from the gods hoping to maximize the disaster, or merely allow it. As The Mothman, fighting back against the immensity of these disasters and attempting to stymie their devastations turns into the only way for you to fight back against your fate.
- Examples of gameplay: Flying and swiping down to pick up screaming humans, carrying them out of a blast zone and away from dangers, even while they fight back against you, a seeming “monster” … Landing and stopping an Allied tank driving over a landmine, by picking it up and lifting it over with your immense strength … Flying up and punching apart falling rock and metal from buildings or bridges as they collapse and explode, turning it to ash with speed punches and buffet attacks from your wings, preventing deaths on the ground, even as attack choppers and fighter jets release missiles at you … Fight back against the devastation, even as humanity comes to mythologize you as the augur to all this death…
- Progression ~ as The Mothman successfully mitigates disaster after disaster, blinking away and into a new one the moment the last has died down, it slowly gains new powers. The Mothman increases passively in speed and strength over the course of the game’s campaign. Additionally, The Mothman learns powers such as: telekinesis, telepathy, teleportation, mind control, laser vision, etc.
- Each disaster serves as the ‘missions’ of the campaign and success depends on the primary objectives, in descending order of importance: 1) lessening loss of life, 2) preventing collateral property damage, 3) discovering the nameless Gods’ reasoning for causing these disasters and their interest in opposing your role in saving humanity’s forces against them … Each mission holds different clues and truths revealed concerning these cosmic Gods, their overseeing of The Mothman’s activities as well as their decisions unto the disasters…
- Game score on each mission is timed, the faster the higher. Every life saved, every piece of stone, metal, glass destroyed increases score, all structural damage prevents increases score, etc.
Inspired by ~
Endgame ~ Taking on your role as overseer of damnation, fight back against fate by becoming humanity’s dark savior. The Mothman’s legacy is reborn, not as a premonition of doom, but as an augury of hope in the face of devastation. At the conclusion of your dark travails through time and space, might the Mothman find peace? Perhaps, but only at the meeting with its maker. The Mothman’s endgame is to find God, and to make Him answer for all His sins. That’ right: In the end, The Mothman will fight God. ~
