Hero-U - KS Update #8 - The Story

The Coles posted another Update for their Hero-U Kickstarter. This time they talk about the story and how the player's choices navigate through it. It seems there's a lot of C&C.

We passed $88,888 a little earlier, and are well on our way to $90,000 as we enter the last five days of the Hero-U Kickstarter campaign. Thank you for your support, and tell your friends they're running out of time!

One of the things that makes adventure games special is the emphasis on story. You aren't just running around solving puzzles, you're participating in a shared-storytelling experience. Obviously story and characters are essential features of Hero-U: Rogue to Redemption.

Throughout the game, you will learn small threads of the story. How you put them together creates the tapestry that is your version of the story. Some sections may be incomplete until you play the game several times, because the way you play Shawn helps direct the story.

There are story threads as early in the game as the opening "break-in house" scene. Some of them are subtle, but designed to raise questions in the player's mind. Clearly Shawn is special - how many young men do you suppose the Chief Thief pulls off the street and assigns to a special test with no training? Who is the man in the alleyway, and why does he care what happens to Shawn? Who has sponsored Shawn to attend Hero-U, an elite University that does not normally cater to street people?

Inside the break-in house, why are shamrocks a theme in a game set in the Mediterranean? What do you learn about Shawn by examining the piano or the globe? What is going on with that safe that looks specifically designed to thwart expert thieves? Why does Shawn think about his mother, but never mention his father?

The answers to those questions are intentionally ambiguous for several reasons. One is to set up later plot development. Another is point of view - in Rogue to Redemption, you play as Shawn, and he doesn't know the whole story.

There is also the nature of "interactive fiction" - we can't tell you the whole story at the beginning because we're writing it together. Each decision you make in the game affects some part of the story and character development. It even helps create the style of the game.

 Current status: 90.751 of 100k$ with ca. 5 days to go.