Possession

TORONTO FUTURE-HISTORY RPG

Ever heard of Rochdale College? That's alright, basically no one under the age of 50 has. It was a free college/commune that existed in a large condo in downtown Toronto, ON from 1970-1975.

What does this have to do with a video game?

The building still exists and I live about 10 minutes from it. One day while walking by it I thought, what if 100 years from now, after the ravages of climate change and capitalism have segmented the world entirely into "livable" and "unlivable," a community developed in the same, dilapidated, unserviced building. One that carried on the legacy and guarded the history of Rochdale -- the good, the bad, the fringe religious and political theories.

Well the year is 2134 and you can explore them all! Enter as an outsider, a developer contracted by the municipal government to investigate complaints coming from the building for the purpose of having it condemned and redeveloped into a "livable" neighborhood.

Who you talk to, what you think about their ideas, whether you ingratiate yourself to manipulate them, see the value in their ideas, or just act like a authoritative dick is up to you!

How you talk to people and behave affects who you are. If you practice throwing your weight around, you get better at it (authority). If you try to empathize with people, you get better at that (emotional intelligence). Your stats affect your dialogue options, which affect how people in the condo think about you.

People remember what you say to them, which affects how they interact with you as well. As more characters are added (each belonging to a faction within the condo) your reputation with one person would feed into the reputation you have with the group they belong to. This would affect how they talk to you and what you have access to in the condo.

Currently this a five screen demo that allows you to gain entry into the building (or fail to in some cases) before restarting. I've made it over the past year learning Unity, C#, how to paint (kind of), how to make music (not really), and how to write branching dialogue on the way.

The dream is to expand it into a fully fleshed out world within the condo. The fate of the condo, its residents, and the Developer are all determined by what you choose to say, to whom, and when. The big goal is to have three playable characters who provide different perspectives on the space and have radically different ways of interacting with it. In addition to the Developer these would be the Resident and the Seer.

Right now I just work on it after work. I'm throwing this page up so I have something to point to after ranting to people about what I do with my free time. Enjoy and leave comments.

Controls

Arrow Keys -- left and right

Space bar -- interact

mouse -- choose dialogue options

L -- open log