Mindworld Big Content Update news

Almost one month after publishing the official company and modpage for Mindworld, there already is the first big content update on it's way to publicity.

You can check out the current open positions for Mindworld in the forums Moddb.com

We are going to start with a few questions that people aksed me frequently when I presented the idea of Mindworld. This shall help yout to understand the philosophy of the team and deliever you the basic information about the game concept, so you can understand what we are aiming for:

What is Mindworld?
Mindworld is a FPS Action Adventure that also includes puzzle solving. All this is presented in the world of surrealism, as the player is experiencing the story of Katherine Evans, a 22 year old student of psychology, who starts her journey into her mind to finally find the answers she is looking for. The mind is a complex system, that doesn't allow to be attacked without any defense so easily, making it almost impossible for Katherine to finally get to the deepest point of her own mind, which shows something that isn't only surprising to her...

Now, there are already a few mods about surrealism and dreamworlds out there, what is so special about Mindworld?
The main goal of Mindworld is to leave an impression, making the game a really exciting experience to play. We are constantly looking for the concepts of Movies, Games and Music to understand what is used to create tension and atmosphere. The analysis of our references and inspirations is a huge factor in the development of this mod, because we don't want this to be a game, we want this to be a movie-like experience delievered in the appearance of gaming.

How many people are currently developing on this project?
We are currently 4 people developing, although our writer Jake is currently going through some tough changes in his life, so he isn't able to work on this for some time.

What about 3D Artists, Level Designers and so on, why didn't you recruit any other positions except for composers and writers yet?
Because we don't need to. The current state of the project is pre-production and we are developing this step by step. The most basic features and concepts are already written down in a very detailed Design Document, which is constantly growing each day. As the atmosphere of the game is one of the core elements in Mindworld, we are currently only concentrating on laying down the fundamental look and feel of the game before we start recruiting other positions, as they would have a lot of time filled with nothing, which isn't motivating at all.

Okay, I see that you are trying to do something different from the other modteams, but isn't the idea of lucid dreaming a total rip-off of Inception?
There are quite a few similarities to the movie Inception indeed, but the core idea for this project was already developed in 2008. Also, the idea of making a movie or game about surreal worlds or dreaming isn't something new, Inception didn't use this for the first time, either. They just mixed the concept of lucid dreaming with some Hollywood quality and made an awesome movie. But, it wasn't our inspiration that started this project, the idea comes from real lucid dreams.

So, this is going to be another FPS Action Adventure, why would I be interested in this, if there are already so many similar titles in terms of gameplay out there?
We are definitely not trying to re-invent the genre, because we simply can't do that, but the idea of surrealism and dreamworlds opens a huge door for us, because we aren't limited by too much logical reasoning and physical laws. This is a great feature for any writer and level designer, because they can start sketching out their ideas freely, without having to worry about anything too much. It gives a lot of material for innovative puzzles and oppertunities for us to create interesting gameplay with unique level designs.

When is this going to be released?
There really isn't any specific date yet, but we are planning with 2-3 years.

That's so far away, is there going to be any community involved beta testing?
The plan is to develope a demo version of the game, which is going to include the opening scene, the menu, the intro, the tutorial and the first level of the game. After that is developed with all bugs being fixed, we are going to plan the next phase of Mindworld.

Why isn't this going to be an indie title?
We never said it wasn't going to be indie and we also did not say that this is going to be indie. What engine we use and what programming is going to be used is a topic that is getting discussed right now, the question should be answered soon, though.

I hope that this has answered most of the upcoming questions already, but you are free to leave comments and questions in the comment section, of course.

Here we go with some early Concept Art:

Storyline wrote: [...]The dreams start to get more and more confusing, they change faster and faster each time. Suddenly, a huge train is heading towards me, I stare at my hands - 'My rings and tattoo are missing, what is going on? Where am I? What is this? Is this a dream?' She then recognized the huge difference of how detailled her hands are and how blurry her environment seems to be. The train now moves in slowmotion, time seems to get stretched, noises can be heard. 'Everything is so cold and blue, I can feel the moist of the air on my eyelashes. Then, I feel like falling, I try to grab onto something, but there is nothing around me.' A disturbing, but very clear voice starts to talk, when [...]

Artbible wrote: This shows the basic feel of the Outer World, which is the first environment that Katherine faces after the tutorial stage. It also introduces the first impressions on how the feel of never ending environments should look like. The red lights are guiding the player in the correct direction, a possible feature that can be used sometimes, if the player feels lost in a maze.

Artbible wrote: It is also planned to have a gradient of elements from nature to high-tech sci-fi environments. Things like water on the ground and little plants is quite close to the non-nature sci-fi environments. The Outer Ring is area that is the farest away from the core of Katherine's mind, this was for demonstration only.

And finally, we publish 3 tracks for this first update. They are going to show you what atmosphere is going to be created within the game. It is a mixture of hopeful childhood memories and disturbing flashbacks of Katherine's daily life, surrounded by the never ending landscapes of Mindworld.

We are always updating Mindworld with articles on the last Friday of each month.

- Kjell 'iQew' Bunjes
(Teamleader and Art Director)