↓ the intimacy of everyday objects found at the end of the world, renaming this to DUNE GHOSTS
you: a young wasteland forager, raised only on stories of a time before it all. trying to find a way off-planet after your home went up in flames. the midnight ship.
you have a limited inventory of things to bring with you → maybe only able to bring one additional thing, which determines the ending you get
“picking up” items lets you investigate them. you will have to infer what they are based on the description, allowing you to continuously “inspect” an item → the more you inspect, the more the character begins to imagine usages for them that may not be accurate. but that’s okay.
there’s hidden b plot in the background → space colonialism, evidence of time travel. these are lost to the young forager who does not know any better.
lots of descriptions of the barren landscapes and ruins, “the fell” refers to a planet-wide catastrophe → “a rainfall of a thousand stars, searing across the night sky. you try to picture it: the burning atmosphere, the sharp scent of ozone and smoke, every nerve alive—aflame—alight. before it all ends.”
forager’s story → returning to only ruins. survivor’s guilt. playing with scope: forgiveness and mercy amidst a background of interstellar conquest
trigun stampede, sable, the hair carpet weavers, space westerns, post apocalyptic, forgiveness, legacy thassalophobia, gutless, hauntings, outer wilds, ruins, loneliness, soft sounds from another planet
https://open.spotify.com/playlist/3mF49I6wCq4eUTMlcxQhAZ?si=aa2b911409494c01
a story in three parts: guilt, punishment, absolution
the player is in the dark as to why the forager is seeking to find the midnight ship. this truth is slowly revealed in nightmares, mirages in the distance, echoes in the wind. it is not until absolution that the forager superimposes the ruins of a past earth with their home as a ghost town. the macrocosm of catastrophe blurs against the microcosm of personal tragedy. the midnight ship is a deliverance, the player is free to interpret what it means - death, time travel, a ghost ship, an actual rocket ship. the question presented here is: does an object’s importance derive from its utility or what it means to us?
guilt - value
punishment - utility
absolution - sentiment
you will see all of the characters towards the end again → they all are seeing passage on the midnight ship for different reasons. “i will see you at the port”
character endings