Rise of the Current

Narrative Design | Writing | Puzzle Design

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Rise of the Current is an adventure built for Parsley, a game system meant to emmulate the feeling of classic computer adventure games like Colossal Cave Adventure.

The Game

Rise of the Current places the player in an alternate 1920, where the feud between Thomas Edison and Nikola Tesla went a bit differently. Steam is the primary source of power, and those who use Tesla's DC electricity are deemed terrorists.

Play as an uninvolved civillian turned Current freedom fighter as you work to topple a corrupt organization suppressing the use of electricity and profiting off of lies and predatory business practices. Infiltrate the Corliss mansion and use various AC powered gagets to get into places you aren't supposed to be.

The Mechanics

Rise of the Current is a Parsley adventure and functions much like a TTRPG would. One player acts as the parser, running the adventure for the rest of the players involved. As the parser, you’ll take on the role of a computer game with a limited vocabulary. One by one, the players will give you commands like GO NORTH, LIGHT LAMP or GET SWORD, which you’ll follow to the best of your ability.

Rise of the Current works to break free of the standard limitations in this sort of adventure module, making use of a play-your-way style of level design and narrative, allowing the player to make their way through the adventure non-linearly with a set of tools that can be used to handle many different problems.

For This Project I...

Helped design and develop the narrative of the game, brainstorming the fictional lore surrounding the works of Nikola Tesla and Thomas Edison and bringing this alternate history into the roaring 20's.
Helped write and edit the text of the game, translating our designs and ideas into an understandable and readable document that could be used by a parser who had never seen it before.
Helped design and develop the gadgets provided to the player as well as the puzzles and obsticles that would block the players progress, focusing specifically on how to make the tools at the player's desposable feel versatile and useful.

Rise of the Current was a deliverable project for the class Intermediate Game Design. I worked on this project alongside my peers Luke Brockmann and Annamaria Koshy.

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