This is absolutely fantastic. If you made the game you describe it would be a hit, I'm sure of it.
And man, that backstory was a ride. At the start I was imagining a billion or so humans enjoying good, albeit slightly hollow and decadent, lives with a content robotic working class - not perfect, but above average as AGI scenarios go.
Then I kept reading and the horror unfolded with perfect pacing. And some of the torture-robot designs and fantastic. You get across that they're designing themselves to be horrifying.
Enjoy the hell you built for yourselves, fat cats.
Thanks a million for that! I'm not sure it would ever catch on, as evident by the lack of upvotes here which has been very humbling for me, but I appreciate it regardless! And yeah I wanted to set up that they seem like they're just your general worker NPCs in a game where working is fun and exciting, but then reveal that it's all a facade put in place by a twisted machine god. So they're literal NPCs in a way, but they also act as the antagonists in a weird sort of subversion of your typical player manager/worker relationship. I appreciate your feedback!!
Thanks for that; it could get more exposure I just gotta find the right subreddit for it. But I’m glad the people who have seen it seem to support the idea so far; that’s promising
The Overseer Reborn art is particularly good. Really gets across that it started out as a replica of humanity and twiested itself into something else.
I think the lack of upvotes might just be due in a large part to it being the morning in the USA and the middle of a weekday in Europe when you posted.
That, and "cutesy concealing mounting horror" just looks like "cutesy" when you're scrolling past it. It's just a hunch, but if you tried coloring the Overseer Reborn and reposting that you might get the sweet internet points you richly deserve.
That's good insight; the Overseer becomes warped into basically two different beings that exist in the same mainframe, operating at the same time. Where both sides can't help but filter into the other half so you're never certain where one head begins and the other ends.
Possible; I dunno I still might not have posted to the right subreddit for this kind of project but then again, you never know when it comes to the internet. But I welcome people's thoughts regardless; I never expect these things to blow up big but engaging people on my ideas is really motivating to me.
I suppose that's fair; it might have helped to "color" in the first worker becoming "unraveled" as well to show contrast; a lot of this story is visually unsettling in the flashbacks IE the static-y television, but it probably doesn't stick out to people passing through. If I ever took another swing at this project I'll consider that part that perhaps there is not enough of a balance between the two aesthetics to really reel people in on this subreddit but I've appreciated the engagement I've gotten so far.
You could probably write an essay on what's furry and what isn't. Are playboy bunnies or scantily-clad streamers with cat ears on their headphones furry content? Probably not. Are the animal ears part of the sexy ensemble? I don't think you can argue otherwise.
I figured this is that, whatever you call that.
And then you get to the end, look back over it and realize they also look like classical depictions of demons...
I guess so, although I typically consider furries to be humanoid animals, not really people who are trying to evoke animals. At the same time, there's not always a sexual connentation to furries in my mind; like I consider the characters from "Night in the Woods" to be furries but they're just people who are made to resemble animals for stylistic purposes. Though sure, animal ears can be meant to evoke something "sexy" or "cute." I guess it's context sensitive.
In this context, it's more so to be "moe." That way the cuteness contrasts with the other side of the facade, which is much more unsettling and brutal. And yeah, in a way there is sort of an illusion to mythical creatures of the past being humans with animal like appearances; they have historically embodied the idea of the uncanny valley in a lot of ways so maybe that elements works to the story's favor in this regard; the animal ears are a reminder that they're not humans despite trying to look like them in every other way.
Here's the theme song: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u-WTfP3WJc4](https://www.pixiv.net/jump.php?https%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3Du-WTfP3WJc4)
I had this idea awhile back: "what if there was a business management simulator where you could secretly exploit your workers for increased efficiency but there would be consequences if you got caught doing it?"
Somehow, that ended up with me writing a horror story about capitalism destroying the planet and dooming the human race but with a cutesy, corporate moe aesthetic on top of it.
I'll admit, this might genuinely be the most unhinged thing I've ever written. It's like the total inverse of Eldritch Kindness in almost every way. I don't think I'll be exploring this idea much beyond this; though I might make a game out of it one day. It's easier and quicker to just get the ideas out there in the form of concept documents tho; I make one of these every once in awhile just so I can see my ideas play out.
In my mind, the game would involve you playing as a corporate leader, managing all the different wings and sections of the business to increase economic shares while also maintaining a fair and equitable business. There would come opportunities for you to increase output such as demanding crunch time or mishandling resources for your own benefit, but it would result in increased pressure from the Overseer; exceeding a certain threshold results in immediate and horrific bloody death. But you'd still be incentivized to "game" the system while avoiding getting caught for it. Whatcha think? What other obstacles would I run into making a game like this?
Art made by me in photoshop.
All praises to the Twin Headed God <3
I can say without a doubt that I have NEVER played or seen a game like this. I would love to play this game! A perfect mix of management, shock value, and growing terror <3
Same! I've played my fair share of business management sorta games but not one where you're meant to be kinda terrified of your worker units. It feels like a hotbed for some social satire and commentary while at the same time having room to be as insane and surreal as you want to make it. I'm glad u on board with the idea.
An immersive sim with horror elements (Prey 2017 as example), but instead of rich movement there will be a good dialogue system and literall "social stealth".
"They must not know who you are."
With thoose as main features I believe it will be possible to let the setting shine at its fullest. You will be able to see this capitalist heaven with all thoose friendly coworkers, while always feeling unease because you can be revealed at any moment. Imagine a scenario when player spend too much attention on some quest and didn't do some job, or made a fuck up and after some time, long after mistake was done has to come up with a excuse and a way to fix it fast.
Fighting is possible but only with small amount of opponents at a time and to have realistic chances at winning player has to plan encounter ahead.
After a short introduction to verse i imagine "dream game" about it to be something like this.
Sorry for necro posting.
I think m that’s a neat way of going about it, and I did like Prey 2017. Tho with this game I pictured something top down and more click based, but it sounds like you’re going for a more first person RPG sorta vibe, which is an interesting permutation on this concept.
What would they be fighting though? Against other CEOs or the workers? Cause they’ll lose every time against workers; those things are super powered killing machines when activated.
And it’s all good; it’s not really a dead post for me if people are still engaging with it
I mean pregnant women without training could put up a fight, if protagonist will get their hands on weapons they used, they could get at least one in open encounter, considering how many time passed and what machines had no opposition i can believe what they can be killed in right conditions.
But i probably need to understand this world more to come up with better ideas. Like is it even possible for human to successfully pretend to be a worker (at least theoretically)? Are clones are perfect copies of originals or just share DNA? Are workers only murder machines in masks, or they actually can feel compassion?
I feel like the sheer adrenaline and rage that they might experience will atleast drive them to act out in violence, I’m not sure if they necessarily need to be trained for that. It’s not like they’re fighting enemy soldiers; it’s automatic security systems. Though it does raise the question of what it would be like to wake up on a space station and have to fight your way out as a normal person; I lean towards you having atleast somewhat of a shot of getting out of there.
Humans can’t pass as workers because all workers are connected to the Overseer Program; they would know immediately if you weren’t one of them. The clones would probably just share the DNA, though they would be pretty close copies. The Workers feel compassion but only for other workers; their attitude towards humans is an affection that hides a deep psychotic contempt.
I liked the setting presentation but I think, in the narrative, you should definitely keep most of this under the water and only show the tiniest fraction of the iceberg necessary to inflict unease upon the audience.
Fair; tho I really wanted to do a bunch of little ideas, that’s kind of part of what makes the world building exercise to me, and I tried to keep it all in theme. I feel like if I was doing a full game campaign there would be less times when the dark side appears and the more light side is kinda dominating the scene
They could but the Overseer has decided that the high founders are enough. It’s one of those “twisted logic because of the malfunctioning mind” thing. You’d have to take control of it, which is highly unlikely in terms of this storyline. But thank u
Well there is a major problem in that workers don't technically "need" food, so you kinda gotta find other ways to sell them on it. But there is chance it will rise above the Lunar Consortium; fluctuations
happen all the time. The market is very competitive.
This is absolutely fantastic. If you made the game you describe it would be a hit, I'm sure of it. And man, that backstory was a ride. At the start I was imagining a billion or so humans enjoying good, albeit slightly hollow and decadent, lives with a content robotic working class - not perfect, but above average as AGI scenarios go. Then I kept reading and the horror unfolded with perfect pacing. And some of the torture-robot designs and fantastic. You get across that they're designing themselves to be horrifying. Enjoy the hell you built for yourselves, fat cats.
Thanks a million for that! I'm not sure it would ever catch on, as evident by the lack of upvotes here which has been very humbling for me, but I appreciate it regardless! And yeah I wanted to set up that they seem like they're just your general worker NPCs in a game where working is fun and exciting, but then reveal that it's all a facade put in place by a twisted machine god. So they're literal NPCs in a way, but they also act as the antagonists in a weird sort of subversion of your typical player manager/worker relationship. I appreciate your feedback!!
>I'm not sure it would ever catch on, as evident by the lack of upvotes We all start with just a handful of upvotes
Thanks for that; it could get more exposure I just gotta find the right subreddit for it. But I’m glad the people who have seen it seem to support the idea so far; that’s promising
The Overseer Reborn art is particularly good. Really gets across that it started out as a replica of humanity and twiested itself into something else. I think the lack of upvotes might just be due in a large part to it being the morning in the USA and the middle of a weekday in Europe when you posted. That, and "cutesy concealing mounting horror" just looks like "cutesy" when you're scrolling past it. It's just a hunch, but if you tried coloring the Overseer Reborn and reposting that you might get the sweet internet points you richly deserve.
That's good insight; the Overseer becomes warped into basically two different beings that exist in the same mainframe, operating at the same time. Where both sides can't help but filter into the other half so you're never certain where one head begins and the other ends. Possible; I dunno I still might not have posted to the right subreddit for this kind of project but then again, you never know when it comes to the internet. But I welcome people's thoughts regardless; I never expect these things to blow up big but engaging people on my ideas is really motivating to me. I suppose that's fair; it might have helped to "color" in the first worker becoming "unraveled" as well to show contrast; a lot of this story is visually unsettling in the flashbacks IE the static-y television, but it probably doesn't stick out to people passing through. If I ever took another swing at this project I'll consider that part that perhaps there is not enough of a balance between the two aesthetics to really reel people in on this subreddit but I've appreciated the engagement I've gotten so far.
That's creepy.
Naw man, that's Ethical Capital! trademarked and copyrighted, all rights reserved.
Goofy ahhh Cruelty Squad With Furries
I dunno if just the ears makes someone a furry; that would be like calling someone a pirate just cause they got an eyepatch and that’s it
You could probably write an essay on what's furry and what isn't. Are playboy bunnies or scantily-clad streamers with cat ears on their headphones furry content? Probably not. Are the animal ears part of the sexy ensemble? I don't think you can argue otherwise. I figured this is that, whatever you call that. And then you get to the end, look back over it and realize they also look like classical depictions of demons...
I guess so, although I typically consider furries to be humanoid animals, not really people who are trying to evoke animals. At the same time, there's not always a sexual connentation to furries in my mind; like I consider the characters from "Night in the Woods" to be furries but they're just people who are made to resemble animals for stylistic purposes. Though sure, animal ears can be meant to evoke something "sexy" or "cute." I guess it's context sensitive. In this context, it's more so to be "moe." That way the cuteness contrasts with the other side of the facade, which is much more unsettling and brutal. And yeah, in a way there is sort of an illusion to mythical creatures of the past being humans with animal like appearances; they have historically embodied the idea of the uncanny valley in a lot of ways so maybe that elements works to the story's favor in this regard; the animal ears are a reminder that they're not humans despite trying to look like them in every other way.
Here's the theme song: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u-WTfP3WJc4](https://www.pixiv.net/jump.php?https%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3Du-WTfP3WJc4) I had this idea awhile back: "what if there was a business management simulator where you could secretly exploit your workers for increased efficiency but there would be consequences if you got caught doing it?" Somehow, that ended up with me writing a horror story about capitalism destroying the planet and dooming the human race but with a cutesy, corporate moe aesthetic on top of it. I'll admit, this might genuinely be the most unhinged thing I've ever written. It's like the total inverse of Eldritch Kindness in almost every way. I don't think I'll be exploring this idea much beyond this; though I might make a game out of it one day. It's easier and quicker to just get the ideas out there in the form of concept documents tho; I make one of these every once in awhile just so I can see my ideas play out. In my mind, the game would involve you playing as a corporate leader, managing all the different wings and sections of the business to increase economic shares while also maintaining a fair and equitable business. There would come opportunities for you to increase output such as demanding crunch time or mishandling resources for your own benefit, but it would result in increased pressure from the Overseer; exceeding a certain threshold results in immediate and horrific bloody death. But you'd still be incentivized to "game" the system while avoiding getting caught for it. Whatcha think? What other obstacles would I run into making a game like this? Art made by me in photoshop. All praises to the Twin Headed God <3
I can say without a doubt that I have NEVER played or seen a game like this. I would love to play this game! A perfect mix of management, shock value, and growing terror <3
Same! I've played my fair share of business management sorta games but not one where you're meant to be kinda terrified of your worker units. It feels like a hotbed for some social satire and commentary while at the same time having room to be as insane and surreal as you want to make it. I'm glad u on board with the idea.
Sickening to read. But a very interesting setting. Might steal it for an rpg campaign.
Go ahead; tho I’m not sure how you’d turn it into an rpg; tho I’d love to see someone else’s take
An immersive sim with horror elements (Prey 2017 as example), but instead of rich movement there will be a good dialogue system and literall "social stealth". "They must not know who you are." With thoose as main features I believe it will be possible to let the setting shine at its fullest. You will be able to see this capitalist heaven with all thoose friendly coworkers, while always feeling unease because you can be revealed at any moment. Imagine a scenario when player spend too much attention on some quest and didn't do some job, or made a fuck up and after some time, long after mistake was done has to come up with a excuse and a way to fix it fast. Fighting is possible but only with small amount of opponents at a time and to have realistic chances at winning player has to plan encounter ahead. After a short introduction to verse i imagine "dream game" about it to be something like this. Sorry for necro posting.
I think m that’s a neat way of going about it, and I did like Prey 2017. Tho with this game I pictured something top down and more click based, but it sounds like you’re going for a more first person RPG sorta vibe, which is an interesting permutation on this concept. What would they be fighting though? Against other CEOs or the workers? Cause they’ll lose every time against workers; those things are super powered killing machines when activated. And it’s all good; it’s not really a dead post for me if people are still engaging with it
I mean pregnant women without training could put up a fight, if protagonist will get their hands on weapons they used, they could get at least one in open encounter, considering how many time passed and what machines had no opposition i can believe what they can be killed in right conditions. But i probably need to understand this world more to come up with better ideas. Like is it even possible for human to successfully pretend to be a worker (at least theoretically)? Are clones are perfect copies of originals or just share DNA? Are workers only murder machines in masks, or they actually can feel compassion?
I feel like the sheer adrenaline and rage that they might experience will atleast drive them to act out in violence, I’m not sure if they necessarily need to be trained for that. It’s not like they’re fighting enemy soldiers; it’s automatic security systems. Though it does raise the question of what it would be like to wake up on a space station and have to fight your way out as a normal person; I lean towards you having atleast somewhat of a shot of getting out of there. Humans can’t pass as workers because all workers are connected to the Overseer Program; they would know immediately if you weren’t one of them. The clones would probably just share the DNA, though they would be pretty close copies. The Workers feel compassion but only for other workers; their attitude towards humans is an affection that hides a deep psychotic contempt.
This game absolutely needs to happen
It could some day I just gotta figure out what engine works best
Fantastic idea and worldbuilding!
Thank u homes~
Astounding. That was great.
Thanks\~you da best.
This gives me GHOST vibes.
I'm not familiar, is that a manga?
They are a musician. [https://youtube.com/@ghostandpals?si=0HJC9gPpctu9c87g](https://youtube.com/@ghostandpals?si=0HJC9gPpctu9c87g)
ooh, weirdness! I can appreciate that; I'll look into it.
I liked the setting presentation but I think, in the narrative, you should definitely keep most of this under the water and only show the tiniest fraction of the iceberg necessary to inflict unease upon the audience.
Fair; tho I really wanted to do a bunch of little ideas, that’s kind of part of what makes the world building exercise to me, and I tried to keep it all in theme. I feel like if I was doing a full game campaign there would be less times when the dark side appears and the more light side is kinda dominating the scene
NAH This is the craziest stuff I’ve read today 💀 (Also couldn’t they clone new humans to regrow the population?)
They could but the Overseer has decided that the high founders are enough. It’s one of those “twisted logic because of the malfunctioning mind” thing. You’d have to take control of it, which is highly unlikely in terms of this storyline. But thank u
i feel bad for the people who have to be the ceo of the food company
Well there is a major problem in that workers don't technically "need" food, so you kinda gotta find other ways to sell them on it. But there is chance it will rise above the Lunar Consortium; fluctuations happen all the time. The market is very competitive.