I was just curious if any of the designers could shed some light on the fictional comic series behind the game? The thing that I've noticed is that a lot of the comics that are referred to on flavor text and the bios show that the fictional comic universe is very well established, with annuals suggesting the comics have been around for 15 years+, and issue numbers over 500.
How much work did you guys put into fleshing out the actual comics, or were the issue numbering just randomly picked? Is there a super secret master list of the the fictional comic ttiles in your universe, complete with a breakdown of all the story lines?
I think any behind the scenes insight on this would be really interesting.
While we don't have a comprehensive list of every comic "published" by Sentinel Comics, we did decide which titles had been around for how long, and numbered the issues according to when we wanted stories to come out. For instance, Justice Comics has been around since WWII, and the Freedom Five since shortly after, though the original lineup was different. Each of the villains has a crossover limited series that features their big evildoing plot and requires a team-up, and most newer heroes have limited series as well as their respective "Day in the Life" one-shots. We have a lot of stories we've talked about happening, and many of the lines on the cards come from those stories, but there are many more we haven't even hinted at. (sinister grin)
This was all part of the original vision for the game: that the lore and flavor text would hint at a massive world pulled from the pages of long-running comic books. The bulk of it came from a weekend of Adam and I sitting down and mapping out the vast majority of the timeline, and whenever we create new things (which is what takes up the bulk of our time these days) we make sure they fit well in the established continuum.
We've also planned out what is "supposed" to happen going forward, in that the plot lines for all the major characters and many of the secondary characters are already set. A lot of that sort of stuff is hinted at through the flavor text, art, and the bios on the website.
Thanks for taking an interest in what is one of my favorite parts of this whole thing!
"Your goodness must have some edge to it — else it is none."
- Ralph Waldo Emerson
For those of us geeky enough to be interested, any chance you'd be able/willing to share this? (Does it exist as a shareable object/file?)
One of my favorite parts of the game... ;D
Rabit
"See, this is another sign of your tragic space dementia, all paranoid and crotchety. Breaks the heart." - Mal
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