#claire de la lune | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

gmanwhore · 1 year

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A probably very long ramble about a video game concept I call "Claire de la Lune".

Uhhh @otherworldlyoddities45 @wishxmexwell @breakcoreboxcat bullying you all into reading this sorry if it sucks

Very quick exposition on a game mechanic: The game has a mechanic called "filling your heart". You can only get the best ending if your heart is at least 3/4 full. You fill your heart by having positive interactions with NPCs, and by befriending people. This is also a game of choices, and all choices affect the ending. The most important choices will be highlighted in green, while non-story changing choices will be red (you see Manuel's two colours are red and green). Important things to interact with/minigames will be a purple crescent moon, while things that trigger random comments with have a yellow crescent moon I DIDN'T MEAN TO MAKE IT HOMESTUCK I SWEAR

Ok so like the game itself starts with a cutscene of Manuel and Selene walking down the street. Manuel tells her about the welshman who went to the moon and found out it was made of cheese and brought a bit back down with him. The cutscene closes off on Manuel saying "It's just a story, so don't tell it at school." and Selene laughing. Manuel wakes up at his desk, which is littered with papers, the one in front is a missing poster for Selene, but off to the side is a note from the company he works at "Blight Field & Associates" (Spoiler alert: It's a cover for The Bigger Fish, I want to do more with them and it makes sense for them to have fingers in a lot of pies as it were). He gets up and goes to leave work. In this world, everyone wears a mask, more for aesthetics than for any canon reason. You get an opportunity to look around the town where Manuel lives after he is stopped by someone who only goes by O who explains the basic controls which confuses Manuel since from his perspective O is literally just talking to him, but the explanation is for the player. I like fourth wall breaks like that. Once you get to Selene's room he meets O again, who asks if he really wants to find his daughter, like really really wants to. You can choose yes or no, if you choose no the game ends right there but if you choose yes O opens a portal to the World of Flowers and tells him to go in.

He does, and the first person he meets is a small person wreathed in colourful flowers named Dahlia. She explains she only shows up when something unfortunate is about to take place, then notes that since something unfortunate already happened to him it probably won't be that bad. She goes to leave and you have a very important choice to make, whether to ask her to stay with you or not. O even pops up in the corner as an orchid flower reminding you to keep your heart full. If you ask her to stay with you, she offers to take you into town to meet some people. She takes you to meet her friend Poppy, who runs an apothecary and asks you to find some bottles for her that she "dropped". Once your bring them back, you are alone with Poppy. She gets a bit flirtatious and attempts to get Manuel to stay with her. During this, her form shifts to a faceless woman, which makes Manuel panic. You then get the choice to stay or go. If you stay, the game ends. If you go, you leave the shop and meet Dahlia again who explains that Poppies can be dangerous, and she regrets leaving you alone with her (if you chose to let Dahlia leave you just don't get this dialogue) I do need to add another bit here but for now it's just you walk with Dahlia for a bit before Manuel swears he sees Selene in some trees and runs over, only to find it's O, ready to take him to another world, explaining that what he does in the worlds is important but not explaining further.

The next world is the World of Candy! He begins to head into a city by himself but is knocked over by a guy named Aaron (he's based off Aero bars) who is on roller skates. Another important choice: if you want to, Manuel muses about how he used to roller skate and he always wanted to make time to do so with Selene. Aaron offers to take him later after Aaron does his shift at a cafe. Again you can say yes or no, and again this is an important decision. If you say yes, he was to go to the White Rabbit later, maybe he could get something to eat before they head off. If you say no, Aaron looks a little dejected and skates off to work. Either choice you made you still have a whole day to waste, so you get to explore a bit. You meet a person in the park, Sal (saltwater taffy) who tells Manuel he's still young and has plenty of time. He then offers to play checkers with him, the prize being a story. Of course, you can say no to him, but if you say yes two things can happen. If you win, he tells you the story of Chang'e, or the toad in the moon. If he wins, Manuel tells him the story of when creatures of the night stole the moon and put it in a bog. You can play as many times as you want if you lose so you can hear Sal tell his story. Once you are done playing, you can head to the White Rabbit. (If you chose not to play you just skip right to this, and miss out on filling your heart). Only two people work at White Rabbit, Aaron and Vanny (Her full name is Vanilla, and she's inspired by White Rabbits. They are a Chinese candy I adore they are so good please trust me.) Aaron is a waiter and does drinks, while Vanny is a chef. Aaron roller skates inside because he's just quirky like that. You get the unimportant choice of hot chocolate, apple pie, or nothing. Once you have your snack, Manuel goes off roller skating with Aaron. Once they are done, Aaron heads off home and O comes back, telling Manuel only has two worlds left then he can see his daughter again. Manuel asks why he has to go so far and O just looks very uncomfortable.

The next world is the World of Insects. Manuel walks out into the middle of what seems to be a rave which causes him to have a complete sensory overload and just shut down, unable to move or talk just trying so hard to shut off his eyes and ears so he can readjust. Someone leads him out, and as he gets his bearings again he finds it's a punk ant named Pon. They give Manuel a bottle of water and let him calm down. Once he recovers, you can either thank Pon or not. If you don't, they ask if you are ok but eventually leave. If you thank them, they assure you it's no problem but what were you doing there if you didn't like loud noises? Here you can choose to say someone told you to go through a portal (Pon responds with "Yeah people do that") or you can say that you just wandered in. This choice isn't too important. Anyways once you two are done talking Pon gives you a pink and green button/pin and goes back inside. You can go explore this place now, eventually meeting a praying mantis named Carnival sitting on a bench. If you have the button from Pon they mention that that's actually their cousin (no they never elaborate on this) and is Pon doing well? If you don't have the pin they offer you a business card for themself advertising "life disposal" In both cases you can keep talking to them and they explain as they work as a last resort for people. They offer this to you. If you accept, the game ends, but the cutscene you get is Manuel running down a hallway towards Selene but it glitches so you don't know if he reached her or not. If you decline they tell you to "live a long life then. I'm always here"

Manuel goes off, but is stopped by a pair of human-looking twins who whistle. This is important: You can follow them or not follow them. If you don't, O stops you and leads you to the next world. If you do however, they lead you into a maze (This lets you bypass the last section) you simply play hide and seek with them in the maze. Once Manuel catches them he finds himself in the White Void (where the Space Worms are created and live when not exploring) where he encounters the Matron Worm who asks him why he is here. You don't get any choices in this segment, Manuel just talks to the Matron Worm about what he's been through. Once they are done talking, Manuel turns around to find O. (We'll come back to this in a second)

*Please note I am debating actually having this in the game* The last world is the World of Puppets. It's full of dolls, all except for two "humans", Daymen and Sharon. They are both usually represented as shadows when not talking to Manuel. not much happens in this segment, honestly it's quite weak for now, I just wanted a reference to songbound (Daymen and Sharon are both songbound who don't fit quite well in the main story)

Anyways! Time for the endings. if you have a full enough heart, you get the good ending. During the final encounter with O, they ask Manuel one last time if he wants to find Selene. They make him confirm it three times before they sigh and tell him to look through the doorway. Once Manuel enters, the screen goes black. A fuzzy cutscene begins where Selene runs up to Manuel and he scoops her up in his arms, touching their foreheads together. The screen fades to black, then the credits roll.

If you have a sort of full heart, you get the in-between ending. O refuses to tell Manuel where Selene is on the ground that he didn't listen to them. He's sent back home, and the game ends on the same scene if began on.

If your heart is empty or just barely full, you get the bad ending. O tells him to go through the door, only to find a giant monstrous mass of tentacles that eats him.

You see, Selene was killed by Manuel's bosses because he wasn't working "hard enough". She was the only way they could really hurt him. O just doesn't want to tell him that.

That's Claire de la Lune! I would really appreciate feedback this is just a baseline and obviously not a full game, it needs a lot more fleshing out but wooo!

#claire de la lune #video game concept

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