›

'Amazing Spider-Man: Civil War - The Telltale Game' Text Adventure! (Episode 1 in Development)

Derek MetaltronDerek Metaltron
in General Chat

Hey there, Derek Metaltron here, so I've had this idea as a CYOA (Choose Your Own Adventure) style thing in my head for a long time now, although it's only recently that I thought about imagining it being more akin to a Telltale game (at least in terms of dialogue and choices), thanks to part to SivD1 with his Walking Dead and Game of Thrones based games. And with Telltale doing a Marvel game next year, I thought it would be a nice idea to try and devise a text based one myself to break up the wait! (My hope once we have a Marvel section is to shift this thread over there, ideally.)

The premise is as follows... you get the chance to play as Peter Parker in the wake of the Superhuman Civil War between the Pro Registration forces of Iron Man and the rebel Secret Avengers led by Captain America. With heroes on both sides you'll have to make difficult decisions as to whose side you're on... or decide to make a third stance by joining a selection of neutral heroes, led in part by Doctor Strange. Here's a CYOA style cover I made for it a while back, by the way!

enter image description here

The idea will be that this story will be told over 6 episodes, each seeing your version of Peter making tricky choices as he fights to protect his wife Mary Jane Watson, Aunt May, friends at the Daily Bugle and fellow heroes on the side he selects!

Bit of a Q and A about the whole thing now...

Q: Will this be based on the new Captain America: Civil War movie or the Civil War comic?

A: The story will be an adaption of the Civil War comic event which took place over 2006 and 2007 and is most heavily inspired by the comic. When Stamford becomes the site of a superhuman tragedy and the public demands shift action, heroes on both sides are conflicted over what to do.

Certain aspects of the movie like the inclusion of the adult Vision, Scarlet Witch and Clint Barton's Hawkeye - all who were AWOL in the comic - will appear. Hulk and Thor however will still be absent for reasons which will be explained in context. The story is meant to be standalone from events which preceded Civil War in the comics, although they might well be referenced and Pete starts the story as a member of the New Avengers. Something like Avengers Disassembled happened with Scarlet Witch breaking down, but she's back with the Avengers (though as with the movie considered a bit of a danger point). The story also deviates from the comics slightly in that Peter still works in a regular role at the Daily Bugle, putting him into contact with those who work there and helping to provide an outsider perspective on the story, though depending on your choices things might change dramatically there.

Also the game will take inspiration from the 2009 Marvel game Marvel: Ultimate Alliance 2, which involved using Civil War in part as a plot line.

Q: Erm... I don't know the comics all that well? Will I be confused with all the stuff mentioned?

A: Don't panic, I plan to try and be new reader friendly if possible, and the hope is that there will be the option to refer to short character/team/location bios when things come up to put stuff in context. This will likely be in a separate story area but linked where possible?

Q: How long have you had this planned for?

A: This was inspired partly from seeing Civil War but also from seeing an fantastic CYOA by Sidney Sussex on ArchiveOfOurOwn in early April which you can read here, because it's awesome and you get to play as Hawkeye with the MCU Avengers. The original game I had in mind would have been something like this.

https://archiveofourown.org/works/39145373

And I also saw Fire Emblem Fates - with its three perspectives - and that inspired me too. From that and also being on here I really wanted to make my own Marvel CYOA and became interested in doing a take on Spidey in Civil War which just got bigger and more ambitious and now it's likely to be a bit of a huge beast. So I've had over a month of making some charts and plans for the opening act and the rest of the game. And most recently I saw the Telltale Batman game and liked how that handled the duality of Bruce and Batman, so I thought it would be nice to have something like that with Spidey and Peter, so I elected to reimagine it as an unofficial Telltale style game!

Q: Exactly how big is this likely to be?

A: Very ambitious, I'm hoping to release it as a six episode story with each episode being akin to a regular sized Telltale one.

Q: By Odin's beard, that's big!

A: Yep. And I have to try and write it? It's partly because I want all of the core paths in the game to have weight. This likely means a lot of writing, especially in the five dimensional Telltale way of writing where I have to think about path choices...

Q: Are you taking inspiration from any other Marvel comic stories?

A: Outside the main Civil War comic the Amazing Spider-Man tie-in story at the time is a big inspiration, along with a handful of other tie-ins. The Spider-Man event 'Back in Black' might also be utilized for certain elements. One I can safely say won't appear is the much disliked story line 'One More Day', in which Peter traded his marriage to the devil to save Aunt May's life, basically. I hate it so it ain't happening. The fate of Aunt May, though...

Q; Romance?

A; Sorry, no. Peter's happily married - and in some cases on the run - with the two loves of his life, his wife Mary Jane Watson Parker and Aunt May. That's not to say an old flame might not appear though. Meow. Anyway, you'll be too busy beating people up. And Parker Luck, if you know what that is.

Q: Ok... what sorts of choices should I be able to make as Peter?

A: Good question! The hope is that Peter - along with you - can have a significant influence as a lynchpin in the Superhuman Civil War between Steve Rogers and Tony Stark. Your most important choice of course early on is whose side you are on. You can align with the Anti Regs or the Pro Regs, or you can choose neutrality and the problems that causes. You'll have the option to assess your position at a key point in the story too, just like Peter did in the comics... although the circumstances might be different... and remain loyal or switch sides.

Q: I can die?

A: Yes, though this will be counted as a Game Over screen like you see in a Telltale game, effectively There is a possibility that you can be captured by the opposing side, though that's another story... Other characters fates might also be in your hands...

Q: What sorts of situations can I expect on each path?

A: There are three core paths you can branch out of from the end of Episode 1... the Pro Reg path, Anti Reg path and Neutral path. In each one and from Episode 2 you'll align with fellow heroes who have made their choice like you, explore special 'hubs' where you can converse with them and influence matters, take part in special missions which advance the story and more. Each path can share aspects of the others but appear from that specific perspective. More details about this should come in time.

Q: What Marvel heroes and villains can I expect to appear?

A: I won't reveal every hero involved just yet but there will a sizable array of characters on all sides who you can both consider friend and foe! These include Captain America, Luke Cage, Spider Woman, Iron Man, Mister Fantastic, She Hulk, Doctor Strange, Wolverine, Firestar and more! As well as heroes specific to each side, there will also be heroes like yourself who are uncertain who to ally with...

Villains I want to keep tabs on for now, but they will be a part of the story, whatever happens.

Q: What about non-powered characters?

A: As previously mentioned, the Daily Bugle will be a part of the game, designed to bring Peter Parker in as much as a character than Spider-Man. J Jonah Jameson, Robbie Robertson, Betty Brant and Ben Urich (along with Sally Floyd of the rival Frontline blog) will appear. This is inspired by Telltale's Batman with its use of Batman and Bruce Wayne.

Q: How many endings will there be?

A: Since the style of writing has changed from a CYOA to a Telltale style game I am currently determining this, but the idea should be that you can have your side win or lose, can have your leader survive or be killed, or even resolve things more peacefully... or not. More details as time comes.

Q: Where will you be uploading 'Amazing Spider-Man: Civil War - The Telltale Game'?

A: Right now it'll definitely be uploaded on Fanfiction.net and ArchiveofourOwn.org, but other suitable sites might be considered like TextAdventure or Inkle. I'll add any links here if I do!

Q: How often do you plan to update? Do you have a final completed game release window?

A: I'm currently working on the first two episodes in terms of mapping and planning, so I can't give a definite answer for this yet. I would ideally like to have one completed before the end of the year though! As I have a life I suspect this will carry into 2018 at best!

Q: Do you have any other ideas for Telltale style games like this in mind?

A: I do have one other idea, based on the world of the BBC Sci-Fi Show Doctor Who, but since I would like to see this one completed I think I'll be focusing on this idea instead.

Q: I have an idea for something cool for the game, can I tell you about it?

Sure, you can suggest anything sensible here and I can take it on board?

Q: I have something not answered here?

A: Sure, feel free to post here and ask me about it?

#

Hope you were ok reading all of that! I'm going to try and keep this updated with progress on Episode 1, so if you do have anything you might want to see or need to ask about, let me know!

Comments

Sign in to comment in this discussion.