I asked OpenAI’s GPT-3 to generate 31 different videogame ideas, one for each day of Blaugust, each dealing in some way with that particular day of the month. Here’s its idea for August 11th: “11/11/11: The Thousand Year Second”.
Number: 11. Genre: Turn-based strategy game. Title: “11/11/11: The Thousand Year Second”. Outline: On November 11th, 2011, a global event known as The Standstill occurred, freezing all of humanity in place. You are the leader of a group of alien scientists who arrive a thousand years later and must find the reason all humanity froze into place — and how to rescue them.
Your group of alien scientists arrives on Earth a thousand years after the Standstill to find that all of humanity is still frozen in place. You must explore the world to uncover the reason for the Standstill and how to rescue humanity. Your journey will take you across frozen landscapes, through ancient ruins, and into the hearts of people long since forgotten. “11/11/11: The Thousand Year Second” is a turn-based strategy game that challenges you to think critically and make difficult choices as you attempt to save humanity. With hundreds of unique characters and multiple endings, “11/11/11: The Thousand Year Second” is a deeply replayable game with endless possibilities.
“11/11/11” stays fairly true to gameplay familiar to turn-based strategy fans: You’ll move your characters around a map, taking turns with the enemy to attack or defend. There are some new wrinkles here. In order to achieve one of the multiple endings, you’ll have to make choices that will affect not only the flow of battle, but also how people react to you after the fighting is over.
This game is all about strategy: from choosing which aliens to bring on your team, to deciding when and how to use their unique abilities, to managing resources wisely. But it’s also about relationships: between you and your teammates, between you and the people you’re trying to rescue, and between you and the enemy. How you handle these relationships will be key to your success… or failure.
The enemies — and possibly the reason humanity is frozen — turn out to be dolphins, enhanced with alien technology. The final battle against the dolphins is a tough one, but if you can save humanity, the rewards will be great.
As you win battles against the dolphins and start freeing the surface world, time will begin to pass again for the humans, bringing a third faction into the game. The humans have been living in a frozen instant for the past thousand years, and they’re not too happy to see aliens — and dolphins in their mech suits — running around. You’ll need to tread carefully as you try to help them adjust to a new world — one where they’re not the only ones with intelligence, technology, and power.
Gameplay
“11/11/11: The Thousand Year Second” is a turn-based strategy game played on a hexagonal grid. Each turn, you can move all of your units and take one action with each unit. Actions include attacking, using abilities, and picking up or dropping items.
There are three main resources in the game: alien energy, human food, and dolphin technology. Alien energy is used to power your units’ abilities, human food is used to heal your units, and dolphin technology is used to build new units and upgrade existing ones.
When you attack an enemy unit, you’ll enter into a battle scene. Battles are also turn-based, and each unit has a different set of moves they can make. Some moves will do more damage than others, but all moves have the potential to miss their target.
As you progress through the game, you’ll unlock new abilities for your units. These abilities can be used in battle to give you an edge over your opponents. You’ll also be able to find or purchase items that can be equipped by your units to boost their stats or give them new abilities.
There are hundreds of unique characters in “11/11/11: The Thousand Year Second”, each with their own backstories and motivations. As you rescue humans from the dolphins’ clutches, they’ll join your cause — but not all of them will see eye-to-eye with your methods. You’ll need to manage these relationships carefully if you want to keep everyone working together towards a common goal. The dolphins aren’t the only ones enhanced with alien technology — some of the humans have it too. And as time starts moving again for humanity, they’re going to want answers about what happened during the thousand years they were frozen in place…
DLC
The “11/11/11: The Thousand Year Second” DLC adds a new scenario to the game in which you play as a human resistance fighter trying to overthrow the dolphin oppressors. This scenario features new maps, new units, and new abilities, as well as a brand-new ending.
“11/11/11: The Thousand Year Second” is available for PC, Mac, and Linux.
