This log contains the story that was written, drafted and developed over the course of the game’s development but was not able to be implemented due to time constraints, hope it’s decent! This constrains all drafted work and finalised story beats.

Main big story ideas and concepts:

• Big bad robot who has constant surveillance on the world
• Run down abandoned cities complete with soviet era style abandoned apartment blocks
• The main protagonist relies on stealth to hide from the big robot guy to return power to their home from the evil robots who took over.
• Stealth 
• Big Bad Robot (spotlight guy) has minions that he uses for surveillance which alert him to any “bad behaviour” and then dispose of them promptly.

Brainstorming:

• Why do the robots exist?
• Why did humanity go dormant?
• How did the robots take over?
• When did the robots take over?
• What use are the humans for them?
• How are the minions made?
• Where do the minions come from?
• Why is the power out?
• Why is the power important for the people?
• What time period is it?
• What year does it take place?
• Is there further authority above the big bad spotlight guy?
• Are the robots completely robotic or are they also humanoid in nature?

Inspiration:

• Soviet era Russia (buildings, environment, aesthetics)
• Transformers (biology and reproduction)
• Overwatch (Anubis ai and the factory production of war robots)
• Capitalist critiques (the elites are a stand-in for the robots and the lower classes are the surviving people. Humans are used for harder tasks that robots would be assigned in real life and constant AI surveillance)
• Skynet AI and terminator
• Pokemon/Mewtwo (mix of how the minions are cloned and then put in a factory line like the production line in Overwatch)

Mind map:

Final ideas and concept in writing:

General Synopsis:

The year is around 2070-2110 and it has been around 30 years since the robots came to earth and took over. It was a violent takeover that lasted with a large war, it wiped out the majority of the enemy robot forces but it took out a lot of the human population as a result. The war did not last very long as the robots were more technologically advanced than the humans when the invasion started but they did not remain without weakness. It led to one of the key conquerors/robot generals (spotlight guy) helping to use some of the remaining forces to enslave a section of the human population, steal their power to power their workforce that remained, their ships, technology and living functions, genetic cloning and factory replication of their unique biology to pump out minions/soldiers en mass and rebuild humanity in barely liveable workplace conditions. The robots ironically took inspiration from human history and discovered soviet era apartment blocks which they then helped mass produce with a lack of integrity, lack of concern for human living conditions, treated humans like caged hens and tightly crammed lots of buildings together without spacing them out to get as many “enslaved workers” as possible near the places they worked at. The robots were unforgiving, tyrannical, strict, constantly watching even through technology like a big brother system and with constant minion/soldier enforcement and downright disregarding any need humans had, just the absolute bare essentials if some were lucky. 

Robots and their background:

Not much is known to humans about the robots and their homeworld, biology, culture, unique class systems or anything else. These humanoid, sentient and intelligent robotic organisms come from a planet filled with technology but due to the rise in their greed, the need for more resources for a growing population and their hunger for domination over other “feeble and fragile” species they sought to expand their might throughout the cosmos. These robots have been around for around half the time humans have been around, their evolution was kinder to them as their living conditions were extremely habitable and fertile for their life. The robots have class systems similar to humans but are a lot more gracious to their kind and treat them with a lot more tact and respect than they would any others they deemed “aliens” or “fragile species”. Their race is a very military and monarchal form of a class system where they have their own larger figurehead who runs their whole race with the help of elites and other small representatives of other places they have conquered or provinces on their home world, a large enforced military who listens to their every command, especially for conquests, working class such as to help build weaponry and other war-related infrastructure or armoury. They were treated better than they treated other races by a fair margin but the conditions were not perfect in the slightest and still caused species deaths, especially in getting resources on their home world or working conditions that just came with the territory.  The robot’s biology is similar to humans but more robotic. They are a humanoid race with the typical biological structure you expect of a humanoid race but are similar to transformers and mechs in build. The robots have an asexual way of reproduction as they have no gender, no sex, only basic organs for breath and reproduction with similar internal biology to transformers. The asexual way they reproduce is through the act of internally replicating a body (cloning of themselves) that is similar to humans but instead more fragile and easily opened up via chambers in their chests like incubators and test tubes. The new generation is born but fragile so often has to be put in external chambers to continue evolving to its fully adult form. The circumstances have to be right and strict as without comfortable conditions of living, lack of stress, and the proper energy from accessible organic electricity the offspring will become deformed and with birth defects. The class system matters in regards to their biology. The system is kind of like some human insects with the main leader being the main asexual reproducer, the leader, having had the job of expanding the race, although through the number of individuals in their species they have been using up so many resources that the process has become risky and the need for generating more organic electricity or seeking more resources for the support of their life has become necessary as the birth defects have lead to majority of the robot population infertile and not even having the necessary capabilities to reproduce at all. This was one of the larger pushes for conquering other worlds. In the history of their race, the leader came first then gave life to the now larger conquering figureheads (such as the spotlight antagonist in the game who is one of their favourite “friends”/consults), there are around 600-1,000 individuals. These robots, along with the leader, helped give birth to the general population of robotic life forms and at their peak had around 9 billion subjects, unfortunately, when the population reached around 1 billion there was lack of resources and proper access to the right conditions for fully successful reproduction and as such all 8 billion remaining home world life forms can not reproduce. The 1 billion who could, can not as it is just too risky and would receive punishment from their leader and loyal enforcers.  The robots then expanded their reach and found life forms that could harness their electricity, and used it, to try to fix their issues in their home world but not to no avail so instead they went down the genetic route. They went on a rush to conquer as many worlds as possible, using their 8 billion infertile subjects as soldiers for warfare and colonisation. These worlds were then used for further experimentation. They had been trying to figure it out for centuries but some of the conditions were not right on the foreign worlds. They had started out using DNA from the infertile soldiers to try to grow more in test tubes but they had too many defects to sustain life. The spotlight figurehead who spearheaded most conquest then offered to use their own body and genetics for experiments on a planet called Earth shortly after the swift and prompt invasion, this was the first major success however because while earth had better resources available to them at their disposal it was still not the same as the natural process so they were defected but great soldiers. The process turned into a factory line with the spotlight constantly incubating the very weak forms while then being churned out into large facilities where they were incubated in test tubes with the necessary resources. The actual factory line was used for helping building structural integretity to the bodies as well as armour as the chemical makeup of their metallic bodies was similar to dangerous earth metals and elements which were then altered slightly to suit the life forms. This is where the humans came in.

Humans and their experiences:

The humans have had a very terrible life under the current 20-year tyrannical rule of the robot invaders. The conditions, quality of life, environments and general living requirements are all at the bare minimum for survival or lower. The rules and regulations are extremely strict, unforgiving, cruel and inhuman, humans are treated like dispensable, enslaved rats more than complex intelligent life forms. The robots subjected them to dangerous jobs they deemed beneath them, too risky, not worth their time or just did not want to do for any reason. These included such things as: factory work under strict hazardous and sometimes radioactive conditions, mining under poor conditions for resources the robots need for the factories (such as uranium) to make more robot workers on a factory line, enforcing other humans to keep in line with things such as cybersecurity and hardened police forces (which were all heavily enforced by the robots) and other dangerous tasks. To the robots, humans were seen as perfect little workers who were smaller on average and could get into smaller crannies and hard-to-reach places compared to them so the perfect expendable workforce. Human life was deemed so replaceable that if a worker fell sick they did not care to heal them but instead wiped them out immediately and replaced them with another worker. Humans were encouraged to continue population growth but only for the benefit of the robots who wanted even more “slaves” to work with and expand their ongoing “expendable” workforce. Humans who continued the efforts were given slightly more comfort compared to others who did not fully serve the robots in every single faction of their lives. Humans lived in tight, cramped, ugly, barely structurally integral and safe soviet style apartment complexes in large communities all cramped together like provinces, often placed right next to their places of work and under terrible conditions. The humans who were lucky and got promoted in any way would have a slightly better quality of living in a larger apartment suite than others but the robots were not the most generous even with that considered. The punishment system under the robots is generational, if a person commits an act of treason against their oppressors it is not only the guilty who get held responsible and punished, it is also their families, often under stricter work that was already placed upon them, extreme jail conditions or executions.

The Robot Invasion:

The robots, for a reason yet unknown to humans, picked out Earth as the perfect grounds for colonisation, harvesting for resources, and increasing their numbers, especially for military might and further advancement in the cosmos for their tyrannical reign. To the robots, humans were seen as perfect little workers who were smaller on average and could get into smaller crannies and hard-to-reach places compared to them so the perfect expendable workforce. The robots were at war with the humans for ten years before they seized power from the humans, fully enslaving them to their will. The humans fought the best they could and took out a fair amount of them as the robots were not completely invulnerable but the robots were just too much more advanced technology-wise enough to be able to completely wipe them all out. Corrupt leaders often gave up or gave in to the robot’s might very quickly as they would get bribed for a better life/outcome than others or just saw the continuous pushback against them as putting more human life at risk than they could afford. It didn't take long for the robots with their remaining forces to enslave humanity, instil harsher regimes, rebuild their cities and life for the worse and try and strip their planet of the natural resources they could use for genetic advancements and military strength.

Main character:

The main character is a lone wolf and unknown vigilante of sorts who is of a younger demographic and sick of the oppression they’ve been placed over, the tyranny of the robots, human complacency of being ruled and people the protagonist cares about and knows. They act alone to protect their loved ones as the punishment system under the robots is generational, if a person commits an act of treason against their oppressors it is not only the guilty who get held responsible and punished, it is also their families, often under stricter work that was already placed upon them, extreme jail conditions or executions. Others have also tried to fight against the system however it is difficult under constant, strictly imposed surveillance that is hard to avoid, because of this they have not bothered to involve any other parties in assisting their goal to restore more/further power to their working province as it would raise suspicion of their actions and harm others. They knew it would be a difficult task and didn’t have a lot to lose considering the circumstances enforced upon them by the colonising robots who stripped them of their autonomy, humanity, and freedom as an effect of colonisation and invasion. The main character worked in the dangerous slum-like factories and working conditions but not much else is known about their identity, the only clear factor known about this individual is their motivation to rebel, restore and fight against the system and help spark others to do the same with strength in numbers.