Out of tragedy, faith is born.
Two parents stand on a sandy beach, watching their child swimming. Out of nowhere, a gigantic whale surfaces and swallows the child. Distraught, the parents do what human beings have done for tens of thousands of years: They pray. They pray for divine intervention. They pray for God's help.
To the amazement of the bereaved parents, their prayers get answered in the largest possible way. You get sucked through the cosmos and appear before them. They realize their child is gone, but bask in the knowledge that someone or something heard their prayers. And their people now have a god to watch over them.
You know nothing more than what's obvious: You are these people's newfound god. Your sudden appearance gives rise to some introspective curiosity. Where or what were you before the desperate parents' prayers were answered? And who, exactly, answered their prayers? Do you owe your very existence to these people? Or were you an out-of-work deity hanging out in some sort of cosmic god-lounge waiting for your number to be called?
Get used to the questions. Right from this heart-tugging intro, Black and White—an evocative god game in the truest sense of the word—makes you wonder, think, and... feel.
Rules of the Universe
Amazingly, Peter Molyneaux's design document puts forth just three simple rules:
- Belief is everything. If nothing believes in you, you are powerless.
- In the areas where there is belief in you, you can interact with things. In areas where there is none, you can do nothing.
- Your creature will assist you in playing the game.
These rules provide the groundwork for Lionhead Studios' most critical and daunting task: transforming and merging Black and White the concept into Black and White the game.
They also exemplify the game's open ambition to be both an experience and a game. More rules would equal more constraints, contrary to Black and White's goal of allowing the player to play the game at their own pace, and in their own way.
Computer games typically exist on two planes—the (usually traditional) gameplay itself; and an accompanying story that gets you from level to level. Or battle to battle. The tricky part for the extremely talented Lionhead Studios team has been coming up with ways to keep the player motivated, involved, and directed—without creating too much structure.
Black and White intricately connects plot and gameplay. The story, which unfolds over five different chapters, is a majestic, quasi-biblical tale that involves multiple peoples, other more powerful gods, and decision-making. Plot and gameplay are tightly and ingeniously woven together through the game's primary play structures, Challenges and Quests.
Divine Intervention
Initially, the Challenges—all of which are optional—are simple. To begin with, you'll have to help your newly-inherited villagers construct your temple by uprooting trees and placing them near the construction site (be careful not to crush the villagers when you drop the trees!).
Challenges are activated by villagers' prayers, an extremely effective, often emotionally-provocative method for pulling you into Black and White. It's the perfect way to present the player with gaming tasks without spoiling the fiction of the game. Even more importantly, the villagers' prayers create some awe-inspiring moments that should effectively cast you in the role of god. In-engine, letter-boxed cut-scenes and an engaging, moody score further enhance this effect.
How you resolve the various challenges is up to you. At one point, a mother prays to you to help find her lost little boy. Assuming he's within your sphere of influence, you can simply pick him up with your hand and move him home. Or, you can pick up his sister and move her to his location, where she'll lead him home.
Or you can simply ignore the mother's pleas and let the child starve to death. Not the humane option, but—as your devilish sidekick argues—do you really want to spoil your followers? This could make life more difficult for you in the future.
Successfully completing a Challenge results in rewards, which range from helpful information to a higher birth rate. The stories in the challenges even loop back. At one point, two men pray for your help in building an ark to explore the world. Helping them gather wood and food for their journey pays off later when you move to one of the game's later landscapes.
The Real World
The real-world challenge for Peter Molyneaux and Lionhead Studios is to make sure that the Challenges serve two functions. First, they must provide varied gameplay that helps the player get better at the game. Second, they must tell interesting tales that emotionally involve the player and force them to make tough decisions, such as being put into a position where they have to decide between the lesser of two negative outcomes. Or situations where helping one person could possibly hurt another. These are the types of decisions that could elevate Black and White to an instant classic.
The more personal the challenge, the more effectively Black and White will advance its central concept—that of a fledgling god who learns what it actually means to be a "capital G" God. Key to this concept is going to be enmeshing players in the lives of the villagers. The recurring characters and looping plot seem to indicate that this is exactly where Molyneaux and Lionhead Studios are heading.
The game's Quests are basically meta-Challenges that serve as the game's golden path. As you advance through the various challenges and quests, you will be rewarded.
We, The People
As with any god, your relationship with your followers is more than important. As you undertake (or choose to ignore) the more gameplay-oriented structures of the game, you still need to tend to your followers' needs and impress upon them your all-mighty importance. After all, the stronger their beliefs, the stronger you are.
In each village, a series of flags indicates your followers' needs. So at times, they may need more housing, food, or even sex. Your answer may be to simply ignore them. Or, you can give them general instructions to build various structures in different locations.
Complicating matters, as villagers start to get used to your presence, they become harder to impress. At the beginning, uprooting trees and cracking rocks in half will suffice. But as time goes on, you're going to have to find new and different ways of motivating your people. Some of these ways may not be too nice.
Furthermore, how you treat your followers has specific effects on their performance and behavior. A cruel, Old Testament god who advances through Challenges in harsh ways will see followers who work harder but have less time to procreate. On the contrary, a kind, soft god will have followers who procreate like rabbits, but who don't work nearly as hard.
If you make your people extremely happy, they'll erect a Wonder in your name. For instance, the Tibeta Wonder will decrease the desires of all your different peoples, and make your shield spell stronger.
Villagers also serve another important function. By encouraging them to dance and chant outside your temple, you accumulate mana, which helps you cast powerful spells. But don't make them dance too long without feeding or healing them, or they'll die of starvation or exhaustion.
At the beginning of the game, you inherit a single village, but as the game progresses, you'll encounter different tribes, each of which has their own strengths, weaknesses, and demands. In some ways, this part of the game is similar to Age of Empires; the Norse are good Fisherman, while Celtic tribes excel at worship and farming. Wisely choosing not to spoil the plot, Molyneaux and Lionhead are keeping story details close, but this much is clear: Since faith is the game's only real currency, your people serve as important a role in the game as you do. As the game's story—which involves other gods and other lands—progresses, you'll have to make critical decisions about which villagers accompany you as you move around the world. Interestingly—and this may be a not-too-subtle commentary—villagers never engage in combat. War, as Black and White appears to see it, is the providence of the gods.
As gameplay rule number-two indicates, new villages often sit outside of your circle of power. Given your godly goal of increasing your number of followers, you're going to have to rely on the game's single most unique—and important—construct to aid you.
Creature Double Feature
One of the game's early Challenges involves journeying through a valley where mystical, magical creatures lay. You choose one, and all of a sudden Black and White takes on an entirely new dimension.
Initially there are three creatures to choose from: lion, cow, or ape. As the game progresses, you'll encounter all manner of creatures, from a human-looking character to a Tortoise. Depending on how you play the game, you may be able to switch creatures.
The creature's main function is to serve as the living embodiment of your spirit—the word made flesh, so to speak. Your godly powers and range of influence are limited by the number of your believers, but being a physical entity means your creature can go wherever it wants, hopefully spreading your word by impressing naïve villagers with its prowess. The creature is critical in helping you to extend your reach and your presence. But first, you have to show it how.
When you first choose your creature, it is tiny, scared, and shy. You must instruct this magical creature. By attaching a leash to it and showing it how to eat, drink, hold, and throw objects, you help it grow. Teaching is accomplished by the time-tested stick-and-carrot method. If you want to teach your creature that villagers are not to be eaten, punish it by slapping it repeatedly. Similarly, teaching your alter-ego to gather wood for your people involves having it watch you uproot trees and place them near the Storage Pit, then tickling its belly or stroking its head as a reward.
As your creature learns the skills you want, it becomes more and more autonomous, to the point where it will actually imitate you and take on tasks it feels you would normally perform. You're going to want to spend tons of time helping your creature learn to help you.
This intelligent beast also helps you when things get overly complicated. Part of the decision-making process involves balancing the time it takes to manage your little friend, help your people live better, progress through the challenges, and convert new followers. A properly-groomed sidekick makes the game a lot easier. For example, to convert a new tribe, you might simply tether your creature to the village and let the animal take over. Good creatures will impress the villagers by committing good deeds. Evil creatures will impress the villagers by destroying the village and eating the people.
This much talked-about aspect of Black and White should make for some amazing moments. At separate points in the game, your creature will make friends, or fight Mortal Kombat style (you can help it in these arena battles by casting spells or showing it where to attack). It may even fall in love.
In much the same way that American Beauty (and, some would argue, The Sims) provided a provocative, biting take on suburban ideals and the American Dream, Black and White may be just as insightful and relevant a commentary on our relationship to divinity.
Blind Ambition?
Black and White's ambition appears to be unending. Complimenting the game's story, open-ended play, spellcasting, and character profiling is an online component that will allow you to take your creature onto the Internet. Here, gamers will be able to play in two different ways: in a kind of online chat environment where the creatures can engage each other in conversation or combat; or in a more standard, multiplayer, real-time strategy game, where the goal is to convert villagers to your faith.
The big question: Can Molyneaux and Lionhead Studios pull all this off? The game almost certainly seems destined to succeed; we'll have to wait until later this year to find out whether their efforts result in a very good game, or a great one.
Black and White
Developer: Lionhead Studios
Publisher: Electronic Arts
ETA: Fall 2000
Designer: Peter Molyneaux
Previous Games: Populous, Syndicate, Magic Carpet, Dungeon Keeper
What's the Big Idea? "Black and White is atonement for all my previous game design sins," says designer Peter Molyneaux. In our minds, this majestic strategy game may do more than simply atone for his sins. Black and White, scheduled for release in late September, just might elevate the entire PC-gaming genre to new heights.
