Adventure Gamers - Forums

A few days ago I stumbled upon a very interesting platformer game called “Schrodinger’s cat: Raiders of the Lost Quark”; its intro trailer gives a very LucasArts-ish vibe, reminding of stuff like DOTT or Psychonauts.

This made me think that the themes of quantum physics and cosmology, which are rapidly becoming popular in all sorts of media (books, movies, etc., like R. A. Wilson’s “Schrodinger’s Cat” trilogy), are still mostly ignored in adventure genre. I believe all this weirdness about Schrodinger’s cats, multiple realities, all sorts of quirky particles and their interactions, etc. would make excellent basis for a wacky DOTT-style adventure game (maybe something like particles growing to marcoscopic size and becoming sentient like Green and Purple Tentacle).

Other physical concepts, like those from cosmology, could be employed as well. The lore of King’s Quest is already using the idea of “pocket universes”, and it could also be possible to include things like holographic principle and AdS/CFT. This could make an interesting plot not only for a sci-fi game, but also for games like King’s Quest and Torin’s Passage, with the main characters discovering that they’re just bits of information on a two-dimensional surface, and this explains all the strange things/magic of their world.

What do you think?

well first and foremost, though it may not be the specific style youre looking for: you should play 999 and virtues last reward.
Also take a look at fran bow, which has some interesting things going on in the later segment of the game.

Its a tricky balancing act, because it is potentially good stuff that can have its place in an adventure story, but you also dont want to over-use it or it comes off as cliched name-dropping. “look schrodingers cat! we said it! thats a thing you know! are we cool now?”

On further thought: you should definitely also play at least the first discworld. I think thats more the style youre looking for and involves a number of interesting concepts.

Wow, you’re reading my mind! I actually played Discworld 1 and 2, and this is EXACTLY what I have in mind (I would like to treat the “quantum” themes the same way DW1 treated time travel). I have three sorts of concepts in mind:

1) A game about elementary particles, their transformations and interactions. This would probably be something in the vein of Gobliins or DOTT (with the particles in the role of tentacles). Some details of these interactions may be a plot point actually (for example, that photon and Z-boson become almost one and the same at high energies).
2) A story about the interpretations of QM, especially Everett’s many worlds. It may be about a character who gained the ability to transit between these different versions of reality, and there would be some really weird ones (like in R. L. Stine’s “Elevator to Nowhere”): a world where everyone is a vampire; a world ruled by shadowy secret societies; a world with magic; a world which was destroyed by a nuclear blast, etc. 
3) A story about holographic principle and AdS/CFT. This would overlap with the theme of virtual reality. I had the idea that there would be a “cartoon/surreal/magical” world in the vein of these 1990s adventures, which is actually a simulation/hologram, and the “real” world within which it was created. Like I said, the storyline may be about the main characters realizing they’re just bits of information recorded on two-dimensional surface.

Spiketheclown - 21 March 2016 05:02 PM

 
3) A story about holographic principle and AdS/CFT. This would overlap with the theme of virtual reality. I had the idea that there would be a “cartoon/surreal/magical” world in the vein of these 1990s adventures, which is actually a simulation/hologram, and the “real” world within which it was created. Like I said, the storyline may be about the main characters realizing they’re just bits of information recorded on two-dimensional surface.

You might want to play Thomas Was Alone, which is along the lines of what you are suggesting.

If you’re interested in alternate universes and such, there’s Time Gentlemen, Please and What Makes You Tick: A Stitch in Time. I think Sam & Max did it a few times as well, as mentioned.

Personally, I think these ideas work better implemented into puzzles rather than stories like particles becoming sentient. You see a lot of interactive fiction coming up with some very clever puzzles involving the distortion of space-time and so on. Portraying quantum physics concepts graphically is difficult - even physicists have trouble with this. Not saying it can’t be done in a game, but it would need very creative and specific ideas on how to do it.

Doom - 21 March 2016 07:41 PM

This part makes me feel uneasy. Why rationalise everything and destroy the magic behind fairy tales like that? There are better places to practice those concepts, like Sam & Max or Space Quest where the world itself is just a place for all sort of wild experiments.

This depends on the exact type of fairy tale. I agree that for the more serious stories, like Quest for Glory, this would be a huge letdown. But IMO, some of the more humorous and absurd ones, like Discworld, Curse of Enchantia or Kyrandia 3 are almost asking for this. Roughly speaking, the original AdS/CFT basically tells us that an N-dimensional world with gravity is equivalent to an <N-dimensional world without gravity, and in the game story a 3D world with magic could be equivalent to a 2D surface without it.