The Vanishing Hardwoods

People are feeling trapped and full of anxiety right now. I want to make a game that will encourage people to get outside (safely and while maintaining social distance) and have a little fun while learning about the real history of Oakland and the trees it was named after.

Our narrative arc is roughly as follows:

  1. Players will receive an ancient distress call from aliens who are in danger. They will quickly discover that the alien race is here on earth, and needs their help!
  2. The alien race will reveal themselves to be trees! Players will learn about the lore of the sentient trees and will learn why they came to Earth.
  3. Following the path of a great battle between the trees and humans, players will discover many of the trees were brutally killed, and see how the survivors are trapped and domesticated.
  4. The trees will explain that there is a way you can help the remaining trees and be the hero! In order to do this players must gain knowledge, spread the word, and be ready to receive the next call-to-action from the trees
  5. To receive explicit instructions players must find the Great Leader, now called the Jack London Oak, and speak with the tree directly.
  6. Upon communicating with the Great Leader, players learn how to continue helping the aliens/trees by finding a tree, giving them back their chosen names (naming them), caring for them, and protecting them.

A potential alternate ending is sending or supplying players with Oak Tree seeds to cultivate their own trees.

My hope is people will have a fun experience, learn some history, and will become more interested in the plants around them. If this "first chapter" is successful we will make additional chapters adding to the story later.

Financé par San Francisco, CA (January 2021)