Game Design update #1

The audience of this game will be based on the Bartle Test types. Ideally, the game will appeal to both explorer and achiever type players. I personality hope that the social folks like the writing.

The goal is to rise to godhood and more specifically, join with the world's two gods in a pantheon. To do so the farmer will have a gain immortality, sanctity and command enough divine qualities. Ultimately, the farmer must force the gods to allow him into the pantheon through a combination of power, respect and influence.

Gameplay will consist of a series of interconnected maps, similar to Metroid or Castlevania.  The player, a farmer, will begin the game at his farm and be given the option to travel to 3 surrounding towns, 3 mythical places and told of 3 artifacts belonging to the old gods.

The Farmer will serve as an avatar to the player, having little to no independent personality or history, instead serving as a stand-in for the player. His motivation will consist of an old tome telling the fall of the original Gods and bits about divine nature. As he accrues followers he will manifest new powers and abilities. Being a human, he will find physics to be a cruel, unfair enemy. As he grows, this will be less of an issue. Followers can be won through achievements, charisma or work with each method having good, evil and neutral alternatives.

The game world will not draw from any particular time period, though it will be low fantasy. The farmer will be able to visit three towns initially. At first The Farmer will have to obey gravity, currents, heat and so forth. But with god powers comes the ability to gradually use, ignore and downright break the forces of nature.
The world will be a mix of woods, mountains, rivers and two large water bodies. A small highly urbanized area may also exist as the heart(s) of the other two gods' people. The two gods will be caricatures of the Christian and Hindu Gods. There may possibly be a few minor gods thrown in for flavour.

 The plot will make room for multiple endings. For the Good/Evil axis, the Player will decide between good and evil at the very beginning, by digging up a pair of ancient tomes, the last written works of the old gods. Interactions, powerups, abilities and so forth will be heavily influence by this choice. What kind of Good or evil god you become will be based on your interactions during the game. Interaction wise, this will boil down to two axes. The dick vs. polite axis and the cruel vs. kind axis. Kind, polite, evil Gods will be manipulative bastards. Whereas the cruel, dickish good gods will be giant jerks with hearts of gold.