The Real Game

The Real Game is the name of Fiction that was produced in a collaborative effort earlier this afternoon with a group of students. Two are particularly interested in animator, and some of the others are just kids who enjoy computer games. Although I made some suggestions, I also allowed them to make some, and over-ruled some impractical suggestions. It's hard to be practical when you are encouraging the creative process, but it is also important to maintain some kind of discipline, so that what you produce is of some quality.

What we did produce is Nipper. Tall and precocious, her real age is just 15 year old. She cuts her hair short, wears three silver earings in one ear, chews gum compulsively, and dresses like a boy. Her father is an authoritative and unpleasant man, whom she refers to simply as The General. Her mother died giving birth to her brother. Her best friend is an Iguana, but she sometimes, reluctantly, calls on Nerv, a tiny, wild haired, and extremely nervous young Einstein. He is a prodigy on a computer, and her link to the inside track. She is not a good student at school simply because she is never at school. She is very strong; her body is as strong and supple as an Olympic gymnast, and her will is hard and unyielding like iron. Her weakness is in math, and losing her temper.

She plays a game called END OF THE WORLD. It starts with a certain amount of time given, and then a scenario is presented, an END OF THE WORLD scenario, in which the player of the game is the only person who holds the key. It may be diffusing a bomb, or infilitrating a network, preventing hijackers from having their way, or getting a broadcast out. The trouble is, Nipper becomes so good at this game, so obsessed, that she stops sleeping, stops eating, stops going to school, and soon all she is doing, day and night, is playing this game. Until one day she wakes up unable to tell the game from reality.

That's the premise and now comes the hard part - fleshing it out. Any ideas, any contributions? I'll try to keep you updated on how the story unravels.