The story of Dolphinsong
When I look back on my past, dolphins were really a recent interest. But once that seed set in it became a very intense passion thats completely flipped over everything else. I don't how it happened. I was on a Pelagic Birdwatching trip and I saw dolphins, only a week before the interest sprung, but I felt nothing extraordinary. These majestic creatures have now found a place in my heart, helped a lot by my semi-spiritual semi-shamanic interests.
Ecco was something I was well aware of, but it wasn't really on my mind. Played it a bit, got stuck in the Undercaves for about an hour, and never looked over it again. Now, however, it has a newfound sparkle. I would now call myself a totally obsessed "Ecco Maniac", yet I have played little of the games. I have Ecco PC (Tides of Time adaptation), but I have never had interest due to the failure of the music. And that's another thing. Many of the soundtracks in Ecco (though most notably from Tides of Time and Sega CD) are something I cannot fathom. To call them art is an understatement. And bare in the mind I have not been a liker of music in my life. All my friends had Ipods, but not me. Ecco music is just something totally different (apart from the Defender of the Future title screen track which is a bit annoying in my opinion) .
Before my interest in Ecco I was into using a program called Game Maker. It was slow at first, but I have come to work out the odds and ends. I had done platform games, shooting games, Mario games, Space Invader games, Geometry Wars, Pokemon, pretty much everything apart from 3D things. But I was too occupied in my 2d Animal Crossing project at the time. The first stage was when I had an overwhelming urge to write a story; I write stories too, most of which are several hundred pages and noneof which are complete. That was when I got down to designing a story I would be determined to finish; and that was to be on dolphins. I wrote the first few chapters and kind of went on a break for a bit. I didn't really find the enthusiasm I was looking for. The story was kind of dull. I had Comet, and there was one of his pod named Leray (Now known as Velray) who persuaded his own brother (then called Tal, now called Tyalse) and Comet to explore a forbidden region of "King's Castle", which was a mysterious underwater structure (think Valka Castle in Endless Ocean 2). However, one of the stone walls collapsed and killed Leray's brother, and his spite and hatred for life caused him to abandon the pad and become a bad guy. And that was really it. I look back on this now and wonder why I thought this was a good idea, but everyone has to start somewhere, right?
After hearing that Ecco had a 3D remake (Defender of the Future) I started watching gameplay on Youtube. It was amazing to see it. I started to see the idea of the Clan and Circle; a new dolphin pod, something different. That is where the "Circle" dolphins in my story come in (originally they were to be called the Cycle, but it deviated to the Circle; I actually totally forgot Ecco had a pod named this too, but this is one thing I will not change. The storyline is too dependent on the name for many reasons).
Then I found Caverns of Hope, and then a little story series called "Tides of Time" by GTK (real name unknown, at least to me and CoH). It was the best literature I had ever read. Couldn't stop reading. That is what brought me back to story-writing, and yes I have actually finished it, which is quite an achievement for me.
There is only one thing that bugs me. I fear that I may have unintentionally "stolen" or twisted some of GTK's writing in one way or another, since I had read his story and written mine in such a small time period. I didn't want to steal anything. The only thing that made me so jealous I was convinced I had to have it in the story was Tidesinger. No, not the character he portrayed, but the name. I was looking for some alias, and it fit the bill beautifully. I still to this day have not found a perfect substitution. Nevertheless I have kept my distance for the universal wishes of Authors out there, who may see my work and slap a palm over their face at the thought of their creative ideas being twisted. In my books it is Echosinger you will read about. It still lingers on my mind though.
Ecco was something I was well aware of, but it wasn't really on my mind. Played it a bit, got stuck in the Undercaves for about an hour, and never looked over it again. Now, however, it has a newfound sparkle. I would now call myself a totally obsessed "Ecco Maniac", yet I have played little of the games. I have Ecco PC (Tides of Time adaptation), but I have never had interest due to the failure of the music. And that's another thing. Many of the soundtracks in Ecco (though most notably from Tides of Time and Sega CD) are something I cannot fathom. To call them art is an understatement. And bare in the mind I have not been a liker of music in my life. All my friends had Ipods, but not me. Ecco music is just something totally different (apart from the Defender of the Future title screen track which is a bit annoying in my opinion) .
Before my interest in Ecco I was into using a program called Game Maker. It was slow at first, but I have come to work out the odds and ends. I had done platform games, shooting games, Mario games, Space Invader games, Geometry Wars, Pokemon, pretty much everything apart from 3D things. But I was too occupied in my 2d Animal Crossing project at the time. The first stage was when I had an overwhelming urge to write a story; I write stories too, most of which are several hundred pages and noneof which are complete. That was when I got down to designing a story I would be determined to finish; and that was to be on dolphins. I wrote the first few chapters and kind of went on a break for a bit. I didn't really find the enthusiasm I was looking for. The story was kind of dull. I had Comet, and there was one of his pod named Leray (Now known as Velray) who persuaded his own brother (then called Tal, now called Tyalse) and Comet to explore a forbidden region of "King's Castle", which was a mysterious underwater structure (think Valka Castle in Endless Ocean 2). However, one of the stone walls collapsed and killed Leray's brother, and his spite and hatred for life caused him to abandon the pad and become a bad guy. And that was really it. I look back on this now and wonder why I thought this was a good idea, but everyone has to start somewhere, right?
After hearing that Ecco had a 3D remake (Defender of the Future) I started watching gameplay on Youtube. It was amazing to see it. I started to see the idea of the Clan and Circle; a new dolphin pod, something different. That is where the "Circle" dolphins in my story come in (originally they were to be called the Cycle, but it deviated to the Circle; I actually totally forgot Ecco had a pod named this too, but this is one thing I will not change. The storyline is too dependent on the name for many reasons).
Then I found Caverns of Hope, and then a little story series called "Tides of Time" by GTK (real name unknown, at least to me and CoH). It was the best literature I had ever read. Couldn't stop reading. That is what brought me back to story-writing, and yes I have actually finished it, which is quite an achievement for me.
There is only one thing that bugs me. I fear that I may have unintentionally "stolen" or twisted some of GTK's writing in one way or another, since I had read his story and written mine in such a small time period. I didn't want to steal anything. The only thing that made me so jealous I was convinced I had to have it in the story was Tidesinger. No, not the character he portrayed, but the name. I was looking for some alias, and it fit the bill beautifully. I still to this day have not found a perfect substitution. Nevertheless I have kept my distance for the universal wishes of Authors out there, who may see my work and slap a palm over their face at the thought of their creative ideas being twisted. In my books it is Echosinger you will read about. It still lingers on my mind though.
There is another story too that I have probably been inspired by. That would be the Uniting of Times by Aldera-Nerita on Fan-Fiction.net. Great read right there.
The story developed from then on, and the game soon after (which naturally was based on the story). Why did I make the game? I was annoyed that not only were there nearly no Ecco fangames out there (I searched for days), but nearly all did not even have the game elements (some, no offense, were just game-programming tutorials with the spaceships replaced with dolphins and Foe). A couple (one example being Ark's Agartha) lied in the depths of the internet, but I wanted more.
So now you know this, assuming you read it all, you are now ready (not that you needed a lecture anyway) to delve into the world of Dolphinsong.
The demo available on Caverns of Hope is a form of prototype to see if I could replicate things properly, and is not related to the game represented by this site.
The story developed from then on, and the game soon after (which naturally was based on the story). Why did I make the game? I was annoyed that not only were there nearly no Ecco fangames out there (I searched for days), but nearly all did not even have the game elements (some, no offense, were just game-programming tutorials with the spaceships replaced with dolphins and Foe). A couple (one example being Ark's Agartha) lied in the depths of the internet, but I wanted more.
So now you know this, assuming you read it all, you are now ready (not that you needed a lecture anyway) to delve into the world of Dolphinsong.
The demo available on Caverns of Hope is a form of prototype to see if I could replicate things properly, and is not related to the game represented by this site.
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