Lore and Narrative
The delivery of the lore behind the playable character and its species way of understanding the world is delivered through the checkpoints in order to add a bit of extra flavor to the game. This also enabled us to provide subtle hints to the player through the narrative about mechanics and puzzles.
Brief Story
In Podling, the player takes the role of a young Podling - a seed like plant creature with a life cycle depending on its ability to overcome obstacles found in nature. A Podling strive to find spots in the sun for settling down roots and eventually spawn new Podlings (Implemented as checkpoints). They believe that if they do not spread their kind, the planet will fall apart with no roots to keep it together: “The world might have been built in one day, but someone has to maintain it for an eternity.”.
Lore - What every Podling should preach
Podlings believe that every planet was once formed by their roots. That there once was just plants floating around in the universe trying to grab onto just about anything solid, which unfortunately did not yet exist apart from themselves and the ever consuming sun. Brothers would leech onto sisters, sisters onto brothers and parents onto their children - an endless cycle of pain and suffering. But then, one day, a plant drifted further away than any plant had ever been. Alone and dying, hungry for moisture, its roots managed to reach beyond the very foundation of the universe where they pulled so hard that pure energy would begin to flow from the beyond and into this very world. Now things quickly began to form around the little emaciated plant, which barely had enough energy to stick onto all this new stuff. Nevertheless, particle by particle it would gather soil into this perfect sphere that they now call home.
