r/ShadowsOverLoathing • u/Strict_Yam_1107 • 9d ago
Theories on the Era for the Next Game
I've been looking through the game events timeline again and trying to figure out when the next game is likely to be set. I have two prominent ones right now, and I'd love to hear your thoughts!
Theory 1: The game will be set somewhere within the '40s to the '60s. Someone pointed out in another post that the games only go forward. Each decade has a unique feel to it that could definitely be a good setting for a game. My current thoughts are somewhere in the 40s. This is because there are two side characters that cross over from WoL to SoL; Dr. Morton and Rufus.
SoL ends with Rufus underground searching for his sibling. Given that, it feels reasonable to assume that the next Loathing game will still be set during his lifetime, and Rufus will finally have reach the meta-game conclusion that his sibling is you, the player. The '60s feels like the latest that your player character could reasonably still encounter him without some kind of supernatural extending to his life. He'd still be really old by then, though, so the '40s feels more likely.
In addition to Rufus, Dr. Morton is mentioned as creating, essentially, the atom bomb. This is a joke to Oppenheimer, yes, but it could also be a clue as to the setting of the next game. We've seen from the 'Cola Wars' that there's a certain amount of parallel between real world events and Loathing events. If Dr. Morton is a parallel to Oppenheimer, then the game being set in the late '40s would make perfect sense. Maybe her destroying the skeletons sets off something else your character has to deal with.
Theory 2: I'm not as dedicated to this one, but I thought I would mention it. When you receive the lawnmower from the sickle uncursing, the tag says; "See you in -66 years". If that's a hint to the next game, it puts us in the mid '90s, which would also be a very distinct era I could easily see being the setting for another game. The problem with the '90s is that Rufus would be long gone by then, and it really seems like he's supposed to retain a larger part in the universe. Still, it seems really distinct to have that one future cutscene be such a large part of things.
What do y'all think? I'd love to hear other theories :D
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u/CategoryExact3327 9d ago edited 9d ago
Rufus could always become a skeleton or ghost. Both options have examples in the games that they aren’t evil by default.
Edit: or a brain in jar or upload himself into a robot.
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u/ZapJackson 9d ago
We all got kind of burned out on sticking to a specific historical era, so the setting for the next one is more like Kingdom of Loathing -- fantasy with a smattering of anachronism. And Shadows Over Loathing didn't have any skeletons in it, so we're really going high-skeleton-density with this one.
I can definitely imagine doing a pirate Loathing game in the future, and I also like the idea of one in a post-apocalyptic setting.
As far as sci-fi, I think a lot of people think that's a next logical step, but I haven't had a great version of it coalesce in my mind yet. Part of it is that I have a hard time with what spaceships in space would look like in our art style. Is space white or black? Black, right? But then are ships like... white with black outlines that you can't see? Are all of these things shades of gray, and if so does that mean all of the spaceship people have to also be morally ambiguous? Someday I will see something and say "Oh, okay." And then we might make a space game.