Our Game Idea!
So far my group and I have been working incredibly hard
to get a solid story down on paper. We have deviated from plot to plot and have
explored a variety of huge ideas and concepts for our game. I did post our
initial idea on my blog very early on into the project and as our idea was
growing and changing at such speeds I was too scared to post up constant new
blogs on the new idea because I knew it would change.
This post will contain our idea as it stands today as
well as a few brief bullet points covering the ideas we covered to get here. I
think our ideas is developed enough now to be posted in full as we are only
tweaking small elements or adding in extras that I can add in as the design
goes on.
The Story Development
I am going to try and keep this as brief as possible...we had LOADS of ideas :')
1: As a group we knew exactly what game we wanted to do from
the start as we all feel very strongly about survival horror so picking
Fatal Frame II as our base influence for re invention was an incredibly easy
choice. I think by the end of that day Stacey had suggested a museum as a
possible setting for our game which Myself and Olive loved. It’s an unusual and
un common setting (we found out through research) for video games, so we just
ran with it.
2: After this we needed a reason for the main character to
be in a museum. At this time we were unsure as to how much our game needed to
take from Fatal Frame II so we assumed the character would be a female
photographer sent to the museum to photograph it for a variety of reasons such
as it was closing down, it was a job from a newspaper, she was interested in an
exhibition. The list went on…
3: The young girls in Fatal Frame II are so delicate and
vulnerable, their voices, clothes, lack of protection suggest they are
unfortunately weak and un prepared for this horror. We wanted the similar look
and feel for our protagonist as well as a link
back to our key influence Fatal Frame II.
4: One afternoon Olive and I were throwing ideas at each
other over just WHY this female photographer was in the museum and what
actually happened to her to send her into the alternate museum. Confused over
how much of a tie in we needed to Fatal Frame II I envisioned the female
photographer having been sent on a photographic journalist job from the city's
newspaper to photograph a current exhibition. I thought it would be clever if
this exhibition was teaching people about the crimson butterfly rituals which
drove the story of Fatal Frame II.
Olive then thought that the reason for her being
transported into the alternate museum could be that, due to her fascination
with the crimson butterfly sacrifice and her thirst for learning about it, she
stupidly touches one of the pieces from the exhibition which literally released
a crimson butterfly which takes her into the alternate museum. The idea needed work but we thought it was a
really clever way to link our game in with Fatal Frame II, only in a lecture we
received following on from this idea, we realised we could be (and needed to
be) a little more open with out idea so this was scrapped.
5: Another idea for the game was that the player would be
in the museum and gradually it would become weirder and weirder, think people
with no faces, extra bodies, disfigurements, oddities and strange visual
elements would appear but only the protagonist/player would see these in the
photographs causing the female photographer to faint and when she wakes up she
is in the alternate “hell” museum.
6: We swiftly realised the idea wasn’t strong enough, the
reason behind her being at the museum was weak and uninteresting from the start
and the her fainting wasn’t a very clever way for her to spawn into the
alternate museum. It all seemed a bit
empty. We also discovered that the story and plot lines were treading
incredibly closely to
Fatal Frame III.
>> CLICK HERE FOR FATAL FRAME III WIKI <<
>> CLICK HERE FOR FATAL FRAME III WIKI <<
“The game focuses on Rei Kurosawa, a photographer who has recently
lost her fiancé Yuu Asou, in a tragic
accident. Rei sees Yuu while taking photos of an old manor,
however, and decides to follow him. In doing so, she falls under the
curse of the manor, where survivors of disaster are tormented in their sleep by
the ghosts of the dead.”
You must believe me when I say we had our idea for the
young female photographer to see someone from her family but only in her
photographs and also for the museum to be possessed or evil BEFORE we read this
or had researched it. We needed to push
our idea further.
7: After this we thought about the mental stability of the
girl and thought about having her as a ill patient at a mental health care
home. The museum would be a day trip and suffering some sort of trauma in the
museum she would wake up in the alternate
museum which would be some sort of physical representation of her mental
illness. Everything in the museum (monsters, boss’s, rooms, appearances,
exhibitions etc) would reflect and be metaphors for her illness and symptoms
and depending on how the player played the game there would be different
endings depicting just how ill the girl is.
The player would start off in the alternate museum
perfectly fine, with no symptoms of illness but the further they get into the game the more the main character
gets affected by their illness. In other words, the alternate museum is a
metaphor and physical representation of her health and the game would be based
around the idea of beating it or perhaps even overcoming it.
8:
Following
on from our group tutorial with Matt we faced questions such as “why does she
even physically need to be in the museum in the first place?” and “If she is in
the museum then what’s her motivation for being there?”. This was another
crucial turning point for our plot as we needed to further develop the main
protagonist as a character to get a better understanding of her motivations for
being in the museum.
As a group we felt inspired by the inclusion of a mental
health disorder or illness of some variety and were certain we wanted our
protagonist to encounter symptoms of the illness throughout the game and that
monsters and the museum itself would be metaphors for her life and illness and
that the multiple endings would determine how ill she ever was. This is where I
came up with the questions for the group which we could all answer and take
elements from to create the protagonist.
Our Finalised Idea!
Okay so we are now at a stage where we are happy with
our idea, so much so that the story
literally comes round full circle and makes sense. I have put off
posting it on my blog so far because there have still been tweaks (we are still
tweaking it as we speak) but what matters is the whole story is there. On our groups facebook page I wrote up the
game/story idea the best I could so I will post it on here so you can
understand where the game is at currently, it’s a lot of writing but it brings our idea
to life so please take the time to read.
Sections that are written in bold italic are to be considered as “notes” to help you understand. We also havent named the main protagonist yet, or any characters involved for that matter, so for now we are using "X" when referring to the female protagonist and then everyone else has been named appropriately according to their title.
Working Title: Museum
X is
a young girl who has moved away to study photography at university to escape
her incredibly broken family following the death of her Granddad.
Forced to grow up fast and young, X never had a close family unit. No one she could truly depend on other than her Granddad.
Forced to grow up fast and young, X never had a close family unit. No one she could truly depend on other than her Granddad.
X's Mother suffered a devastating and heartbreaking
miscarriage (in which she lost her son) before X was born. This caused her
parents to fall into an horrendous downward spiral of life into drugs,
alcoholism, solvent abuse and neglect to all those who were trying to help and
comfort them.
This is what caused X's grandparents (her Mothers
parents) to completely estrange themselves from the family, ashamed and
embarrassed by their daughter and son in laws behaviour plus failure to accept
any help; they didn't want to stick around knowing they couldn't save them. No
one hears from them again.
2 years later they stupidly fall pregnant with X and thinking this would be their saviour,
they decide to keep her in the hope that they will be able to sort their lives
out and be acceptable parents. This never happens. 9 months later X is born and
for the first year everything seems okay, there is a glimmer of hope that her
parents can sort their lives out. Only that is when tragedy strikes again.
X's Fathers Mother dies, a heartbreaking tragedy which
pulls X's father further back into a life of drugs and depression, an act which
also tempts X's Mother too. Soon enough they are both back to their old ways of
drugs and alcohol.
X's Granddad (her Fathers Father) decides to fill the
hole in his life where his wife passed away by taking care of X. He becomes the
only figure she can truly depend on and at the tender age of 16 she moves in with him to
escape her broken family life. It is thanks to him that up until the point she moves
in with him, she is able to lead a fairly normal life (education wise).
Throughout her childhood her Granddad teaches her how to
use a camera often using it as a form of escapism, as a way of coping and taking her mind off of her parents neglectful
attitudes. Her Granddad teaches her everything she knows about cameras, fuelling her hobby and passion
for photography as she grows older.
He'd often tell her that no matter how bad life is at
home, she could always escape and see whatever she wanted to see through her
camera; she could, in essence, create her own world through the lens.
Unfortunately, shortly after X turns 19, her Granddad passes away leaving X with absolutely no one to rely on. Knowing this, she decides to peruse a career in photography by applying to university in honour of her Granddad.
The game picks up a year or two after the Granddad's death, after X has gotten into a University. The story establishes the player as X who is par taking in a an photography arts trip to a museum. She is taking a series of images for her coursework.
Unfortunately, shortly after X turns 19, her Granddad passes away leaving X with absolutely no one to rely on. Knowing this, she decides to peruse a career in photography by applying to university in honour of her Granddad.
The game picks up a year or two after the Granddad's death, after X has gotten into a University. The story establishes the player as X who is par taking in a an photography arts trip to a museum. She is taking a series of images for her coursework.
-----------------------------------
The player has absolutely no indication of her past, they are
simply presented with a female character at a museum with a camera.
-----------------------------------
Observing the photographs she has taken so far, X starts
to notice strange occurrences throughout her images; disturbances in colour and lighting, random figures, distortion of
faces and artwork she's photographed, strange letters and symbols, reminders of her Granddad,
parents and life etc.
-----------------------------------
The section in the museum as a student is playable by the character, it isn't represented through a cut scene. The player can go around and shoot areas of the museum as if they were there on the trip.
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X shows a fellow class photographer the strange imagery
but they see nothing wrong with the
image and this triggers something to happen to X, such as a
fall/seizure/fainting/left unconscious.
-----------------------------------
This part is still
under negotiation. Previously we discouraged the idea of her fainting because
it seemed too normal but now that we have a reason for her to faint it might
work better. She could also suffer a seizure which is triggered by these
screwed up images affecting her brain.
In my research I covered an
"illness" called Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) which is caused when
damaged/shock is dealt to the head. Usually you recover but it can act as a
trigger for other symptoms of mental health such as memory loss, delusions,
paranoia, and anxiety all of which are elements of our game. I will finalise
this at some point soon.
Currently the fall triggers TBI which then in turn
sends her to the alternate museum, triggering the psychotic episode (mental
illness). The player at this
point won't know what the museum is supposed to represent or why its presented
like this.
-----------------------------------
Little does X know that the next few hours are critical as she will literally
be battling her way
through her own mind as it becomes increasingly more ill through the psychotic episode she is having triggered by her fall and rubbish life.
through her own mind as it becomes increasingly more ill through the psychotic episode she is having triggered by her fall and rubbish life.
-----------------------------------
EXPLANATION: Okay so,
in case you are confused. This girl has had an awful life however through the
love and care of her Granddad she has pulled through unharmed. The sad part is
that this horrid life is festering away deep inside of her as a mental illness just waiting to be triggered. The fall in the
museum caused by the weird hallucinations is classed as TBI which triggers the
player to find themselves in the "alternate museum".
This alternate museum
is a metaphor and physical representation of mental health; it is personal to
her and is being played out as if she is experiencing some sort of
"psychotic episode".
Everything in the alternate museum is a metaphor for her crappy life
including the monsters and environments.
The idea is that as a
player, you are literally fighting for your own sanity, you don't want this
illness, this psychotic episode, to consume you - none of this is apparent to
the player, however, and they must piece together the puzzles, clues, notes, photographs
etc to learn more about what is happening and why they are there.
-----------------------------------
The player will wake
up in the alternate museum in what appears to be her bedroom that her Granddad
had set up for her when she was young. This could possibly act as a minor
tutorial area for the player to introduce them to the game, however we want
this to be an unforgiving scary experience which is based upon the player being
smart and figuring things out themselves; nothing will be handed to them on a
plate.
-----------------------------------
Currently we have 4
possible endings for the game which are based on the sanity level you
experience throughout your time in the museum. The basic outline for these
endings are as follows:
1 - VERY BAD/comatose/fully consumed by illness: Player is consumed by mental illness, gets stuck in her own nightmare head. In real life she is comatose from the accident in the museum at the start of the game.
2 - BAD/completely mentally ill: Player emerges from nightmare museum only to be found in a hospital, committed for being mentally ill the whole time. Everything triggered by her rubbish family/neglect/death of Granddad.
3 - MEH/you know something is very wrong: Player makes it through museum hell only to wake up in the museum with paramedics surrounding her, murmurs of "it's critical" and "It's not looking promising" are heard.
4 - GOOD/you beat the illness/VERY HARD TO GET THIS ENDING: Player beats the mental health illness possibility by beating her museum hell and wakes up from what is only a minor head bump at the museum. Strange photographs have disappeared from her camera, left feeling confused, but you're alive.
1 - VERY BAD/comatose/fully consumed by illness: Player is consumed by mental illness, gets stuck in her own nightmare head. In real life she is comatose from the accident in the museum at the start of the game.
2 - BAD/completely mentally ill: Player emerges from nightmare museum only to be found in a hospital, committed for being mentally ill the whole time. Everything triggered by her rubbish family/neglect/death of Granddad.
3 - MEH/you know something is very wrong: Player makes it through museum hell only to wake up in the museum with paramedics surrounding her, murmurs of "it's critical" and "It's not looking promising" are heard.
4 - GOOD/you beat the illness/VERY HARD TO GET THIS ENDING: Player beats the mental health illness possibility by beating her museum hell and wakes up from what is only a minor head bump at the museum. Strange photographs have disappeared from her camera, left feeling confused, but you're alive.
-----------------------------------
So that is our story. It is very polished off, deep and
well thought out as so far it is what we have been focusing on. We have a few
areas which we need to work on but now many. I appreciate I haven’t spoken at
all about enemies that the player would face in the alternate museum nor have I
talked about general gameplay mechanics. Well, this is my areas of focus and I
am now going to move onto making decisions on gameplay and how the game will
play out. More information on this to follow :3
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