Saturday 23 July 2011

"Assistance, bitte!" (Warning, long ass post)

EDIT: As Rumzi pointed out, it's "bitte" not "Peter"....I've just failed as a TF2 player.

Right.  I'm very, very happy with the sudden influx of posts and comments invading my inbox ^W^.  Firstly, I'd like to ask if everyone's received the script?  I've just noticed that there's a slight error in version 2 of the script.  In version 1, the player wouldn't find out the name of the character that they're playing, only until you talk to Kemi on the phone.  In version 2, Yu starts his blogolobue with "my name is Yu" so all the "???" bits should be corrected to Yu.

After reading them all, I have several notices to update you all on now~

PLOT UPDATE:
Day 1 = Script DONE!
Day 2 = is when creepy shiz starts to happen (to answer Michelle's question).  It's the day of the festival and when stuff happens to Kemi.  The disappearing carriage will also happen here but I'm not sure whether Yu should notice it or not. Another idea in which to have is that since Yu starst seeing more creepy shiz, there could be the 'nice next door neighbour' that he met on the train and that he keeps bumping into at Kemi's only to find that she's (gender may change) is a ghost.  An incident should definitely happen in which Yu has to use his Nursing skills to help a child who has [insert incident which would make someone scream around the carriages asking if there's a doctor on board] and after he saves the kid he is thanked by this person.  It's also noted that since Yu would do a lot of hesitating, we can make it into a puzzle.  You know what, the child swallowed an atom bomb. Yeh that's it. Sorted.

After Kemi's disappearance, Yu also learns of Kemi's boss' murder but is unable to get any details from the police (he just knows about it) and goes to Kemi's place to find more clues. Insert 'Find Kemi's spare key' puzzle and you get to explore Kemi's place and try to hack into her computer puzzle.  Not a lot of information turns up apart from stuff about the corrupt politician and Kemi's address book.  Yu finds some names highlighted in which he searches them up online - they're Private detectives so he hires one to help him search for more clues.  Now we have a detective Gumshoe character! To help! Hooray!

Another bit in which I forgot was the idea that Kemi starts to spiritually send Yu hints through his phone. The idea was that when Yu goes to sleep he starts to dream - in the dream you actually play as Kemi's spirit but Yu and the player won't know this.  Essentially this is more like an interactive cutscene but an example would be getting the player to take a picture of a certain object/location.  When Yu wakes up, he doesn't remember the dream but is just WTF about finding the picture on his phone.  Which, turns out is a clue in that the player would need to work out in order to unlock the next location to explore along with some more info from Gumshow (example: the murder scene of Kemi's boss).  The idea of the maze puzzle would work here when Yu needs to try and sneak in, in order to find more clues.

I also forgot to mention (again) that Kemi gets found a few days after she disappears and ends up in the mental hospital.  It could be part of the same hospital that Yu works in, in another hospital branch.  Her mental instability gets worse and worse with each (scripted) visit so you can only converse with her face to face, then phone with a glass pane in the middle, then suddenly tv. Around this time, the PI starts to get even more nervous with finding out more info so he quits (now the player can only really rely on Kemi for info). Yu can get chased by an entity through the hospital corridors at one point here in the hospital (most likely near the end?).

Now I'm not sure how but the plot will start to focus on the thugs/politician.  The ending twist is that the reason the politician started the whole thing in motion was that the kid that Yu failed to save was his son, so Yu was the one who started the whole thing in motion, not the ebil politician.  Before the game focuses on how evil the politician was but was actually doing it to get revenge and not to TAKE OVER THE DAMN WORLDDDDD.

After finding that out (if we get time) I'm still not sure how to end it - maybe just end it there.  But I'd personally want a bit more closure.  As Michelle suggested, maybe someone should die now XD I dno :/

This is where I'll need your assistance!
I'll definitely need some help in brainstorming these areas:
-  Creepy experiences in which Yu should encounter cos now I'm slightly out of creative juice.
- Puzzle ideas.  Be creative in what to include such as maybe incorporating the use of webcam/mic into solving a puzzle (and an alternative for ppl who don't)?  Maybe Yu needs to blow out some candles...actually no, he'll need to blow on the joss sticks to be used on the offering altars. I'll explain this a bit more because this leads to...

INTERFACE/GAME UPDATE:
Game Statistics: Since it's Ghost Month and Yu feels really guilty about the A&E incident you can interact with the offering altar outside his apartment.  Say if Yu interacts with it 10 times before a certain day, it would make the spirits happy and may change a certain cutscene.  This lead me to another idea for another puzzle in which Yu has to dive/swim somewhere (one of the taboos) in order to get a clue. The taboo is that it is believed that there are many spirits in the water which will try and drown you.  If you prayed at the altar enough times, Yu will be saved by the ghost of the Boy in which he didn't save in A&E, if not he'll see the Boy's face start to distort and scare Yu.  The player won't know that it's the Boy from A&E, they'll only find out later.  Either way, Yu will survive...or maybe make it a timed event lol.

Death: I'll write it here again but in case of the player dying there will be scripted events.  Nothing is more terrifying that being chased and running for your lives, plus it'll make a good contrast to incorporate some 'action' into the game.  I'll use an example for this.  If for instance, Yu gets chased by an entity during the mental hospital corridors, players have a 2 second limit to click on the door in the background to keep moving forward. [Note for Mike, for places to move, can we change the cursor to a little arrow when it hovers over spots to 'move' Yu?].  If they don't click on the door in time, Yu will be caught by the entity and it'll be game over, players will need to reload back to their saved states.  Right think that's it for that part.

SKYPE/DROPBOX:
Do you guys shave skype?  I'm thinking it'll be very useful to have voice conferences so that we can all chat/brainstorm ideas together and may be easier to brainstorm together that way. For dropbox, I can invite you guys to my dropbox account so that when I add stuff to it (say scripts) it will pretty much instantly load on your computer and vice versa.  DON'T create an account yet if you don't, let me invite you so that I can get an extra 200mb for my account which we can share XD.  The starting space you get is 2gb.
http://www.dropbox.com/

Ok I actually haven't written all that I wanted but the rest are inspirational ideas that I think would be good for you guys to have a look at.  ONWARDS TO EPIC POST 2.

I also apologise if this post seems rather rambly, it's taken me over two hours to write this already XD.

7 comments:

  1. For the carriages i think it all depends on the ways its done. I keep flipping back and forth on my thinking of how that should work but there could be one line in which Yu mentions that something seems strange with out right telling the player what it is.

    Something just occured to me though, maybe its been covered and I've just missed it but why is Kimis boss murdered? Is it the politican that has her killed? If so why? I'm guessing the reason would be that shes uncovered something on him. And they go after Kimi cause they know shes Yu's sister? Did they intend to kill her or were they just going to kidnap her?

    Maybe Kimi dies at the end? Or the politican?

    Creepy experiences ideas!
    -When chatting to Kimi througth the TV whens she gone caaawazzy maybe the tv can become distorted and other weird images appear on it?

    -Hears the door knocking and anwsers it and no ones there (but who was door???)

    -Not exatly creepy idea but maybe at some point in the game the lights go out, and the mouse becomes like a flash light and you can only see a certain radius around the mouse pointer?

    -Hearing strange sounds. Like the sound made by the swining of a rope followed by like a loud thud. Remember that idea we had for a horror game when you enter the room with the hanging person? You leave and hear a thud and go back in and you've got the rope item! Maybe something like that

    -I think the strongest element for creeps can be the sound design

    -Calling out to someone in the distance who simply dosnt reply, and then maybe disappears. Not really creepy but un-nerving


    Puzzle ideas!

    - For the kid at the start maybe hes having like a seizure and you have to jam an epipen into his leg.

    -Maybe a code you have to decipher at some point, like one in Kimis notebook?

    -Lex Luthor challenges you to SOLVE MY MAZE

    -when hacking into Kimis computer you find some kind of clue to her password.

    -fix a fuse box to turn the lights back on

    -figuring out the code to enter a building

    -could blow in the mic to remove dust from an old painting or something to that extent - if they dont have a mic they can just remove it with the mouse

    -figure out a secret passage? (you may of noticed im stealing ideas from hotel dusk and last widnow XD)

    -objects that must be placed in a certain order to open a lock of some sort (yeh silent hill territory now)

    As I think of more puzzles and creep ideas, I'll add them here. I'm sure I can come up with more, but its hard to force it.

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  2. Carriages: Yeh, I think making the player aware of it will be good especially after the incident on the train. I'll think about it more.

    Kemi's boss: Red herring in order to get Kemi arrested. Police think Kemi murdered her but was actually killed by a ghost. Actually I don't know now because I envisioned that the boss and Kemi's coworkers cross paths with the thugs at the same time as Kemi. Either way, boss = red herring.

    Kemi/politician death: will think about it. I don't really want Kemi to die atm of writing though ;_;

    Talking with Kemi through distorted tv: already thought up, but thanks for reminding me XD

    But who was door?: considered. But a bit hard to pull off. Ahh maybe there's a day where Yu has to wait for an important phone call so he stays home all day. Door knocks happen occasionally and the player keeps looking through the peep hole. Nothing is there till the 3rd knock where some creepy thing flashes for a moment then disappears.

    Mouse = torchlight: YES. Should be easy to do with mask layers.

    Swinging rope: Oh yeh! Used in the hospital scenes where Kemi goes batshit mental and there is a power outage which forces you to use the torchlight on your phone....

    Sound design: you got that right buddy.

    Calling a person: This would help build the creep factor just before Kemi is ''arrested" and put into hospital.

    PUZZLES
    Train incident with kid: I'm slightly uncomfortable in how to portray a seizure but I have thought about it. I'll brood on it for a bit.

    - When you enter a room and you click on a locked door, it's suddenly silent. Cue creepy voice asking if you want to enter. Mic: "Yes" Mouse: (If I make a noise it might open the door...and will know where I am....) *interact with door to knock on it*.

    Great ideas so far, thanks Mike! :D

    Other than that great ideas so far!

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  3. ah.. i dont think i got a email of the script :O

    love the dream sequence idea and its connection to your phone.. as well as the interactions with a ghost character. that way if people play it a second time they'll be like OMGAHASKDHKSJD and that is always good... replay value! XD

    i hate to say this but i kinda think kemi should die.. or there should be an ending where she dies at least? maybe im just a morbid person though XD

    urrr... as for creepy instances..

    -maybe a toy moving places ala robbie the rabbit in silent hill 4 (when you spy on eileen)

    -maybe sometimes there can be a random creepy face in one of the backgrounds but it vanishes when you leave/enter.

    -in the house game i always found it scary when you see a shadow move across the room

    -going to sleep and then waking up to see a random balloon in your room that bursts and blood comes out and goes everywhere!!! hhahahahAHAHAMWAHAHAHAHAH

    yeah i really need some time to think of better ones XD will post later..

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  4. I kinda like that idea of a toy moving. Maybe theres an item that when you keep reentering a room changes position? Like you already said, like the rabbit.

    I didnt really think of how the seziure would be portrayed and yeh that would be kinda awkward. Maybe some other condition in which an injection is required? I cant think of much that would require an emergency beyond someone passing out somehow.

    Oh yeh and as to how Kimi's boss dies, I was going to suggest in my original post but for then some reason deleted it that maybe her death is the cause (as you've already said) of her simply coming into contact with Kimi. That would actually make the story kinda interesting as it would mean in reality Kimi kind of is responsible for her death, albeit in an indirect way. Anyway, I'm really liking how the story is shaping up and how all the pecies are coming together.

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  5. Miche: The script was sent to your googlemail account (everyone's email that I've signed up to the blog) but I can post up a download link soon if it makes it any easier? Or again, get dropbox and you can instantly get it the moment I drag it into it XD

    Multiple Endings: Could possibly relate to the game statistics like how many times you pray to ease the sufferings of the spirits? Doing a little insignificant thing like clicking on the altar for Yu to spend a moment there can actually turn out to be a big turning point for the ending perhaps.

    Some nice ideas there, duly noted!

    Mike: Ah how about a freak accident in which the train was passing by a steep mounting and a small landslide started in which small rocks started to fall down the mountain side and smashes through one of the windows into a kid. Wow, typing that actually felt WRONG XD But yeh, Yu then has to help patch the kid up, cleaning and attending to the cuts/bruises from the glass. Can possibly make it more like a trauma centre puzzle like that. Perhaps the little earthquake/rockslide was a weird symbolic coincidence of the spirits anger of Kemi's actions in disturbing so many alters by accident.

    In other words going from that line of thought I think that really suits the suggestion of the Boss's death by simply having contact with Kemi. It's starting to sound like scenes from Final Destination in which the bad guy is death and his modus operandi is making the characters have incredible bad luck for being in fatal/freak accidents.

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  6. I think there should definitaly be some kind of abstract evil entity that chases you. I imagined it being like Call of Cthulu, where you have to lock the door and block it with something to give you more time. However this time you also have to solve a puzzle to get into the next room. While you are solving the puzzle you can hear the entity banging on the door and gradually getting louder as it starts breaking the door down, giving the player a way of knowing how much time is left. Maybe also something like a heartbeat getting faster or a sound getting louder/intense to signal time running out.

    I like the idea of a character turning out to be a ghost, but I don't think it should be expliticly explained, only hinted at. E.g You are talking to them normally and they go into a room, you follow them but they aren't there anymore...

    I'm not sure how to add this into the game but the threat of drowning or running out of air is aways scary. Also puzzles where you only have a set amount of chances to complete are scary. E.g trying to remove glass from a patient's head, the more you move it the more damage it does -only 3 chances to do it right or they die. Or of course diffusing an atom bomb lol.

    Creepy happenings like your stuff being moved with no explanation is a good idea, ghosts always seem to do that lol, or your door being left open.

    Oh, and im not sure how many other people are on the train, but I would find it unnerving if gradually one by one they started to disappear even though there were no stops on the train.

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  7. I really like that idea of running but it's going to be quite complicated to pull off in terms of production. But see what I can do! I don't think think a physical entity wouldn't work so well in this context as it's mainly spiritual. Nonetheless, I was researching incense sticks and it sounds very much like the candles used in SH4 so maybe we can incorporate that kind of idea into this game?

    The only bit that I'm concerted about is that the ideas seem to be getting quite complicated to design into the Flash interface and time wise it's going to be hard to do. Although, it sounds like the ideas are becoming DS orientated: does anyone know how to program that kind of thing into Flash?

    Great ideas again though. Right now I think all the 'scares' will have to be scripted. I don't know enough about Flash programming to make things random and stuff like that but I hope with the use of multiple ending it will hopefully add some kind of replay value. Cheers!

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