U
UnknownDevil666
Guest
Hi all,
I have a game idea that I've been thinking about for some time now, and am just now starting to document it. Although I have a pretty clear vision of the game and its underlying systems, I just can't seem to figure out a pitch for the game, probably because I'm not certain of the target audience or the player experience.
So I'm hoping anyone here at the forums could take a look at the idea and give me their opinion on it, or simply a suggestion for the pitch/high concept statement. Also, I'm having difficulty simply writing things down and the documentation process as a whole, so if anybody as any tips on that, I'd be super grateful.
Thanks for any help! The game's description and pitch are in the spoiler just below:
I have a game idea that I've been thinking about for some time now, and am just now starting to document it. Although I have a pretty clear vision of the game and its underlying systems, I just can't seem to figure out a pitch for the game, probably because I'm not certain of the target audience or the player experience.
So I'm hoping anyone here at the forums could take a look at the idea and give me their opinion on it, or simply a suggestion for the pitch/high concept statement. Also, I'm having difficulty simply writing things down and the documentation process as a whole, so if anybody as any tips on that, I'd be super grateful.
Thanks for any help! The game's description and pitch are in the spoiler just below:
PITCH: Ghost Train is a top-down horror exploration game about a runaway boy stranded in an Old West ghost town.
The player’s narrative objective is to find fuel for their steam train to leave town. To find it, the player explores the world through puzzle-solving means: find keys, decrypt safe codes, discover hidden areas, etc. These mechanics exist primarily to segment the world into “levels”, maintaining a sequential narrative and giving the player a sense of accomplishment and/or progression.
As you progress through the narrative, you encounter “horrors”, ghosts of the town’s residents, and they are not friendly. These encounters come in various forms and so they may be conquered quite differently. For example, one might jump at you in a sudden quick-time event and another you might simply have to stealthily avoid. But you don’t ever actually fight or beat the horrors, just avoid them. If they do finally catch you, then the screen fades to black. . . .And then fades back in, showing your shivering body crouched on the floor.
The horrors aren’t real. Rather, they are figments of the boy’s terrified imagination run rampant, but he doesn’t realize it. After the boy realizes he is no longer captured by the horror, he gets up and the player can move along as if nothing happened. Well, not exactly. Without any actual death that may cause the player to backtrack, there would be no fear of loss in the game, which might put off players. Instead, when the boy believes he has been captured, he is filled with terror.
The terror mechanism is a scale of how frightened the boy is throughout the game, and based on this scale, it may influence the player’s ability to do things, like escape later horrors or explore certain areas. Your level of terror towards the end of the game, where the game comes to a climax and the stakes are truly raised, will also influence the ending. Terror is influenced by a mixture of explorative factors and evasion of future horrors: if you successfully evade a horror, the boy becomes slightly less terrified and successive evasions increase the decrementation of terror. On the other hand, getting “captured” by the horrors increases terror dramatically. But horrors aren’t the only terrifying thing. Exploration affects not only your level of terror, but also the appearance of horrors.
Among the things you may inspect around the world, there are plenty that expand on the lore of the town, such as newspaper articles about mass tragedies or wanted signs of devilish outlaws. Such things strike the boy with apprehension, that raises terror. Beyond that, because the horrors are figments of the boy’s imagination, horrors of those stories will manifest later in the game. If those horrors aren’t conquered, then terror is increased tragically, but if they can be overcome, then terror is greatly reduced, as the boy has been able to conquer a great fear.
Most of the information given here isn’t granted to the player immediately, if at all. At least, not directly. Part of the player experience I wish to craft is this sense of discovery or mystery behind the mechanics, which requires giving only hints as to what’s really going on. For example, every time the player is captured by a horror, a visual effect is displayed during the moment of darkness that scales with the level of terror the boy feels. Some extra notes on player experience:
The player’s narrative objective is to find fuel for their steam train to leave town. To find it, the player explores the world through puzzle-solving means: find keys, decrypt safe codes, discover hidden areas, etc. These mechanics exist primarily to segment the world into “levels”, maintaining a sequential narrative and giving the player a sense of accomplishment and/or progression.
As you progress through the narrative, you encounter “horrors”, ghosts of the town’s residents, and they are not friendly. These encounters come in various forms and so they may be conquered quite differently. For example, one might jump at you in a sudden quick-time event and another you might simply have to stealthily avoid. But you don’t ever actually fight or beat the horrors, just avoid them. If they do finally catch you, then the screen fades to black. . . .And then fades back in, showing your shivering body crouched on the floor.
The horrors aren’t real. Rather, they are figments of the boy’s terrified imagination run rampant, but he doesn’t realize it. After the boy realizes he is no longer captured by the horror, he gets up and the player can move along as if nothing happened. Well, not exactly. Without any actual death that may cause the player to backtrack, there would be no fear of loss in the game, which might put off players. Instead, when the boy believes he has been captured, he is filled with terror.
The terror mechanism is a scale of how frightened the boy is throughout the game, and based on this scale, it may influence the player’s ability to do things, like escape later horrors or explore certain areas. Your level of terror towards the end of the game, where the game comes to a climax and the stakes are truly raised, will also influence the ending. Terror is influenced by a mixture of explorative factors and evasion of future horrors: if you successfully evade a horror, the boy becomes slightly less terrified and successive evasions increase the decrementation of terror. On the other hand, getting “captured” by the horrors increases terror dramatically. But horrors aren’t the only terrifying thing. Exploration affects not only your level of terror, but also the appearance of horrors.
Among the things you may inspect around the world, there are plenty that expand on the lore of the town, such as newspaper articles about mass tragedies or wanted signs of devilish outlaws. Such things strike the boy with apprehension, that raises terror. Beyond that, because the horrors are figments of the boy’s imagination, horrors of those stories will manifest later in the game. If those horrors aren’t conquered, then terror is increased tragically, but if they can be overcome, then terror is greatly reduced, as the boy has been able to conquer a great fear.
Most of the information given here isn’t granted to the player immediately, if at all. At least, not directly. Part of the player experience I wish to craft is this sense of discovery or mystery behind the mechanics, which requires giving only hints as to what’s really going on. For example, every time the player is captured by a horror, a visual effect is displayed during the moment of darkness that scales with the level of terror the boy feels. Some extra notes on player experience:
- Besides the underlying mechanics, should have their own feelings of unease through the chime of a clock striking 3:00AM, the recurring presence of a gallows in the middle of town, the mangled movement of a grotesque horror, and so on.
- The variance in narratives also allows for a social aspect of the game to arise, where players can share their own experience of the game with players who crafted different narratives.
- Exploration is satisfying to the player because observable objects (not all of which are important) will be indicated to the player so that the player doesn’t have to check every nook and cranny of the room, and the dialogue boxes given are through the perspective of the boy himself, rather than a neutral voice.