Final Year Development Blog 2 - Creating the Script

I have spent the week coming up with a basic outline of events that will happen in the game. I have however decided to archive these 2 for reasons I will give in a moment. Here is the first outline I made.

*Things of Note* AI's name is Red Main characters name is Sam (can change idm) Sam's best friend's name is Christine aka Chrissy. The AI is not a pysical thing it is something in her mind, they have conversations almost constantly. Sam's mother made the AI so in essence the AI is her mother really. She also made the AI to feel. The world Sam is in is the world she created unconsciously.

DAY1 wake up in her room - hear mum say get ready, school starts soon. hear mum leave the house. 30min timer appears in the top right corner

----gameplay begins---- You hear Red say that achool begins in 1 hour 30min - there is some interaction between the main character and Red

objectives - take shower, brush teeth, get changed leave house. Other objectves can explore house, interact with objects, find out parents work at some sort of science company. here is a list of rooms Living room, Kitchen/Dining room, Sam's room, Parents room, bathroom, Garage. Maybe try to think about what items she will be interacting with. Picture frames (note here every single playthrough every single picture will change, glitch), when she walks into parents maybe something about never seeing them. stuff like that for every room. If you need somethig specific in a room lemme know.

----now outside---- if you walk right you come to a car crash blocking your way so you have to go back. you will eventually be forced to the school you will see one half of the screen become dark for half a second. during the walk you will get texts from friends. Just normal Secondary school stuff. Is homework done? did you hear what Jacob did in the weekend? etctec. One text stands out however. From your bestfriend the one you like Chrissy asking if you want to meet at the art room again? Sam calls Chrissy and you both talk about drawing eachother, how Chrissy is the much better artist than Sam during this walk glitchs happen, very subtle stuff.

you get to the school open the door screen goes black.

DAY2 wake up in her room - hear mum say get ready, school starts soon. hear mum leave the house. 30min timer appears in the top right corner (This happens exactly the same as the previous day)

when she wakes up you see her phone next to her head with the name of the girl she likes and seems like the call is still connected it is assumed they both talked until they both fell asleep, you wake up your friend and say that you will see her in school. Objectives - Take shower, brush teeth, get changed leave house. Other Objectives Explore house, if player interacts with the photo frames Red will give excuses as to why they changed. Maybe Red jut deletes the fact that Sam noticed that they changed. If player goes into the same room as yesterday dialogue will be different.

----now outside----you walk to the park. again while walking you will see glitches, you see a bird fall from the sky and vanish. You will see the day go from light to dark and about drawing each other this because deeper you begin telling her about the glitches you are having. she chalked it up to stress regarding the upcoming exam.You will be able to go anywhere you want. You will get a call from Chrissy asking if you want to skip school and go to the park. you say yes sure.then conversation switches to their relationship its super cute and they kiss.back again. You begin to freak out a bit, Red is trying to calm you down. You clam down when you see Chrissy swinging on a swing. You have a conversation

Screen goes black.

I decided to scrap this because I feel I veered too much away from the USP of my game. That being you experience the same events of the first playthrough of the game, in the second playthrough of the game but with subtle differences or even through a different perspective all together. This is the second Outline I came up with.

After the extinction of the human race, one mind ticks away the millenia. girl in padded room talks to herself, carer watches over a moniter and listens to her story over over the intercom.

girl started out as a painter, story flashes back to her time as a student, where her and her neighbour are hanging out in the art department, painting each other and laughing. it is hinted at that they like each other.

their friend christine(?) walks in on them and joins in.

The night her neighbour works up the courage to ask her out he climbs up to her window, only to find her kissing christine.

all three start out uncomfortable, and then their relationship explodes, the girls parents find out what she has been up to as do most of the town, she is shunned for her behaviour and tries to kill herself by overdosing.

when she comes to, she finds herself a couple of feet above the ground and falls.

she looks around to discover she is in a totally different part of the world, she blinks and finds herself in class just as the bell rings and for the rest of the day people apologise to her for how they behaved.

christine is ready to hang out with her again and the neighbour is very sorry.

the girl makes a few more mistakes she shouldn't be able to make and gets away with them every time, with fate spinning a safety net in often impossible situations.

the girl tests this shooting herself, jumping off buildings, throwing cars and bigger things, until eventually she kills her teacher, and brutally too.

the next day though, she wakes up in her own bed and her teacher is fine, she finds she still has the ability to manipulate everything though, and decides she must be insane, she starts to do weird things to see if other people notice, but they dont seem to be shocked by it, or they forget the next day, or after the girl blinks and she is moved and the word gets reset.

As much as I really liked the direction this outline went when I presented it to friends of mine. They had constant questions and found constant plot holes. I felt that some things shouldn't have to be explained, I felt that people could interpret things themselves but I quickly learnt that some things do have to be explained if they want to be believed.

Next week I will be creating more outlines for the narrative and story. The reason why I am spending so much time on the script is because my game will be broken or made because of it. If the script is weak the entire game will suffer. I must be able to create empathy in the player.

#Year #Final #Development #Project #FYP