Not Exactly Horror, but Psychological

[Gas Snake]

EDIT: This idea has officially been titled 'Project Extreme Clue'

Here's what I envision:

A first-person, open world detective game with a similar feel to the Bethesda games, but more constrained. The 'open world' is just one small, out of the way town, to-scale, with explorable homes for every npc and places of business for employment/school/etc. Its a painfully small town. There are 75 to 125 unique characters. Gameplay should be a revision of old Point-and-click style games, with most of it consisting of gathering items and information that you have to interpret yourself, or find someone to help interpret for you.

You are a detective of the towns' police department and are assigned to a murder case at the beginning of the game. You must gather evidence and information from around town to try and piece together the identity of the killer.

The game progresses based on time passed, ala Majora's Mask, instead of achieving certain things, so its possible to fall behind on the investigation/waste time/fail to prevent a murder by seconds/etc.

The catch of the game?-
The identity of the killer is chosen at random amongst every character in the town at the start of a new game, and the victims/number of victims/evidence/etc change depending on that, so it could be literally anyone, and you'd have to be careful who you involve in the investigation/talk to/trust, because you could get someone killed in the process, including yourself.

Some murderers would be easier to catch than others, depending on the characters' intelligence/motive/personality/etc, so not all playthroughs would go through the entire time allowed before you figure out who the killer is and gather enough evidence to arrest them. Also, starting a New Game+ or something would prevent you from getting repeat murderers.

Thats about all I got. I'd like to see what the people here think and if anyone has anything to add onto the concept.

[Mr Snibbles]

Jun 29, 2010 19:00:48 GMT -5 Gas Snake said:

The catch of the game?-
The identity of the killer is chosen at random amongst every character in the town at the start of a new game, and the victims/number of victims/evidence/etc change depending on that, so it could be literally anyone, and you'd have to be careful who you involve in the investigation/talk to/trust, because you could get someone killed in the process, including yourself.

Some murderers would be easier to catch than others, depending on the characters' intelligence/motive/personality/etc, so not all playthroughs would go through the entire time allowed before you figure out who the killer is and gather enough evidence to arrest them. Also, starting a New Game+ or something would prevent you from getting repeat murderers.

Thats about all I got. I'd like to see what the people here think and if anyone has anything to add onto the concept.

I'm liking that, alot, good work bro.

[Kino]

The catch of this game is fantastic.
It would be a beast to script / write for. Not only do you need 100+ separate storylines, but also a ton of alternate endings from when you fail to make it to one of those many plotpoints. But damn, I want to play this game.

Do you have any ideas for specific characters?

[Mr Snibbles]

Jun 29, 2010 19:18:58 GMT -5 Kino said:

It would be a beast to script / write for.

That's where the people who are good scripters / writers come in.

Maybe even you.....

[Gas Snake]

Jun 29, 2010 19:18:58 GMT -5 Kino said:

Do you have any ideas for specific characters?

Not specifics yet, sorry. This idea is pretty fresh. But what I can tell you about the characters is that they're the most important part of the game. It's not just about catching the criminal, but also about finding out what motivated them and turned them to murder, and slowly showing as you see each town member fall into darkness, that anybody could become a killer if the right conditions come up.

[Kino]

That sounds awesome.

Also, I'm not saying that the amount of coding / writing means that the idea is unfeasible or it's a bad idea.
It's possible that there could be only, say, 24 different killers (one out of five in the population) and get a similar effect if this can't get the funding / manpower it needs at the time. This would SERIOUSLY weaken the statement of the whole game but it would still be an insane amount of fun to play.
That or make these 24 different outcomes, but aim to script out the rest of the story in the future. Pitch the half-finished game to companies and ask for more funding etc. etc.
That's a good way to start off but man... things wouldn't be right until everyone gets their own separate story. I wouldn't support this idea at all unless it was absolutely necessary at the time. It might get your foot in the door at least.

Another potential problem would be that with so many separate stories each separate story overall could get a bit watered down and start to get too similar to one another instead of buckling down on less and making them all high-quality. No matter what though, if this game gets played by a lot of people there will be a shit tier and god tier between all these mysteries. (It's probably not a bad thing, it would be addictive to play... I would want to keep replaying to see if there are better and even better stories that I didn't get to experience yet).

Also, this is a small town which will help immensely. Like you said, this game is about how anyone could become the killer with the right motive... picking characters that are iconic pieces of every town out there would make such a large list of characters easier to do. Though this is probably what you intended all along...

I'd recommend listing every single possible character before writing any of the murder mysteries, just so you know what you can work with character wise. Plus making an overall map of the town after you settle on the cast. Post the list, post the town map, assign different people to write for their fair share of the characters, POTENTIAL FOR SUCCESS.

Just my two cents, this is entirely your game. Do want you want!

Also: I forgot to ask... what kind of art design would you be aiming for? Something with a retro feel or something maybe more modern? I'm curious

[Sweet Bro]

It seems very interesting, but I would like a bit more light shone onto it. It seems a bit vague to me. If ANYONE could be the killer, would the game set it so that random characters are set each time, or is there a set cast? Will all crimes be simply murders or will there be more...deviant crimes? Will there be children? Will the time limit always be the same?

I also think Kino has a very realistic point. It seems that if this game were to reach tangibility, either there would have to be set story-lines for a large number of characters, with maybe unlockable characters, or other gimmicks like you're not a detective anymore, you're one of the civilians. Which would end up being a very large game. Or, the game would end up becoming watered down, with set algorithms to generate crimes and stories, which seems unattractive to me. The personal touch is lost.

I want to see what else you have to say. It's an interesting concept, and I can't wait to see more.

[steph]

this actually sounds REALLY great. i think if it was like a huge collaboration project, with a bunch of people writing for each scenario or like one person gets like 2 murderers to write for etc. would work pretty well if you could get all those people. that way the scenarios would be fresh (since it's not just one guy coming up with ideas) and they would also be in a different style than the other ones, which would really make each playthrough different.