Game Concept Devlog

< OVERVIEW >
Title: Lilies in Autumn Bloom
Genre: Immersive Sim, Puzzle, Crime

Concept:
Watch her, your friend, and her family – and uncover their plot to get rid of her. React appropriately, either take the hitman route, foil their plans and leave evidence for her to find – or simply keep her safe somehow. However, whatever you do will raise suspicion, even your footsteps, but thankfully you have the power of foresight and speech to convince the people around you to move, show you the evidence, or to simply do what you want. Find gaps, plan, learn, and execute.

Creation/Influences:
The main premise has heavy influence from Hitman firstly – although taking a more immersive sim approach to the game idea. Hitman already has some immersive sim influence (mainly thanks to IOI’s original parent company), and by touching on it some more I can focus on emotional connection while not compromising the core gameplay loop. These types of games also lend a lot of the game to the player to essentially curate their experience, something I know well from my ‘misplaying’ of Hitman, such as by stealthily killing a whole map, or by going through chaotic runs where everything goes wrong. This is done by doing less, and by building open ended systems to handle how the player ultimately takes on challenges. My other main influences are from visual novels, e.g. Our Life, Disco Elysium, or other story games with heavy choice mechanics. Many of the features I have planned are from my earlier game planning, in this case, my own idea of a game where people learn who you are and interact with you based on that, while you also learn to express yourself – essentially a much more complicated Disco Elysium. I have migrated over my concepts of routine and immersive environments (not really the character building however), to hopefully build an environment that seems to understand your place in it. I plan to have characters understand what you’re doing, get confused by weird game-like behaviour, while still giving opportunities for the player to explore, make mistakes, potentially with a time-travel mechanic reminiscent of Ghost Trick to allow you to repeat parts of the day to perfect your plan. That aspect is unlikely to be implemented, as it ultimately depends on the complexity I’m able to add. However, the art is still going to be strongly inspired by Ghost Trick, hopefully with the characteristic smooth 3D animation of that game as a feature. Ultimately, it’s a complete immersive sim, narrowed down to a single household, a single scenario, and an expandable system to help immerse the player in this world.

Audience:
The easiest direct parallel to tie to this is in the influences, it is made for immersive sim fans. It specifically has a lot of tie-over into the more story sided part of that, which makes it a unique crossover between games such as Thief (which has a more realistic take to Hitman’s gameplay, headed by the same company), and games such as Disco Elysium. Considering demographics specifically, the game is intended for a mature audience, with teens to young adults in mind. Adults may also be a good target audience; however my writing will reflect my own experiences and feelings, which are less likely to resonate with older audiences. The game goes strongly into feelings of alienation (a common stereotypical teenage experience), and betrayal, which both fit the age range well. The game’s subject matter is reasonably dark, and while I intend to lighten it, it’s better to assume the audience must be expecting that. In terms of gender, the game is specifically written to include queer analogies, and I intend for the main character to be a woman. This has a somewhat ‘evening’ effect in most game audiences, however that depends on the depiction of women in those games – many games in this area have male dominated spaces online too, although that can and will shift (the classic doom community is a good example of this from my own experience in that community). In terms of market competitiveness, it holds a unique position, in which it may be tough to find players interested. However, the success of similar games does give prospects for this game idea to be interesting to a wide audience. Casting a wider net with the audience in the ways that I have also may reach people who aren’t as typically invested in these genres, even if it may alienate some people who may have otherwise been interested.

< FURTHER CONCEPT DETAILS >
The game currently has 5 characters, some of which are still unnamed. The first character is the main character, who is currently unnamed. The current intended design of her is for her to be overly extravagant, giving high contrast with the environment, perhaps even bordered to give a distinct visual style. However, this will require 2D sprites, as 3D outlines still require a relatively intensive shader, and this is intended to be ran in WebGL (which would still likely support the shader, and run about as well as on desktop, however web games are expected to have low resource requirements.) The second character is Mica, who appears in the intro and outro cutscenes to inform the player of the current situation. They are never seen, only referred to by name. The third character is Luna, who is the person we're saving. She wears a black skirt, with a white jumper and blue horizontal stripes. She's typically timid, and will question the player's decisions if they are too suspicious. The forth character is the mother, who wears a more 90s/00s outfit in contrast to the rest of the characters. She is a little confrontational, but more tired if anything. The final character is Luna's brother, Asher, who wears a dark green hoodie, and light blue denim jeans. He is instrumental to the plans and hates Luna far more than her mother. The main plotline follows the family starting to torment Luna. As her friend, you come in to see how she is doing, and record how the rest of the family is doing. The environment is set in summer (the name is heavily metaphorical), and may have a small backyard, although due to my technical abilities with art, that may not be possible.

(Luna's bedroom, currently missing some models + potentially some further detailing)
The above picture takes heavy influence from Ghost Trick's simplistic pixel art detailing, although this is likely a smaller resolution. That is actually an advantage for me personally, as I can scale it without losing any detail. The rooms are sectioned off into areas which can simply be accessed, and the objects in this room can be searched for resources. The NPCs don't like you searching stuff though, and will either question you, or get angry at you for it. Angry NPCs, especially Luna, will shut down, and you may be told to leave. This is an instant loss state, and objects become unusable, leaving you to exit through the door (which you can leave through at any time to finish the game). Below is a completed layout of the whole house, although many of these rooms are subject to changes.

(Concept art from a few weeks ago, showcasing the layout of the home.)
The main gameplay loop has some predefined loops that can be taken, similar to mission stories in Hitman. These are poisons, and accidents, however no direct opportunities (it doesn't make any sense for our main character to possess the strength of Agent 47). If this loop is refined, there may be a 2 player mode, where the second player takes over Luna, and must complete tasks while trying to find out what Player 1 is doing, frightening Luna. Camera management will be a difficult task, although with potentially some shader work it should be easy to implement. Characters have routines which can be interrupted, however they'll try and complete tasks they have been given. Characters can hear roughly where you are, and hear if you enter a room, however not which one. Characters may or may not call out if you're accessing weird areas, such as the attic, although you can take items to make it quieter so you can access rooms without being detected. The game also features a basic day + night system, depicted only by the sky outside. From there, all mechanics are derived, as the core loop is intended to let the player experiment with basic features to not only follow more intended routes, but also more unintended routes. After the game ends, Mica calls to inform the player of their success or failure, then the ensuing investigation. A series of checks are used to determine the overall score of the player, and there can be a final result screen, alongside a star rating. While seemingly complex most of this is easy to implement - the art is the main area that will take a lot of time, and the above is fairly easy to implement.

< REFERENCES >

- HITMAN World of Assassination. IO Interactive A/S, 2022. PC.
- Our Life: Now and Forever. GB Patch Games, n.d. PC.
- Disco Elysium - The Final Cut. ZA/UM, 2019. PC.
- Ghost Trick. Designed by Shu Takumi, Capcom, 2010. Nintendo DS.
- Thief: The Dark Project. Looking Glass Studios, 1998. PC.