Target Market

The target market for my game is 15-25 years old aged people. In my opinion, this age range enjoys thrills and mystery the most so that is my reasoning behind this.

The Story

On a cold winter’s day, a woman contracted the plague disease. This worried her husband greatly and they began writing letters to each other every night while she was ill. They wanted to find a way to communicate that wouldn’t get them too close to each other and would let them show their love to each other before it was too late. The chocolate box they shared once a week sat on the old table in the living room filled with two chocolates, waiting for them to get back the habit of sharing the refillable chocolate box again. The plague mask that stayed on the outside of their bedroom was diligently worn every day. The clock that was propped on the bedroom side table ticked away every minute until it eventually stopped on the night of her death. The man found life cold and empty from then and came on to cherish the things that were left behind after his wife died. No one was aloud in the house as he lived the rest of his life alone. Because of the anger he felt after being alone, he had urge to constantly protect every special object in his house.

In current time, the 21st century, 700 years later, the man stays in his house as a ghost watching over his precious belongings, ready to haunt and scare off anyone who enters or dares to touch his treasured items. A man decides he is interested in living in the deserted house and when he goes to take his first visit, he discovers a ghost that traps him in and tinkers with the man’s nerves in an attempt to protect his home of deep history by killing any trespassers.

The Objective

The objective could be to clear out the special artifacts and kill the ghost officially to finally end his suffering of loneliness and anger. In order to do this, you would need to find keys to open up to a spiral staircase which would lead you down to a stony underground room where you need to take each special artifact and put them in a pot together. This would cause a light to shine which would make the objects disappear and the ghost dies along with everything else. The challenge would be to stay quiet while doing all of this. If he hears or sees you, then he will go after you. However, if you are quiet enough and stay hidden in shadows then he won’t see you and you can safely bring the objects down. If he sees you and kills you the objects that were moved would be back to their original place and you would need to start from where the spiral staircase door was opened, so you don’t need to fully restart. By giving limited hints, the player would have to work most things out themselves which makes for a harder game. For example, if the hint of being able to stay hidden while in shadows was not given, the player would eventually need to discover this tip out themselves. This leaves lots of discovery for the player.

My Idea for the Assets Inside the House

  • Clock – My idea this this object in my game is that it will be stopped on the exact time his wife died which makes it one of the many special objects in the house. This would trigger the ghost to appear if it is interacted with, as he wants to save it as a memory
  • Plague mask – This could be special to the man as it was something he had to wear everyday while his wife was ill, so this also would cause him to get suspicious and appear.
  • Chocolates in a box – My idea for this object is that it holds the story of him and his wife sharing the box of chocolates once a week. The final two lying in the box would be the last two that were left over after they stopped sharing the box because of her illness. This also triggers him to appear once it is interacted with.
  • Letters that he and his wife would write to each other – He doesn’t want anyone to rea read them so he is especially sensitive towards the letters, this would cause him to appear if any of the letters are interacted with. The letters would be about how much they cared for each other and would reminisce all the memorable times they had together.
  • Tombstone – This indicates the death of the man’s wife and sits in the front garden. This triggers the man when people get too close to it. Another special asset that contributes o the story.

Main Character Design

I wanted my character to give off a garish look to his outfit that represents different meanings. I’ve decided to go for a suit that is covered in red and yellow vertical stripes. The red represents the anger he felt for the rest of his life after the death of his wife, and the yellow represents the opposite feeling. Essentially the happiness he felt when his wife was still alive.

Inspirations

  • The plague idea arose from my own thought that plague masks look scary and intimidating. Because of this, I knew I wanted to make my monster/ghost wear one as it would be scarier for the player when they see him. This is also something I’ve never seen in a horror game so my character idea in my opinion, is considerably fresh. Then I decided to put the idea of the plague into my story, so the plague mask had a meaning. This is how I decided what the
  • home would look like and the story behind they monster and the assets within the home.
  • The idea for the inclusion of chocolates in a wooden box came from when I remembered the film Matilda. The character Miss Trunchbull kept a chocolate box in her house which she used to share with her niece when they lived together. I took this from the film and decided it was a logical asset to the story of the relationship of the man and his wife and could be used as an interactive object in the house.
  • When coming up with the look of my ghost, I wanted it to look intimidating. I chose to use his outfit to add this element. How you dress a monster is important as you want to prevent them from looking stupid and laughable, but you also need to include that intimidating, creepy element in the character. To create this effect on my ghost, I thought of what I have found scary before through films and TV programmes. I grow up watching Doctor Who which includes many terrifying and disturbing monsters. One that is memorable for me is The Silence. They are tall and have a big alien shaped head. Their skin is dead coloured and the outfit that they wear is a black suit and tie with a white shirt underneath. The whole look of this monster screams scary and I would feel horrified if I saw it stood outside my bedroom. I wanted to apply the same look to my monster, so I took the suit idea but completely tweaked it and decided on a suit that is covered in thick red and yellow vertical stripes to make my character unique.

The Plague Research Page

The plague is a disease spread by fleas that lasted from 1346 until 1353. It has three types of disease: Bubonic, Septicemic and Pneumonic and the outbreak.

Bubonic plague causes sudden onset of fever and chills, headache, fatigue or malaise, and muscle aches.

Septicemic plague causes fever and chills, extreme weakness, abdominal pain, diarrhoea and vomiting, bleeding from your mouth, nose or rectum, or under your skin, shock, and blackening and death of tissue in your fingers, toes, and nose.

Pneumonic plague causes cough, with bloody mucus, difficulty breathing, nausea and vomiting, high fever, headache, weakness, and chest pain.

Doctors wore masks with a beak-like feature because they thought that the plague was caused by bad smells, so they filled the mask with things like flowers to prevent bad smells.

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