Impending Doom

My idea for an Impending Doom would be the following...

What is Impending Doom?

Impending doom is a apprehension, a feeling that something bad is about to happen. In this case, in a video game. 

The Setting

The game takes place in a dark, seemingly abandoned castle. When player starts his journey, and he will soon find out that this isn't an ordinarily castle, but a cursed one when he sees magic portraits on the walls (this is an optional section where the player can press the left and right arrow buttons to look at the portraits). The portraits tells the story about a witch who was imprisoned in the castle by the warden, and flees the castle by casting a spell which drowns the entire castle in shadows, infested with ghostly beasts and humanoids who kill everyone who steps their foot on it. The shadow also seals all gates, preventing any one from escaping the castle. Most of the castle guards gets slaughtered by the shadow creatures, and only a few, including the warden, escapes the shadow by standing beside fires and torches. The witch frees herself from her shackles, kill the guards standing in her way, go out through the main gate of the castle, and seals it tightly. The shadow-spell , the survivors would later die by hunger, thirst or commit suicide. The fate of the warden, however, is unknown.

The Gameplay

Throughout the game, the player is controlled by an A.I.. The player can't move the player character what so ever. The only thing the player can do in this game is to observe (controlling the camera by moving left and right with the mouse) and doing quick-time events (by pressing certain buttons on the keyboard). If the player would fail these events, then the player dies. Every time the player dies, he must restart the game.

Like in the beginning of the game, the player wakes up in a cell with a broken door. Here, the player must press the space button to bust up the door, while the A.I. controls the player character's movements. There will be long corridor-sections in the game, with obstacles which the player can stumble upon, where the player tries to run away from the shadow behind him. Here there are a lot of quick-time sections with various buttons that the player must press, and in the same time, the player must press the space button as fast as possible. And if the player should not hit one of these, then the shadow comes and kills him. There will also be sections in the game where the shadow won't hunt you down, instead it just stands still. Here the player will choose one of several paths to go through, highlighted by numbers which the player must press on the keyboard (if you want to go through path one, you press 1 on the keyboard). One of these paths is the only way out, while the rest are just traps where the player gets killed.

There will also be a section later in the game where the player stands in a corridor and suddenly hears a roaring beast in the distance, from a room on the other side of the corridor. Here the player must tap the space button, faster and faster. The sound goes louder and louder for every step the player takes. And when the player opens the door to a another corridor, the sounds stops. But then suddenly, as the player takes some steps forward, a beast rushes through one of the walls just behind the player and starts to chase him. The player must, again, press the space button fast to run away from the beast. He comes to a big wooden door, and closes it behind him with a quick-time event. When the player thinks that the horror is finally over, the witch appears just behind him. She cast a spell which paralyzes the players body, except his head. The player, unable to move, collapses to the floor. The witch opens the door for the beast. The beast slowly walks towards the players head, and when the beast strikes the player with his jaw, the game ends.

Discussion

When I wrote this essay, I got a new idea for a game. And this idea spawned several new ones, which I then decided to write down so that these would not be forgotten. I tried to explain all my ideas as good as I could and focusing on the essential ones (the quick-time events, the castle, the shadow and the witch, the beast etc.). I also wrote some ideas of the story, but I chose to edit it out and save it for later, since this assignment is not to convey the story and background of the game. When I get feedback from this, I may present new and even better ideas of this game, or maybe even for an entirely new one.

I followed the theory about 8 kinds of fun; which consists of sensation, fantasy, narrative, challenge, fellowship, discovery, expression and submission. This game follows nearly all of these, except for fellowship (since this is not a multiplayer game, nor a game which you would like to play with a friend), expression and discovery (since you are unable to move and, therefore, just an observer). This is essentially a horror game that focus mostly on sensation. The challenging part would be the quick-time events, where the player must press the right buttons displayed on the screen, and if he fails, the player would die and is forced to restart the game. The narrative parts is mainly the portraits, and also the castle itself (the narrative is conveyed solely by the environments, not by dialogue and/or text).

So basically, I wanted to make a game that is a visual experience, where the environments tells the story and the quick-time events are the mechanics. Dynamics, however, don't exist since the player can't do anything else than to move the camera and performing quick-time events. I chose quick-time events because I want to make a game based upon the game that which was screened during our lecture about Impending Doom (I don't remember the name of the game), where the player only can press one button to move forward, and if he fails to do so, then the player would die. I want to make a similar game, but with multiple buttons and with an environment that can convey a story much better than with dialogue and/or words. A game like Journey (the PS3 game), but in a horrific environment and with no chance to survive (or change) the ending.