55 replies to this topic

[bjgamer]

I sometimes like to write concepts for fun so I thought I'd give this a try. The stuff in brackets are work in progress concepts. If you like it send me a message

-Background of the Island-

We are at the end of the era of the human exploration of Earth. Humans have learned everything they possibly could about the world. Humans have solved every mystery that they could. However there is one secret that still eludes human understanding; [an island located in the middle of the Pacific Ocean].
This island was surrounded by mystery. No one has ever set foot there and returned. Fly-bys of the island reveal nothing except dense forests and a tower erected in the very middle.

-Main Character-

Ever since the main character was a kid they wanted to make a name for themselves, and nothing sounded cooler than exploring “Tower Island.” Throughout their childhood they have done everything to achieve this goal. They learned [karate/swordplay/gunmanship], and survival skills. They trained their body and their mind for the moment they would step foot on the island. The main character is one of many people on an expedition to chart “Tower Island”, to learn its secrets.

-The Beginning-

The story begins with a crew of 10+ on a small boat they rented headed for “Tower Island”. They reach the island dusk is falling. The captain of the boat refuses to stay near the island after dark so he drops main character and crew off and sails away, promising to return in a week’s time. It’s almost night, so everyone sets up their tents. Night falls and the main character hears an eerie noise. Intrigued the main character walks towards the noise, and into the forest that fills the island. It hasn’t even been a minute when the main character hears screams coming from the campsite. The main character frantically runs back, and finds the rest of the crew massacred. [The tents are torn, blood and entrails are everywhere, pieces of people are scattered about.] The main character stares at utter disbelief at the carnage, then, out of the corner of their eye the see movement. The main character turns and sees a pair of glowing eyes staring intently at him. The main character makes eye contact and doesn’t break it. The creature lets out an ear-splitting howl and lunges at the main character [only a blur can be seen]. Just as the creature is about to reach the player the eerie sound rings again, and the creature disappears.

-Some ideas-

· Main character gets lost on island while trying to find a way to contact the outside world
· They traverse the forest and eventually make it to the tower

[ExtinctDinosaur]

Homecoming

Joshua was adopted by his aunt and uncle at a very young age when both of his parents went missing. They were never found after an extensive search, and they told no one of any plans to leave or anything of the sort. Joshua is now 14 (? age changeable). He has had an uneventful life so far with his aunt and uncle but wishes to return to his hometown to talk to friends of his parents and find out if anyone has any information about what happened. He saved up money for a few weeks and then snuck out of his aunt and uncle's home one night, taking a hired taxi to his hometown of Pleasantwood.

At this late hour, Joshua is the only person on the streets and the driver gives him a queer look, no doubt wondering what a kid is doing out alone at night. He seems friendly enough, so Joshua explains that he is going to visit his hometown, leaving out the details about his parents. After a few minutes of small chat, Joshua eases back into his seat and turns his attention to the window as a gentle drizzle patters against the glass. The trip should take several hours, and it's late, so Joshua begins to let sleep take him.

He is ripped from his dreams by the screeching of rubber on asphalt and a jarring pain as his head bangs against the window.The next thing Joshua is aware of is the roaring, crashing pandemonium as the bus crashes nose first into a tree and his world goes black.

It must have been only a moment, for when he opened his eyes he still had fresh blood oozing from a cut on his forehead. He then noticed the driver and screamed for the first of many times this night.

The man was covered in blood and sat unmoving with his neck hanging limply at an awkward, grotesque angle. Joshua quickly scrambles out of the car and checks the pockets of the unresponsive driver for a phone, but finds nothing. The man is most certainly dead, but Joshua knows he must get help and report the incident. Shakily making his way to the road, he notices a street sign that reads: Pleasantwood 1 Mile. He sets off, breathing heavily . . .

**At this point the game starts and the horror elements begin. Maybe he makes it to town and it is silent hill-esque, strange and everything seems aged and there is a strange, out-out-place and ominous tower sitting in the center of town that certainly shouldn't be there.**

So you have a whole town to explore and can find clues about your missing parents and how they are tied into the strange happenings, and how you (Joshua or whatever his name ends up being) are involved

[Kasher]

Wow awesome concepts

[Wolfgang01]

Hey newbie here, I thought I'd give writing a go. Let me know what you think.

Hark the angels sing, hark the angels sing.

Evil tidings they will carry,

Boy, you better run when you hear them ring.

Mystic River town is a blot upon a map, just a destination that no one fancies, but needs out of necessity for gas, and what-not when travelling through the west. The inhabitants there respond in a vacant wooden-like way, and it seems as if everything is out of stock and will be replaced tomorrow. They urge you to stay at the motel, and wait till they restock, and you warily oblige. You note that the townspeople look as if they’re trapped, like they’re programmed to follow a set path over and over again, but it’s a passing thought, and you dismiss it for small town quirkiness. As you call it a night you hear a bell toll off in the distance. Ready to dismiss that too you notice the motel receptionist collapsed on the ground. Then you walk out into the street and see that Mystic River town has completely shut down, quite literally.

Edited by Wolfgang01, 19 June 2012 - 07:47 PM.

[Daerst]

I'd love to see that game in action! Great concepts so far.
Give it a dark, insane, bloody (combine as required) ending and it could have a sort of Lovecraftian touch to it

[Spoon Thumb]

I'm guessing competition wise, this is already over, but still fun to have a go. Incidentally, there is nothing scary in any of those reference photos for someone who lives in rural England. Atmospheric? Yes. Scary? About as intimidating as a Sunday morning walk in the countryside:

The cows, the same ones, every day. They mock me, ignoring my presence amongst them, until I shout myself hoarse. Only then do they deign to casually glance in my direction. The docile beasts somehow avoid my approaches, ducking and weaving into the mist that descends each time I get close.

At the far edge of the field, the old brick factory. It reeks of ghosts, dusty and cavernous, stripped bare of man and machinery that once brought it to life. I long for the day when developers come from the city to turn the place into luxury flats and boutique shops. How they would stare at the sudden appearance of this ragged man, this waif, wandering their prime real estate.

Oh how I wish! Wish to be awakened from my perpetual nightmare. It has been months since the days blended together and nights turned to fiction. Since that Sunday morning I set off from the car park off the A514, walking through the cloud drenched woods, never to find my way back. Not a single soul did I see on the roads that morning. Alone then, as I am now, I crave the company of another.

Yet it is a force unnatural and monstrous that accompanies me. The factory's towering chimney looming above me, inescapable, forever visible in the background everywhere I go. It screams, howling despair, emitting a sound that rips my soul with dread, and fills my spine with a tingled chill of a threat. Nameless and invisible, it creeps ever closer with each chime of the tower. Soon it will be upon me, and then I shall know my torture here merely as a walk in the park for all the terrors that await

Of course, whatever haunts the character in the above passage had better be a damn sight scarier than a regular old mutant or alien or somesuch. Equally, the player isn't going to have any guns or knives to destroy what preys in the plane of existence between the conscious and subconscious mind, so that somewhat throws out the usual bullet physics and weapons mechanics

[-Crimsix-]

Hmm, interesting. Alan Wake was the first thing that came to mind seeing these pictures though lol. This might not be the best story, but here's a brief pitch:


You're Neal Mathers, a local farmer's teenage son and many of his animals has gone mission or were found mutilated corpses. Day after day, on the radio you hear news of children gone missing and your father warns you not to be out past dark. While sleeping one night around 4:00am, a bright light shines from the sky through your window, you look outside and in awe, you see a huge silver disc in the sky glowing with many bright colors and it slowly hovers out of the farm and into the dark forest and you follow it until it’s totally out of sight. While following the UFO, you find yourself lost and have to get back to the farm but on your way, you see creepy creatures in the night whose faces are hidden behind the dark with only their white glowing eyes exposed. They try to catch you and you're running and hiding from them with a shovel as your only defense. You hide behind one tree, and peek behind you to see two creatures approach as they come close, you hit one with a shovel and run on to the next cover. Many of them begin to approach slowly and you continue a cat and mouse chase through the night.

Finally, you lose them and time passes as dawn breaks along the way back to the farm, you find many children and people your age reported missing on the radio all around the forest as you go along, they seem to be escapees from a creature they describe as the Harvester who lives in what they call the sky house and they're all out looking for the remaining children who were there with them to bring them back to their main hideout, which I guess could be the first picture. Missions consist of finding your way through mazes of crop circles in the forest, using the environment to hide from the Grays (aliens dispatched in the forest to find escapees) and finding out what’s going on in the tower where mysterious echoing sounds of the unknown are heard in the forest every night and colored strobe lights beam through the windows. I’m thinking clues may come through some of the children in riddles and you play through occasional dream sequences (which really feel like a dream by using a dolly zoom effect and surreal and hallucinatory aesthetics and visuals in a real world to add to the mystique of the game)

[FittyYen]

Let's see what I can do. Just gonna type till lunch is over, so sorry if it stops abruptly.

The first thing the Kid saw was that tower off in the horizon, an unearthly light pouring out from it's peak. The first thing the Kid heard came from that tower, an echoing, cracking noise that managed to resonate within the ribs of the Kid's chest. The first thing the Kid felt was a stabbing pain throughout thier arm, everything below the socket felt like it was on fire. The Kid knew that something was after 'em, just didn't know what, or why. The Kid just knew that it all that mattered now was finding someplace safe.
The Kid woke up on the shore of a river that refused to flow. There was water, but it was still and stagnant as the dead on a battlefield.

[bvanevery]

"It was a dark and stormy night. Suddenly, a shot rang out. We absconded to the tobacco factory, whose entrance had been demolished decades before. Across the moors puffed the smoke of our gas chamber, in which we cooked..."

The cows, the same ones, every day. They mock me, ignoring my presence amongst them, until I shout myself hoarse.

Da winnah!! Well, at least it was the first intro sentence I actually liked. I didn't read the rest. I don't care about "horror" per se. I respond well to black comedy.

[TheGameStoryboarder]

The further I drove down the path the further I descended into madness. The trees slowly seemed to tilt their branches, as if admiring my courage for being down here. Every tree lower than the last, the path slowly turning from asphalt to dirt. They told me it would be a simple mission, rescue the sheriff's daughter for a nice fat bonus to my weekly paycheck. What they neglected to inform me was her last known location was on old Willsbury road, the same road that 27 deaths had taken place last year. As I was recalling the event, I heard a screech in front of me and slammed on the brakes, nearly giving myself a concussion. I opened the car door to the darkness, almost an analogy for what was happening inside of me. I drew my 9mm state-issued handgun and aimed it in front of me. I took out my flashlight and slowly turned it on horrified of what I might see. A body indistinguishable of gender, age, or ethnicity lay in front me. I slowly crept towards the body, gripping my gun so tightly it would leave scars after this night. The body started to wriggle, then slowly it transformed into the most traumatizing mortifying creature I have ever seen in my life. I nearly dropped my gun in fright of what I saw. It dragged its crippled leg around so I could see it's horrible face. It appeared to have three eyes and a mouth where its hair should have been, the arms were just bones carved with strange markings. It stood at least 8 feet tall and its body covered with bullet holes and the flesh of human beings. The color made it stick out from the night, a dark tan with bits and pieces colored into different shades of the original. I let out my entire clip before I could even blink, and yet the creature did not even budge.

[odin420pgp]

Don't remember much, just a dock, a road, and the faint smell of Jack Daniels on an old leather jacket.
I used to be somebody else... something better than ... this?

I've always had this problem around Fall. Something in me just breaks and I start to unravel bit to bit.
Memory is a funny thing. It likes to mock you from the corners of the room, letting you peek under its skirt and then charging you your soul to see the full show.

I'm not quite ready to play this game again. I'm at the same double doors I come to every October. They are open this time, which is new. They've always been locked before, more for everyone else's protection instead of mine.

Maybe they are ready to play this time. The hunger still lingers inside me. Time to feed these demons.

[ShiftyKake]

Well, I decided to have a crack it. It was more for fun, since I don't think I can compete with this talent -.-'
---
“I was wrong, I was so wrong” The man mutters in a corner of a dark room, jumping at the slightest sound creeping from the door.
“So so wrong. No bell. No bell.” The man keeps muttering to himself, pulling out a slip of paper and a dirty pencil. He desperately spreads it across the floor, trying to scratch words into it. Halfway through, footsteps can be heard echoing through the door, making him jump at in unbridled fear. Wide-eyed, he quickened the pace of his writing, as he muttered to himself “Not long left. Not long left. Must warn whoever seeks the Tower. Must help. The beast cannot be controlled. Not be controlled. The bell is not real.” Suddenly a dark figure looms over him and he jerks away. As he scrambles desperately across the hard floor, bloodying his hands, the figure raises his hand and…something….stabs the man.

As his lifeless body lay in a pool of blood, the paper in his hand becomes soaked. The man appears as if he is looking at what he wrote on the slip of paper, before the blood washes it away.

“Don’t move, or face the Shadows…”

Shift

They say the bell has rung at noon ever since this village came about. At first, I only questioned this knowledge out of curiosity. Yet as I delved deeper into the mysteries of the Tower, I started to wonder….

Is there really a bell at all?

So it became my mission, to seek out the answers to this mysterious Tower that leaves this town with blank faces whenever the name comes to pass. I sought answers for so long, that what I believed to be my mission has long since become my obsession.

Yet I am close now, for whatever is in there hiding, waiting, has started to awaken. The children are disappearing for days on end, and when they come back they have the same blank faces as the villagers. I sought the answer as to why, yet I was only given more questions.
The only clue I found was the bell’s sound changing ever so slowly, as if it was crying in anguish. Somehow, whatever is making that noise must be related to this. It has started again, I must go.

Tonight will be the last night I see my friends disappear.

For tonight, the Tower will be within my grasp, and I shall seek out the answer that awaits me at the top…
---
That was the first one I decided to write, before looking at other posts.When you mentioned the Tower's strange noise, it gave me the idea of creating a "mistake" as such as to the cause of the noise. The player seeks out to discover why this bell is affecting the villagers only to find out that it is not a bell at all. Also, in all my stories I wanted to put mos to fhte games emphasise on the "Tower", since it would be most useful in whatever circumstance the story is set in. Like if it was set in the character's memories, the Tower would be the center of all his pain etc.
Now, onto the next one.
---
They say there is nothing in the world left to be explored, so why then are the murky depths of the ocean untouched…

“Please, Jordan. ANSWER ME! We were in our boat? Do you remember? We fell and woke up here.” I desperately cried as his passive face stared back at me.

“What are you talking about? We have lived here our entire life” Jordan answers with a dead pan voice. I stare at him in anguish and confusion, and just stand there as I understand nothing. Why can I remember our past, but my friends cannot? Suddenly the bell tolls and I glance up in determination.

This time…this time I will climb the Tower. Let us dance, Beast, to the answers I seek.
---
I wished to give thought on the place being somewhere Unknown in the world, like the "Cage of Eden" manga, where they go on a school trip and their plane ends up crashing on an Island that doesn't exist.
---
The bell rings again, its cries of anguish mocking me every day. For it knows that I can do nothing, I cannot stop my friends from walking to the Tower without complaint or emotion, I cannot prevent the cries of anguish from my fellow villagers as another friend never returns, and I cannot understand the reasoning’s behind all of this.

When did the Tower first appear? No-one knows, it was as if it wasn't there one day and suddenly it was. It just faded into the back of people’s memories, for it didn't matter to us as long as we could continue to live without hassle. Yet as our friends disappeared one by one, we began to question.

Is that Tower really doing nothing? Or is it the cause of all of this, this anguish, this pain and suffering, this hopelessness. This cannot go on forever, we are down to ten left. Ten people, out of a whole town.

I must stop this; I must seek the Tower’s top.

I must seek my answers, and pay the price for the knowledge.

Fear grips me, but there is no going back…
---
I wanted to generate a story that gives a sense of the character's "hopelessness", so it communicates to the player that the character himself is just as much stumped as you are. This provides a player-character connection, that stimulates their interest in said character and his story.

That's it, that is what I have. Hope you enjoy it.

[AChillyDog]

It began as a sketchy newspaper ad. Then it turned into the most horrifying experience of my life. The ad read "10,00 dollars for anyone who stays overnight on Whitefield Island" I tried to contact the person, but it took me to a pre-automated meassage "Meet me at the north coast of the island." I found this slightly creepy, as if the person had known what I was doing, but 10 thousand dollars is 10 thousand dollars.I got some supplies and I borrowed a motorboat from my friend and drove the motorboat the the north side of the island. Once there I saw a strange man wearing quite a heavy coat. Assuming he was the creator of the ad, I walked over to see him. Upon getting closer, I noticed that He was wearing a hat that hid his face long with the coat. Once I was was with him, I asked him why he was hiding his face. "Don't worry about that. All you need to do is stay here overnight, then come right back here." the man replied. Remembering my boy scout skills, I went into the woods, trying to find a place to build shelter. As I got deeper into the woods, I noticed a small house not too fdar from me. Funny. I thought this place was uninhabited. However, I just approched the house I saw that nobody was in it. So, I opened the door, went in and found a bed. I settled down in the bed, thinking about the day. Eventually I went to sleep. As I was sleeping, I had a dream of a great big tower, but when I walked towords it nothing was there. Then I started falling into blackness as a hand pulled me down into it. Then I heard a scream and woke up. As I looked around the house,I saw a blood sploth on the bed and on the floor that I hadn't notced before. As I got out of bed I had a sharp pain in my side. I looked at it and saw a wound, it it looked man-made. This started to freak me out. Now I just wanted to get off the island. Not caring about the wound in my side, I ran out the door and to where I came from. I ran and ran and ran until I got to the north coast and saw the man in the coat. I walked up to him and he said " Oh. So you made it." I couldn't help but notice a tone of dissapointment in his voice. Then he saw the look on my face and said " You know, maybe you should just.. SMILE!" he pulled of his hat and coat which revealed a horrible, mutilated face. It took me by extreme shock and I fainted. When I woke up I found myself In the middle of the island, not knowing where on the island Iwas. All that filled my thoughts was the face. It was HORRIBLE! I couldn't think at all where I was. Then I remembered. I was on whitefield island. I needed to get off.

But how?

[Got_Rhythm]

You are a young knight who learns of a girl trapped in a tower, the girl’s name is Repunzel.

You set on a quest to rescue the girl, but quickly things go badly for you. Stranded and isolated in the forest, you are weak from hunger and lack of sleep, maybe animals are stalking you, maybe it is all in your head. You come across various abandoned structures that increase your anxiety and provide clues as to why the girl is trapped in the tower. (I am imagining no combat, just slow exploration, sounds of heavy breathing, increased sense of isolation...)

But as you stumble closer to the tower, the sweet song you could hear from so far away twists and distorts into inhuman tones. You pass some signs that warn of danger as you get ever closer, and you realize that the girl was imprisoned in the tower for a reason. The girl is evil.



So yeah... The Ring meets Repunzel.

[ManuelMarino]

impressive concepts!!! ok, so the writers massacre works lol

good works anyway and triple thumbs up!

[b615421998]

Came across this thread, saw the pictures, got some ideas and did a bit exercising.
Didn't read the first post though, and it became somewhat of a short story... maybe the 3rd or 4th I've written in my life.
Might be suited for a text adventure.
As non-native English speaker, I expect it to be full of flaws.

http://pastebin.com/tX0xjuzp

Personally, i don't like it, won't continue... but I'd like to hear your opinion, if somebody has one.

Edited by b615421998, 16 December 2012 - 06:29 AM.