Oh, don't worry about insulting him or me. He's dead and I'm smart enough to know better.

I've considered the age gap thing pretty heavily and thought about changing it, but I'm worried that my experience wouldn't fit in as well. Whether that is ultimately important or not, I'm not sure. As for flexibility, I'm pretty open to changing aspects of the concept as long as there is a good reason. If the team wants to change the enemies to demonic care bears, then we'll have a problem. For me, this is a piece for my portfolio. In some ways it honors the father-son bond that I had, but I know better than to expect someone to care about that. This is more about an aesthetic that I'm trying to reach that deals with reality in games that isn't romantically written with a moral and happy ending. It's gritty, depressing, frustrating, overwhelming, and unfair, such as a situation like this would actually be.

The flashbacks are an interesting idea, but I'm worried that may fantasize things too much. They would add depth to the character and a reason for him to remain in the game, but that removes the player from the current situation and put them in an almost alternate reality. Also, with the character this young, it wouldn't make sense for them to be in a city like this if the father has been there long enough to plan and orchestrate and escape. It's still an idea that could be utilized somehow though.

Using the character somehow would make sense, but I'm not sure how to utilize him. Maybe the father could be the one that actually makes things in the apartment, while the son is the one that scavenges. This could open up a co-op portion of the game, if that was an option. The father could make weapons, board the windows, make a radio, etc., and his productivity could directly relate to his physical health. How does that sound?

As you're probably now realised you can't guarantee getting a loftier message across to all (or even many) players. But what qualities of your father would you *like* the old man character to have? Maybe that will give gameplay/story ideas.

Random piece of advice -- never step on your modem thus requiring a dash to the store for a replacement.

I think in someways Blarkfase we may have reached a point where you are able to go back and recreate your original post down below with your story aspects more fleshed out based on feedback so far and where your thought processes have taken you. The one danger of multiple posts in feedback is the respondents cannot see the product evolve and thus make answers based on old information which quickly become less helpful.

[font=arial,helvetica,sans-serif]"Locked in a small apartment, just my 80 year old father and me, a 24 year old college graduate that decided to make it in the big city. [color=#282828]Now, we're trapped in this shitty little 4th floor apartment [color=#FF0000]with very little hope to look forward to. [color=#282828]Society has collapsed, bandits are roaming the streets, and we are forced to hide. My father complains about how he is holding me back and that I will die because of him, [color=#FF0000]but in all honesty I wouldn't be able to do this without him[color=#282828]. At night, I sit by the front door to guard it, not honestly thinking I'll be able to if someone comes. Sometimes I can hear him crying from the bedroom. I know what he's thinking about; I miss mom too. Some days I go scavenging for supplies, leaving him in the apartment on his own and I try to ignore my fears of returning to find him dead. Staying alert while sneaking around a city is hard enough when you're malnourished and sleep deprived. Why do we do this? Is living in this hell really worth what we're going through? No, but giving up is not an option either. We've got to do the best we can to survive, wait for a rescue, and see mom again."[/font]

[font=arial,helvetica,sans-serif][color=#282828]Game-type: Sandbox RPG; I want the vast majority of decisions to fall on the player in order to immerse themselves as much into the role of the son as possible. This is meant to be a very emotionally deep storyline that is hard to handle, so the more the player is immersed into the situation, the better. [/font][color=#FF0000][font=arial, helvetica, sans-serif]

Possibility of co-op, with one character as supply and back-up, while the other is the scout and fighter.[/font]

[font=arial,helvetica,sans-serif][color=#282828]Plot: The main character is tasked with keeping his elderly father alive and safe during a post-government society. Every decision made is one that is extremely emotionally difficult for the main character. Every aspect of surviving in a desolate city should be taken into consideration (barricading the door and windows, scavenging for supplies, getting rest, making weapons, etc.).[/font]

[font=arial,helvetica,sans-serif][color=#282828]Mechanics: I want every decision made to be something that could not work, so there is always a chance of failure. (Example: If you decide to go scavenging for supplies across the city you could be gone for a while and by the time you return the secondary character could be dead, completely changing the direction that the game would take.) Outside of this, there should be a sense of resourcefulness that comes into play, such as breaking down a table to use the legs as clubs or something to that effect. Also, I want the characters' story to come through as the game is played, instead of putting all the cards on the table at the beginning. So, as you move through the storyline you chose, you learn some things and don't learn others as they come up in a more natural fashion, through events and conversations.[/font]

[font=arial,helvetica,sans-serif][color=#282828]Combat style: Dependant on how the player wants to handle situations. There could be opportunities for guns, but there may be limited ammo and they may attract a lot of unwanted attention. This is where scavenging through other apartments, breaking chairs or tables, etc. comes in to make melee weapons. There is also the possibility for hand-to-hand combat, when weapons aren't accessible.[/font]

[font=arial,helvetica,sans-serif][color=#282828]Setting: A large city. I would prefer it stay unnamed to get away from cultural ties that are attached to each city. Something large and New York/Philly-esque. However, [/font][color=#FF0000][font=arial, helvetica, sans-serif]

the player would start in an old apartment building without water or electricity, but would have the opportunity to move to other buildings if needed.[/font]

[font=arial,helvetica,sans-serif][color=#282828]Main character: Mid-to-early 20s, fresh out of school and into the city. I'm trying to keep everything very neutral right now and stay away from race, sexual orientation, etc., so I can focus on the core elements and a solid foundation, for now. A vague description of him would probably be; 6 ft tall, 160-170 lbs, possible short beard or scruff, no tattoos, piercings, or anything that is overtly noticeable. [/font][color=#FF0000][font=arial, helvetica, sans-serif]

His main job is to scavenge for items and supplies, scout other buildings for moving into, and searching for a possible rescue.[/font]

[font=arial,helvetica,sans-serif][color=#282828]Secondary character: Late 70s - 80 years old man that is fairly feeble. I see him as a man that has a hard time moving around a lot and possibly has heart or lung issues. General description would probably be; 5'6 ft tall, 150-160 lbs, bald spot, mustache or beginning of a beard. [/font][color=#FF0000][font=arial, helvetica, sans-serif]

Isn't too feeble, but can't do much more than move from one building to another, carrying very little (like a blanket and a weapon). Also, his main job will be the construction of any weapons, defenses, or any repairs that need to be done around their home-base. If he dies, then the main character loses all of those abilities and other possible knowledge the father may have (where restaurants are in the city, how to collect and purify water, and other aspects like the story of the characters and what caused all of this). This makes the father character somewhat of a reliability, for his knowledge and capability of creating and repairing items that make survivability much easier and allows a more fleshed out and enjoyable storyline.[/font]

[font=arial,helvetica,sans-serif][color=#282828]Enemy characters: Tattered clothed people of all types, from full grown men to small children. Some are travelers that may or may not be trusted, some are obvious bandits with guns and bulletproof vests. This category is fairly predictable as far as the equipment carried. One thing that I would like to be different about them is that they have plans that are carried out. Such as, searching through all the buildings down one street, then moving a block over. May have a large truck or something they drive around to carry off supplies and such.[/font]

[font=arial,helvetica,sans-serif][color=#282828]Allied characters: I would eventually like there to be a chance where bands of x-military or cops come through to disband bandits and such. This could be a limited chance for rescue that the player would have to knowingly search and wait for. They would be in tattered versions of their uniforms with bulletproof vests, guns, possibly in military vehicles or cop cars.[/font]

[font=arial,helvetica,sans-serif][color=#ff0000]The story itself will have multiple paths than can be followed under these main categories:[/font]

[font=arial,helvetica,sans-serif][color=#ff0000]Both characters survive - Join a band of people trying to escape; Escape on their own (either by car or by foot); Evacuated by band of x-military/cops[/font]

[font=arial,helvetica,sans-serif][color=#ff0000]Main character survives - Father dies in escape (either with the convoy, on foot, or in their of vehicle); Father dies during attack on home-base; Father dies when moving to another safe-house[/font]

[font=arial,helvetica,sans-serif][color=#ff0000]Main character sacrifices self to save secondary character - Takes a shot for (or while escaping, not necessarily to block a shot) father during escape (with convoy, on foot, or in vehicle)[/font]

[font=arial,helvetica,sans-serif][color=#000000]---------------------------------------[/font]

[font=arial,helvetica,sans-serif][color=#000000]The red is the new stuff. Does that sound better? Let me know if I forgot something, I've been running around during typing this and might have missed a thing or two.[/font]

Also, his main job will be the construction of any weapons, defenses, or any repairs that need to be done around their home-base. If he dies, then the main character loses all of those abilities and other possible knowledge the father may have (where restaurants are in the city, how to collect and purify water, and other aspects like the story of the characters and what caused all of this).

One thing you probably need to take into account -- The primary character will have a learning curve to a degree on some of the basics i.e. learning to purify water. The loss of the secondary character early on would mean a lot of basics may not have been imparted, but later on in the game, the primary character should have learnt enough to at least survive by himself.

Enemy characters: Tattered clothed people of all types, from full grown men to small children. Some are travelers that may or may not be trusted, some are obvious bandits with guns and bulletproof vests. This category is fairly predictable as far as the equipment carried

In a fallen society where the crap has hit the fan I would want a bulletproof vest if I can't find military grade armour and I would want to be armed. Don't necessarily use clothing in that respect to identify bad guy versus good guys. Think more of symbols, some univerally identifying aspect if the group is an organised one (yes this could even mean a uniform). This would also make identification of good organised groups versus evil organised groups somewhat tricky in the beginning. Who do you trust etc.

Other than that -- vastly improved over your initial post except red sucks as a colour for reading


Hmm forgot cover the old man -- get rid of the possibly has heart / lung issue unless you are planning it for a plot point -- just leave it as the old man is feeble - age malnutrition etc would be sufficient explanation.

meh also forgot to mention: why does clothing need to be tattered -- should be more than enough clothes scavengable to keep everyone somewhat decent given that the breakdown doesn't seem to have happened that long ago...which leads me to start wondering what happened to the vast majority of the city population.

Yeah, the player would learn skills to make survivability possible in the game, but as for larger things, like building a water filter out of homemade materials and such, they wouldn't pick up on things like that. There are some aspects that I would like the have that are crucial to making their life easier and gives a glimpse into the father's background and education (suppose he went to war and had a degree in engineering, he would know how to apply his survival techniques and fabrication knowledge to make things that would take a much longer time to understand than watching the father do it a couple times). But yes, there would be a decent amount of skill learned from the father that the main character could use to survive, it would just be more difficult.

The thing that I'm a little hung up on at the moment is the clothing itself. If they are in a large city they're obviously (now that I think about it) going to ransack every clothing store in the city for whatever they want. I think this is going to apply most to the bandit types, because I see groups like them beign very unorganized and just thrown together. Whereas an evacuation group that is trying to organize and save people would have a theme of clothing at least, like all camouflage and black boots or something. I do like the idea of not being able to identify if a group is bad or not though, so having neutral groups that are just trying to make it out of the city or just trying to make it would be good.

In my head, I actually scrapped the health issues and forgot about them. I just didn't actually do that in the post I guess....

I'm going to get back to the drawing board and try to finish all the storylines this week and repost for everyone to read and critique. Wish me luck!