Mature themes on a game I'm working on

Rizwan Javed · 2019-06-30T11:23:26

So I am writing a game design doc regarding a game that I wanted to make in the future with many mature themes which are commonly never touched and often avoided. I wanted to address topics such as racism, sexual assault/rape, pedophilia and homophobia in a respectable manner via interactions with NPCs and quests. As I was writing the events down, I thought that it would be a good idea to consult a larger audience before I keep going down this road. Before you read the idea section, you should know where the game is set in. Basically, the game is going to be a survival horror zombie game (like resident evil and last of us, not like MGS: Survive or WWZ) and will be set in a small city on an island(Island contains two other cities and rainforests). The focus of the game is how society functions in war-like situations and will not be focused on kill the zombies and fill a bunch of food meters. Idea 1: Pedophilia/ Rape In the game, there will be a female doctor who would volunteer to help the government during the outbreak with all her medical knowledge. The outpost she was assigned to collapses within the first week and she runs away with her surviving friends and nephew to create their own safe house. This safe house gets destroyed too within the next week and many of her friends who survived the collapse of the government outpost die during this attack. The female doctor escapes and huddles down with the medical supplies and her nephew in another location. She now only helps women who were abused and you (in case you built a good rapport with her). Later in the game, when you investigate her new safe house, you will find a locked door which will lead to a dark basement. As you investigate the dark basement with your flashlight you will find her nephew chained to a metal pipe and various signs that the nephew had been raped by his aunt. The rape would be suggested by a bottle of aphrodisiac you will find in the room and confirmed when the doctor (the rapist) will turn the lights on and will have a shotgun pointed at you. At this point in the game, you can either leave her be or return to save the nephew by killing her. The other route (the redemption route) is that the player will find the doctor's diary and police report she was going to file against her ex for rape charges. These two items will be obtained via a quest where you will try to retrieve an item from her apartment on her request. The diary and the police report will let the player know that the doctor was once raped by her ex who was a rich man. He bought her silence by paying for her student loans. This will be done so that the player will understand that her previous experiences with sexual assault, deaths of her friends and isolation due to the outbreak had corrupted her and led her down this awful path. Using this newly gained knowledge, the player can rescue the nephew with a drop of blood shed and talk some sense into her. Idea 2: Racism/Homophobia In the game, there will be an Arabian Muslim businessman who owns a successful food franchise in the country and a farm that produces the ingredients for his franchise. During the outbreak, he will be one of the main suppliers of food to the survivors with the help of the government and his privately owned security team. He is a very hospitable and generous man who will risk his life and wealth to help those in the outbreak. His people will even try delivering food to those who can't come to the various outposts to retrieve it. However, he also has a policy that prohibits entry and food delivery for homosexuals, jews, and transsexuals in any of his outposts. He also believes that the outbreak is a punishment from God for not condemning homosexuality due to the sins committed by Jews. The Arabian businessman would stick to his ideology no matter what someone says to him. However, despite his backward and horrid ideology he would still not take the life any human being whether they belonged to the group he hated. To further add depth to his family and faction, you can also go on a mission to deliver food to a location with his son. His son will tell him that he is going to deliver some supplies to the neighboring Christain family. Upon delivering the supplies, you will find out that his son lied to him and was actually delivering supplies to a gay couple in need. On your way back when you question him, he will tell you that he doesn't share the same ideology as his father. The businessman's son believes that just because he doesn't find the acts of some people agreeable according to his religious values doesn't mean he should condemn them to death or abuse. Towards the good route of their storyline the Arabian businessman, his squadron, son and you will head out on a rescue mission. His son will die during that mission and as you and his father enter the building you will find out that the family you set out to save was a Jewish family. The Arabian man would be enraged by seeing the star of David necklace on the table and the Torah. The Arabian man would want to kill the Jewish mother and her children but with the correct dialogues, you can talk sense into him. After completing the mission and saving the family, he will immediately ask the mother if she knows whether she knows any other Jewish family in danger or hiding. When asked what he intends on doing with that information, he will reply "Send my men to see if they need anything or if they need rescue..." he will look at her kids and say "God would never let me enter heaven if watched as innocent people die while I could still help them" Conclusion I know that these topics are difficult to tackle but I believe that gaming as an interactive medium can tackle them at a much deeper level compared to any other medium. The amount of hours games usually pack is ample time to develop and build characters. I just want to know whether you guys think the direction I am taking regarding this is a good idea or not. And whether you all believe that games can be used as a platform to deal with mature topics. Side note: In case one of your biggest concern is the Muslim man being portrayed as homophobe would raise Islamaphobia flags, I'm a Muslim too.

Writing for Games Game Design Advice Feedback

Started by Raiken April 25, 2019 03:03 PM

10 comments, last by Svein Larsen 4 years, 9 months ago

Svein Larsen

June 30, 2019 11:23 AM

Oh, no. The more time you spend explaining something the player has no reason to care about, the more quickly he will lose interest. You should definitely have a bunch of people with different world views go over the script with you before investing resources in producing the game. If the communist gets angry and calls it a bunch of national socialist propaganda, and vice versa, then you've most likely messed up.

Mature themes on a game I'm working on

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