MYSTERY
HOUSE REBOOT
Part 1 : Research & Ideas
http://www.gamesradar.com/the-evolution-of-scary-games/
http://www.mobygames.com/game/hi-res-adventure-1-mystery-house/cover-art/gameCoverId,39881/
from wiki:
"Mystery House
is an adventure
computer game released in 1980 by Roberta and Ken Williams
for the Apple II.
The game is remembered as one of the first adventure games to feature computer graphics and the
first game produced by On-Line Systems, the company which would evolve into Sierra On-Line. Because of
its use of graphics, GamePro
named Mystery House the 51st most important game of all time in
2007."
Plot:
"The game starts near an abandoned Victorian
mansion. The player is soon locked inside the house with no other option than
to explore. The mansion contains many interesting rooms and seven other people:
Tom, a plumber; Sam, a mechanic; Sally, a seamstress; Dr. Green, a
surgeon; Joe, a gravedigger; Bill, a butcher; and Daisy, a cook.
Initially, the player has to search the house
in order to find a hidden cache of jewels. However, terrible events start
happening and dead bodies (of the other people) begin appearing. It becomes
obvious that there is a murderer on the loose in the house, and the player must
discover who it is or become the next victim."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mystery_House
In
game story/ background research:
As explain on the plot section above, Mystery
House is a thriller text-based adventure game that requires player to explore
around finding items that in one way or another will 'unlock' the progress of
the game, so in a way, it is very puzzle based; encounter problem> find
answer >solve problem> move on kind of game-play. This has been the core
of so many well known exploration-inclined games such as; Wild Arms series,
Resident Evil series, Portal series and ICO just to name a few.
The narrative itself was inspired by a book by
Agatha Christie called "Ten Little Niggers" which was then rephrased
to "And then there were none" due to presence of the racial epithet.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/And_Then_There_Were_None
This book tells a tale of
10 strangers brought to an island by an unknown host and killed of one by one
just like in the game. However, the twist was that each murder committed is
parallel to the nursery poem, 'Ten Little Indians/ Soldies' down to the last
bit where the last person alive in the story hanged herself; "One little Indian
boy left all alone; He went out and hanged himself and then there were
none." Also a piece from a ten soldier boy figurines in the dining room
table went missing each time the murder occurred. This might be something I'd
like to carry over to my reboot as well.
Ten Little Indians poem
Ten
little Indian boys went out to dine;
One choked his little self and then there were nine.
Nine little Indian boys sat up very late;
One
overslept himself and then there were eight.
Eight
little Indian boys traveling in Devon;
One said he?d stay there and then there were seven.
Seven
little Indian boys chopping up sticks;
One chopped himself in halves and then there were six.
Six little Indian boys playing with a hive;
A
bumblebee stung one and then there were five.
Five
little Indian boys going in for law,
One
got in Chancery and then there were four.
Four little Indian boys going out to sea;
A
red herring swallowed one and then there were three.
Three
little Indian boys walking in the Zoo;
A
big bear hugged one and then there were two.
Two little Indian boys sitting in the sun;
On
got frizzled up and then there was one.
One
little Indian boy left all alone;
He
went and hanged himself and then there were none.
Its an interesting tale full of dark twist and
having read the book prior to this project definitely will help a lot in
capturing the essence of the novel that was portrayed in Mystery House.
In addition, Mystery house put a spin on the
narrative slightly by adding the 'Jewels' as a motive and the player as the
last character to survive by killing 'Daisy' the antagonist of the game during
a climatic kill or be killed situation.
Gameplay
research:
Mystery House was heavily influenced by another
similar text-based games like Zork/ Colossal Cave (minus the visual), which at
the time was a success in gaming industry. I believe this visual text-based
genre evolved to be other different types of game-play such as; adventure,
thriller, mystery, puzzle, trivia based exploration games, even dating-sims and
it is most probably how Point & Click and Escape games came about.
Few examples of games that comes to mind that's
I can relate to rebooting Mystery House:
1) The Witch's Prison (Ipad/ Iphone)
app store
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/nightmare-adventures-the-witchs/id445383816?mt=8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zKt1-tMGQao
http://www.mobygames.com/game/ipad/nightmare-adventures-the-witchs-prison/screenshots/gameShotId,524849/
http://www.mobygames.com/game/ipad/nightmare-adventures-the-witchs-prison/screenshots/gameShotId,524852/
http://www.mobygames.com/game/macintosh/nightmare-adventures-the-witchs-prison/screenshots/gameShotId,524905/
2) Blade Runner game
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=acBnLMRIAD0
wiki
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blade_Runner_(1997_video_game)
http://uk.gamespot.com/pc/adventure/bladerunner/images/0/5/?tag=thumbs_below%3Bthumb;5
3) Myst series
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DNVLcHWh0UA&feature=related
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Myst_(series)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Myst-library_and_ship.jpg&docid=GdBHZoPLU-2PkM&w=500&h=306&ei=cheSToKELoyf-QaP5aXGDA&zoom=1
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Myst&docid=KIi1EYLYfOtiqM&w=256&h=307&ei=cheSToKELoyf-QaP5aXGDA&zoom=1
4) Drawn The Painted Tower
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vp9dW3YxGfE
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Drawn-the-painted-tower.png&docid=mej_wO_mv_83MM&w=600&h=855&ei=WRuSTvqdHYe6-Aao7ICGCw&zoom=1
http://www.harmonicflow.com/game/drawn-the-painted-tower/&docid=jrt49DSdBTDG4M&w=640&h=480&ei=WRuSTvqdHYe6-Aao7ICGCw&zoom=1
http://www.macgamesandmore.com/blog/drawn-the-painted-tower/&docid=r4DT7A6LeskJLM&w=620&h=467&ei=WRuSTvqdHYe6-Aao7ICGCw&zoom=1
The 4 examples mentioned above are all very narrative (not
necessarily have an awesome/ massive plot/ twist) driven games with
minimalistic game-play style; they all have very simple HUD or even none, which
I strongly believe can greatly affect the player’s immersion in the experience.
MYST intentionally left out tutorials or hints which the other 3
games uses, this I think is also brilliant in keeping the experience real as
well and allows players to think and get more satisfaction out of solving
puzzles without any clue, this might be bad in some cases as it may confuse and
left player lingering in one spot for ages, however as done in games such as
Another World, Demon Souls, Portal, Shadow of Colossus; managed tutorials/
hints as a part of story and not necessarily have to be a separate section
which detach players from the game.
One last important observation would be that all of them are using
so called ‘Page by page’ environment where player is unable to freely explore a
3D area like in games such as Grand Theft Auto/ Fallout type of sandbox
exploration, instead we have fixed angles that player can explore inside of. It
is more commonly used in third-person Horror/ Action/ RPG and point & click
genre games. Many games actually started out this way and later on evolved to a
fully 3D exploration game like; Silent Hill series, Resident Evil series, Final
Fantasy series and even MYST. I’d like to keep Mystery House ‘Page by page’ as
this method is very cinematic and I’d like to shape this game to be slightly like
a interactive thriller movie, more importantly it functions well for point and
click games and also in my opinion, when MYST was remade into fully 3D control
it lost lots of the mysterious essence it originally had.
Sales/ pitch
research:
Essence taken from original Mystery House:
- Still sets in a house/ mansion
- Puzzle based/ solving gameplay
- Eerie atmosphere ( like how everybody just disappeared the 2nd
time at lobby )
- Story influence goes back to 'And then there were none' Novel by
Agatha Christie.
- The Jewels
- dull color except for key items? like in Mirrors Edge. (original
game is B&W lines)
Changes in reboot:
- New plot & look (see New Plot & Concepts)
- Point/ touch & Click based thriller
- if its on touch-screen enabled gadgets, will be more actions
involving swiping & other gestures
Target audience:
- 13 - 40 yrs ( mainly people who owns the gadgets mentioned in
consoles targeted section,
and also old enough to see experience gore and morbid story.)
- also might appeal to people who played original Mystery House from
the 80s
Consoles targeted:
Main:
- Ipad/ Iphone
- NDS/ 3DS
- PC
other possibilities:
- PS3's PSN
- Xbox Live Marketplace
No-no:
- Wii
- PSP
- Arcade
Part 2 : Developing the game
-
-
New Plot & Concepts:
- -Night time, raining heavily
-
-Main character, Henry, crossing a wooden bridge to a lush Gothic
looking mansion (located on a cliff surrounded by ravines).
-
-Inside greeted by 7 other fellow guest.
-
-After being ushered to his room and took a nap, Henry was woken up
by loud explosion.
-
-The bridge (only way back out to ‘outside world’) was destroyed and
everybody gathered round to realize 1 person was missing and found dead later
on.
-
-After a few more incidents, it became apparent that everybody died
in a certain way involving their jobs & a murder is loose in the mansion.
-
-Everybody started turning on each other.
-
-Amidst the confusion, Henry uncovered a secret lab hidden under the
mansion & met a prisoner called ‘Jewel’.
-
-Turns out one of the guests, Rose, faked her death in 1 of the
incidents earlier & is the mastermind behind all the murder
-
-Henry & Jewel tried to escape
-
-Ended up in a climatic kill or be killed situation with Rose
Ending 1: Both Jewel & Rose died.
-
-In a climax of guilt, exhaustion and confusion, Henry walked towards
the broken bridge and disappeared behind the fog.
Ending 2: Rose died.
-
-Found the secret path out to the bottom of Ravine and back up to the
‘Other-side’.
Ending 3: Henry died.
-
-Well, Henry died, Jewel got re-captured and the killing spree
continues.
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