Moodboard: 
Playlist: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/5WiPNl1FG5rdu6qySVsxiV?si=30aac71052544fe8
The emotions I want to evoke in this game are intriguing, foreboding, and mild terror. I want the players to feel the need to keep exploring but also be a little apprehensive at what’s around the corner, suspicious of what’s really going on. I want them to question everything and be rewarded for their doubts.
The basic premise of our game is that it is an embedded mystery game. You play as a reporter who has been assigned to cover the story about a ghost town that recently surfaced along the coast due to an exceptionally low water level this year. Little is known about the town, so it is up to you to find out more about the history of the location. As you explore, you find that there may be more to the disappearance of the town than a high water level – something terrible happened here, and it is up to you to find out what.
Along with the flow of gameplay I included above, I envision a high tide/low tide mechanic. Every two or so days in game, there is a high tide event the resubmerges the town, and the low tide allows the town to surface again. After each high/low tide cycle, the town has changed – some clues have disappeared, some new ones have appeared, etc. This adds a challenge to the game that encourages re-exploration of areas to get every last bit of information to piece together the narrative. Since the narrative is embedded, we will need to design the story then create the clues about it so the players can solve the mystery.
Another approach to the game is to include hidden key items referenced in clues by the townspeople that are needed to fully uncover the mystery. As you discover the narrative, you find these key items, and begin to understand that they were used in a ritual to summon something. If you collect all of these items, following in the footsteps of the townspeople, you will recreate the summoning and bring about the destruction of your own home if you can’t figure out how to stop it (which will also be part of the embedded narrative).
A different approach I would also be interested in exploring for this game is instead of cutscenes that bring the town back to life once you have found all the clues at a specific residence/completed the mini-dungeon at that location, there is a parallel narrative in the player character’s present world. So, if a player finds all the clues at a location, the piece of the mystery of the past is echoed in a cutscene/interactive dialogue experience in the player character’s town. For example, if in the past there was a scandal with the mayor that the player uncovers, a similar event will occur in the present to the player character’s mayor. These parallel events build up to the time of destruction.
Finally, an element I want to explore adding is a character in the ghost town. Since the narrative is embedded, the player is mostly exploring on their own, and a fun, spooky mechanic to play with could be an ambiguously helpful NPC that shows up around town. The NPC can provide information otherwise unknowable about the town, provided the player has the right items/can pay the right price. The NPC would eventually become an antagonistic force of sorts, as it becomes clear they are pushing you along the path to recreate the disaster that was once brought upon the ghost town.
