- From your time in the psych ward, you’ve been treated your whole life as a psycho. No one’s believed you when you claim you can see and hear things no one else can, or that you have abilities that trascend reality. Even you’ve begun to doubt your own mind thanks to constant doubt and neglect from those at the ward. One night though, you wake up and realize your abilities aren’t so made-up after all.
- With this premise, I envision that the player controls this inmate who clearly isn’t like the rest. They truly have “freakish” and supernatural abilities, such as super hearing, emotional vision (can see the true feelings and intents of others), etc. As the game progresses, you begin to fully accept and have full control of your body, gaining new abilities like phasing through walls and telekinesis.
- These powers are gradually experienced and learned throughout the gameplay, which involves using your abilities to escape the ward. As you begin to talk with other patients and scour around for clues, you learn the truth not only about yourself but about the psych ward as a whole.
- I see this game as a more adventure/open explore style game, with moments of fast-paced action or quick-decision making on the fly to avoid being caught by those who control the psych ward.
- Emotions: Ethereal, supernatural, perplexing
- A cooperative challenge, involving 2 players working together. As a long-time patient of the ward, the patient character has grown numb to shady/mysterious doings of the ward. Several experiments have been conducted on the patient, effectively brainwashing them of themselves. This is where the second character comes in, who is a long time friend of the patient and has come to rescue them. The mere sight, voice, and face of the friend is enough to slowly bring the patient to their senses and back to reality. They then work together to escape the ward
- My idea with this was that the patient character, having been there for a long time, knows everything about the ward. Where all the rooms are, when the guards patrol, all the other patients, etc. However, they are still slowly mentally recovering, which means things are foggy and challenging to recall. This is where the puzzles come in. And the friend’s job is to work with the patient to help them remember so they can uncover the mysteries of the ward and escape
- Both players would play on separate screens, and they would have to communicate with each other about their findings. Essentially both players would find clues, numbers, and information that would help solve the other player’s puzzles on their screen, which means the game is super teamwork heavy.
- I want the stakes to be raised by having some sort of time limit, such as if they don’t escape by midnight then the guards catch both of them.
- Emotions: Hope, tension/urgency, empathy/cooperation
- My last idea is a full blown horror game that really leans into the theme of a creepy psych ward. Here, the theme and setting would basicaly be an insane asylum, where all the patients have completely lost it and could even be dangerous. You play a character who wakes up in a cell, unsure of how they got there. It is then their job to escape, but because they have never been here, they must escape using clues they uncover throughout the ward. This involves completing several puzzles, all of which are based on gathering clues in precarious/unsure situations, such as talking with other inmates, spying on the evil doctors, and looting different areas (warden’s office for example)
- I want this game to have the player extremely on edge the whole time. I wouldn’t be similar to a game like Outlast where jumpscares happen throughout exploration, but rather the horror factor would be in the sheer creepiness of it.
- I also want there to be red herrings to where it’s common for players to fail a puzzle. And when you fail, there is some consequence. For instance, the lights turn off, or the guards find out where you are, etc. This would really add to the scariness and immersion of being in a psych ward
- Emotions: Isolated, dread, suspense
