Moodboard / Visuals of the Game:
Synopsis:
An off-duty detective boards a train for a much-needed vacation but soon finds themselves entangled in a race against time to disarm a bomb hidden somewhere on the train. As they navigate through each train car and a web of interconnected stories and characters, the detective must use their skills of observation, deduction, and problem-solving to gather clues, uncover the mastermind behind the plot, and locate the explosive device before it’s too late.
Tone:
The game aims to create an atmosphere of intrigue, suspense, and psychological tension. The confined setting of the train serves as a sort of pressure cooker, intensifying the sense of urgency and the need for the detective to solve the mystery before it’s too late.
The tone is intended to be mature and grounded, with a focus on realistic characters and believable motivations. The game should explore themes of trust, deception, and the blurred lines between right and wrong. The detective’s personal struggles and moral dilemmas add an additional layer of depth to the narrative.
Setting:
The game takes place entirely on a train traveling through a picturesque countryside. The train itself is a character, with each car serving a unique location with its own challenges and secrets. The train cars include:
- The Detective’s Private Cabin: The player’s starting point.
- The Dining Car: A hub of social interaction, where the detective can engage in conversations with other passengers and gather information.
- The Observation Car: A car with panoramic views of the passing landscape.
- The Sleeper Car: A labyrinth of private compartments, each housing a passenger with their own hidden agendas and secrets.
- The Engine Car: The heart of the train, where the final confrontation takes place and the fate of the passengers hangs in the balance.
The train’s journey takes it through a variety of landscapes, from rolling hills and dense forests to stark mountain ranges and deep river valleys. The changing scenery outside the windows serves as a backdrop to the unfolding drama within the train.
Stories:
Throughout the game, the detective will encounter a diverse cast of characters, each with their own unique stories and motivations. Some of these characters include:
- The Enigmatic Passenger: A mysterious figure who seems to know more about the unfolding events that they let on, providing cryptic clues and riddles for the detective to decipher.
- The Reluctant Witness: A passenger who holds vital information but is hesitant to come forward due to fear or personal reasons, requiring the detective to gain their trust and persuade them to cooperate.
- The Suspicious Conductor: The train’s conductor, who appears to be hiding something and may have a deeper involvement in the plot than initially suspected.
- The Innocent Bystander: A passenger caught in the middle of the chaos, whose safety becomes a priority for the detective as the danger escalates.
- The Old Flame: A face from the detective’s past, whose unexpected presence on the train complicates the situation and forces the detective to confront unresolved personal issues.
These stories intertwine and converge as the game progresses, with the detective’s choices and actions determining the outcome of each individual storyline and the overall narrative.
Gameplay:
There’s multiple approaches for this. We want to design games that make sense for specific locations. For example, if you’re in the Dining Car, you could be tasked with ordering the tables in some way that unlocks a clue to the next room. Another approach we’re potentially exploring is making this a 1v1 game where each player is given an identity and trying to identify the identity of the other player. In this case, perhaps we can have a singular map of the train where (based on some story), each player takes turns changing the layout of the train. Then, each player would try to deduce what the other player’s identity is.
Currently, we intend our gameplay to combine elements of exploration, conversation, puzzle-solving, and decision-making. More specifically, the players must navigate the train cars according to the following elements:
- Clue Gathering: Players must explore the various train cars, searching for clues, interviewing passengers, and piecing together information to progress the investigation. Clues can be found through the careful observation of the environment, examination of objects, and by unlocking hidden compartments or solving mini-puzzles
- Deduction Board: As the detective gathers clues, they can use the Deduction Board to connect the dots, form theories, and visualize the relationships between different pieces of evidence.
- Suspect Conversations: Engaging in conversations with passengers is a crucial aspect of the gameplay. Using a dialogue wheel system, players can choose different approaches to questioning suspects, from gentle coaxing to aggressive confrontation. The way players handle these interactions can influence the suspects’ cooperation and the information they reveal.
- Moral Dilemmas: Throughout the game, players will face difficult moral choices that will shape the course of the story and the fate of various characters. These dilemmas often present multiple paths, each with its own consequences and rewards. Players must weigh the ethical implications of their decisions and live with the outcomes.
- Puzzle-Solving: The game features a variety of puzzles that challenge the player’s logic, spatial reasoning, and problem-solving skills. These puzzles can range from decoding encrypted messages and cracking safes to solving mechanical (paper) contraptions.
What Types of Stories?
Some stories we’re thinking about:
- Set during the Cold War, the tasks in the bag are linked to historical events or figures, requiring players to solve puzzles that involve deciphering coded messages or historical facts. Each task reveals a part of a larger plot involving international spies and governmental secrets, with the player unwittingly caught in the middle.
- The game is more of a psychological thriller where the train journey is overnight through remote, scenic landscapes, adding an element of isolation and vulnerability. Tasks in the bag are psychologically challenging, designed to test the player’s morals and decision-making under pressure (e.g., choosing to save one passenger at the risk of another).
- We could explore a more supernatural setting where the train occasionally slips through time and space. Tasks involve dealing with anomalies and supernatural occurrences (e.g., a puzzle box that manipulates time, or interacting with ghostly figures of past passengers). The bomb is not just a simple explosive but a device that could rip the fabric of reality if not defused. Players discover that the tasks are tests set by an entity guarding the balance between dimensions.
Key Challenges:
We’re struggling with the concept of creating physical games and what that would look like in particular. We could potentially add schematics of the train to physical cards and have those cards represent a certain location? This is TBD.
With our current version of the game, we have the following challenges in mind:
- Balancing Pacing: Ensuring that the pacing of the game maintains a satisfying balance between moments of intense action, quieter exploration, and character development, keeping the player engaged throughout the entire experience.
- Creating a Cohesive Narrative: Weaving together multiple storylines and character arcs into a cohesive and satisfying narrative that remains compelling from start to finish.
- Designing Engaging Puzzles: Crafting puzzles that are challenging yet fair, integrating them seamlessly into the narrative and the train’s environment, and ensuring that they contribute to the overall sense of progress and discovery.
- Developing Meaningful Choices: Creating a branching narrative structure that offers meaningful choices to the player, where each decision feels consequential and shapes the outcome of the story in significant ways.
- Maintaining Atmosphere: Consistently delivering an immersive and suspenseful atmosphere throughout the game, using a combination of visual storytelling, sound design, and pacing to keep the player on the edge of their seat.
Who Is This For?:
The audience are people who are interested in or who enjoy immersive, mystery, psychological thrillers. The game takes players on a journey of puzzles to figure out a way to diffuse a bomb and thus this would be a great game for people who enjoy psychological thrillers.
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