Individual Concept Doc – Victor Chen

Moodboard

 

Spotify Playlist

Narrative Directions

Direction 1 – Top-Down JRPG Style

This direction would present the story as a top-down pixel art RPG, inspired by games like Undertale, 7 Years from now, and Epic Battle Fantasy 4/5. The player explores the ship room by room, triggering story events through movement and interaction with objects and characters. Combat would be minimal or symbolic, focusing instead on small environmental puzzles and dialogue-driven confrontations. The infection could manifest visually over time—rooms decaying, UI glitching, or Vic’s sprite subtly changing. Players would manage relationships with crewmates by choosing when to help or betray, affecting who survives each day.

Direction 2 – Visual Novel

The player moves between static illustrated rooms via a map, choosing who to visit and when. Most of the gameplay centers around branching dialogue choices that shape Vic’s relationships and influence the story’s outcome. The infection could be represented through shifts in dialogue tone, visual distortion effects, or hallucinated scenes. This direction would prioritize character-driven storytelling, emotional tension, and morally ambiguous choices over mechanical challenges. This is similar to 7 days to end with you.

Direction 3 – Puzzle-Driven Adventure

In this direction, the core gameplay revolves around solving environmental and logic puzzles that tie directly into the narrative. Each day introduces new puzzles—repairing damaged ship systems, decoding Liam’s medical notes, or re-routing power (among us?). These puzzles would gate narrative progress and reinforce the theme of the protagonist fighting for control over himself and his surroundings. Dialogue would still play a role, but the focus would be on using mechanics to symbolize the protagonist’s mental state and the ship’s deterioration through routine tasks.

 

About the author

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.