Premise
The player takes on the role of June, a 24-year-old engineer at Cerebra. June joined the company right out of college and has been working there ever since. Cerebra is small, fast-growing, and ambitious, and June works closely with its founder, Robert—a technical and business genius in his early 40s, who has become a mentor and father figure to her. June has difficult relationships with her parents, and their relationship is one of the most important ones in her life.
Robert started Cerebra five years ago as he grappled with losing his wife and two young children in a tragic car accident. He was driven by a vision to create a way for people to revisit and preserve memories. Cerebra’s flagship device allows users to store and replay their memories. The tech was originally designed to help people — especially older users — relive cherished moments, connect with loved ones who’ve passed, and combat memory loss. It quickly drew interest from investors and the government, including in a partnership with the Health Department for its potential in treating dementia.
But at a party one night, June meets Elena, a 25-year-old intelligence analyst for the Defense Department. When Elena learns that June works for Cerebra, she grows wary. June presses her (it’ll be up to the player how this happens and they’ll only get Elena to give up the information if she can trust that June isn’t in on it), and Elena admits that she has seen concerning developments tied to Cerebra’s tech. At work, Elena has come across internal documents suggesting the military wants to weaponize the memory device for cognitive control. Even worse, Elena has found evidence of an illegal testing program: teenage girls of color from low-income communities are being taken and used as test subjects.
June can’t believe what she’s hearing, but when she goes to Robert with her concerns the next day, he acts suspicious. In reality, he didn’t know this was happening and doesn’t want to believe that it is, but June doesn’t know this. Her goal is to essentially figure out what to do with her key conflicts being internal, with Robert, and with the Department of Defense. It is up to the player
- whether June does nothing and just lets her career advance
- whether she cuts off Robert and makes a plan with Elena to expose Cerebra, destroying the company and its potential to help its users
- or whether she gets to the heart of what happened and works with both Robert and Elena to dismantle the military’s unlawful program and save the girls, while preserving the company’s ability to help in other areas
The story will effectively end on one of these options (I’m going for an IF that is like the first chapter of a novel).
Map
Timeline
10/18: Premise/Mapping
10/19: Version 2 + Playtest 2
10/20: Version 3 + Playtest 3 (I’m not sure when our in-class playtests are going to be, but I’m assuming there is one on either 10/20 or 10/22)
10/24: Version 4
10/26: Playtest 4
10/27: Version 5 + Playtest 5 (I’m not sure when our in-class playtests are going to be, but I’m assuming there is one on either 10/27 or 10/29)
10/29: Version 6 (final version)
10/30: Writeup
Potential Challenges:
- making sure I include all the relevant information for the player to know + also to build emotional connection with the story, without making it too long
- ensuring that the choices players make have an impact on the game & they feel that
