High Concept Design Document

Gameplay Section:

- Overview:
- The Invitation is a Virtual Reality Murder Mystery game where you play
as Micheal Briggs, a detective, who was invited to a very expensive
dinner by his rich friend. When you arrive, you spend time meeting some
very ridiculous members of the wealthy upper class, until suddenly, a
murder has been committed. Everyone turns their eyes on each other
and you, forcing you to find the clues as to who committed the crime
before it is too late! You will need to examine each room in the mansion,
find connections to the people there, interview the people in the
mansion, and attempt to survive the night amidst high society and all of
their idiosyncrasies. Some of the attendees hold severe animosity
towards you, some regard you well, and some don’t really care about
you. The game is a mix of mystery and satirical comedy that-regardless of
whether the player solves the mystery or not-ends in a complete
gunfight amidst all the attendees. The fantasy for the player is being
able to meet the most insane characters, dealing with their behavior and
constant rumors. It will be up to the player to decide which rumors are
worth following, and which are complete lies.

- Core Gameplay Loop:

- After the murder has been committed and the body has been quickly
examined by the player, the body will be taken away and the player and
all the NPCs will be turned loose in the mansion. The player will then
have to pick a room to investigate, or find an NPC to talk to. Sometimes,
the NPCs could offer clues telling the player to look for a specific object
or in a specific room, and sometimes the rooms and the objects could
inform the player to speak to certain NPCs. The player can start a
dialogue with an NPC either by throwing the evidence they found at the
NPC’s face-thereby starting an interrogation dialogue-or by simply
walking up to them and tapping them on the shoulder-thereby starting a
 simple conversational dialogue. An interrogation dialogue scene would
require the player to pay close attention as the NPC spills more
information, but would also turn the NPC more and more hostile
towards the player. A simple conversation yields less information, but
will keep the NPC neutral towards the player. Sometimes, it would
benefit the player-after they found a particular piece of evidence that
leads to a specific NPC-to talk to another NPC, instead. This might allow
the other NPC to randomly spill a bit of information about the targeted
NPC that the evidence points to. If the player wishes to, they can accuse
an NPC by pulling their badge and gun on the NPC. This will trigger an
interaction where the murderer will attempt to pull their gun as well and
start shooting. At this point, all the attendees will begin shooting, too.
The NPCs who you interrogated will aim for you, and the NPCs who were
neutral to you, will only shoot if you are closer than other NPCs.

- Additional Mechanics:
- The biggest mechanic is the Dialogue System. Each NPC has two options
for dialogue that occurs diegetically during the game. There will either
be a Simple Dialogue Interaction, or an Interrogation Dialogue
Interaction. In the simple interaction, the NPC will have a list of lines.
These lines also vary in length, speed of delivery, and emotion. When
interacted, the NPC will randomly pick one of the simple interaction lines
and display the text above their heads as well as play the audio
associated with the line. For interrogation interactions, a dictionary of
pieces of evidence as keys and the corresponding line as the value. If
that piece of evidence is thrown at the NPC, then the line relating to the
evidence will be displayed.
- There is a Shooting Mechanic, where some clues and items will require
the player to shoot a rope or a button to allow for the clue to be more
accessible. The shooting mechanic has an extra layer of complexity,
where the player has to manually reload the gun. This adds the intensity
of finding ammunition around the house or being careful in aiming at the
end of the game during the big gunfight, as reloading is much more
difficult in virtual reality.
- There is also a Climbing Mechanic, where some walls in the mansion are
 climbable. This would allow the player to gain access to items and
locations that were previously inaccessible, allowing them to find out
more of the mystery. This will also come in handy during the gunfight, as
the player will be able to gain better vantage points and hide from the
duels.

- Sample Description of Gameplay:

- The player will enter the library in the mansion, known as the Master
Study Room. There, the player can snoop around for as long as they like.
They can interact with almost any item they wish to, allowing them to
move around chairs and tables, and throw around books. Even the
shelves can be pushed away from the wall, but this will require great
force and time. In the center of the room, hangs a great and giant
chandelier. The player can also choose to shoot the chains that connect
the chandelier to the ceiling, letting it fall to the floor and breaking into
many pieces. After exploring the chandelier’s debris, the player can find
a box of ammunition, and poorly made pipe bomb with a remote arming
device that can be activated remotely. The bomb has words on it, small
notes written on it with ink to remind the user how to use the bomb.
However, the spelling of the written information is almost completely
incorrect. This can lead the player to investigating Mr. Arturand Feveril,
one of the guests at the dinner party who is famously known to have
terrible spelling as well as a sense of hatred towards the murdered
Ivolaer Vathana, Micheal’s dead friend and the one who invited the
Micheal.
- Another option in the library is tearing out all the books, showing that
one book remains attached to the shelf. When pulled, the shelf will move
to the side, showcasing a map of escape routes with notes on some of
the attendees saying that they can be “dispatched rather quickly”. This
will lead the player to realizing that Ivolaer had plans of their own to kill
their guests before they were murdered, and the player can grab the
notes and investigate the NPCs listed.
- The Game’s Aesthetic:

- The game will have a more stylistic and low poly aesthetic. The colors on
all the objects will be simple. The shadows will be dark and not give off
much-if any-global illumination. This adds a noir vibe, thereby feeding
into the murder mystery. The color palette for the game consists of
various shades of gold and silver to showcase the steampunk nature of
the world, shades of dark green to represent wealth and money, as well
as shades of reds and a pitch black to add to the noir tone. The mansion
will be well lit, consisting of various light sources, but will contain some
rooms that are darker, requiring the player to shine a light with their
lantern to be able to illuminate the room. The weapons will all be dark
gray with a few brass trims to add style and texture. The ammunition will
be bronze to add contrast. This limited color palette as well as the low
polygon count will allow for this game to be played on portable virtual
reality headsets (like the Quest) without experiencing a significant dip in
quality. It also allows for the same game to be played on PCVR headsets
(like the HTC Vive or Valve Index) with very beautiful results as well. The
bright colors will also allow for clues to be more visible to the player,
allowing the player to further delve into the fantasy of being a very
observant detective.

- Game Technical Requirements:

- The game would require a system that can handle VR. Because of the
low polygon count as well as the limited textures, the game could be run
very well on an Oculus Quest as well as any PCVR headset. The main
issue with releasing a virtual reality game is that the audience count for
virtual reality is far lower than normal computer games, but I feel that
experiencing this game through VR would provide a really fun view. On
top of that, it would add complexity to the shooting mechanic, the
climbing mechanic, and the interaction/dialogue mechanic just by being
a virtual reality game. Dialogue in most games for me is boring, but
dialogue in virtual reality games where people are talking to me
specifically is much more engaging and that is the same technical
principle of the game.
Narrative Section:

- Game and Backstory:

- The world of Rumors takes place in an alternate universe that is similar

to ours but the main difference occurred in the late 1960s-during the
Cold War. At this time, the first astronauts that landed on the moon in
the 1969 Apollo 11 mission found that the moon was actually made of a
rare mineral that was found in small chunks on Earth. This mineral
essentially acted as coal but was several hundreds of times more
efficient in producing energy. This led every nation to put all their effort
and resources into sending people to the moon to mine, thereby ceasing
conflict for the time to turn their attention to space. Mutually Assured
Destruction was put in place and now the people who control the
resources on the Moon (various billionaires who have mining operations
in space) basically control the world. This event turned most of the world
into a giant factory for processing the moon, bringing forth an era with a
steampunk aesthetic. Almost every city has become a factory of some
kind. In fact, the most populated areas have become converted into
miles and miles of factories. This, in turn, made the rich people richer and
the poor people poorer. The game takes place in the early 2000s of this
world. While electrical technology is slowly making an emergence, it’s
still much more neglected due to the resources from the Moon. Almost
all of the wealth in the world is owned by a select few and these few
spend all their time and resources planning and scheming against each
other. The world at this point is a very industrialist world. You either
work in a factory, protect the factories, or you’re seen as someone who
serves very little to society. Micheal’s job as an investigator is seen as
somewhat of a higher position since he works to protect the stability of
the factory system, yet he is far from rich. The main setting of the game
is Volthana’s mansion. There are several rooms in the mansion: the Main
Hall, the Library (The Master Study), the Dining Hall, The Really Long
Hall, The Other Shorter Hall, The Grand Kitchen, The Master Bed Hall,
The Other Bed Hall, The Storage Bed Hall, The Small Bathroom. The
locations in the mansion are beautifully decorated with paintings,
portraits and shelves and shelves of various paraphernalia to showcase
how wealthy Volthana is. The various halls are absolutely meant to be an
 example of the foolishness of indulging in excess. Volthana has three
halls, two of which are literally just well decorated large rooms that
seem to serve no purpose other than to admire wealth in and storage
rooms for expensive artifacts and gifts. The Other Bed Hall and the
Storage Bed Hall actually have no beds. Instead the Other Bed Hall
serves as a very opulent guest sitting room and the Storage Bed Hall is
just a well furnished warehouse. The Grand Kitchen also acts as a
comedic example of Volthana’s wealth. The kitchen is filled to the brim
with stoves and ovens but only a few are ever used. Many many cabinets
line the walls, but only a small portion of the cabinets are ever opened.
This all goes to show that Volthana is infinitely more worried about the
appearance of his wealth than the actual use of it. Even the movement
of the NPCs shows this. The NPC’s rarely ever go to the other rooms, if at
all. They mostly congregate in the Main Hall. None of the other rooms in
the house are of any use to anyone, yet they seem to come up quite
often in dialogue. The only person who ever goes through these rooms
and pays attention to them is Micheal, and even this is only done in order
to solve a murder.
- Complete Game Plot:

- The main story of the game is a story of multiple people, each with a
wish to kill each other, attempting to enact their plans all while being
trapped in the same room. Micheal Briggs, a relatively younger
investigator works for one of the two major mining companies that mine
on the moon, TVM (The Vein Miner) Industries. While working at this
company, Micheal met Ivolaer Volthana, the current CEO of TVM.
Although it is kept relatively vague throughout the story until the end,
Volthana and Micheal became friends during an investigation into
Volthana when suspicious rumors of embezzling came out. However,
these rumors were put to rest by Micheal, with Volthana aiding every
step of the way. It turns out that Volthana was, indeed, embezzling, but
Micheal ends the case not figuring this out. After the case, Volthana
makes a public announcement that he intends to resign from the
position of CEO and that he wishes to retire at this mansion. Volthana
decides to celebrate his retirement (and being free of embezzlement
charges) by throwing a lavish celebration. He, of course, invites Micheal,
but while Micheal idolizes Volthana and is ecstatic that he is invited,
Volthana only sees Micheal’s existence as a formality. After arriving at
the party, Micheal is awestruck by the excess that Volthana surrounds
himself in and begins to meet some of the other people invited. Some of
the people, like Edgar Sarra, Dolores Quilana, and Howard Huber are
from TVM, while the other guests, like Vernon Guilar, Hayden Inaven, and
Edwin Zyltuma are the wealthy shareholders of TVM’s competitor TOE
(The Ore Excavator) Industries. While this initially confuses Micheal, he
decides to think nothing of it and continues to enjoy the sights, sounds,
and the food. Although Micheal attempts to make conversation with the
guests, he finds them to be a bit hard to speak to for various reasons.
Some seem to have incredibly eccentric behavior, while others are very
reserved and secretive. In the end, Micheal finds it easier to spend time
with the kitchen staff, consisting of one butler: Mr. Wiggins and the chef:
Rene Orlovsky. At this point, Volthana makes his way into The Main Hall
and gives a small speech, where he points out some of the people
present and quickly introduces them before making the grand
announcement of his retirement. Suddenly, the lights turn off and a yelp
is heard. When the lights come on, it’s revealed that Volthana has a small
kitchen knife stabbed into eye. Volthana falls over taking a bit too long
to actually die, but eventually passes away. The only person who actually
feels sad for Volthana is Micheal. Immediately, he warns the other guests
and the staff to not leave the house as this murder must be investigated.
This is where the core game loop starts. Throughout the investigations,
Micheal learns about the people he is trapped with. Firstly, he learns that
they are all armed with various weaponry. Even Volthana kept a few
pistols in his drawer in his Library Hall. Second, Micheal learns that
Volthana did embezzle money and that he is retiring to get suspicions
off of him and to run off with the money. He also learns that Dolores was
once married to Volthana and their marriage ended badly because
Volthana accidentally roasted Dolores’ pet pig, Master Bartholomew B.
Higgins, and fed it to his boss to get into his boss’ good graces. Then, he
learns that Howard sold the pig to Dolores a few years before the pig’s
death because Howard was infatuated with Dolores and she used that to
her advantage, making Howard spend money on her for as long as she
could even after she married Volthana. Yet, Howard, himself, is no saint.
He made several attempts to poison Edgar to get Edgar’s job, but
somehow Edgar managed to survive all the attempts. Now, Edgar and
Howard absolutely detest each other most of all and constantly try to
undermine each other. TOE’s employees also have their own dirt that
Micheal finds. For example, Vernon detests Edgar as well because Edgar
accidentally broke the leg of Vernon’s Employee of The Year Cabinet, a
giant cabinet with Employee of the Year Awards. This led Vernon to work
with Howard and tell him to poison Edgar. What’s more is that Edwin,
Howard’s secretary and the man who is trying to take over Howard’s job,
started working with Edgar to keep him from taking the poisons.
Hayden, however, has no issues with any of the guests. His anger only
points toward Volthana. Back when Volthana embezzled money and got
away scot-free, the blame was placed on the Treasurer of TVM (Hayden).
Hayden was immediately fired. While investigating Hayden, it appears
that Hayden actually got his hands on evidence of Volthana’s crimes, yet
burned them because he wanted to kill Volthana, himself. The real
murderers, however, are the kitchen staff. Yet, they killed him by
accident. The chef, being completely distracted, accidentally mixed up
Volthana’s cocktail with Dish Cleaning Acid. At the same time, Mr.
Wiggins, the butler, tripped and turned off the lights for a moment.
Volthana, feeling ill, stumbled forward in the dark, crashed into a chair
and landed on a knife. Upon realizing this, Micheal can choose to accuse
the kitchen staff, or he can choose to accuse one of the guests, instead.
If Micheal chooses to accuse the staff, Hayden-the man who wanted to
kill Volthana, himself-becomes enraged and pulls out his gun to kill the
staff for taking his pleasure away from him. This leads to a massive
shootout. If Micheal accuses one of the guests, everyone turns on each
other and this also leads to a massive shootout. At the end, Micheal wins
the gunfights and sits in front of the house, on the steps, covered in
blood, and lights himself a cigarette while staring up at the cloudy night
sky above him.