Chris' Survival Horror Quest

[ljbad]

Camp Kitaki!!!! I have a ton of friends who went there when they were young (I'm from Lincoln, NE).

Your project sounds interesting. I would certainly like to help you out. I can help with writing if you are still in need of that.

I am currently majoring in videogame design and minoring in creative writing. I am focusing mostly in computer animation and screenwriting. So, besides a little javascript and actionscript, I can't help you out with coding. But I could help out with writing or art depending on your needs.

I can also offer you the use of my humble 3D modeling skills. I mostly know how to use Maya, but I'm not very savvy on the scripting language. I haven't done too much modeling, so my skills aren't as good as they could be. I'm fairly good at modeling but rigging and texturing are a different story. My website is down right now, otherwise I'd link you to some example of my work. I'll probably get it back up next week.

Unfortunately, I can only help out during the summer. As soon as the semester starts in September, my life and all extracurricular activities end.

Anyway, your idea sounds cool.

[ArchVile]

Seriously?
Thats really cool. Im from Omaha myself. Going to live in lincoln starting in August, im going to UNL.
Counsilor there this summer, but gone for the past couple weeks do to a bad case of mono and bronchitis.

BUT
At the moment Johny Feldman (username) is working on the writing and I should get part of the draft today. But I wouldnt upject to having your help with aspects of the story, and modeling would be great if you are interested. Textures could easily be taken care of by another. And thats fine that you can only help during the summer. I would keep you up to date on how the project is going and you would still get credit on and and be able to use it as an example in your portfolio.

[Johnny Feldman]

and by today you mean today
My grandma went to the hospital and things kind of got a little hectic. I have some good stuff written, but I really want to wrap up the first scene before I send it. I also want some more plot outlines, camp descriptions and those creature details, please!

[Chris]

[ljbad]

[Bingo Zero]

Alright, sorry for not posting for a week, I was visiting family. I have a few sketches I'll post later tonight or tomorrow. But right now I have a ton of free time so I can get a lot of work done, I have just this and looking for a new job to contend with. So for now just start feeding me the script and everything you want done (if you can list which is higher priority than another they'll get done in that order). I do have some more questions, mainly what sort of game is this? 3rd person, 1st person, visual adventure, 2D side scrolling? Most of my other questions involve the environment, how big is it, what are all the locations in the camp will Ed visit, etc. Just start sending me layout information and I'll be able to work from there.

[ArchVile]

Sorry guys. I had some troubles these past few days.
Friend of mines mom died.
So I was kinda buusy with that.

BUT, I am back 100% for the project now.
Hopefully you all are still either
A: Ready to get to work
or
B: Still interested in the project

I finally got my msn to work, so message me on MSN messenger under :
endislost@hotmail.com

[OkKay]

Ah wow what a turn out on this. Just from being on this forum. I've been following ArchVile sense last summer on this project and I'm so exited at the fact that people are so into it!

[Bingo Zero]

alright here are a few sketches and a painting.



Here's a painting of Edward getting water with a Wendigo stalking him. The children he killed in the foreground. Personally, I thought the image of burnt children would be too gruesome so I made their spectral form decapitated. That way it shows that the children were murdered without giving a clue as to how. It's still disturbing but isn't gruesome, in the end it could be revealed that they're burnt and there can be a gross out pay off, but to have them that way through out the game I thought would be too much.



Here is a sketch of a Wendigo. The Wendigo is an Indian myth (primarily Algonquian) of an evil stalking ghost that hunts murders and cannibals to turn them into another Wendigo. The Wendigo is unique in mythological monsters as there is a culture-bound disorder associated with it called Wendigo psychosis, where a person starts craving human flesh and fears becoming a cannibal. I feel that if we change the Crying Tree/Angle of Death to a Wendigo or tweak it to incorporate parts of the Wendigo myth it will add depth to the story. As it stands we only have Ed's split personality to account for his actions, but if we incorporate the supernatural influences of the Wendigo we can now add weight to his mania. Is this episode he's dealing with him coming to terms with his actions and dealing with his other side (blaming a split personality or Wendigo for his actions) or is this an actual case of a person being stalked by a Wendigo to transform him into a Wendigo.

For it's design I combined the classic looks of a zombie and a sheet ghost. It has the silhouette of a human but all it's features have been concealed from the sheet, only showing it's gnarly teeth and claws.



Here's Edward Hubber. I really latched onto the idea that he's a "wanna' be mountain man", where he has a conflicted personality. On one side he deeply hates society and want to be away from it all, being a survivalist. On the other side he still clings to society, he vainly wants to show off to people his survival skills. So as a compromise he works at a summer camp for kids, as children would vastly appreciate his wilderness skills. He was probably the most skilled at survival and one of the best teachers and beloved by his students and peers alike, but he would only behave in such a way to feed his ego, blindly mimicing the emotions that a situation called for to draw attention to himself. Probably had some hippy girlfriend to complete a picture that he envisioned to make himself a "mountain man" in the eyes of society. But his other side hated himself for being the parody of what he really was. So one night to truely cut the ties of society he kills the children he was incharge of. A case of vanity vs. pride.



Here are a few monster sketches. The Dormants as the boogie men that lurk in closets and under beds. So I wanted to go with the primal fear associated with spiders but make it extra disturbing by making it's body an upside down deformed baby. I think this will really freak some people out.

The Zephyr was pretty tricky to figure out a good design for so I fell back on an old sketch I made of a stylized Quetzalcoatl. It's basic design is that combining a barn owl with a snake. It's designed to be massive, screeching and horrifying.

For the Creeper I kept thinking back to the other design and it really bothered me that they were supposed to represent being watched but they didn't have any eyes. So I went with a classic walking corpse/zombie. It's completely petrified and dried out as well as having it's jaw missing and having a horrible wound running from it's groin through it's midsection, implying that after it died animal had eaten from it for a while. This is to highlight the dangers of the woods. It's eyes are glowing and vibrant.

[Johnny Feldman]

love the dormant design. the baby arm mandibles are perfect.

[Bingo Zero]

Here are a couple more sketches.



Here are the Masked. When reading the description images from The Shinning and The Wicker Man came to mind. So I wanted to go with the image of normal people wearing regular rubber Halloween masks. For their design I made them construction workers wearing jumpsuits, I wanted the design of their cloths to be generic enough to where they could look like regular workers or prison wardrobe. I went with construction workers to connect to the dreamscape campground, as I would imagine that the place would take on a dilapidated look and the workers are there to repair it. This is to go with mocking him, cleaning up the mess of his mind. They also wear masks of classic monsters, this too is to mock Ed. Ed assumes they wear them to look monstrous but they are parodying Ed, because he's the real monster. This is just my interpretation if the writers come up with another costume design or any other changes I'm all ears.



Here is the Lichen. I don't really know much about Lich from D&D, but I know that they're basically corpse wizards (or something like that). So I went with a humanoid monster with over sized hands and feet, baggy skin ,and a verticle mouth to break away from association with D&D. I considered taking on a more literal translation of lich by making them just a torso (simular to the one from the remake of 13 Ghosts) but I thought that wouldn't go with the description.

I have a question, are the Maimed supposed to be all those creatures in one monster, or are they separate monsters per creature? Also what does everyone think of the designs I've posted, so far I've only gotten a nod of approval for the Dormant. I'd like to know which ones I can start finalizing and which ones need redesigning. Thanks.

[ArchVile]

Bump!!!
Sorry guys. I am actually back at Camp Kitaki at the moment, so im a tad busy, but im getting pictures of the area for level design purposes. Also talking to someone else who is interested in writing for the project (sorry man, not that im kicking you off, so dont think that).

But thought I would update for you guys so you all knew it was still ago!!!

P.S. There seperate, 3 or 4 different types.

[bloomer]

Hi AV (I'm going to call you AV instead of arch vile, it makes life easier on the speech to text software I'm using). I hadn't seen your thread until now. I might be able to help you with music. I previously offered my services to the chap who solicited here and was designing a horror engine called Shudder, but he switched to work on a different engine and I don't think Shudder will rise again.

Reading your story outline, my concern also is that it sounds too complicated for a team of volunteers spread out online. A deadline is a good carrot, but if the carrot has to keep moving, volunteers can't be expected to follow it. So I would echo the idea a few have already expressed that you should simplify. I wouldn't go with multiple personalities or characters who all need to resolve their problems - just one, the main guy.

If you can create even one game mechanic which feels original enough and works well, that would be great, and a much better achievement than overreaching and underperforming.

I'm personally not a fan of having a death-row framing story, since it adds complications, requires extremely good writing to make work and can backfire in terms of making the player feel like they're not in the levels of the game, or if it's a reveal later, is the kind of thing which could prompt people to roll their eyes (à la assassin's Creed). But of course I'm saying this stuff knowing only the story outline.

I recently completed my own horror game, an 8-bit text adventure, and it's being playtested at the moment. It doesn't have sound or graphics (though I did have to do illustrations) and it still took me a year, though admittedly I had to do absolutely everything it will still be a few months till I can release it publicly.

Having said all this (whew!) I produce electronic music and I'm offering to do music/atmos. I would go with looping cues for each major area, and smaller cues for particular events (though not a zillion of em!). And theme and closing music. I can't offer to do sound effects as well (footsteps, gunshots, etc dialogue) as it's too time-consuming. Here are a couple of tracks you can check out to see if you like the style.

A. Exploration (eg wandering in a forest, exploring a deserted cabin)

B. Dream (exploration in a dream state, other world, or hell)

(both start with fadeins or silence, so your speakers aren't broken, you just need to wait)

-Wade

[Bingo Zero]

Alright, way to go Bloomer! Good to hear that you're practically done with your game. Can't wait to try it out. What's the name of it, I forget, I'll be sure to keep an eye out for it.

[Johnny Feldman]