Imminent Dusk

Adamo ForsterNarrative for Games

Synopsis• ‘Imminent Dusk’ combines the

gameplay experience of decision-making with the comic-book style viewing experience of these consequences.

• The decisions made within the game also shape the telling of the underlying story of how two friends’ brotherhood is tested by their differing aspirations, jealousy and love, loyalty, faith and duty as well as courage and endurance.

• The intrigue of this overall story lies in the fact that you don’t know which friend you are playing as and that your path throughout the ship determines who you are by the end of the story.

Exposition

• The last World War killed 1/3 of the Earth’s population using several WMDs around the world at once.

• A more sustainable civilisation is rebuilt and a ‘United Global Committee’ is formed

• UGC wants to send all remaining WMDs into space and detonate them away from civilisation

• They get a veteran soldier to pilot the carrier vessel of WMDs

• During the soldier’s voyage the spaceship’s navigation fails• He crashes onto an uncharted dwarf-planet

Game Overview

• You play as the soldier who must attempt to restore the spaceship’s main functions ASAP in order to launch the last WMD into orbit before it wipes you and everything in a 10 kilometre radius off the face of the dwarf-planet.

• Your choice of path will determine which function you will restore and which you must ignore

• Each choice will also affect how the events in the story play out

• Whichever path you choose, you will meet your fate. But will you save the planet before it is too late?

Map of the Ship• The ship has three floors, each of

which houses the different functions of the spaceship.

• The lower floor contains the cargo, and supplies

• The middle floor contains the maintenance systems and engine room at the back

• The upper floor contains the cockpit where the navigation and communication hub is as well as the living facilities. I.e bedroom, bathroom, ‘lounge’.

• The player will progress from the cockpit back to the engine room.

Top-Down

Front

UGC_Spearhead_Ship_Blueprints

Character Archetypes and Decisions• Radical (Luke)- Lives for the moment- Desires a Warrior’s death,

to die as a hero- Passionate about duty and

loyalty- Endures through

determination and being strong-willed.

- Decisions are quicker and more spontaneous

- Reckless and destructive at times

• Peaceful (James)- Lives for the future- Desires to grow old and

become a grandfather- Passionate about love,

faith and hope- Endures a lot through

courage and being realistic- Decisions are slower and

more broadly considered- Burdens himself with

regrets of possibly wrong decisions

Timeline and Choices.1- The two friends talk about the future, about their ideals, values and moral beliefs. They talk about what they dream of accomplishing..2.1(Medic)- After leaving school, you join the army to become a medic, although most of your training at this point is standard infantry training.

.2.2(Artist)-After leaving school, you join an art college, focusing on concept artwork for games.

.3.0(Girl)- Her name is Joanne Filde and she attended sixth form with a mutual friend of yours who studied sociology and I.T. She is fair-haired and enjoys many aspects of life.

.3.1(You)-She is attracted to your immature and yet spontaneously abundant charisma. She sees a funny, non-serious guy who is similarly stubborn to her. She knows that you are stronger, fitter and economically better-off.

.3.2(Friend)- She sees your friend and greets you as well, although she finds him less obnoxious, and more sensitive to any issues discussed. He is also into computers being a PC gamer, so they have more common ground.

.3.3(You)-She is attracted to your romantic side, compliments and gestures of being gentlemanly. She sees a sensitive and mature guy with fairly similar interests and a kind heart.

.3.4(Friend)- She sees your friend first so you try not to come between them, although you see a potentional connection and so remain hopeful. As your outlook is a peaceful one you are able to keep your distance for a time.

.4.1(Medic)-Now engaged to Joanne, you enlist as a medic following your childhood plan, your friend leaves with you as a scout.

.4.2(Infantryman)- With your heart-broken friend forced to join the war, you leave to support him and fight for the cause.

.4.3(Medic)- Heart-broken, you continue with your plan to be a medic, and your friend becomes a design draughtsman near to where you will be working.

.4.4(Infantryman)- Heartbroken after a year of confusion and sexual ambiguity, you leave your home to join the frontline of the conflict. Your friend is a design draughtsman and engaged to Joanne.

.4.5(Scout)- Although you are engaged to Joanne, you are conscripted and to feel closer to your medic friend you join as a scout.

.4.6(Design)- You wish to stay as safe in this conflict as possible for Joanne.’s sake. You are able to be a Design Draughtsman, although your friend has become an Infantryman.

.4.7(Scout)- Heart-broken and now forced to join a war you become a harderned man, taking the more radical decision to go beyond the frontline. Your friend joins you on the frontline in attempt to keep you safe.

.4.8(Design)- Heart-broken but still sticking with your plans of art and concepts you go for a more creative aspect in the army. Your friend becomes a medic in a facility near to where you’ve also been stationed.Memories 5 - 6.3:

.5.0(Friend’s Death and World-wide Devastation Event)-During the conflict, your friend is killed by one of the nuclear detonations that are launched simultaneously and hit the area near to where you are. The war is ended by this event, and you are told to return home.

.5.1(Adjust)- Your past decisions have been mostly peaceful, and so you return to your fiancee and take the chance to become a surgeon, considering your late friend’s ideals of the preciousness and beauty of life. You return with a greater perspective on life although there is a sense of loss.

.5.2(Adjust)- Your battle-scars and memories haunt you although with the love of Joanne, you are able to pull through. To come back from fighting has left you far lass able to go back into medical practices though.

.5.3(Doesn’t)- The memories of your friend dying haunt your dreams, you struggle to adapt to normality even though your fiancee tries to help and is able to comfort you somwhat. You feel as though you cannot return to work, and you feel a great burden of loss and regret.

.5.4(Adjust)- Joanne has lost her fiancee, you return to comfort her but you don’t love her like you did before. You return to work as a hardened older-man. Your passion for medical practices still exsits although without your oldest friend and the love you once had, you depend more on yourself.

.5.5(Doesn’t)- You return from war to find no solace, your friend is dead and the love of your life mourns for her ex-fiancee. However you still feel greatly for her and she begins to feel for you again and so you two begin a complicated and confused affair. After being caught with your new lover in the stock-room of the hospital you started working in, you are suspended indefinitely.

.5.6(Doesn’t)- Lowest of low situations, you are a battle-beaten solder who has lost his life-long friend and now he cannot bear to face his friend’s ex-fiancee. Since his campaign he has lost his skill and passion for medical practice and now laments his time on Earth, drinking and smoking to pass the time.

.5.7(Adjusts)- You return to your fiancee a different man. You mourn for your friend, feeling regret and are metally scarred from the horrors of battle. you are able to return to your life of art, expressing your loss and past experiences through your art although it hardly lifts his burden.

.5.8(Adjusts)- You feel remorse for not being there for your friend in his time of need on the frontline. You return to your fiancee for consolation and are able to return to your art.

.5.9(Doesn’t)- You return to normality unable to shake the regret of your friend’s death and wishing you’d been there. Even your fiancee’s love for you can’t replace the brotherhood that you shared with your friend.

.5.10(Adjusts)- You learn from your friend’s life, and even though your friend is now dead and you’re not with the woman you are able to adjust to normal life. .5.11(Doesn’t)- Everything thus far has been too radical, and your personality is entirely out of sync. You fail to return to normality and your life and art suffer. .5.12(Adjusts)- You are able to adjust back to normality despite losing your friend because you seek solace in a re-kindled frienship with his fiancee.

.6.1(Radical End)- You reach the left engine room about to meltdown, you enter the room and the engine explodes before you, and as you see the burning ship around you, you see a creature scuttle about in the distance.

.6.2(Neutral End)- You launch the last WMD and manage to make your way to the escape pod, launching before your ship explodes, you drift into space potentially forever in stasis.

.6.3(Peaceful End)- You reach the right engine room, and as the engine is torn off, you are overcome by the dwarf-planet’s unsuitable atmosphere, you try to launch the WMD and do so, although you suffocate just after it launches.

Narrative Layout

• The Comic-strip look will be used to show the progression from decision to decision.

• The choices will be displayed as either potential speech bubbles or the character will choose one of a couple of slides/frames to move on to.

Possible Beginning and/or Ending?

That’s All Folks!Thanks for Watching