INTERIOR SAVE: September 2009

Tuesday, September 15, 2009

"THE INSANITY" DEVELOPMENT POST

GAME INSPIRATION
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There's no direct inspiration for 'THE INSANITY' but it definitely had a wide range of influences. My first purpose was to recreate something similar to what we used to read in the Fighting Fantasy Ian Livingstone&Steve Jackson books as kids. Are you old enough to remember?
What a great idea it would be, I thought, to have a game like that. Not really much more than an excuse for a straightforward picture-book story. Interactivity is limited- there are battles and sub games to raise the pulse a little, but the real involvement comes from the characters and being astray in this mysterious world that is part directed by the author and part by your own imagination.
In a sense the game is a hybrid because it's not actually aimed at the crowd who prefer slow, passive puzzle games, but rather the Silent Hill/Resident Evil fans who like a decent story and medium pace action+the chance of a grizzly death.

CHARACTERS
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EDGAR FRIENDLY
One of the differences between Friendly and other horror genre antagonists is that he doesn't have any provocative background tale, his history is straightforward and nondescript, he is a highly-educated man from a good Christian non-abusive family. He's brain damaged. There's more to be learned about this in the second game, but he gets involved in a horrendous accident that triggers it all off a few years later. He loses the mental faculties that appropriate what is moral and sane in our society. With normal thought patterns destabilised he goes on to believe what he is doing, the experiments, the kidnapping, the vicious murdering, is for the benefit and advancement of humanity and medical science. He doesn't view himself as an outright serial killer (as do many in real life btw) - it's 'progress'- mankind will comprehend his objectives and one day thank him, the end DID defy the means, and all was not for naught. In the Insanity 1- which is taking place sometime after the second game- his beliefs have manifested themselves to such an extent that he literally puts himself under the knife with a little help from T.Takaki, in the vain hope that it will educate the world and prove his level of commitment. All goes awry at the last minute however, and he ends up potentially 'curing' his condition and being as horrified at his surroundings as a normal human being would be. His awakening prior to discovering the horrible truth is the event consequentially to the games beginning.

TRACY TAKAKI
Tracy is nothing more than a frail-minded girl who's love for Friendly runs so deep that she allows him to sculpt her into one of his Pigmalion-esque 'experiments' to be with him. She lies to herself that all that is happening is just a game. She is the one who deep-down is completely aware of the terrible irregularity of it all, and yet her love obscures her righteous beliefs and she foolishly expects he will somehow revert back to his once normal mentality once the Doctor is done playing around. Her physical appearance is largely based on the 'Kuchisake Onna' of Japanese mythology and the actual model herself (counting out the face) is none other than my own wife- who after seeing her lovely photo's zombied up is convinced she married a Edgar Friendly nut job herself. She will be making a further appearance in the second game.

"THEY'LL BE NO ESCAPE FOR YOU GUY"- TUNNEL MONSTER - STATUE
Past captives and surgically altered victims.

ALEXANDER
Another captive although he- like yourself- manages to escape and is in the process of looking for a way out when you encounter him.

CHAINSAW GUY
He's a character from another game I never did quite finish (yet) "THE DAMNED". Just out of silly affection for the 3d model and it's animations I decided to write him into the game. His history is under wraps as if I do make a second game-demand depending, he will be one of the leading characters. As inspiration goes, obviously you can tell clearly he's all Texas Chainsaw Massacre.

What about a -"THE INSANITY 2"?

As far as a story goes I've already a pretty decent one fleshed out using many of the characters in the original game plus 'The Doctor' naturally.. Don't expect a happy ending!
It is certainly a possibility, depending on the reception of the original and the plausibility of making some better $$$ this time.

Under Construction
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