Poll: Best story for a survival horror game?

These story premises all have to do with the protagonist being in a science research facility, being chased by monsters and insane people.

  1. You are a filmmaker. You get a phone call from a science center known as Newton Unity Research, which asks for help on some experiments on creatures called “Manus Insectus”. Seeing this as an opportunity for inspiration, you grab a tape recorder, go to the facility, and apply as a test subject.

They tell you that you’ll be testing with a “creature”. You enter the chamber, but the scientists are having trouble getting the machinery to respond. One scientist tells you to exit, which you do. They discover that the CEO, Andrew Newton, has destroyed the facility’s power generator, the place loses power. The “experiments” or creatures have escaped, and are hungry for food…

You now have to navigate through the place, and with your tape recorder, and your spare audio tapes, you roam the facility to search for the exit.

2.You are an undercover agent, and are given a phone call from an anonymous source, and he tells you of a science research company that is performing illegal DNA experiments and is locking up test subjects, whether they became insane or not, never allowing them to leave because the truth will get the company out of business, and the founders will be arrested. He wants you to expose the facility’s truth.

You grab your cellular phone and charger, and drive to the research center and apply as a test subject, only to find that they discovered about the email that the source had emailed to you, and are going to place you under the “Curiosity Kills” treatment. They knock you out with chloroform, and you wake up strapped in an electric chair. As they try to boot up the electric chair, the intercom claims that an escaped subject has entered the breaker room. The subject destroys most of the fuses, and the facility loses power in some areas. You are set free, and hear someone on an intercom say "The subject has destroyed multiple breakers. The generator is running this intercom. You now have to escape, while the DNA experiments, or these “creatures” are free.

You have your cellular phone, and your charger, so you apply the “Camera” app and decide to begin filming to expose the truth about the place.

  1. Two weeks after you became a professional journalist, you notice that a science research center is announcing that it is becoming a prison for the criminally insane. You see this as unusual, so you tell your friends that you’ll go investigate the area to see what is going on. The word spreads, and the research center hears about this, so they kidnap you. You are knocked out with chloroform, and are placed in a helicopter. Above their former research facility, now a prison for death row and criminally insane, the helicopter lands. They claim that “we can’t let you expose us…”

The researchers have seen that their creation has evolved into 4 different sub-species, and have let them roam the facility for a year now. Ever since this discovery, they saw the opportunity to make profit as a building for death row and criminally insane. They have mutated the creatures’ testosterone development, thus making them blood-thirsty beasts. So, to kill two birds with one stone, they claim it is a prison for death row and criminally insane, so they can make cash for getting the job done. Ever since, they let the prisoners roam freely, allowing them to kill one another, and also allowing the new, mutated monsters to make sure the area stays secure.

The kidnappers open a hatch, and throw you into the building. You now have to escape the building, especially now that it is flooded with insane, heartless killers, and four new species of the Manus Insectus.

You soon see that multiple journalists were kidnapped and thrown into this hell-in-disguise along with you. Luckily, you have your cellular phone, and your charger. You apply the camera app and begin filming, and decide that you’ll expose all the horror.

Which is the best story to you? Please reply your thoughts.

Thanks!

1 Like

I have just copied number 2 into notepad and intend to make it into a billion dollar game. Thanks for the idea bro!

6 Likes

Isn’t that plagiarism? Besides, I already have a pretty friggen creepy monster and TONS of horror experience… I doubt that you’ll be a billionaire unless you can truly make someone change their underwear and their pants.

1 Like

Why do you need a camera in all three stories?

And why if you had a working cell phone, would you not just call for help?

oh dear.

BECAUSE!

gamelogic

1 Like

The stories are good. Probably as good as any of the stories modern AAA games have. Might be better to just focus on building a little playable prototype around the core gameplay because it seems to be the same in all cases. The stories only differ for the initial set up. Get some gameplay going and maybe you will find one of the backgrounds works better for something you want to have in the game.

He cannot call out because he is afraid of the roaming charges. Now that is scary.

6 Likes

I actually laughed out loud. Lucky for you no one woke up. That would have been scary.

Would you rather people not ask the question or have the character in game look at his phone and go “Damn, no bars!”? I think we’re so sick of that, that we actually prefer our protagonists to be morons.

Obvious choice.

I’m in the process of making games based on story 1 and 3, and seeing as Dreamaster laid claim to story 2 I’m guessing you need a new story? Otherwise you’ll just be ripping off our work. Here’s a fourth story for you:

You are an undercover kidnapper, and are given a phone call from an anonymous filmmaker. You grab your cellular phone and charger and get in your car. It doesn’t start. You have to take the bus. You sit down on the bus, take out your cellular phone, apply the “Camera” app and begin filming to expose the truth about the place.

Eh? Public transport, that’s horror people can relate to.

The first story doesn’t need a camera, you just have an audio recorder.


Newton Unity Research
Obvious choice.

Well, yeah. That’s a name as a shout-out to the great engine!

1 Like

Well, it seems that number 2 is the best option. I’ll make the game in my own game :slight_smile: If DreamMaster is uncreative, then so be it, I can just send people a link to this thread…

1 Like

It’s not ripping off your work if it was my idea to begin with…

Besides, our ideas may be MUCH MUCH different from each other.

@GroominGabe watch return of the living dead 3 for inspiration if you’re going with #2. I think you would enjoy the scenery and the sort-of human experiments.

Good luck. Don’t neglect your build up & atmosphere.

Thanks!
I also have a bit of backstory for the creatures, but I don’t wanna tell you guys about the monsters. Someone told me that anticipation of the inevitable is sometimes scarier than meeting the beasts themselves!

I am probably going to make the main character a technician, because someone told me that it would be weird if the company new he was an undercover agent…

I think I will call the game “Gabe’s Grooming Lab of Terror”. No worries man when I hit 5 million I’ll give you a few hundred thousand to settle out of court.

1 Like

XD Well if you’re giving credit (and paying me) for the idea, PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE don’t screw it up. I don’t want my name being affiliated with a bad game.:wink:

How about he’s an actual technician that decides to go rogue when his morals conflict with what he discovers about the company? Being an actual technician at first let’s you have the character get introduced to the facilities and walked around by officials. It also lets him be able to do technical things, like operate and fix basic machinery. Maybe even rig up some traps for the monsters.

Also as an actual technician you can get a sneak peak of the monsters while fixing something, only to have you pulled away by security to stop you from seeing the experiments. After learning the truth and having a moment where no one sees you, your character goes rogue!

I don’t really like any of them.

Why not do something more creative with gameplay? It seems like you have story ideas but no gameplay ideas. We’re just assuming the style of game it is.

I think it would be better to think up some more creative gameplay elements like exposure to enemies causing you to run slower, or enemies attack stealthily/sporadically but take limbs, fingers, etc instead of health - making you walk slower or unable to use some things, interfaces could require little mini puzzles where you need certain fingers/limbs… or something like Shutter Island where you aren’t sure if the protagonist is crazy or not and things keep changing around you, making you doubt whats real? You could be forced to put clues together in your inventory to stay sane - or find which side of the clues are real so the story leads to sanity. The inventory could be like a map of clues that changes parts of the level when connected.

Dunno, the given ideas didn’t strike me as anything out of the ordinary or especially interesting, thats all.