I've been writing the plot and music for a game by the project name of "Alone at The Hospice" for a good few years now, but have always had difficulty developing the game itself as I lack skill in the computer programming part of game design. Although the idea and summary of the game as well as the soundtrack is solid, and I am looking for someone to turn that into an actual playable game, ideally through GoldSrc (half-life 1 engine)
Since the early days of my video gaming history, the games that really stuck out to me were the ones that could vibrate some unusual horror into you; like the early silent hill series, fatal frame, lsd dream emulator, and most especially influential to this idea, afraid of monsters. if you haven't played these games, it will be hard to understand what this game would be all about; so only read on if you have gone through the mindwarping experience from those games
///basic idea {first person shooter, low graphics (goldsrc possibly)} {low lighting, twisted map design (similar to silent hill)} {dismembered and faintly symbolic enemies} {uncomfortable, but memorable soundtrack and sfx} {plot revolved around main character, but game starts with little to no pointers to what the plot will develop into} (not a bad thing, cutscenes later in the games timeline explain the main plot but in an "unreliable narrator" kind of way" for gamer speculation}
///plot main character, desmond, a twenty-something, is travelling to someplace on a public bus going through unusually wooded areas in an outback setting. there is no one on the bus with him besides the driver and with an extended sequence of riding this bus, (much like half life 1 intro) desmond falls into a dreary sleep. when the scene cuts back to the inside of the bus, desmond wakes calmly until he realizes that the bus has stopped and the doors are open, (giving the player 'wasd' control) desmond feels and sees somethings quite unusual outside the windows of the bus and takes a step outside to analyse; the sky is red, solid objects are black and shadow-like, and fires ablaze from afar, atop tall contorted, black towers
"what is this..? is this real?..or, am i just dreaming?"
the prologue starts here with the title - "am i dreaming?"
desmond has no choice but to wander the unusual city as the buses engine is out and the road holds no passerbys. taking a browse around the area, he finds he has only one option as most buildings are in ruins besides the gate and towers he sees in the distance, but in order to get there, he must go through the big gatehouse and walls blocking the outside from the burning towers. continuing towards the gatehouse, an ominous and foreboding presence comes over the protagonist (and player) as unusual sounds can be heard from behind him, turning around and scanning for an individual who could have made the sounds is without luck until the sounds get louder and nearer; in the distance, tall, black and lanky figures are seen standing in place, but are unbelievably teleporting closer and closer to desmond. causing an instinctual panic, desmond sprints to the gatehouse entrance, scarcely making it inside as the sound seemed to have been an inch behind him before opening the door and slamming it shut behind him. (that part could kill the player if they don't run)
once inside the lobby of the gatehouse and cooling off from the panic of the shadows that chased him, desmond walks forth in the blackness of the interior with no light, only adjusting his eyes to continue. the lobby holds no information, but the door across the lobby, leads to a wide stretched hallway, with many locked doors on the left and right leading to a lightly boarded up doorway at the end of the hallway, desmond can't tear through the doorway, but to the right his eyes catch an open window. desmond climbs out the window and finds a small indoor garden with dead leaves and soil messy about the room like it hasn't been tended for years, but gleaming in the soil is what looks like a garden pick with its sharp tip stabbed in the dirt. remembering the boarded up doorway and dark creatures from before, desmond takes the pick. the door in the garden is jammed shut, so he climbs back through the window. now in front of the boarded up doorway, he lands the pick into the middle of the boards and breaks through but taking a step in the room before him, he finds something that darkens his soul; a hanging body by rope to the ceiling in the middle of a small room, desmond takes another step forward and analyses the body, but without a second breath, the floor beneath him shakes, crumbles and then cracks. plummeting to the unknown below, desmond instinctively grabs hold to the hanging body but it doesnt hold and the body falls with him down the pit
