The idea for this game came to me in the form of a question- if given the power to a man to make decisions for other people, what would this man do. Most people would say the president is there to do that. What I meant was if given the power of god to a man what would they do and how would they affect the world around them. The movie Bruce almighty comes to mind. Unlike the movie, I was looking into a darker theme. I had a rough story in mind but had no idea how the gameplay would look.
Playing Penguin isle, We are illuminati and Egg inc in my spare time gave me the idea to make a game with simple mechanics that can tell a complex story. The story in game is not too complex, the hacker spams the hack button and finds some secret information the government is keeping under wraps. It’s up to the player to either expose or hide the info. When finding out things about the government I want the player to have those questionable doubts where they feels conflicted to reveal the info or not.
The idea of giving conflicting choices to the player came to me when I saw the movie the imitation game, where Alen Turing made the Bomber that was able to crack the Enigma’s encrypted code. There was a lot that machine deciphered but he was told not to give all information to the government in order to fool the Germans and not let them know that their code had been broken.
I wanted to make a game like this where the player spams a button and Turing’s machine would crack the code and the information they get do they give it to the government or do they hide it. If they give too much information to the government then the Germans would find out that their code is cracked and they would change the encryption and so game over. While on the other side, if the player hid too much information then the British military would suffer a lot and Britain would lose the war. So the player would have to choose carefully. Since my friends told me we would need a license to actually make this game I came up with my current idea.
The game leans on putting pressure on the player to make the right decisions. The outcome of every decision is reflected on the city. If the player reveals information about the government the city looks like it’s going on a riot. If the player hides information then the city appears to be going into martial law with cops all over the street and drones in the skies. How would I prevent the player from spamming either decision? Well if the player keeps exposing then the government tracks him and arrests him. If the player keeps hiding information the government manipulates the city and brings it into martial law and increasing taxes and other prices making life difficult and once the player goes broke he won’t be able to hack and so game over.
I have an idea for multiple locations rather hen just one. To show that player is making progress I wanted the player to start in a basement with a window at the footpath level. So the player’s choices are shown by the foot traffic. As the days pass the player gets a constant stream of money via bitcoin, crypto mining etc but also can make a choice to exploit the cash the government has when he exposes them for a scam or if the government has kept the money for the people for a charity or to build something to improve public service, the player can take that money and keep it for himself putting the government in trouble. Once the player has enough cash he can upgrade himself to a better house like a penthouse with a huge window that shows the entire city. The player’s choice shows its effects on the city. These are the two locations I have thought of. I plan to make at least one other location. The thing is that I don’t want the players to dwell on the character’s location and how they can upgrade it but more to see how the city is affected from different perspectives. Like the foot traffic form the basement and the city as a whole for the penthouse.
For flavor I want to make the screen glitch during the playthrough to run along with the whole hacker theme. Making the player scared if his device is getting messed up. Randomly I want to also make the TV glitch that is in the player’s room.
For now this is what I have planned for the prototype but as development goes on I am sure I’ll keep adding more flavor to evolve this game to something bigger.