RickPuncher!

A prototype.

Play it.

Bill

Writer's Meeting Notes 9/26

Today we talked about the character chains for the first episode of content, and fleshed out the characters a bit more. We also briefly talked about what the expository introduction of the episode looks like, and what sorts of environmental narrative we might be able to fit in there.

Intern's Chain

Means: Trained by the Resistance in electronics and circuitry.

Motive: Hired by the Resistance; Adding coded static to the broadcast; Pushed past Mr. Body trying to escape.

Opportunity: He stayed after work; He broke out before morning.

Conclusion: It was an accident; He killed Mr. Body.

Other Guard's Chain

Means: Operated radio equipment during the war.

Motive: His wife was having an affair with Mr. Body.

Opportunity: He was on duty that night. (FALSE: He was soused at a bar all night; the Engineer clocked him in.)

Conclusion: He murdered Mr. Body.

Station Manager's Chain

Means: He was schooled and certified in electrical engineering. (FALSE: His degree is from a radio college; he knows nothing about electronics.)

Motive: He was trying to collect an insurance payout.

Opportunity: He has the keys to the building; he came to the station in the middle of the night.

Conclusion: He murdered Mr. Body.

Engineer's Chain

Means: She's professionally trained in electrical equipment.

Motive: She was trying to fix the faulty equipment; Mr. Body startled her while she was working.

Alternative Motive: She's crazy.

Opportunity: She's there all the time. (FALSE: She clocked out well before the incident occurred.)

Writer's Meeting Notes 9/19

I was taking notes last week, and I do not take notes nearly as well as Simon, but here's the whiteboard from our discussion about the plot of our first episode.

In short, a security guard at a private radio station fell to his death sometime in the middle of the night. The man's family is holding the station owner financially responsible, and the station owner is demanding that his insurance company pay out, as per his policy for death on the job. The problem is that the police officer in charge of the investigation has ruled the death a simple accident, and the insurance company isn't paying up. So you've been hired to prove that the man's death wasn't accidental.

Megagame Digital Concept

This is a digital version of the basic overarching gameplay, as tested in the Mama Bear and Bluebird prototypes. There's no content in it yet, but you can see most of the pieces there. The important one is the theory puzzle, where you can see there have been some changes. Theories are now categorized as part of the means, motive, opportunity, or conclusion of a chain, and therefore have a more logical flow. Here's a link to download the SWF directly.

Photos from Bluebird Playtest

Playtested the second iteration of the mega-game today in class with Mark and Sean. Notes and thoughts are coming; first, here is the playtest in pictures.

I read out the response of one of the characters to the investigators' probing.

Here is the setup of theory cards that I pulled from as the players discovered more information.

Sean and Mark discuss their strategy regarding the logic-puzzle portion of the game.

The investigation's Big Board, reflecting current theories and topics of interest.

Sean and Mark try to shed light on the complicated relationships between characters.

Here's a small part of the whiteboard space I used when putting together the prototype.

I thought this playtest was enormously helpful. It illuminated some of the serious problems with this system and helped define an appropriate scope for the content. It also raised a number of questions about how the cooperative action between players will work when the prototype is taken into the digital realm. (Thank you, Elizabeth, for taking pictures during the test.)

World and Characters

Notes from the first "Writers Room" meeting this afternoon.

THE CITY

• Chicago?
• New industrial center in the middle of an agrarian region
• Some new corn-based industrial material?
• Nation undergoes a civil war -- Capitalists vs Communists?
• City & surrounding region is on the losing (Communist?) side
• New political leadership / tight control imposed on the city
• Surrounding (rural) areas still have rebellious sympathies
• A city surrounded -- like West Berlin
• Industry is centralized & can be controlled, but new media (radio) is decentralized
• New establishment has political / military authority, not popular support
• Pre-war establishment becomes post-war crime world -- still part of the system
• "Underground" rebellious movement led by new, tech-savvy generation -- anti-system
• Radio is ephemeral (difficult to record) but pervasive
• Public spaces with state-sponsored radio broadcasts
• Grafitti "tagging" public radio feed
• Covered city? High-society up top, criminal element rules below?
• Good excuse for noir lighting!
• Gadgets: Dictation typewriter, radio earbuds, signal jammers
• Technology paranoia
• Weaponized radio -- Pain Ray
• Secret frequencies, codes
• Anonymization
• Ownership issues -- Remix Culture
• Who creates news? Who controls information? Who control access?

RICK WARD

• Grew up on pulp comics about soldiers
• Came from the upper echelon, but has internally fallen
• Served in the big civil war.
• Spy that went undercover and had to betray the other side, even though they treated him better.
• Professional contacts in the establishment; personal contacts in the underworld.
• Hero for something that he didn't believe in.
• Hardened and disillusioned.
• Out of war, became a PI -- still wants the idea of the pulp comics "heroism"
• Interesting relationship with violence.
• MO: aggressive
• Flaw: Inability to follow through on his ideals.
• Afraid of the potential of weaponized radio technology.

MILLS LAWSON

• Newspaper princess
• Younger -- the underground radio generation
• Given name: Mildred -- very Victorian background / upbringing
• Comes from wealth, class; emotionally distant parents
• Epitome of the generational gap
• Grew up listening to radio plays about detectives
• Personal rebellion (vs parents) parallels political rebellion
• Who owns newspapers? Who controls information?
• Radio is a way to express this independence
• Underground radio reporter -- the Wikileaks of radio
• MO: charming, "trustworthy," sets conversational traps
• Quietly outsmarts everyone
• Stealth (Jade from BG&E)
• Introduced to radicalism in college
• Started to become big BUT wasn't prepared for the consequences
• Lost her radio equipment; must stay anonymous
• Unwilling to start over completely, thus retains "Mills"
• Back in college, went by a different handle
• Play-on-audio? Analagous to play-on-text handles

TOGETHER THEY FIGHT CRIME

• Backstory: Rick was hired to find her -- dangerous radical element
• This time, he doesn't turn her over
• Compromise: burn down her radio equipment, she goes into hiding
• They team up -- he can't take action in her world
• He sees in her something he wanted to be
• Acting for peace / social change through non-violence
• She represents his idealized version of "heroism"
• He can teach her to be a detective

Territory Capture Minigame Update

Second iteration of the Territory Capture minigame. Made some changes based on initial playtesting feedback, and integrated the new level editor. Here's a link to download the SWF directly.

Notice that there is now a tutorial progression for new players to learn the game. I've also tried to emphasize the parallel between the gameplay and the conversation. Also, replaced the nonsensical '$' meter with something a little more intuitive.