Story & Characters
Story
A Week Before The Game Events
The story tells about Gary and his wife, Vine. Gary is obsessed with a videogame called “Samurai Detectives” and Vine, who is tired to be ignored all day, decides to leave him. She tries to talk with him, but again, he is too busy playing his game, so that she decides to write a note, pick her things and leave. Because she is pregnant, she has a tremendous whim of pickles, so she goes to the kitchen, picks the pickles jar and comes back to the room, leaving Gary in the living room playing. She closes the door behind her. Vine is so upset, so angry while she is packing her things, that she get chocked with a pickle that she was eating. She drops the jar over the bed, it rolls and falls to the ground, breaking. She steps over the crystals form the floor and the vinegar enters on her wounds. She is unable to scream and she is listening to the damn game’s song at full volume coming from the living room, so she knows that Gary will not listen to her, that he will ignore her again, as always. She is running out of air, so she decides to go to the bathroom and try to puke. When she finally makes it, she listens to the room’s door opening and the damn music entering the room, followed by a “honey… Are you ok?? Let me finish this match and I will help you… Oh, fuck, a boss fight!! Ok! Ok! This will take a little bit longer”. Vine, dizzy and angry gets up from the bathroom floor, completely forgetting the wounds of her feet. She takes a step and slips. When Vine tries not to fall, she stumbles with a rubber duck on the floor, hitting her head with the bathtub. From the ground, she still listens to the music from the console and Gary cursing. He heard the noise of the rubber duck and hit, but the boss is making his attack. He says something, but she doesn’t understand it. She doesn’t know if he is talking to her or the game. Vine sees Gary sitting on the couch. Her couch. Is just there in front of her. If he just let the game for a second, he would see her laying on the ground, bleeding out. But no. The boss is making his ultimate and Gary only has one chance to beat him before he disappears. She knows. Crying, she drags herself trying to reach the door. She says something. “Help. Help me”. But Gary is too focused. “Give me a second, honey. Just a second and I will be with you, ok?” She knows. She doesn’t have a second. There is no more time.
Game over
When Gary finally wins and calls for his wife, he finds her dead in front of the door. His mind is incapable to process the loss and Gary passes out. During a week he goes in and out from a dream that seems do not have an end.
In Game Story
After a week of nightmares, Gary finally wakes up. He looks around him and sees his room clean and tidy. Maybe too clean and tidy. The bed is done, with the blankets ironed and perfect. There is not a single dust spot and from the window enter a warm light that tells him that is afternoon. At the bedside table, he sees his Jar Games, the console that he loves so much, and he decides to play a little bit before dinner. When he runs the game, he discovers that the room inside the console is the same as his, but with the difference that this one is dirty and messy, cover in dust and dried stains of blood and puke. He walks and he discovers a body floating inside a pickles jar. Then he remembers what the game was about: he is a detective and he needs to solve the mystery to leave the room and confront the boss. But, why the room is so similar to his? He starts to walk around, investigating the room. The bed is covered in vinegar and there is blood all over the floor, that goes to the bathroom. He follows the track and discovers that in the bathtub has more blood and that the WC stinks to puke and vinegar, or at least, that says the screen. In the middle of the bathtub, he finds a black rubber duck with red eyes, that is looking at him. Scared, but intrigue, he presses the action button to investigate the toy. When he touched, it makes a loud and painful noise that makes Gary drops the console to the ground. On the screen appears a word:
Pickles
Gary scream and push the console with his feet. Breathless and sweating, he goes the sink to wash his face. He opens the faucet and let the water running for a while. When he raises the head he sees his wet face in the mirror. He is pale and has marked undereye circles. He blinks and when he opens his eyes again, he sees the ghost of a female in the mirror, looking at him with her white eyes, covered in puke and blood. Gary gets so scared that he falls to the ground. He looks to the console. The game is still running, he can listen to the game’s music. The ghost in the mirror was the woman of the jar. “How is that possible?” he asks himself, “Am I losing my mind?”. He gets up slowly, but the ghost is no there anymore, in her place are a phrase scratched on the mirror that reads:
IT WAS YOUR FAULT
Gary runs to the room and picks the console trying to turn it off, but it is impossible, even taking the batteries, the Jar Games still running with the game’s song at full volume. He tries to open the door, but it is stuck. He runs to the window in a desperate attempt to run away, but he can’t open it either. He hits the crystal, trying to call someone attention, but is nobody on the street. The outside is as clean and tidy as his room, and as empty too. Inside the game is all dark, the lamp is broken and the room is lit only with a dark light that comes from outside. He sees a piece of paper on the table. When he hits the action button, the screen shows a text: “I can’t read the paper. Is wrinkled and the words are blurred”. With fear, he comes down slowly the Jar Games to discover that in the table in front of him there is now a note. He picks and read it:
“I cannot continue this way. You are obsessed. I leave you”
At that moment the PC screen turns on. Gary can see the wallpaper and the trash icon. Nothing else. But something calls him. Maybe that lack of icons, maybe that emptiness is the one that calls him so strongly as for forcing him to leave the console in the table an walk to the PC like a zombie with tears in his eyes. He takes the mouse and does click on the trash icon. Inside there are hundreds of photos of a happy couple, memories, plans, a baby in a resonance picture… His tears fall in the table. The ambient starts to change. He can smell now something rotten and the vinegar, the puke, and the blood… In the screen appear the same phrase of the mirror over and over again:
IT WAS YOU FAULT IT WAS YOU FAULT IT WAS YOU FAULT IT WAS YOU FAULT IT WAS YOU FAULT IT WAS YOU FAULT IT WAS YOU FAULT IT WAS YOU FAULT IT WAS YOU FAULT IT WAS YOU FAULT IT WAS YOU FAULT IT WAS YOU FAULT IT WAS YOU FAULT IT WAS YOU FAULT IT WAS YOU FAULT IT WAS YOU FAULT IT WAS YOU FAULT IT WAS YOU FAULT IT WAS YOU FAULT IT WAS YOU FAULT IT WAS YOU FAULT IT WAS YOU FAULT IT WAS YOU FAULT IT WAS YOU FAULT IT WAS YOU FAULT IT WAS YOU FAULT IT WAS YOU FAULT IT WAS YOU FAULT
And he hears again the rubber duck, the hit, someone voice asking for help, a familiar voice, her voice, Vine’s voice…
There she is, lying on the ground in front of the door, dead, with her eyes open looking at him. Her hand stretched towards the couch, trying to reach him while he was playing. That was the last thing that she saw before die, he playing that stupid game. That was the last thing that she heard, the music form the game and the voice of her man, her partner, cursing like a fool, yelling to a screen.
Story Presentation
The story is presented to the players through dialog boxes that will appear when players investigate.
Story Toolset
Dialog Events
When players investigate they will unlock dialog events that will tell the story. Like the note over the table or the final Gary argument.
The Environment
The two realities have a visible difference between them. The Dream is clean and tidy, while The Game is dirty and messy. So know which one is the “reality” will be difficult for the players, reinforcing this way Gary’s broken mind.
Soundtrack
When players are in The Dream reality there will be no sound, representing the emptiness and the fake memories. When players are inside The Game the will have intense music, like the classic boss fight ones, reinforcing the idea of Gary fighting against the reality, memories and the nightmares. When players discover Vine’s body, at the end of the game, the music will change to some sad track, that will bring to the players to the reality of the situation.
