Shattered Haven - Story Notes - Rough Rough Rough!.pdf - Shattered Haven design docs - STARE_GRY

-Better gate guardian instead of exit electronics. = Shadow Man

-Darrell believes he has killed the zombie mom of Pierce, using water.

-Later show this in a flashback -- secret playable cutscene.

-show life as being okay inside the compound at the first

-the day after the boy arrives, he wakes up in the guest room of their house.

-girl is quizzing the boy, and also making him help with chores, etc.

-she's trying to help get him back to normal, by being bossy and pushy and so forth.

-Pierce does not know whether his mom survived the attack, as he was unconscious.

-revisiting the compound when it is overrun. (Level 3 of “tutorial”, playing as adults.)

three levels at the start:

-open free compound

-characters running away through northern forest

-parents fleeing their compound to search for the kids

-monster that the kids are with is more evil, even though it doesn't seem like that at first

-zombie mom is a sort of protector figure ongoing and is a divider for at least one ending (do you

kill her or not).

-zombie mom didn't really die, but Darrell thinks he killed her (with water, but she wasn't killed

by that).

-do several playable cutscenes/levels with the kids

-Mary is kind of a Sarah Conner type of character with really strong-willed nature. She was a

statistician. Mary looks on things as a forward-looking fashion, etc.

- Darrell is more the emotionally fragile at this point, and has those “man up” moments for

himself, as well as Mary kind of helping him, too.

alternate theories:

----------------------------

-invasion of squids from another planet

-polor axis shift

-genetic mutation from a science lab

-magical curse on humanity

-water sprinklers to take out all the grays in a level, as another weapon. (hit switch on & off)

-water balloons as a new weapon.

-fire hydrant as a new weapon. (Need tool ? to open it)

----------------------------

-kids are safe in there on their own in abandoned prison complex.

-monster wants them so badly that it won't leave the post at front area, where parents can talk to

them at the back of it.

-parents have some sort of action early on in that results in "saving" the kids. (bringing them

food & keeping up their morale)

-something is genetically different about the boy that makes him unable to become a gray, and

the monster knows this.

-theme: grays are not the cause of the world's problems, they are the effect.

----------------------------

-Squid originates from an ocean area that is off the side of the river, and part of that same area.

(adjacent to Alden Ridge.)

-Zombie mom is partially immune to becoming a gray, hence her ability to retain her protective

instincts, etc.

-Pierce is fully immune, and hence the squid is studying him.

-Parents generally scavenge one at a time. Dad does it 65%, mom does it about 35% to give him

a break.

-Darrell had a long night of fighting off stuff with the saving Pierce, etc. And then he is so tired

that he falls asleep while Mary is going off.

-Darrell feels guilty for not killing the zombie mom when he had the chance right after she was

turned, so that Pierce is having to then deal with her being around constantly.

-Darrell then has a chance to kill zombie mom or not at a later point in the game, and that has a

big impact on the ending.

Intro sequence

----------------------------

Comic Panel (flashback later): Darrell is really being beaten back by the grays, who are on him

practically in Boromir-ish proportions. Basically he’s the brick wall between tons of grays and

the boy, and there are just bodies of the grays all over the place -- he’s unwavering in his super-

human efforts to protect the boy, is what we want to convey. He’s actively being bit on the arm

by a gray while he stabs it with his one-tined pitchfork. Keep it T-rated, though. The woman

who will become “zombie mom” is knocked down with a gray standing on her really callously.

She’s dead, but not bloody. Her son, Pierce from the main menu, is knocked unconscious behind

Darrell, who is defending him. This is happening in the night, under the harsh moonlight -- it

should be the most dramatic scene in the game if we can.

Comic Panel (first panel of the game): Darrell carrying an unconscious Pierce up the steps of the

run-down brick house in which his family lives. Part of the 5-acre compound in which his family

lives is visible behind him, with some various crops growing in really neatly and densely packed

rows. The compound is ringed by an 8-ft iron fence that is all that keeps the grays out. Darrell

looks really beaten up and extremely weary, and his clothes are in heroic tatters. It looks to be

just after sunrise, and the lighting is really dramatic.

Comic Panel (second panel of the game): Mary and Lela are standing out on a path in the

compound yard, with a different side of the fence and yard in view. This way the main gate of

the fence is visible, and beyond it there’s a view of the massive forest fire and all the dead trees,

and beyond it in the distance you can see the top spires of Stantonsburg a bit. Mary has a big

wheelbarrow (that deep plastic kind that is great for carrying large stuff) and she has six big

water jugs, all empty, loaded in it. She’s hugging Lela in farewell before she goes out to get

water from a semi-distant well. It’s now clearly midmorning, with the sun very high in the sky.

In tying this back to the actual game area, should we state that the river water on their property is

undrinkable, creating the need for the well to exist?

Part 1 of gameplay

----------------------------

- Pierce doesn’t know that his mom was killed, though Lela does from when he came home.

When Pierce asks about his mom, Lela kindly deflects it for now.

- When Pierce wakes up, one thought he might share is, “Am I now an orphan... or not?” He

could instead say this later, after having seen his mom as a Gray, and after reaching Prison.

- Willis was running from all the Grays that were at the factory where Pierce and his mom also

lived, and where there was a break-in of grays that scattered all of them. The break-in was

caused by the giant squid, who, unknown to the humans, was there because it sensed Pierce.

- Willis took the same path that Pierce and co. did, but in a more circuitous fashion. All of them

were heading along this path because Stantonsburg is the largest nearby town, and they had

always said in their factory that their best bet would be Stantonsburg if they got overrun.

- Zombie mom then sees Willis since he is passing by where she was turned, and she then starts

pursuing him like any other New Gray would.

- Willis happens to run into the nearby compound that belongs to the Williamses as he flees all

the Grays including zombie mom. Just as he’s reaching the fence and is trapped in despair, that’s

when the kids notice him. The kids have just returned to this screen, having completed most of

their chores. (The last chore is a lure to return player to this screen.) Willis and Pierce recognize

each other; Willis begs Pierce by name to open the gate.

- Still in the in-game engine and the first level, there’s a gate up there at the top of the level, and

we see Willis arrive and beg for entry. The first level ends when the player uses a key to open

the gate and let Willis in (the key was found earlier in the level).

--Add a key that you can use on multiple doors. “Master key” object. This ensures that the

player has the key because it has already been used to access the house’s basement level.

- Right after the gate is opened, we go to the next comic panel. This is a panel with the gate

hanging open, because they have not yet had time to close it. The Grays rush onto the screen the

moment it opens. The kids hide behind some bushes and Willis runs off with a group of 5-6

Grays right on his heels. The kids have a little bit of discussion about this.

- Then on the next comic panel, zombie mom shows up looking fierce. Pierce is the only one

who could recognize her given her twisted appearance, and he involuntarily steps out of the

bushes. Lela expects this new Gray to rush them and kill them, so she braces for death.

- Then a third comic panel show zombie mom turning away from the kids, heading back through

the gate, and some commentary from the kids. Pierce letting her know that its his mom, etc.

- Then a fade to black, and we come into an in-game cutscene with the kids. Pierce runs off after

his mom without saying anything. Lela mutters “(My father didn’t save you so you could just

run off and die...)” and then follows. Then control returns to the player when Lela and Pierce are

both at the top part of the screen outside the gate. The exit from the screen into the further

woods is to the north (and then it hooks east). Slow Grays swarm around in the south of the

screen, so if you go back that way, you die. (Restart Level 2, north of gate.)

--No way to go to the overworld on death when not yet having reached the overworld, note to

Chris.

--Level 2 is all avoidance and no weapons. How to avoid enemies and not die when there are

enemies chasing you. No weapons, just some tools. Shallow waters. Use scythe to cut a path

while being chased. Lots of easy ground to cover (5 screens), to give a sense of travel &

distance. Each screen has a puzzle, but if you know its solution, it’s easily passed. Roughly 5

minutes the first time max, yet 30 seconds if a speed run. Can potentially kill foes with firey

environment, but not necessary. Gators, king snakes, but no wolves. Slow grays, nothing

difficult.

- Second level begins and sees kids fleeing the compound in some fashion, heading north and

then far east. The kids hid from the first batch of grays, which pursued Willis south into the

compound. So that’s why the kids can’t go south. There are more grays on the way, so they

have to hurry; and Pierce is also wanting to follow his mom. Lela doesn’t want him to go alone

or to be alone. Pierce just goes and says nothing.

- Second level ends with them at the Prison Complex that is beyond the current golden grays in

the northwest of Stantonsburg.

- Squid The Enderman had already detected Pierce, and that’s why he attacked the factory where

Pierce and co. were living.

- Partway through the second level, the bushes rustle or whatever, and then we go to a new comic

panel that shows the squid emerging. A really big mouth that could swallow you whole, but its

eyes are unclear in how dangerous it is. The squid emerges and looks terrifying.

- Then the players get control again, and the squid is there in in-game form, and yet does not

harm the players. Just follows them slowly. (Fast enough to catch you, shallow water). This is

the first squid screen. He follows you slowly.

-Second screen, squid doesn’t arrive on-screen until player reaches a script trigger-point halfway

through the screen. This route will likely cause the kids to come into close proximity of the

squid, where the player will realize the squid doesn’t harm you.

-Third screen, prison’s entrance is available through a hole small enough for children. It is here

that kids have caught up to zombie mom, but there are more Grays here as well.

-- The only way to survive is either to go into the prison (which is ultimately what you have to

do), or to go over near the squid, who will attack and kill any grays that get near it. Zombie

mom will just stand there, watching.

-- Maybe we need a Slow Gray Spawn point so that as the squid kills Grays, more arrive. They

will always arrive from the narrow path that got them here, so that they can’t turn back, thus

making the building entrance the only option.

-After the second level is complete (with the kids going into the hole), then we show a comic

panel showing the prison in a dramatic fashion, and the squid monster looking fearsome with the

kids clambering into the small hole in the front of the prison to escape everything going on with

the squid and the grays outside.

-- If the parents come here later on to rescue the kids, they have to enter the prison from its back

entrance. Inmates there are grays that got trapped, etc. They never got freed and thus died, etc.

The parents can’t enter through the front (being too small of a hole, and having squiddy out

there), and so they have to go in the back.

- Then the third level begins with Mary arriving back home and waking Darrell, and them both

finding the compound overrun. They are unable to leave through the north (need a compelling

obstacle) and thus follow the kids directly. Instead they have to go to the southeast and wind up

entering the overworld where level 001 already enters the overworld.

--Parents are trying to find Willis. Mary tells Darrell that she saw Willis run by while she was

out, and that he said he was “so sorry about the kids!” This makes Willis their only lead, starting

out.

- Then on with the regular game for a while. New game+ would actually start at the start of level

3, since level 3 is the first one that you can get gold on.

- The parents are essentially looking for Willis at first, since they think he has more information

than he does.

General thematic things

------------------------------

-”The mom” is what D and M call zombie mom. “The squid” or “that squid” would be what

they call the squid. And “the shadow man.”

-The shadow man is actually the grim reaper, and he’s what blocks you from moving to new

areas without going and completing levels. His motivation is that he wants you to kill the grays

so that he actually collect their souls. Shadow man can’t actually kill grays on his own.

--The shadow man’s final showdown is in the Shingen Research Facility if you choose to go that

route on breaking the game.

Shattered Haven - Story Notes - Rough Rough Rough!.pdf

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