I think Root tasks should conflict with Family tasks while Rockers are the anarchists of the prison.
A task for the player regardless of faction could be they set up a way out of prison and people pay the player to get them out.
The Rockers just want you to love them tender.
I’m going to set up the family as the main faction to begin with and you’ll have a brush with them on your first day in prison. The player will learn about the other gangs over the first few weeks in prison. Then, you will spend time conversing with the different gangs. After about a month, you will have to make your choice as to which gang you are part of.
This game will be big:
-play through every day of a 25 year prison sentence
-three gangs to join
-parents storyline
-life-partner storyline
-three prison professions to learn
-seasonal changes
-four main escape routes.
-technological advancements over the years including one that prevents all previous escape routes, but opens up a fifth escape route.
-collector cards to be used as currency in game or just collected.
-60 different lunch menus so far!
-varying environment depending on your mood.
-possibly more!
One Gregorian year has 365 days. 365 multiplied by 25 equates to 9125. *Faints*
With you taking this big project, me busy with a big (but not THAT big) project, Reaperoa with two big(?) projects, appleduck with two projects I don’t know the size of but Born a King seems pretty big… Anyway, point being that I wonder if we would ever find time for EgoChoice.
We’ll get there ScarletGeisha. When the time is right, we’ll get there!
Ps - you forgot leap years… if I can program them in. 9131 days!
*Faints hard enough to make my skull crack a little*
If you’re having any trouble with the coding aspects, I doubt that anyone will mind you cribbing what’s up for EgoChoice, although I think that’ll be a bit more intricate than what you need, so I can PM you a (tiny) clock style counter I made (which handles years to seconds, but can be cropped down in size easily) if you want.
9131 days? You are insane. I like it.
@Reaperoa cheers for that but I’ve already got the date system in place for everything but leap years. should take just a bit more tweaking to include it.
@Canisa yes, I slightly am. Don’t worry, each day will start with the date and a day counter telling you how long you’ve been in prison. That way you can see how long a 25-year stretch really is! (the realism side of the game!)
First off, i like this idea, it sounds great 
but if you do factions, id recommend you do them realistically, and in reality most ‘factions’ are gang related, and most gangs are race specific, black, hispanic, japanese, its not bieng racist doing so, its just truth, you cant worry about stepping on toes too much, its a prison, its not a nice place, theres crime, violence and racism on a daily basis, thats just the way it is. Then theres your typical non-racial specific gangs, cartels, bikers etc. And if you get stuck for different currencies, sometimes cash is used in prisons, but you also got drugs and cigarettes. Maybe its just me, but realism and believability make a game. Either way, good luck!
@Cyrus, the sole reason I’m NOT doing race based factions is so that you can realistically, in-line with the story, join any of the three factions.
You’re right about the currency. The main currency in-game will be cigarettes (as standard and the player can play in hard-mode by declaring him/herself as a smoker - hence the need for more currency than the non-smoker).
The second currency will be the much-talked about but little understood collector cards.
DEMO:
Here’s an extremely early demo of what I have done so far.
Please let me know what you think. Positive and negative feedback welcomed! The better suggestions will be worked into the game.
First, the early part seems sort of like a dream-state (at least up to around when you get in your cell). I don’t know if it was intentional, but it’s if it was, it’s nicely done. If it wasn’t, I think you could play to that a little bit.
The random day (assuming they are actually random) starts was also a nice touch, really adds some variety in there.
Other than that, I can’t really think of anything to add, other than the moral stat might be better controlled by fairmath to prevent it from breaking the bounds upwards or down (first day I got a boost and had 101 moral).
In fiction writing, there’s the old principle of “show, don’t tell.” Here’s showing:
Sam stood abruptly, knocking the empty platter from the waiter’s hands with his shoulder. It clattered noisily to the floor. The restaurant fell instantly silent, and guests furtively watched as Sam backed the waiter against the table, his beet-red face inches from the waiter’s. “You moron!” he growled, his voice rising with each syllable. “You utter incompetent! I ought to strangle you with this linguine for daring to let it cool like this!” Sam’s spittle flecked the waiter’s quivering chin, but the man stayed rooted to the spot, immobile save for his involuntary twitching.
Though this passage only contains concrete descriptions and actions, the reader obviously knows exactly how mad Sam is, and would feel a bit insulted if they were then told, “Sam was very mad.” And actually, the reader now knows a lot about Sam and how he views himself and others, his temper, his social class – and they can guess quite a bit about the waiter and the restaurant.
Here’s telling:
Sam was fairly wealthy. He was also pretentious, and looked down on most other people. When he went to an expensive restaurant, the waiter brought his linguine after it had already cooled. Sam caused a scene. “You moron!” he yelled angrily, and threatened the waiter, who was very afraid. Sam obviously was a big jerk, and most people wouldn’t like him after that. But they might feel sorry for the waiter.
Same information, same number of sentences. Big difference.
Drop editorials like “You just found out very quickly how the guards perceive you here. The next 25 years are going to be long,” and “This is not a friendly place to be,” and let the facts speak for themselves. Add significant details that help us experience the menace, grit, and desperation. Give the characters unique voices, show us who they are through dialogue, describe their mannerisms and unusual traits and appearances. Instead of the protagonist guessing a hand clap would echo, have the guard slam the gate behind him/her to make him/her jump, and let it ring down the halls, sealing his/her fate (or some other loud noise, if that’s too cliché).
Right now, Blackraven Prison doesn’t match the discussions of it in this thread at all. The guards exchange pleasantries, the halls make you nostalgic for a hospital, etc. The protagonist doesn’t seem particularly impacted by any of it, isn’t outraged by his/her false imprisonment. While you must be very careful about telling readers what they feel, especially in a second person viewpoint story, there has to be some inner and outer turmoil. Passive protagonists are boring.
Also, you need fewer pages, but more paragraphs. I know some of this is done procedurally, but try to condense things on to one page when possible. Conversely, you can’t present all that in one wall of text, you need to insert double returns to create paragraphs. Double returns between each speaker in a dialogue, too.
hopefully you’ll finish all that.
@Reaperoa cheers for the morale error. I’ve fixed it and it will show on the next update.
The intro and first day was more meant to be a state of denial. Seeing a hospital instead of a prison. Looking at the guard instead of the inmates. If it felt dreamlike, then that’s good and close to what I wanted. After the first day, reality sets in and the prisoner goes through a few different emotional states.
@HoraceTorys thanks for the feedback. I’ll try and change the style a bit with more showing and less telling. The echo idea was good and I’ll add that in. I’ll also play around with the page layout, but it’s likely to change anyway as I pad out each section. Double-returns for speech is standard from now on.
@Aznxa fear not, it will be. Even if it takes a year!
@Everyone I still need more ideas for in-game quests. The more ideas the better!
My main criticism of the demo so far is the lack of input, you don’t exactly have very much control over your character’s personality, so it feels a bit too linear. This is a very ambitious project, I wish you much luck.
I really liked what i played so far. i like how you can pick to be male or female give it a nice touch. Can’t wait to see what you do in the next update. 
Great project going so far. Has a lot of potential. And why does Alex seem to only one sentence each day? Is he laconic? And why is he breaking the 4th wall?
@13ventrm There’s a lot more input coming. The first part does have a lot of dialogue as I set the scene. I decided not to add a lot of early fake choices to break it up, but what do people think? Would it benefit from more choices, even if they are fake ones, early on?
@xPoisonThornx Thanks, there’s a lot to do but I’ll put out another update soon enough.
@Kamer, Alex’s comments won’t be in the full game like that - it’s purely a bonus added to the demo so you see what will be included.