Interest Check Thread

Big fan of noir, so this seems extremely interesting. It has potential to grow into something big with a multitude of branching sections. Can’t wait to see more!

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I’m not sure if someone already put this idea out there, but what about a paparazzi/actor choice game? The player could be a person hoping to make it on the big screen, and go through the trials and tribulations of a modern day celebrity. Or the MC could be getting into the paparazzi business and do what ever it takes to get the best paying photos of celebrities.

You could get really dark with this idea, and I can think of soooo many bad and angsty endings for this.

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Oh! What about a high school simulator? Like something out of a slice-of-life anime? So many variables and soooo much angst.

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What about a school social intrigue? Your popularity (feigned or otherwise depening on groups), academic success/competition, romantic complications back stabbings and administrative fraud galore! Kinda like court political intrigue but thrown into a school setting instead. Oh the possibilities!

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I really like the paparazzi one

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I love the idea of an actually detective focused story (without fantastical elements) and especially if you can inject it with a film noir veneer! That sounds amazing. Having said that, I feel that “a serial killer targeting sex workers” is a little overused and kind of takes away from some of the more interesting aspects of serial killer crime stories: why and how the killer chooses their victims. Of course, you can easily overcome a cliche so I’m sure it could be amazing anyway, but that’s just my 2 cents. :sweat_smile:

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Oh I’m very interested in that

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Feel free to take the idea lol, since I’m still working on my wannabee idol stuck in a grueling and competitive industry.

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I have a, so far, rather vague idea for a game:

The (adult) MC wakes up in a kind of spiritual world or dreamscape, and have to get through it somehow to return back, and meets some strange creatures/people along the way.
A lot a la Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland/ Behind the Looking Glass, but not reusing the ideas and iconic characters as most interpretations do.

I would want the feeling to be rather dark, but still whimsical and dream-like.

There might be some plot about trying to remember what happened to you.

Inspirations would be:

  • (Obviously) Alice in Wonderland and all it’s retellings, especially the American McGee games.
  • Pan’s Labyrinth
  • Labyrinth (the movie)
  • Dante’s Divine Comedy
  • The Wizard of Oz
  • Music videos like these two: Link and Link
  • Probably some more that I haven’t thought off…
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I’m new to the forums but I’ve been playing CoG for a while now and I’ve had a simple story swirling around in my head for several years that I thought people might enjoy, the tentative title is God of the Red Mountain:

Inspired by Chinese/Japanese myths, you play as a spirit that has run away from the surface world due to a tragic event. You’d have been content to stay there too, if not for the mountain god who suddenly comes looking for you. You’re recruited to be that Divine Being’s retainer, but for what purpose? And what exactly is your end goal?

Features:

  • What kind of spirit are you? Choose between eight choices! (4 plant and 4 animals. There’s a plot purpose for this.)
  • Look after the residents of the mountain! Will you be kind to the villagers, or are you the protector of the forest?
  • Prepare for the ever-approaching wave of Foxes, malignant monsters that would tear you to pieces.
  • Become a god of your own making!

The world will resemble many Shinto and Buddhist beliefs, but no prior knowledge of them should be needed. I’ve started on a demo already and if people are interested, I can release something by next week.

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You got my interest now. I’ll be looking forward to seeing what you got for it. :slight_smile:

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Well, it is cliche because its so common in real life, you know? I had wanted to go that route for a dual purpose: Its really common in real life for crimes against sex workers to simply be ignored, they actually have the term “No Humans Involved” to classify them. So I really just wanted to discuss this and make commentary about how that’s terrible, ya know? It also serves as a story element to allow the character to discover the serial killer a few kills in, and thus have to go through the process of linking cases together and what not. This could probably be done a different way, but it’s the most realistic.

As for your second point, I can without a doubt discuss how and why serial killers choose sex workers. It seems obvious, but I’ll be able to make a lot of social commentary about the way we view sex work and power dynamics and just so many different things. I’m definitely open to the idea of using a different M.O., as I haven’t gotten that far in the writing yet, but I don’t know of a better approach that still feels realistic and gives me a good platform to challenge our status quo. Always open to suggestions, though.

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That’s all fair enough! I just wanted to make sure that there was a reasoning behind your choice and it seems like you’ve clearly thought it through. You’re not simply capitalizing on Jack the Ripper interest and actually have something you want to explore with your choice. That’s the most important thing!

I mean the killer could still kill them in weird/unique ways that bring up the question of why that’s how they do it. Or maybe they only kills certain sex workers or in certain locations. So you can still have a lot of investigative mystery with it!

Also, when is the story going to be set? Noir generally goes for the same time period it was famous for but there’s no reason you can’t use it in a modern or future time. Could be fun! Is that what you were thinking? I see you mentioning the modern day.

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Yup, modern day (or at least like early 2000s) is the plan. I think the incorporation of things like video and D.N.A. can serve as good, effective ways to move the story along at certain points while still being interesting. It won’t be detached from our reality much at all. I like the idea of a modern day serial killer who actually kind of knows what they’re doing and manages to be a step ahead of police, even with all the disadvantages modern technology brings against them.

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Here’s a thing. Current data on active serial killers shows that female victims are the targets in 51% cases, beating male victims by only a little more than two percent. More than half of the victims of a serial killer are under the age of 30.

Nearly a third of cases are done for the sake of killing, where another third are done for the purposes of profit and some type of financial gain. Examples of that would be gang members with high kill counts or drug lords who kill multiple people without taking much media attention. Less than one percent of the cases are done for attention.

Stats indicate that the preferred weapon of intelligent killers, are in fact, explosives. The second goto method for them after that, is poison. Close range killings are generally performed by murderers who are considered less intelligent. However, this doesn’t change that fact that close to half of all serial killers use guns to kill their victims, with strangulation coming in second, with knives following after.

The rate of serial murder has also dropped about 85%, since technology has improved drastically and now they are usually caught after one or two before four or five. However, what this means is that now in recent years, it’s become increasingly difficult to predict the behavior of repeated murders as a group statistic since the still active ones vary greatly in motivations and methodology.

That being said, prime targets are often homeless people, hikers, sex workers, and hitchhikers. What is labeled as “low risk victims.” I didn’t invent the term. Mind you, the odds of actually being murdered by a serial killer are less that 0.01%. You’d be more likely to die from say…a shark attack than you would for some Voorheeian slasher. And more likely to die from coconuts that either.

So what my point is, I don’t think your story has to be like a 70s era movie to make it more “realistic” since now in the modern era, that doesn’t really apply in the same way as much anymore.

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What kind of bhuddism though? I assume it’ll be a branch of Mahayana bhuddism?
Admittedly Theravada bhuddism is my specialty but im definitely interested still. We havent had a yokai game yet right?

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Mahayana, though the influence is very light. And I think there are one or two yokai games floating around, none that I’ve seen with playing as one though! Thank you for your words, I’ll try to have a demo up soon!

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Thank you! I had a burst of inspiration since my post (because it’s a form a commitment, I guess? haha…) and I might be able to bring out a demo sooner than later. Please look forwards to it!

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Idk where I ever said it’d be like a 70s movie. It WILL be modern and the intention is for it to be realistic. Idk what part comes off as 70s or unrealistic but I’d like to know.

I appreciate all those stats, are those worldwide or specifically U.S.? I’ve almost never heard of modern day serial killers using poison (easily detectable, generally have to get very close to victim, etc), and explosives tend to get them labeled differently as a “serial bomber” rather than a serial killer, although I personally consider them the same (still though, actual serial bombers are pretty rare from what I’ve seen, unless we’re counting like terrorism vs killing for enjoyment/self-fulfillment/personal gain/etc., which I’m not).

I also don’t count gang members or assassins as “serial killers” unless they’re killing for personal reasons rather than like the organization. There’s debate over whether they count, but for me it’s a psychology thing. There will likely be some gang crime in the game, but I view a hitman rather differently than a serial killer. I’ve also never heard of male victims being so common, obviously they are sometimes victimized, but I was under the impression it was like 70-80% female. Like I said, I have a fairly specific definition of serial killer that would eliminate gangs and crime families, which I would assume would target guys more.

Yes, serial killers are increasingly rare. They were most common in the 80’s I believe, but of course this is when police departments actually become decent at connecting related cases, and DNA started being used which would allow them to connect more crimes and actually spot serial killers. Today, most people are caught before they could get to the “serial killer” cutoff, or they just go do a mass shooting instead, since that’s much easier… That being said though, there was at least 2 active serial killers caught in the U.S. this year, so it’s not like it’s unheard of (scratch that a little bit, 1 of the serial killers I’m thinking of is in Toronto, not the U.S.). This is also why I wanted to choose a serial killer who’s been under the radar so far, I want you to be able to discover them and piece things together and have to deal with higher ups not wanting you to “waste your time”, saying “who cares they’re prostitutes”, etc. etc. This is still a modern issue that we deal with.

I’m having trouble connecting your points with what you say your main point is, so I apologize for that and hope you can explain a little more. I plan on using things like D.N.A and cell phone footage, so it’s definitely not a 70s era movie. The serial killer will be realistic in a modern sense, but not a super genius or a UNABOMBER. I’m still sketching out exactly what they’ll be/do, but they’re just going to be somewhere in between. Someone with above average intelligence, enough understanding of modern forensics to not leave too much evidence, who’s gone under the radar because of their victim choice and above average intelligence, and who has just a little bit of luck.

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  1. All I meant is that there is a correlation between murder weapon and intelligence. This however, doesn’t prove causation.

  2. I’m just trying to point out that realistic for the modern period doesn’t mean following generalizations. For instance, serial killers who operate for attention or media infamy are extremely rare. Most tend to keep out of the spotlight for obvious reasons. It’s a lot harder to killing spree when everyone is in a uproar(I’d assume.)

3.An assassin or gangster can constitute a serial killer. All it means is they are someone whose killed multiple people over a long time frame. Serial killers have a “cooldown” period between murders and may kill one person and stop for months, if not years before killing again. That’s all it means. Gangsters who kill people still carry an M.O., often take trophies to remember kills(An S.K. doesn’t have to do this, but most do.), and most have a preferred murder weapon.

  1. Serial killers without specific targets, usually go for convenience. A male victim or a female, doesn’t matter if they are homeless, new to town, or something else that would make it a lot less likely to notice if they go missing. So, you are right that sex workers are a common enough target. Ones that have specific requirements, usually go for whatever fits close enough without drawing lot’s of attention. Several interviews indicate that Serial Killers are willing to spend months in the hunting phase to find a suitable victim. When patience of finding someone suitable wears thin though…it’s bad for everyone involved.

  2. I’m sure whatever you do is going to be fine. I just feel like it’s helpful to have some context before getting too heavily invested and realizing “Oh, whoops. That’s not how it’s supposed to work.”

So that’s basically all my point is. I don’t really have more to add, but this can be taken to pm’s if you want, since while I could talk about this stuff a lot, I feel like it will clog the thread if I do.

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