Watch: Playthrough Highlights

Writer’s Notes:

Paying homage to classic spooky elements means understanding the core fears that inform our popular tropes. Spooky mansions or village = seclusion, isolation, loss of direction. Body horror = unwanted metamorphosis — forced transformation.

Ok! So, we’ve got our precedents. A forced transformation at a spooky manor — we can run wild into subversion or expansion. Something that really heightens a horror story and expands your world with relatively low lift is writing conflict outside of your protagonists and the main antagonists. Adding another faction or chaotic entity that is also beefing with the main antagonists but isn’t fond of your protagonist either, embroils the player into something much bigger than they are and creates many branches to explore in our non-linear story.

Putting your factions and their wants and needs on the “board,” and how they get in the way of each other’s wants and needs — is one of my go-to moves for writing intention, foreshadowing, and delicious payoffs.

My early draft “board”:

• Protagonists, Kase & Thyme — want to find the missing boy Lancel and return him to his Mom in the village of Nidum Tumm.

• Main antagonists, The Manor’s Cult led by Victor Donovan. Metamorphosis gives us imagery of cocoons/chrysalis/insects — so you know we're going to make them an Insectoid Deity-worshipping cult that transforms themselves into half-man, half-insect monsters. The Cult could have kidnapped Lancel to use as a host body (cocoon) for their God.

• "Pheromones Ultro" Research Team — a lab funded by The Manor’s Cult gone rogue. Led by a maddened Dr. Bhagwat, a womanizer and workaholic obsessed with perfecting "Ultro," known for his lustful escapades through Nidum Tumm. His treatment of Lancel as an illegitimate son/a mess to cover-up might have placed the boy right in the hands of the bug-brains.

  • "Pheromones Ultro" is a mind-altering substance Dr. Bhagwat believes unlocks full human potential and acts as a 1:1 direct line to a higher power. Its scent attracts a rare species of frog, Bufu Amphigus, to The Manor.

• A mysterious figure, “Cashes” — on the surface, seemingly looking to steal some of the Cult’s other research for a private buyer… but might be involved in something far deeper than he’s letting on.

It’s Cult vs Pheromones Ultro (Insects vs. Frogs, rituals vs. mad science), and within this conflict, we have Kase & Thyme vs. The Cult to get back Lancel, and Cashes exacerbating the conflict between all parties.

Process:

The original prompt was to come up with a series of horror adventures for detective characters “Justin Case” and “Justin Time” (“just in case” and “just in time”), each detective named after their main trait/gimmick. One always over-prepared with various tools just in case, the other always making it just in the nick of time.

The first phase was building out the characters and their chemistry, looking at buddy-cop tropes and seeing how to make those current and more inclusive without feeling exploitative or try-hard.

Next was ideating the case they’d need to solve, paying homage to classic horror titles. Locking down the different endings, and using post-its to map out choices that lead to each ending. This included writing set-pieces that utilize each characters’ gimmick.

The branching narrative is extensive and The Manor Rouge is crawling with voracious foe, from buggy cult members to a buggy bodyguard battle-bot named “BLOCKY.”

Checkpoints had to be placed strategically to ensure that players didn’t have to slog through text they’ve already read every time they fell victim to the game’s ghouls.

Playable builds with each new draft were then submitted for notes and feedback, with implementation and a new build expected at the end of the day.