Suffering in Silence - Anthony Moran (18), Luton
Suffering in Silence is a stealth based rpg that follows a socially anxious teen who goes out of his way to avoid social situations but no matter how he acts, he is always doubtful of his decisions that haunt him in his never ending nightmares.
If you take the nail-biting suspense of Assassin's Creed's stealth sequences and pair it up with the heartfelt stories and tough decision making from the Life is Strange series then you would end up with my game, Suffering in Silence.
Throughout this game, the main protagonist, Elliot, is presented with many decisions to make. When left to his own devices, Elliot is able to consider the effects of the actions available to him, however, when in the company of another person, all rationality goes out of the window and he is unable to come up with a normal response, in fear of looking foolish.
When the player feels overwhelmed, the screen becomes darker and black bars appear on the top and bottom of the screen, to create an atmosphere of pressure; during this time the player must navigate the area without being seen. In reality the other NPCs are usually harmless, unless you come across the bully NPC, in which you may want to stay clear. However he is dealing with problems of his own, which would be explored in future instalments of this game.
A unique feature to this game would be the Elliot's mobile phone, which can open up the user’s web browser and display a custom-built social media page (using html, css and javascript) where in game NPCs will be posting about their lives or significant events from the game.
To reflect the protagonist's optimistic attitude towards life, I have decided to use a high saturated pallette. This is why the screen becomes darker during the stealth sequences. It shows how social situations cause the character to feel uncomfortable and for his world to become dark. The main antagonist also shares this feature, he is the very same as the player character apart from the colour scheme, which is lowly saturated because he thrives on negativity and watching the protagonist fail.
The target audience for this game are young people aged 10 and above. This is due to the message that I hope to get across with this game, which is that we should face our fears, rather than letting them consume us.
