Journey Man Pitch

(The document you are about to read is only a pitch idea, and it only contains a basic outline of a design

document. There is still information which could have been added to a finalized document and areas which

could have went into more depth. This document is only to give the readers a feel for my Journey man pitch

idea.)

Name: Holmes

Story:

The story takes place in Chicago 1893, new housing is on the rise and the city is a boom with

new residents. During the World’s fair, the city of Chicago is swollen with the amount of tourists that

have come to town, and small businesses are thriving. In a nearby suburb of Englewood, a hotel is

talk of the town, taking in hundreds of visitors.

The Hero/Protagonist character is a Father John O’Kelly who has entered the Hotel looking for the

owner to try and sell some bibles and gain some charity for the local church. Even though the

father’s intentions are pure and he is kind hearted, he finds himself trapped within a nightmare in

which he has to survive.

Genre: Survival Horror, Puzzle, Maze

Game Structure:

The game will be broken up over 4 levels which will be described as floors in the building.

Each floor will be filled with different traps and puzzles which the player will have to get passed to

continue. Some of the puzzle types will be reused throughout the gameplay so that the player gets

used to the task at hand.

Game play:

Holmes is primarily a third-person survival horror game with puzzle/maze elements. The

player takes on control of an unsuspecting salesperson that has entered H. H. Holmes hotel and has

found themselves trapped within a fun house of death. The main goal for the player is to escape the

hotel by solving the puzzles and riddles correctly, if they are unsuccessful the player will meet a

horrific end. The game is broken into 4 different floors or levels, and each floor has between 1-3

different rooms with puzzles in. The player will have to use their wits and the items provided in each

room to get over the obstacles and traps before they are able to advance to the next area, the player

does this by using pickups and mini games.

The room’s puzzles and riddles are designed to be very different from one another and will increase

in difficulty as the game goes on, however some rooms may give hints to other traps later in the

game, if the player keeps their eyes open.

Characters:

Father John O’Kelly

The player takes control of Father John O’Kelly, a young catholic man who believes in

spreading the name of his lord and saviour. Father John O’Kelly has found himself going door to door

asking for charity for his church day in and day out, but this time he comes for donations at

H.H.Holmes hotel. Father John O’Kelly is a young man, with a medium build and short brown hair.

Dr Henry Howard Holmes

The NPC Dr Henry Howard Holmes is the main antagonist throughout the game. He will be

talking to the player’s character navigating them into new and more dangerous rooms, trying to end

the Fathers life. H.H.Holmes was said to have been a gentle looking man with jet black hair and a

thick moustache who was kind to the public and always well dressed.

Attractive Young Blonde:

The NPC Attractive Young Blonde can be seen in a number of areas throughout the gameplay

by the player. In documentaries, H.H.Holmes was described to have a sexual preference towards

young blonde women, and would keep them captive in his hotel for weeks before killing them. The

Attractive Young Blonde character is a representation of the poor women that fell into Holmes traps

over the years. The player will never interact with the character but will be able to see her through

holes in the walls and find her locked up in other areas the player must go through.

Mechanics

Controls & Character Movement:

Walk:

The characters default movement will be a slow walk, this is because some areas may have

small clues the player will have to look for and if the player’s character is moving too fast they may

miss them. A slow movement speed also gives the player more control when navigating over areas

that may be dangerous.

Run:

The player will be able to increase the characters movement by running; this will be a simple

button hold control. This will be for players that have played through the game before and want to

speed along; also there may be areas where the player will have to move quickly to escape the

danger.

Jump:

The player will able to make the Father jump small distances, this will be used to avoid holes

and traps on the ground that may cause harm or even kill the player.

Crawl:

The player will have a crawl control they can use to get underneath falling objects or small

vents. Crawling is quite a slow movement and the player should only use it when needed. The player

will be shown a crawling icon to indicate that they can use the crawling movement.

Climb:

The character has the ability to climb, but it’s limited to only a few areas with the climbing

icon. This will give the design team more control over where the players can get to and stop them

from climbing out of the map. The climb movement will be used a lot in areas like the fire escape

level and attic.

Pick up:

Throughout the game the player will have to pick items and transport them across the room

before they are allowed to continue to another room. The pickup mechanic will be used often

throughout the game, using such items like weights, boxes and lighters to illuminate dark areas of

rooms. Items that can be picked up will glow a slight colour to indicate that they can be picked up.

Push:

Like the pickup mechanic, the push ability will be used in a lot of ways throughout the game

by players. The player will have to push heavy objects onto weighted pads before a door will unlock

or simply push a heavy object out of the way just to get around it. Items that can be pushed have

drag marks on the floor next to them, to indicate the direction in which they can be pushed.

Level Design

Environments:

Even though the player will play the full game inside the hotel the environments will change

often depending on which floor the layer is in. Each floor will have a distinct look between one

another. The basement area will be very dusty with brick walls and pipes hanging from the walls and

roof. The loft area will be very dark with wooden structures that the player will have to navigate

around. Both the basement and the loft will have a dark, unfriendly feeling, but it’s the inside of the

hotel which becomes the most dangerous and looks the most inviting.

Rooms:

Every level will have a number of rooms which the player is locked inside. Each room will

have a different way of escape and the player must search the rooms for clues and hints in their

escape. Some clues may be in different rooms so the player should always be vigilant when searching

a new area, for example a room may have room plans on a table marked “Bathroom” with hints or

indications of traps that the player could remember later on. Some rooms may not lock the previous

room the player was in because an item from the earlier room may be needed in the new area.

(This section of the document is used more as an example area, rather than a straight forward game

layout. In the future I would like more input from team members about room layouts and puzzle ideas. With

this being said I have some rather solid ideas and I have noted a few below with detail using an area from each

level of the game. These rooms that are listed will amount to more than 5minutes of game play, but show the

reader how the levels and rooms differ from each other.)

Storage Room / Tutorial Level:

Hidden Door puzzle

The first area the player will encounter is the hotel storage room. The area looks like a

stereotypical basement with boxes and hanging lights. For the player this room acts as a tutorial

room allowing the player to get used to the movement controls and the action buttons, they will

need to use to continue.

Furnace / Level 1:

Math games

The furnace area is one of the earlier rooms the player will have to enter when beginning the

game. It’s located in the basement level and will be the first puzzle room they come across. The

player must read the maths questions on the walls and answer each one correctly to unlock each of

the locks holding the door shut. There are 5 questions in total, but the player will only be able to

answer incorrectly twice before the room is filled with gas and is set a light burning the player to

death. The look and feel of this room will be very dark and pipes will be running around the room

and below the player’s character. The flooring will be made of a metal plate like grid, which will allow

the player to walk safely across the room but be able to see the pipes and tubes below them.

Flooded Basement / Level 1:

Circuit games

In one of the lower rooms in the basement, a pipe has burst leaving the room wrecked and

half flooded. The flooded room slows the players movement speed down so the player can only walk

around. There are a set of large metal double doors at the other end of the room which the player

needs to exit through, and even though it’s clear to the player where they have to go, the danger is

not. The door has been rigged up with an electrical battery so if the player tries to open the door

they will be shocked first and then fried if they touch it again. The player has to use the items floating

in the water to create a new circuit to shut off the power to the door. However, if the player tries to

take the cables off the door before they have finished building a new circuit for the power to travel

through, they will be electrocuted by the power running into the water in the room. Only once the

player has fully made a new circuit for the power to travel through will they be able to unclip the

cables from the doors and exit through them safely.

Fire stair case / Level 2:

Climbing Puzzles

The Fire stair case area will be used in two different levels. The player will reach the stair

case at the end of floor one and as the player begins to head up the level will end and the second

level will begin. The player starts on the stair case and will not be able to turn back down into the

basement. In the stair case area the player must make their way to the top of the building by

climbing up ledges and moving objects out of the characters path.

Attic / Level 2:

Floor Maze

The player must navigate through the attic area by carefully walking on the safe ceiling tiles.

If the player steps onto an unsafe tile the player will hear a crack and will only have seconds to move

off before the roof collapses and the player falls to their death in the room below. The rooms below

will be filled with all sorts of objects and items that will kill the player, such as a bath of acid, bed of

spikes or even a cage filled with dogs that will attack and kill the player. The look and feel of the attic

will change from narrow hallways made by crates and boxes to open areas where the player will have

to judge the safe path to continue.

Hotel Rooms / Level 3:

Once the player has left the attic level and made their way down some stairs they will find

themselves in the hotel itself. Unlike the last levels the player will have to navigate through more

than one room at a time to unlock new areas. This will automatically increase the difficulty of the

areas as players will have to search more thoroughly to find items. The player will have to find hidden

pathways through hotel rooms, offices and bathrooms before finally making it to the ground floor to

escape. The hotel rooms will use all the traps the player has already seen before with an increase in

difficulty.

Reference Ideas and Mood boards:

Character Reference:

Dr Henry Howard Holmes

Father John O’Kelly

Attractive Young Blonde

Building Reference:

The images below show the hotel that H.H.Holmes owned with blueprints of the floor plans and

some facts that were found in the building when the FBI investigated the case.

The images below show a building from the 1890s that was created using a 3D programme. Even

though the player shouldn’t be able to exit the building it is a close double of the hotel that

H.H.Holmes owned.

Rooms and Environments Reference:

The mood board below shows the look and feel of the basement/ loft areas.

Rational:

My Original Idea’s.

When taken on the task to write the Journey man pitch, I wanted to make an interesting

puzzle game with a twist. I wanted to design a puzzle game that changed and progressively got

harder as the player continued, but had an overarching story so the player didn’t feel that they were

just taking part in a number of mini games. I started to write down ideas for a game early on about

the game being set in a fun house that would kill the player if they failed any of the mini games. The

fun house would be filled with strange and different ways in which the players could be killed. With

my idea changing I began watching the Saw films for inspiration for game ideas and traps that I could

use on the players.

Why H.H.Holmes?

After a few days of research I came across people who had really turned their houses into

death traps, and that’s where I came across H.H.Holmes. A Doctor who had turned his hotel into a

death trap, with moving floor boards and hidden passages seemed almost like a video game by itself,

almost like it was made up. I began to research more about him and found out in his earlier life he

was very sly in how he would kill his victims, doing it fast without hesitation and before anyone could

investigate the missing person he would have already sold the bodies off to medical schools. In his

later life he began playing with his victims locking them up and playing games with them, before

killing them. The more he became confident the happier he would be about keeping two or three

people in his basement for weeks, before killing them and selling them on. I thought the idea of

begin a captive of H.H.Holmes would give the player excitement, as well as the opportunity to add a

load of puzzle games in.

Why Would People Want To Play This Game?

When the game comes down to its bones, it will be a challenging puzzle/ Maze game. The

history and story is only to add a mood and set a scene. If done right, the puzzles and tasks will be

difficult enough that the players want to see character escape but will have to take it slow and learn

the rooms before they can finish it. I think there is a lot of potential for this game idea because of the

interesting gameplay that can be created using the mechanics, and the scope for adding in or cutting

content/puzzles due to the mini game nature of the levels layout.