More Notes and Detailed Plot Layout

In this post you can see i managed to overcome my mental block and made a huge amount of progress. Below you can see my story fully plotted out, minus the parts where the player will simply be travelling and learning to be a more courageous person. I've also written a couple of short bullet point lists that summarise the characters physical journey, and their mental journey, showing how their emotions change throughout. It's important to note that the date on which the inciting incident happens has been moved to the following day, the 17th, you can see why in the 'Problems' section near the bottom of the post (highlighted in bold)

Character ideas:

·         Deadbeat 20-something male

·         Lives at home with single mother

·         Office worker

·         Commutes to work in city

Setting:

Date: Evening of 17th May 200X (Inciting incident on 18th May)

Location: Between Aurora IL and Chicago IL

Characters: Main Character, Characters Mother

SETUP (Day before main events: 17th May)

·         Character on the commute home

·         Thinking about mundane life, how much they'd like to do

o   Go and see the world

o   Talk back in an argument

o   Be more assertive

·         Then think of how character makes no effort to actually make these things happen/change

·         Depression sinking in

·         Lost in thought, almost misses stop

·         Gets home, welcomed home by mother who has dinner prepared

·         Eats in silence, before heading to bedroom and spending the rest of the evening playing video games

Next Morning

DUDE BE ANGRY AT HIS MA

·         Character in the kitchen with his ma who gives him a cup of coffee

·         Conversation turns to characters life, character gets frustrated, leaves

o   Conversation intercut with snippets from news report in the background

·         Player leaves in a fit of internal anger

·         Shuts door, immediately followed by the earth beginning to shake beneath the characters feet.

·         Character sees the sky brightening behind the house and walks to the pavement in front to get a better view

·         Portal storm passes overhead and all around shaking the ground so violently that the character falls, car alarms erupt all around and a house at the end of the street collapses

·         Character is stunned, gets to his feet and decides to head back to the house to check on his mother

·         Character goes back to the house, goes to the back of the house and opens the door to the kitchen and sees his mother wrestling with something attached to her head

o   Player is given choice as to whether to try to save his mother or flee at this point, but a low courage stat means that this is not possible

·         Character stands, stunned for a second, as screams and rumbles are accompanied by a very unearthly roar in the street outside. Unable to register what is happening the character closes the door and flees

·         All hell has broken loose outside, as a monstrous creature with flamethrowers erupting from its arms wreaks havoc in the distance.

·         The player, not stopping to think, flees in the opposite direction of the creature as flashes of green erupt all around

Main route blocked off, one of two options given, each with a different situation

Hook: Character never see's his mother transform, she might've survived the attack.

Option is given to player as to how to get to station

DUDE RUNS TO STATION

·         Station is packed with people trying to commute to the city.

·         Packed but relatively calm

·         Player enjoys moment of calm

·         Before sudden eruption of chaos

·         Something is teleported into station

·         Player has chance to save someone, but choosing to do so will result in the players death

·         Cowardly option leads to player climbing through broken window of small maintenance room, player trips and knocks himself out on the side of a table.

Early demonstrations that the brave option is NOT always the best option to take shows the player that they must think before they act, and in some sense instils the fears that the main character of the story exhibits in his cowardly ways.

DUDE AWAKENS TO DESERTED STATION

·         Character wakes, the sun is low in the sky

·         Looks through broken window to see station is deserted, although it is scattered with bodies

·         Character has no desire to stay in the wake of such a disturbing sight

·         Leaves station, finds the sights are no more appealing

·         Taking in the surroundings, see's smoke rising from various points all around

·         Severe thirst and hunger overcomes character who then decides to head for any shop that might have food and water

·         Character must cautiously traverse the streets as night falls, until a shop is found. They must choose between one of several different routes

o    

·         Arriving at a small supermarket next to the highway, and seeing noone else around, the player enters in hopes of finding something

·         Player searches for a time, finding a couple of snack bars and a bottle that had rolled under a stand

·         Character enjoys a brief moment of respite behind the shop counter before noticing a shadow appear on the wall

·         Character is too frightened to move and see what is casting the horrific shadow but only has to wait a short time to find out

·         Character see's a zombie for the first time, sharp elongated fingers, a gaping chest cavity with organs still intact, a beating heart visible, though noticeably discoloured, and a head obscured by a parasitic four legged creature that has dug its legs into its victims shoulders.

o   No headcrab zombies yet.

o   Idea: shock reveal of what happens to people who are attacked by headcrabs, leaving no doubt in characters mind as to whether a cure is possible, which it isn't.

·         Character enjoys a brief moment of respite before a small dog-like creature, only with more than 20 eyes on a flat, circular face and three legs, peers around the door way

·         Startled by the almost friendly appearance of this creature, the character is unsure how to act

·         As the creature draws nearer its intentions are still unclear

o   Player given option of how to act, will result in fleeing or death

·         3 more dog creatures appear behind the first

·         Player manages to run down the next aisle and out of the store, running straight across highway and into a pair of blinding lights that barely miss the character

·         One of the creatures is hit by the first vehicle, the other three are shot

·         Character is dazed, barely hearing the directions given by the soldier to follow him to one of the civilian trucks

·         Player is seated in a convoy truck full of people which continues on its way

DUDE BE ON AN ARMY CONVOY HEADED TO THE CITY

·         Character sits in the truck, still clutching the bottle they found

·         Character overhears talk of parasitic creatures  that attach themselves to their victims head, then overtake their victims bodies, like zombies

·         Character hears about zombies, and therefore what might’ve happened to his mother

o   Extreme shame and remorse

·         Overhears talk of a cure, a way to reverse the progress, someone looks like they’re about to cut in

·         Convoy is attacked by Gargantua (belly of the whale)

o   Character finds weapon in the chaos

o   Flees scene

o   Must protect himself from dog-creature (unchangeable option)

o   Fires gun for the first time

·         Choices of how to continue (navigate streets to get to refugee camp)

·         Player continues to city on foot

o   Small number of choices present themselves

·         Arrives in refugee camp, exhausted

o   Sleeps

·         Wakes up, finds a record of who has arrived, mother not there

·         Talks to soldier about what happened to his mother, gets taken to see a captured zombie

o   Finds out there is no cure

·         Character decides to travel home with newfound determination

o   Character clings to belief that his mother may have survived her attack, wants to find out to gain a sense of closure

·         Choices of how to get there (road of trials)

o   Cannot go back the way they came

o   Surface area outside of city has been overun

·         Character performs selfless act to save another person, player feels they have fully overcome their inability to face their problems

o   Character saves someone from a headcrab attack amidst a chaotic situation where it is a risk for them to do so  (Under/Near Tentacle?)

·         Arrives at home finds mother has been turned into zombie

·         Final moment, character raises gun to the zombies head and pulls the trigger. THE END

        

Players physical journey:

·         Intro ->

·         Headcrabbed ->

·         Station ->

·         Unconscious ->

·         Night Attack ->

·         Highway ->

·         Convoy Attack ->

·         Refugee camp in city ->

·         Home

Players psychological journey:

·         Panic ->

·         Remorse ->

·         Chance for redemption ->

·         Acceptance ->

·         Desire to gain closure

Problem:

Story cannot happen on the day of the black mesa incident as the military initially try to contain the invasion, therefore negating the possibility that anything ie. portal storms is happening outside the facility.

It is more likely that the portal storms coincide with Gordon Freemans defeat of the Nihilanth, which happened on the SECOND morning after, on May 18th. Thankfully this still allows me to use my original Inciting incident.

Elements of heroes journey helped create narrative

Evaluation:

What you’ve done, how you went about it

Decisions made and why you made them

What you’re pleased with and what you would change/expand on