Premise
Ever been scared of the dark? Whatever was hidden within the dark deep abyss? Ever wonder if there was something under your bed? Something sinister just waiting for you to fall asleep, waiting for that briefest moment before it devours you? Imagine becoming this very monster, this very beast. Become the Monster in the Dark.
Story
The entire game revolves around a certain monster, manifested from the intense fear of a particular boy. This fear created a monster which fundamentally consumes a person's life force by frightening them until they die. The monster however is extremely fragile, its connection to the world is held down by the boy's own belief and any harm that happens to the boy, harms itself too. Now it has to get strong, strong enough to break out of the shackles of the boy's mortality and finally become free.
Gameplay
Camera: Bird-Eyes View
Control: Either WASD or Mouse-Click
Game-Type: Action, Stealth, Puzzler
Time Frame: Renaissance age to the Modern age
Essentially the player will be only controlling the Monster.
The 'world' which the monster lives in will either range from a small village to a small town.
The monster can only exist in the dark, hence the game will be played mostly at night.
The Player will maneuver through the dark areas of the town, moving quickly between the shadows emitted by the torches/lights. By staying in the dark, the player becomes 'invisible' and will be able to move through the town safely. The player will then find a suitable house to enter and then begin siphoning the life force out of its inhabitants, therefore gaining more strength and power.
The method of doing this however hasn't exactly been decided. At one side it could be a chance system which is determined by how dark the place is, how many people are in the house etc. At the other hand, it could be a Quick-Time event where the player will have to press the right keys in order to break in the house perfectly, drain the inhabitants and leave without a sound. A suitable way will be decided.
As the player drains more energy, the monster itself will begin to evolve and become stronger. It hasn't been exactly decided if the evolution should be restricted or there should be some flexibility or the player has direct control of how to evolve the creature. The idea is that the Monster becomes stronger and more dangerous.
There will also be many ways for the monster to 'die'. The entire game will be based on how well the player can hide themselves from the public until the Monster has gathered enough strength to try to break its bond from the boy. Should the monster be revealed too early, the town may form mobs and eventually find and kill the Monster. There will be an 'awareness' meter which will inevitably rise but beating the meter is the goal. This meter however isn't limited to the Monster itself, the boy is just as important as the Monster itself and will strive to defeat the monster by trying to reveal it to the public during the day when he is safe.
This however will have a completely different effect than the boy expected. Instead of finding the Monster, they may suspect the boy of being the core of the Evil and may try to 'Purge' him in a religious, angry mob. Protecting the boy from such cases as this, by eliminating certain 'rallying' people will be another part of the game play. Any harm that happens to the boy will in turn damage the Player.
The game will span through 400 years which will fundamentally be in 4 different levels, each level will be in a different age of 'lighting'. So from before the light bulb was invented, where light was limited at night, to the very bright nights of the modern day. This will effectively be the difficulty system, the amount of lights and people that are around during the night. The security of houses and size of building will change too, making breaking into these houses more difficult as well.
Story Continued
Although the player will only control the Monster, the story-line of the game will revolve upon the relationship between the Monster and the boy. The idea was that the two character were bound to each other, whether they liked it or not. This created a link between the two allowing both to gain 'attributes' from each other. The Monster gained consciousness and the ability to reason while the boy gained the agelessness of the monster - gaining immortality.
The game will then span through the 400 years where the two have been shackled together where the Monster still strives to be set free and the boy strives to find a way to kill the monster.
