Introduction
The Impending Doom game is where the player will lose in the end no matter what, although the player has to feel that he or she will be able to make it. This Impending Doom game that I have created takes places on a mountain. Two climbers are on an excursion when suddenly the female character slips and falls down. The challenge is to control the grip of the female character with the mouse keys. The game is set up from a first person view and the player will see trough the victims’ eyes.
Setting
The game scenario takes place on top of the Mont Blanc. The player plays a female character who is together with a NPC which is the players partner (male character). The victim hanging on to the mountain wall has a piolet, which is a kind of ice axe mountain climbers use. There is no stamina bar showing but the player are able to see the hands of the victim slip down to the end of the piolet and is able to see when it is time to refresh the grip.
The player is climbing up the mountain next to her partner but suddenly she loses her grip and falls down. The rope attached to her breaks but in the fall she manages to grab onto the mountain wall with her piolet. The players partner grabs his rope and throws it down to help the player, unfortunately the rope does not reach all the way. The partner starts to climb down the rope with the hope to reach down to the player. But the partners efforts are meaningless, he is still are unable to reach down to the player. The partner starts panicking and gets frustrated. The image of the partner being frustrated accelerates the feeling of chaos and the player should feel the panic. The player are struggling to hold on to the piolet and the player can hear the female character breathing heavier as it get harder to hold on to the piolet.
The player character starts to cry and panicking and it is getting harder to hang on to the piolet.
The partner tries to keep calm and figure out a way to save the character. He tells the female character that everything is going to be alright and he is going to rescue her and tries to reach out his hand. The player gets a message that says press space to reach for the hand of the partner. But when doing this the
character loses the grip of the piolet and falls down from the mountain, while staring and screaming towards the partner. The screen starts to fade out and the game is over.
Gameplay
The core mechanics are that the player holds onto the piolet by holding down mouse key 1 and mouse key 2. Mouse 1 are representing the left hand and mouse key 2 the right hand. The player refreshes the grip by pressing the mouse keys down regularly. If the player refreshes the grip of both hands at the same time the character falls down and this results in game over.
Conclusion
The reason why I picked the mountain scenario is because mountain climbing is dangerous but many people are still doing it and many people have died from it. The thought of hanging down from the cliff with just a piolet as your only life line is terrifying but also a realistic scenario.
Why I chose a female character is because I think most men that plays this game will feel like they want to protect her and will do everything to win the game. As a woman, you might feel that this could be you hanging there and your partner needs to rescue you so women will have sympathy for this female character and see this as more terrifying.
By not having a stamina bar the player will have to make a choice when the player needs to refresh the grip. This will make it slightly harder compared to having a stamina bar that shows exactly when you are losing the grip.
Summary
The game is about getting the feeling of how it feels to hang from a moutin with your life at stake. But in the end the player will know that her or she won’t make it. The main goal with the game is to apply stress on the player. As the player keeps playing the game the duration of hanging on to the wall is getting harder and harder, this results in more stress for the player. The shorter the time limit the more stressful the situation (Adams 2009, p. 260)
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