It’s time to meet up again.
I do hope you’ll agree.
It’s been so long since I last saw you...
Genre: Horror
Maker: RPG Maker XP
Website: http://www.deadwaterproductions.com/games/reunion
Company Site: http://www.deadwaterproductions.com
8/1/10 - Yes, it's making a return. I haven't been around for the past few months (not that anyone will have missed me
uch: ) because of different circumstances, and I don't know how often I'm going to be online from now on. But I wanted to get back to doing something, and since I didn't want to do any work on my other game (I'm a bit stuck with it at the moment) I thought I'd come back to this. So, here I am.‘Reunion’ is a new project that I will be working on at the same time as my main project Last Man’s Stand. It may end up being shorter than the average game, or I may stretch it out to be 5-6 hours or something. It depends on how much support and comments I get. Although this is posted in Concept Development, I have made a start on some of the systems and graphics. But the game is still very much in the concept stage. That’s all I wanted to say. Thank you for reading in advance.
All five letters had been posted, the tickets sealed inside. The addresses marked clearly their targets, and for them, there was no escaping them. Not that they knew what the thin envelope contained. Yet.
The letter arrived on Rick Tailor’s doorstep two days after it was posted. In it he found a letter written from an apparent old friend of his, who he knew as a child. He also found a ticket and a list of instructions and addresses to get to a ski resort up in the Alps. The letter told him of a surprise, and that his friend would meet him at the bottom of the slopes, near the entrance. Intrigued by who his mystery friend was, he made his arrangements, and drove to the airport on the day specified in the instructions. A small plane was waiting for him. As there was for four others, and, one by one, they found themselves all waiting at the entrance for their ‘friend’.
‘Look, there’s a cable car!’
The game follows five people drawn together by a letter they all received, telling them to meet an old friend of theirs. When the mentioned friend does not appear, the group decides to try and find out what’s going on. The ski resort where they have been taken is in the middle of nowhere, hidden in the Alps, and on closer inspection, appears to be long since abandoned. Therefore, it comes as a shock to all of them when a battered cable car comes down to meet them, seemingly by its own accord. With nowhere else to shelter, they decide to enter it to keep warm, and on the chance that there is an emergency telephone inside. When they enter, however, the car begins moving by itself again. The car, though battered, holds till the top, where they get out as quickly as possible. And as soon as they get out, the line suddenly snaps, causing the car to plummet down to the slopes below. Now trapped in the resort itself, Rick takes charge and tells everyone to start looking for shelter and a way to inform someone where they are. There is no such luck, however. As they continue to search for answers to what is going on, one after another, the five drop in numbers.
There must be an explanation...
Age: 26
Rick is the adopted son of a wealthy family of lawyers. He is well cared for, and when he achieved high grades at his school, his adopted parents paid for him to go to University. There, he studied for five years to become a lawyer as his parents wanted. Though it was not exactly what he wanted to do, he eventually succeeded, and won his first case. He was settling into a partnership with a friend he had met at University when then letter inviting him to the Alps arrived. He is a natural leader, inquisitive, and not at all superstitious, but rarely smiles and can sometimes be childishly moody.
But I know I’ll fail...
Age: 24
Sarah is a teacher for junior school pupils. Unlike Rick, it is what she has always wanted to do, and her adopted parents were more than happy to let her. She studied for 3 years but in her final test, she failed, meaning she had to stay on at University for an extra year. Because of this, she doesn’t believe in herself, and is happy to follow others orders in the fear that if she did it herself, she would do something wrong. She is quite shy and quiet, but when she speaks up, she is kind and warm.
I live how I want...
Age: 25
Like Rick, Rachael doesn’t like being ordered around, and likes finding her own ways to do things. She, too, is dark and moody, and because of this, her adopted parents saw her as a ‘problem child’ when they took her in. They thought they could change her to think of happier things, but Rachael was not going to change, and found this annoying. She didn’t go to University, instead joining a rock band to her adopted parent’s distaste.
I’ve got this far...
Age: 24
Neal is a market salesman for a jewellery company. He didn’t go to University for long, but had a good head for sales and marketing, and therefore got the job he applied for. His adopted parents wanted nothing more for him to be happy (feeling that he deserved it after losing his parents and being put in an orphanage), and so supported him in what he did. Because of this, he is a happy, calm person, but has little experience in doing things for himself, and is used to being spoilt.
We mustn’t fight each other...
Age: 22
The youngest of the five people to receive the letter, Melanie is still at University, studying social skills. It was the holidays when she received the letter, and so decided to take a break and go along. Her adopted parents treat her well, but both work away in different countries a lot of the time, so Melanie learnt from an early age to fend for herself. She, like Neal, tries to be calm, and is good and solving problems. A lot of the time, however, she is merely hiding her emotions, as she has taught herself.
The House: A large house toward the back of the skiing resort. It is a lot older than the resort itself, it contains rooms and corridors forgotten by the owner. When the resort was running, it would have been the holiday home for the owner, but only some of it was used as a modern building. The further back you go into the mansion, the older the rooms, and what's there, get.
The Hotel: A smaller building than the original house, the hotel was open to those who came to the ski resort. It has a collection of rooms inside it, as well as a restaurant, and a group of small rentable houses around the side.
The Caverns: Beyond the main resort, spreading into the back of the mountain and around the ski slope itself, is a labyrinth of passages and caves that are naturally formed into the mountain. It was eventually closed off to the public, but guided tours of the cavarns were given before a man slipped and fell into the depths of one of the caves.
‘Reunion’ will include a few custom features to add to the experience.
Restricted Vision: The game will constantly restrict what you can see on the screen at one time. While outside, constant snowstorms will rage around you, meaning you can only see what’s directly ahead. While inside, the character you control will have an oil lamp that illuminates what would otherwise be complete darkness. You only have a small part of the map illuminated, however, and your lamp can only hold a certain amount of oil at once. An indicator in the bottom left hand corner will show how much oil is left in your lamp, and it will slowly drop down. When you run out of oil, your light goes out. You must keep your supply off oil up at all time, by finding refills around the resort you are in. Your lamp is your main weapon as well. Though things may appear in your light at times, and some things are not affected by light, the moment your lamp runs down, everything hiding in the shadows will attack you, meaning an early death for the player you controlled at that moment.
A Large Area: The ski resort you are stuck in has 5 main areas to explore, each one containing puzzles, and things waiting to scare the player. Because of the size of the area, and the lack of people, you will hopefully feel a sense of being completely on your own. There is also a distinct lack of places to hide in. Something will find you wherever you are.
Swappable characters: As there are five characters in the group at the start, you get the chance to control all of them. This will be done by cycling through the characters. However, unlike most RMXP games with multiple playable characters, when you swap, the characters can be in different locations, even on different maps. This means that puzzles that require a switch to be pulled to open a door with a timed lock can be achieved, by letting one player pull the leaver, and the other to get through the door before it closes again.
Apart from these main features, ‘Reunion’ also contains a custom title screen, a ‘proper’ storyline not normally present in horror games (meaning there is a reason why everything is happening) and, although the game will use RTP, custom sprites and tiles.
This is a screen from the opening sequence, as the cable car sways down the wire.
The inside of the main house. Shows the main character, Rick, with an oil lamp. The meter at the bottom left shows how much oil is left in the lamp. When it runs down, the light goes out, and it's game over.