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[XP] Memorium | Watch the Act 1 Teaser inside!

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An Alternate Historical Fiction Crime Thriller
By Michael DeLally


News Feed

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=36J03xo0k4A

Welcome to the Memorium project thread at HB Games! It's been awhile since I've posted anything here, let alone a project. The game is set to release in an episodic format with a release period of two to four weeks per act. I plan to keep each act under two hours gameplay time. Memorium is my attempt to blend the detective genre with a more deep and trippy psychological thriller. So without further delay, here is Memorium.

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Memorium takes place in a very different post-World War I U.S. in the year 1925. When the U.S. Army entered the mostly European conflict in 1917, they were faced with a new a terrifying enemy - the trenches. In opposition to historic fact, the series of events in WWI are different - and much more consequential - than they were in the past. After the retreat of the Red Army following the Communist revolution in Russia, the Central Powers began to push the Western Front back, even against the fresh American forces. By 1923 the German and Ottoman Empires had launched a full scale invasion of the United States. The invasion lasted until 1925, and covered a massive swath of both American seaboards. The U.S. and the Allies were able to fight the German Empire from taking the American mainland - but much of the country was devastated.

These invasion fronts, as they became to be known, have become a lawless area. As the politics of post-war tidings wage on in Europe, the homeland sector has begun to reconstruct the crippled superpower. Police and National Guardsmen are at a low, due to their immediate involvement in fighting back the invasion of Germany and the Ottomans. The Department of the Interior has sanctioned several of it's top agents to be dispatched across both Eastern and Western Invasion Zones to restore order and establish police bodies.

The player assumes the role of Jack Tyson, a recent and hasty initiate into the Department of the Interior's reconstruction program. Tyson's admittance into the agency came with military commendation - on the grounds that Jack exhibits immense psychic power. More specifically, he can leech the memories from any being - dead or alive, including long lost and repressed memories. The secrets behind Jack's psychic abilities are slowly revealed throughout the narrative.

As the game begins, Jack and his assigned partner Agent Roger Gallows are beginning to head into the invasion front. What awaits them is a land of uncertainty. Months of little to no law has left the landscape riddled with looting, murder, and extortion. It's up to Jack and Roger(amongst other DoI agents) to get down to the basics of detective work in order to bring law back to the war torn zones. By using Investigation methods and Jack's unique psychic abilities, the player will unravel a conspiracy far beyond the Great War.

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Sergeant Jack Tyson, Age 28
Jack Tyson served in both the European and U.S. Invasion fronts during the Great War. Throughout the war Jack's heroics earned him commendations from various superior officers. In addition to his battle heroics, Jack's unique psychic ability - that of memory extraction - landed him in counter-espionage, and soon into his current position at the Department of the Interior after the war.

Jack is highly optimistic, but the war has made him a brusque realist. He hides many of the strange effects of his psychic power, mostly because he can't control or understand it. Jack also fears the world he lives in cannot accept a mind more powerful than the average human. Jack hopes that he can use his talent to help people and prove that his skills are used for moral and lawful intent. Jack is the primary character of Memorium, and the narrative is centrally focused on him. His ability to extract memories allows him to enter a parallel realm - known as Memorium - where he can locate and extract hidden and repressed thoughts, emotions, concepts, and images.

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Lieutenant Roger Gallows, Age 31
Roger Gallows did not serve in the Great War. He was admitted to Harvard for the first part of the war, and soon after graduation entered the Depart of the Interior as a Department Lawyer. As the need for more audacious and knowledgeable agents rose in light of German espionage, Roger joined the agencies Criminal Law Enforcement division - which would later be tasked with reconstructive law enforcement.

When Roger meets Jack, he is highly skeptical of his psychic powers. It takes Jack bringing Roger into Memorium itself in order to convince him. As he grows more accustomed to how Jack can handle problems, he becomes a much more team motivated partner. Roger is harsh and brusque, sometimes preferring to interject and make claims, compared to Jack's meticulous investigating and memory extractions.

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Dynamic Investigations
The player is given many decisions in how they manage to solve their cases. The methods they choose to use influence their stats and ultimately how effective they become at those methods. There are four stats that play a major role in Investigation: Brawn, measures physical ability, such as moving objects, climbing, jumping, etc; Craft, measures the ability to work machinery and make Compound Items; Agile, measures the ability to move quickly and stealthily; Intellect, measures raw smartness and tracks how well the player can derive conclusions from questions and puzzles.

In addition to these stats, there are three other stats that play more on the environment(and it's people) and how well you can investigate it. Presence, tracks how positively influential on people you are; Perception, tracks your proficiency in picking up subtle clues in the environment and dialogue; and Wisdom, which tracks your general intrinsic knowledge, which is good for assumptions and accusations.

At various points, the player will be able to utilize the ability to switch and separate the two partners in order to complete specific puzzles and tasks. The indication of this feature will be well hinted in narrative, though it will not have a blatant cue.

Memory Extraction
When the player is confronted by a major suspect, victim, or other person of interest there is usually the chance to perform a memory extraction on them. These usually involve the player being taken to Memorium itself, and traversing the odd world of memories to find what needs to be extracted. These levels are comprised of challenging puzzles and strange story elements that make each extraction a unique gameplay experience.

Environment Interaction and Equipment Usage
The player can interact with almost any object in the game. The player is also given cues to which objects have more significance. These Action Icons are very important - without their usage, you will have a hard time finding the necessary clues and items to progress through the Act. These icons help indicate when someone is important to speak to, an object can be examined, or a item can be grabbed. The player is also given a good amount of control over his items. Some items, such as consumables, are used from the Bag screen. However, items that are used to interact with the environment or people are assigned to hands(or the specific Key slot) in the Equip screen. In order to use a lighter on a torch, for example, you must first equip the lighter - then activate the torch. This also allows for Compound Items. By equipping two logically linked items in both hands respectively, you can fuse them for more useful Compound Items.

Diary
As the player interacts with the environment and people to discovers clues and answers, the story is relayed in first-person through the diary. The player can view it at any time as it provides constantly relevant information that pertains to your case. If you ever forget what you've done after a break, just check the Diary. It stays up to date with each narrative advancement for all Acts. You can even browse previous Acts' entries in any succeeding act. The Diary is a vital tool in keeping up to speed with all the information the game will throw at you. It also helps you keep moving in the linear direction the game intends.


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The title screen for Act 1. Each Act will feature a unique title image.

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Roger questions the strange methods of Jack's extraction.

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Jane's angry husband interrupts Jack's extraction - a sometimes serious mistake that causes irreversible memory loss, fragmented memory, and sometimes even subconscious shifts caused by bad memories.

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Roger confronts Jack about the extraction. Jack, still hiding his secrets, vows to show Roger what he can do first hand.

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Roger takes in the scene of devastation that is Outside Priory, a small Pennsylvanian town.

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This is the Diary screen. It can be called at any time with the [D] key.

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The Ring Menu.

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The equip screen, showing the altered use of the default equipment setup.

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Memorium: Act 1 - Shelter of Death
Release: July 2011
Approx. Running Time: 2 hours

Join Jack Tyson and Roger Gallows on their first case in the Invasion Front. Act 1 serves as the introductory act to what will rapidly evolve into a fast-paced episodic series. It will bring the character up to speed on the history and current state of the games setting and characters. The player will also learn of all the games gameplay features that will make appearances throughout the series. In this Act, Jack and Roger find that a once quaint town has become home to a freakish breed of survivors.

Download Act 1
Sorry. This act has yet to be released. Upon release there will be several mirrors to choose from.
Memorium: Act 2 - Recollection of a Murder
Release: Late July 2011/ Early August 2011
Approx. Running Time: Unknown

Jack and Roger must enter the strange Memorium wastes of a man who suffers from short term memory loss. What this man has lost, if found, could shatter open the teams latest case.

Download Act 2
Sorry. This act has yet to be released. Upon release there will be several mirrors to choose from.


Thanks for taking the time to look this one over! I'm constantly working on the game, so I should be adding a steady stream of updates as Act 1's release nears! Just stay tuned to the News Feed at the top of the thread for up to date additions to the thread. Thanks again!

Mundane
 

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