Looking for feedback on a story idea
Posted: Mon Oct 04, 2021 7:14 pm
Hello everyone! I'm new to these forums, and also new to the visual novel scene. I want to write a visual novel, and I have an idea and a loose outline, but I have a hard time knowing if the idea is worth pursuing or not, or what I would have to do to make it work. If this isn't an appropriate place to ask a question like this, just let me know!
The basic idea is that the player character works in a medical examiner's office, and is part of a team of people that perform autopsies on the deceased. Gameplay-wise, this would work kind of like Trauma Center except without a timer. There would be sequences where you perform the actions involved in an autopsy (take photos, measure/characterize wounds, open the body and remove/examine organs, etc.). But since the subject is already dead, there's no frantic pressure or countdown timers, and you can take as much time as you want. Instead, the goal is to gather information about the death and draw conclusions about what happened.
There's definitely elements of Procedural Crime Drama, but I'm not wanting this to just be "Phoenix Wright but you're a coroner." The player character works within an organization, and their office plays only a part in the investigations. A Medical Examiner gets to see a lot of evidence (they go to crime scenes, examine the body, etc), but they don't get to see everything or talk to everyone. So the player gets a chunk of the full picture, but not all of it.
In real life, that's all totally fine and just how things work with the division of labor among specialized fields. But as the player takes on these cases, they start to notice patterns and inconsistencies. It quickly becomes apparent that a criminal organization is pulling strings behind the scenes, and you uncover evidence of a vast conspiracy. As the player digs deeper, more and more people are implicated, including some of your colleagues and others in the criminal justice fields. The question then becomes how much can you learn and uncover when you only get to see a part of the puzzle, and who do you trust to help you?
That's kind of the gist of it, though I have more of it outlined than that. There's some downsides to this structure, I think, and I'm not sure if they're deal breakers. For one, I know that it's good to limit the number or characters in a visual novel, since they take a good bit of time to create. I can limit the number of long-term recurring characters, but there would be a healthy number of other characters that act as suspects, associates of the deceased, the deceased themselves, etc.
I also wonder if this is something that people would even be interested in, or want to play. Basically all gameplay that doesn't involve talking to someone would involve looking at a dead body (or inside a dead body), and that's not always a pleasant sight. Even something as “simple” as a gunshot wound to the head would be pretty grisly when you have to get all up in there.
So yeah, feedback welcome! Is this something worth working on? Do you think other people would be interested in helping with a project like this? Or play it, for that matter?
The basic idea is that the player character works in a medical examiner's office, and is part of a team of people that perform autopsies on the deceased. Gameplay-wise, this would work kind of like Trauma Center except without a timer. There would be sequences where you perform the actions involved in an autopsy (take photos, measure/characterize wounds, open the body and remove/examine organs, etc.). But since the subject is already dead, there's no frantic pressure or countdown timers, and you can take as much time as you want. Instead, the goal is to gather information about the death and draw conclusions about what happened.
There's definitely elements of Procedural Crime Drama, but I'm not wanting this to just be "Phoenix Wright but you're a coroner." The player character works within an organization, and their office plays only a part in the investigations. A Medical Examiner gets to see a lot of evidence (they go to crime scenes, examine the body, etc), but they don't get to see everything or talk to everyone. So the player gets a chunk of the full picture, but not all of it.
In real life, that's all totally fine and just how things work with the division of labor among specialized fields. But as the player takes on these cases, they start to notice patterns and inconsistencies. It quickly becomes apparent that a criminal organization is pulling strings behind the scenes, and you uncover evidence of a vast conspiracy. As the player digs deeper, more and more people are implicated, including some of your colleagues and others in the criminal justice fields. The question then becomes how much can you learn and uncover when you only get to see a part of the puzzle, and who do you trust to help you?
That's kind of the gist of it, though I have more of it outlined than that. There's some downsides to this structure, I think, and I'm not sure if they're deal breakers. For one, I know that it's good to limit the number or characters in a visual novel, since they take a good bit of time to create. I can limit the number of long-term recurring characters, but there would be a healthy number of other characters that act as suspects, associates of the deceased, the deceased themselves, etc.
I also wonder if this is something that people would even be interested in, or want to play. Basically all gameplay that doesn't involve talking to someone would involve looking at a dead body (or inside a dead body), and that's not always a pleasant sight. Even something as “simple” as a gunshot wound to the head would be pretty grisly when you have to get all up in there.
So yeah, feedback welcome! Is this something worth working on? Do you think other people would be interested in helping with a project like this? Or play it, for that matter?