Need some design ideas

[Quintaros]

For some time I've had a problem with designing a signifcant element of my game.  My policy has always been "learn as I go" so I figured the answer would reveal itself eventually.  However I'm starting to wonder if there even is an appropriate solution and don't savour the notion of rejecting this element of the game.

Here's the situation:  My player character is a prisoner in an internment camp.  Half the game focuses on his attempts to escape.  The other half focuses on his resistance to interogation.  The escape portion is typical adventure game fare and I have a pretty good grasp of how to proceed.  The interogation aspect has me somewhat boggled.  

It's supposed to be a battle of wills but I'm uncertain how to get this across through conversations.  How do I make it challenging for the player to keep a secret?

The only idea I have now is to use an integer value that holds the players level of anixiety, bewilderment, etc and have that number increase and decrease depending on the topics he uses during interogations.  If it reaches a certain level than the player character "cracks".  

I don't love that solution and would like to solicit ideas from the community.

[GarageGothic]

I like your current idea. If your art is very detailed, you could even have the look of the character (his facial expression, amount of sweat on his forehead etc.) tell the player how he was doing (instead of some sort of meter at the side of the screen, or just hiding the status for the player).

Maybe you could make it a two-way thing, so instead of just keeping the secret, your goal was actually to make the interrogator crack, at least for the moment, so he'll give up the interview? Have you ever seen the next-to-last episode of The Prisoner, "Once Upon a Time"? This reminds me of that for some reason.

What means are used in the interrogation? I was thinking, depending on the genre and style of the game of course, if they used drugs or other stimulants to make you talk, you could possibly make some sort of interactive hallucination scenes that were entirely symbolic of the situation and the secrets you had to guard.

Sorry, this probably isn't very helpful. I just tend to get inspired by other people's ideas and then take it in a totally different direction.

The game sounds really interesting though, I'm looking forward to see how you solve it.

[quintaros (at work)]

Actually the game is based on The Prisoner, so the things that you mention are the right tone for what I'm looking for.

I don't particularly want to use a visible meter or counter to show the player character's level of stress but I do like the idea of showing it visibily in his face and perhaps body language.  Gives me a nice excuse to use close-ups.

Interactive hallucinations are something else I've considered.  For such sequences I would leave it up to the player to apply logic to deduce that what he is experiencing is not real.  But even still I'm not certain how to make his captors manipulate him to the point where he will crack without reliquishing the player of control.  Perhaps you could provide more of your thoughts on using symbolism in the hallucinations.

Thanks, GG.  Your thoughts are more helpful than you realize.

[GarageGothic]

Now I'm even looking more forward to your game. I didn't remember if it was you who posted the Portmeiron images a while ago, with the stoneship etc.

I think that interactive hallucination is definately the way to go. There were several episodes where they either hypnotized no. 6, drugged him or put him into some sort of virtual reality world. Sometimes it was rather obvious what was going on, and the characters were direct parallels to no. 2 and his helpers (Living in Harmony just transferred The Village to a western setting). But other episodes really had you guessing what was going on, and who to trust. I think an awesome idea would be to use one single hallucination  throughout the whole game and then build on it for each interrogation (will you have changing no. 2's like the series?). Possibly based on surreal flashbacks of No. 6's resignation.

I'll have to think some more about the symbolism and get back to you on that. Have you ever played Sanitarium or I Have No Mouth But I Must Scream? Both those games used symbolism very well, each in their own way.

[Quintaros]

Yes I did post some backgrounds of Portmeirion several months ago when first developing my style.

The game will be episodic in nature having various No. 2's with their own interogation methods so I'm looking for as many ideas as possible.  The interactive hallucination is certainly a good device to use within a single episode but I'm also looking for variety.

Anybody is welcome to contribute ideas.  One doesn't need to be familiar with the source material.

[Cerulean]

How about an iconic dialogue system? Give the player choices that don't explicitly say what the character is going to say, but hint at it. Perhaps symbols for general subjects, or a selection of emotions. And for each choice there should be times when it's a good idea, and times when it's a bad idea. Like bursting into tears right before torture might end up becoming a full confession, whereas the same choice after torture might be a convincing plea that you don't know anything. There are right and wrong times to be evasive, defiant, obedient, sarcastic, and so on.