My first Idea

[Nikolas]

Ok. here goes nothing: This is my first idea about an adventure game.
It's kinda weird but I'll do my best to explain it as good as possible.

Well you are a schizophrenic (how do yoy spell that?), drunk who ends up in a jail cell in some weird city. The city resembles London a lot (and I find London weird for a lot of reasons. I'll explain some other time). Anyway, first of all he has to escape from the cell and then it's up to you to find out what's going on really.

Actually you controll him for a week (7 chapters). In the beggining you don't have a clue as to what to do, why you're in jail, or where you have to go. I want it to be an open game, but weird:

And here's the weird part. First of all you're drunk. So every once in a while you have to find your booze, and for the game to proceed, and you to sleep you have to get knocked out by alcohol, otherwise no go, no sleep, no game...
Second weird problem, you're phycho. You have split personalities which means that at some point (after some meter or somethings goes above the limit), you loose concience and your alter ego comes into play. And not only that, but the player will not know what your alter ego did. There will be no cutscenes for the doings of your alter ego. Which is one major problem, but also a lot of puzzles will be based on that fact.
For example after you've found every missing part to save the world, your alter ego kicks in, you loose it and wake up next day, beeten up, with half the inventory you had the other day (Talk about tough luck...)
Everybody is hostile with you, but when you find a way to talk someone, you don't control what you say, but only your intentions. Which means that you may choose to be friendly or hostile or kind, or whatever, but you don't actually control the exact phrase you say, so things can very easily go wrong, and if you're really pissed your alter ego will come into play...

Ok. That's about it!

Any comments welcome. Sorry for the long story, but wanted to be as clear as possible.

And any comments about this project being possible with AGS are welcome again.

And lastly anyone interested in working with me on this project is more than welcome (I really suck at drawing)

Thanks,

Nikolas

PS. After I came up with the idea, I realised that it reminds me of:
HULK, Memento, and Fight Club

Just so as you know.

[BernieLaraemie]

Just to point out--schizophrenia and multiple personality disorder (while related) are not the same thing.  And things like multiple personality disorder in characters is often abused, because people use it as a plot device, rather than something a person has to face and deal with.

And someone suffering from this is not considered "crazy" or "psycho"

~~Bernie

[Shane 'ProgZmax' Stevens]

Norman Bates thought he was his mother.  He was in Psycho.  Case closed.

And by definition, psychosis (or being psychotic) is a condition where you withdraw from reality, have a derangement of personality, etc.  Schizophrenia fits this description, and therefore psycho is perfectly fine.  MPD is also a psychosis.

[big brother]

Schizophrenia is generally marked by delusions of grandeur and/or paranoia. If you end up making this game, I think it would be much more interesting if you did a lot of research into the exact psychological conditions. Otherwise, it seems pretty cliche and, as Bernie pointed out, it will be very obvious to the player that the disorder exists only to explain the plot. It would be impressive if you can integrate it into the character's personality, eliciting pathos from the player.

[Mr Flibble]

Better yet, don't mention his condition in the game, hint at it until the player guesses.

[Nikolas]

I wasn't planing on explaining his condition in the game to the player.

But here, I think that I have to tell you guys, otherwise how could you critic on something you don't know.

Anyway I will research on different mental illnesses, but the main idea is that the player at various points will loose control over his character, becuase the second personality will take over. Just that.

And I was wondering if this kind of game is difficult to do with AGS.

I guess I will have to use more than one room for the same location, since after the character recovers things will be a little bit different. But other than that?

[Mr Flibble]

Since multiple personalities tend not to be aware of eachother's existence, it may be an idea for whenever the player looses control, the screen goes black then it jumps to the next time he is in control.

Maybe as a twist add in the the "alter ego" is the main personality?

[Nikolas]

And not only that, but the player will not know what your alter ego did. There will be no cutscenes for the doings of your alter ego.

See I can quote my self , Mr. Fibble that is what I plan to do with tha black screens.

The whole idea behind this game is that the player does not have full control over his character. And some puzzles will be solved by loosing control over him. Not only because his mental condition, but also because he's drunk (if you over do it no matter what you do the character will not respond, but at least you will know what's happening or so)

[Nikolas]

That's my last attempt to get any critic on my idea.

Since it's been read 195 times (!) and there were no posts I have to assume that people here find the whole concept not good, boring, or whatever.

If anybody thinks otherwise tell me so, or I will have to reconsider everything (even doing the game)...

[big brother]

I think you should trust your instincts about the game. If it's a topic that interests you, make it. At AGS you are guarenteed at least a small audience. Since it's a free game anyways, you should pick a topic that you find interesting and fun to make, otherwise it's pointless. Ultimately, the forums are to get advice and suggestions, not to decide what kind of game we want you to make.

[Ozwalled]

It's an idea that could work if you handle it well and do a little bit of research and careful storytelling.

It's worth noting that a lot of non-medicating schizophrenics are homeless, due to their anti-social tendencies, so that's something that might be able to be worked itno the game. People will avoid their medication though for a host of reasons, which you may want to explore. If they do stick to their meds though, they TEND to be fairly normal.

I'm not so sure how often it cooincided with Multiple Personality Disorder (and given general public confusion between the two, you'll maybe want to make it clear that the two are indeed seperate disorders). Given the paranoia behind schizophrenia, maybe it'd be interesting to BELIEVE that you maybe have another personality during blackout periods, but there's actually another explanation for whatever leads you to believe that. Heck, with all of the paranoia, you can open some interesting possibilities, like government conspiracies and the like, without them ACTUALLY existing.

On the other side of the coin, it might be interesting to have a second way to play through the game after you've played the first -- as the alter ego. If you craft it with enough care, then you could weave the two threads together and fill in some of the blanks left behind from the first run through the game. Thining back to Resident Evil 2's "2nd mission", it could be even MORE interesting if there were things you could do (or not do) in the first run through that would effect how the second run through plays, which could add some replayablity and extra funto the whole thing.

All-in-all, the premise has some interesting possibilities.

[IM NOT TEH SPAM]

A few comments here:
First of all, the idea of the game overall would be pretty good.  However, it might be a little bit too complicated to get done.  Like, for example, if the alter ego kicks in on a meter and the alcoholism is required to go on to the next level at all times it might be difficult to work through.  It might be a little bit easier to make the MPD kick in at specific times, like after you drink yourself to sleep or in the middle of an important stage of your mission.
Plus, it's a great concept for a game but what is the plot going to be about? Before you even start to put in all the bells & whistles to make your game look good, you might want to think all the puzzles through (my older brothers have failed at many game attempts because of that).  Also its better to have at least one smaller game done first so you know the AGS basics.  It doesn't have to be great, and doesn't even need to have more than one puzzle.

[Nikolas]

Thanks, King_Nipper, I'll take what you said into consideration.

The first post (The actuall idea) was like a brainstorm thing. Now is the time that I'm thinking a little bit deeper about things, puzzles and staff.

And ofcourse I will have to try out AGS with something smaller first. But at this moment I don't have the time to try, so I'm just toying a little bit with the idea, before I find a real opportunity to dive into AGS. Of course I find that working an idea in your mind important...

[IM NOT TEH SPAM]

I just have one more thing to say before i'll leave you alone, niko 
It might be a good idea to give your character in the beginning of the game all of the things he already needs to win the game, but no idea of what to do with them.  Then the alter ego could kick in and set everything up (by setting up puzzles and such) so that your character will retrieve everything and figure out how to win. (or vice versa, where you alreay know the truth and the alter ego sets things up to lead you in the wrong direction)